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West Australian Gold Rush
Gold, gold, gold — who else is a Terry Pratchett fan and recognises the famous Discworld Dwarf song? Gold, gold, gold. As Terry says, dwarves don’t love gold, they just say they do to get it into bed. Hmm. Sometimes I’m easily distracted. This is meant to be a history — not a fantasy novel…
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Gold!
An interesting article on the Californian goldrush and on gold, itself, from the Smithsonian magazine. And on the topic of the Smithsonian, did you know it sold clothing? An apron is one of those things no one should ever be bought as a gift. Like irons and lawn mowers.
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The Overland Telegraph
Australia is such a large country-continent that any technology that helps to shrink the distance is hailed as a marvel. The Overland Telegraph really was. There’s a good history of it, here, that includes the camel trains that supplied the workers and the history of telegraphy in general. Telegrams delivered way too much bad news over…
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Secession — Western Australia
Does Western Australia belong in Australia? We almost didn’t join the federation of Australian colonies way back when. There was talk of going it alone. But we were bribed (east coasters wanted our gold!). They promised us a transcontinental railway, and we fell for it. Well, no, it’s a bit more complicated than that. The…
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Australian Architecture
I picked up a copy of “A Pictorial Guide to Identifying Australian Architecture” a couple of years ago. It seems to have gone out of print. I’m pretty ignorant when it comes to things architectural so I appreciate the easy explanations and the glossary (with pictures) at the back. What makes it so useful for…