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Kings Park
Kings Park is a nature reserve and botanic garden nestled in the heart of Western Australia’s capital city, Perth. It’s on a hill. The story goes that Governor Stirling, who was in charge of the British settlement here, sited Perth behind the bulk of Mount Eliza (named for his wife) so it would be safe…
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Australian Federation
I blame the Americans. No, not really, but… there is an American connection to Australia’s emergence as a nation. You see, back in the eighteenth century America said to Britain, “Enough! No more of your freakin’ convicts.” Now, since Britain had a plentiful supply of convicts, that presented its government with a serious issue. Of…
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Nineteenth Century catalogues
I’ve been on a hunt for these elusive critters. Yes, you can buy facsimiles, as with Sears Roebuck 1897 but I’m cheap. I had to keep hunting, looking for an online public domain copy. Have I found one? No. And I am tempted to buy some of the new reproductions. But old newspapers are freely…
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Life on Canning River
I really wanted to post an old 1890s photo of life on the Swan River here (well, on the Canning River, but it’s a contributory to the Swan), but the Australian National University is claiming they have all rights to it and I don’t want to harass them for permission to reproduce the photo on…
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1895
Support Your Local Suffragette begins mid 1895. It’s winter in the Swan River Colony and times are a’changing. The Swan River Colony is a British settlement on the west coast of Australia. In 1890 it finally achieves self-government. Just in time for a dizzying mining boom. (Sidenote: Australia doesn’t become a nation until federation in…