Category Archives: Uncategorized

Winter has been cold and seemingly never ending, so a few weeks ago we decided to go on a short break to FNQ. As we’d been to Europe last year, and for some other reasons, we had a pile of … Continue reading →

Over on one of my other blogs I mentioned that I’ve been trying to identify the provenance of some photographs from the Spanish civil war including this one of a group of Milicianas, young women republican soldiers The young woman … Continue reading →

I have been down an internet rabbit hole with this one. I was reading an Italian novel (in translation) and it mentioned the last Italian cavalry charge as taking place in 1942 at Poloj, in what is now Croatia, where … Continue reading →

Normally, I concentrate on either Roman antiquity, or nineteenth century history, but I’ve been down a World War 2 rabbit hole with this one. When we were in Italy last year, we stayed for part of the time in a … Continue reading →

After last year’s trip to the Pierre Bonard exhibition at the NGV, this year’s burst of Francophilia was a trip to the Belle Epoque exhibition at Bendigo Art Gallery. Strictly it wasn’t the Belle Epoque period, which is normally bracketed … Continue reading →

As you might know, as well as my gig at the Athenaeum, I’m back with the National Trust, this time cataloguing the contents of Lake View House. Like a lot of historic properties, it has been ‘dressed’ ie artefacts from … Continue reading →

I’ve just finished Linda Stratman’s 2019 compilation of excerpts from the Illustrated police News. The Illustrated Police News, the ‘police’ in the name refers to crime, the Victorians referred to news of criminal activities as ‘police news’ in much the … Continue reading →

Vicars, especially nineteenth century ones. Often derided, I’m a quiet fan of Victorian vicars, and their  watercolourist daughters. In remoter nineteenth century communities in colonial Australia the Church of England vicar, and it was most definitely the Church of England … Continue reading →

While I was researching something else entirely, I had this light bulb moment about trams, and why they were a product of the late Victorian and Edwardian eras. A tram in Launceston Tasmania on a sunny Edwardian afternoon A lot … Continue reading →

‘Seven Colonies’ was a phrase used in nineteenth century Australia and New Zealand to refer to the six Australian colonies and New Zealand in the run up to federation, which formed a little squabbling group of British polities a long … Continue reading →