In Webb Street, Gosford,New South Wales, there is a small park with a children’s playground in it. It is not named on most maps, but it does indeed have a name. Elizabeth Ross Park is one of many parks in Australia with obscure names of people long since forgotten. Ask those who use the parks [...]
‘Yesterday’s Women’
Elizabeth (Mammy) Ross
Click the title above to read the complete post. Posted on Sunday, August 1st, 2010Caroline Dexter
Click the title above to read the complete post. Posted on Thursday, July 1st, 2010In 1861 Harriet Clisby and Caroline Dexter formed a partnership to produce a magazine called the Interpreter. Two issues hit Melbourne’s news stands, then it disappeared. Following on from Harriet’s life story (May 2010) comes Caroline’s very different one, but none the less interesting. Caroline was born in Nottingham, England on 6 January 1819 to [...]
Harriet Clisby
Click the title above to read the complete post. Posted on Saturday, May 1st, 2010In 1861 a new magazine appeared in Melbourne. It covered an eclectic range of topics including science, arts and literature. January and February’s issue hit the streets and then the magazine disappeared like hundreds of other short lived publications. What makes the Interpreter stand out in Australian history is that it was the first magazine [...]
Clarice Beckett
Click the title above to read the complete post. Posted on Monday, February 1st, 2010by Paula Wilson In 1970 art collector Rosalind Hollinrake approached a shed in rural Victoria, Australia. She was searching for paintings by forgotten Melbourne artist Clarice Beckett. Rosalind discovered a treasure trove of about 2000 pieces. Unfortunately when she inspected her find nearly two thirds of the paintings had been destroyed by weather and rodents. [...]
Phoebe Farrar
Click the title above to read the complete post. Posted on Tuesday, December 1st, 2009by Paula Wilson The two men struggled but lost control of the huge bull. It broke free and charged towards the gate. Phoebe Farrar did her best to block its escape but the bull crashed through the gate pinning Phoebe underneath, the rampaging animal then fell on top. Phoebe was airlifted to Darwin where the [...]
Alice Betteridge
Click the title above to read the complete post. Posted on Sunday, November 1st, 2009by Paula Wilson In 1990 the Special School for Multi-handicapped Blind Students (part of the Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children (RIDBC) in New South Wales, Australia) was renamed the Alice Betteridge School. The renaming was dedicated to a woman who had died twenty-four years earlier. A woman who had a profound impact on [...]
Anne (Dowd) Harrison
Click the title above to read the complete post. Posted on Thursday, October 1st, 2009by Paula Wilson On the banks of Melbourne’s Maribyrnong River is a little rotunda. It sits comfortably under the branches of overhanging trees and looks out over the river once known as the Salt Water River. Set into the floor of the rotunda is a plaque that reads “Dedicated to Pioneer Irish Women who operated [...]
Freda Du Faur
Click the title above to read the complete post. Posted on Tuesday, September 1st, 2009by Paula Wilson On 3 December 1910 a woman stood by herself looking out from the snow-covered top of Mount Cook. Freda Du Faur felt “…very little,” and “…very alone,” after climbing to the summit of New Zealand’s highest mountain. Emmeline Freda Du Faur was born 16 September 1882 in Sydney Australia, but lived and [...]
Kate Weindorfer
Click the title above to read the complete post. Posted on Wednesday, July 1st, 2009by Paula Wilson On day one of a holiday in Tasmania I came across a book called The Woman Behind the Man and the Mountain by Sally Schnackenberg. My kind of book, so I bought it, stowed it away at the bottom of my case where it stayed until I returned home. On the last [...]
Emily Barnett (Creaghe)
Click the title above to read the complete post. Posted on Friday, May 1st, 2009by Paula Wilson Emily Caroline Barnett was born travelling and did a fair bit of it during her lifetime. She entered this world on a ship and left after hurrying for a ferry. These events occurred in different parts of the world and bookend much adventure in between. Emily was born off the east coast [...]