Open your eyes to Australia
Nobody knows her – but she was the most famous Australian public entertainer in the world in the last two decades of the 19th century.
Like her near contemporary and compatriot Nellie Melba, she assumed a continental-sounding stage name, but unlike the great diva we don’t know her real name. Continue reading “Ella Zuila – Heroine of the Highwire”
We live in an area of South-East Queensland known as The Redlands, so named for its volcanic red soil. The large number of fruit and vegetable farms in the area gave it the name of “The Salad Bowl of the South-East”. Sadly many of those farms have been taken over by so-called progress as housing developments have infiltrated the once beautiful rural scene.
© Chris Woodland
As the years roll by many customs, tools and words that were once in daily use fade from normal life, living on only in the minds of those that have experienced their presence. Eventually that which was once an integral part of every day existence is known only to the occasional historian or folklorist.
Continue reading “The Spent Dollar”
© John Low
John Parker lies in an unmarked grave,1 one of many in the cemetery at Katoomba. Untended, it is indistinguishable from the unoccupied plots nearby. His death was one of those small tragedies reported occasionally in the local press and arousing for a brief moment a flutter of community interest before fading from memory. Parker’s tale may well bear retelling. Continue reading “Buried in Katoomba”
