LOCAL HISTORY
With war on our doorstep and mainland Australia preparing for a Japanese attack, Mosman was a suburb of fear and unease in 1942.
Landmark heritage venue Boronia House has closed after long term tenant Mosman Catering pulled out of its 10-year contract. The historic home, built in 1885, is owned by Mosman Council which agreed to terminate the lease five years early, after agreeing the hospitality business was “no longer viable”.
Irene Ferguson, a member of the popular “Mosman Memories” Facebook group, regularly contributed personal stories and photographs right up until last Monday, April 26, when she slipped away quietly on the Sunshine Coast.
The lower north shore’s obsession with North Sydney Olympic Pool runs deep. A national icon and local landmark, the aquatic playground has played a pivotal part in our lives for generations.
It’s just before 7:20 am when NSW Police pilot Peter Leslie climbs into the cockpit of PolAir 4 with crewmates Alan Keane and Steve Southey, to rescue a couple of ocean swimmers in trouble off Curl Curl beach.
Australia and England first met in test match cricket in 1877, but the legend of the Ashes, the symbolic trophy the two teams play for, began on August 29, 1882, after the on-field antics of English captain W.G. Grace so incensed Australian spinner Fred Spofforth, it produced a bowling spell that scorched the oval.
The State Library has released 40,000 subdivision maps, providing a valuable insight into the lives of New South Wales residents from 1860 to the 1930s, illustrating the spread of suburbs across Sydney and regional areas.
It’s Thursday, 4 July 1991, when Dr. Victor Chang climbs into his new Mercedes 500SL and pulls out of his Clontarf driveway, bound for St Vincent’s Hospital in Darlinghurst. The pioneer heart surgeon is running late, after sharing breakfast with his wife, Ann.
The very first factory-built race car to bear a Holden badge is predicted to double the previous record for a Holden vehicle sold at auction.
lls for the NSW State Government to erase the name of Ben Boyd from a national park have raised a question mark over the Neutral Bay road named after the Scottish entrepreneur and adventurer.
It was winter 1979 when a young family from far west NSW travelled to Sydney for the holiday of a lifetime. Dad John, mum Jenny and their two young children Damien and Craig enjoyed a week in the ‘big smoke’, before spending their final day sight-seeing on the lower north shore.
Over the last four years, year by year and battle by battle, we’ve commemorated the centenary of World War One. 2019 marks the Centenary of the Great Homecoming - the start of the aftermath of that war - the realisation of the cataclysmic damage that it caused.
Not everyone wins Australian journalism’s highest honour, a Walkley Award. And not everyone can say they’ve been commissioned by the Federal Government, to write the narrative history of our nations Parliament. But Gavin Souter can.
Our local history series continues, with Robert Simeon taking a look back at the life and times of local builders Smith & Cabban, who rose to fame in the early 1900’s with their landmark Mosman “Merchant Mansions”.
Chalwin Castle in Cremorne was a lifelong project that took Vivian Chalwin 30 years to complete and from the 1960’s, it hosted thousands of guests at private gatherings.
This classic Cremorne home has been owned by one family for more than half a century – and since 1949, the much loved residence has seen it all… from first steps, to first birthdays, to first days of school.