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The murder of Joseph Luker
Smith's Weekly, 28 February 1920, p17 via Trove This morning on 2SER Breakfast, Dr Rachel Franks talked to Tess Connery about Australia's oldest cold case, the murder of Constable Joseph Luker, who was the first police officer killed in the line…
Blaze: Working Women, Public Leaders
The NSW State Archives and Records’ exhibition Blaze: Working Women, Public Leaders features fascinating stories of women trailblazers in the public sector. Listen to Nicole and Tess on 2SER here. Among the many inspiring women featured in the exhibition is Margaret Harper, a paediatrician…
Sydney's secret wartime research
Testing the Anti-G suit in a centrifuge designed for the purpose. Courtesy Australian War Memorial (AWM 042662) This week on 2SER Breakfast, Dictionary special guest Dr Peter Hobbins talked to Tess about some top secret research undertaken at the University of…
Sydney’s wining and dining evolution
Ye Olde Crusty Wine Cellar, 255 George Street, Sydney December 1942 Courtesy Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW (Home and Away 24160) Nowadays, you can walk into any one of the many bars and restaurants of Sydney and be shown an extensive…
Helicopter Crashes in City
This week on 2SER Breakfast, Dictionary special guest Dr Peter Hobbins talked to Tess about a terrible accident in the centre of the city in 1966 when a helicopter crashed onto Gold Fields House at Circular Quay. The three people on…
Waverley Cemetery’s burlesque star
Maggie Oliver in costume c1885, courtesy State Library of South Australia (PRG 280/1/18/291) Waverley Cemetery is the resting place of more than 100,000 people, including many well known personalities from our past like writers Dorothea Mackellar and Henry Lawson, publisher JF…
Gideon Haigh, A Scandal in Bohemia: The Life and Death of Mollie Dean
Gideon Haigh, A Scandal in Bohemia: The Life and Death of Mollie Dean Penguin / Hamish Hamilton, 310 pp., ISBN: 9780143789574, p/bk, AUS$32.99 Journalist Gideon Haigh is well-known for his engaging full-length works on cricket, business histories and, more recently, his histories…
Joy McCann, Wild Sea: A History of the Southern Ocean
Joy McCann, Wild Sea: A History of the Southern Ocean. NewSouth Books (2018), 256pp., ISBN 9781742235738, p/bk, RRP: $32.99 The Southern Ocean, the world’s least known and least visited ocean, is the only ocean which flows completely around the earth, unimpeded…
The Bogle-Chandler mystery
The Canberra Times, 10 May 1963, p3 via Trove This week on 2SER Breakfast, the Dictionary's special guest historian Minna Muhlen-Schulte talked to breakfast host Tess Connery about a suburban mystery that has intrigued Sydneysiders since 1963. Listen to Minna and Tess…
Jane Lydon and Lyndall Ryan (eds), Remembering the Myall Creek Massacre
Remembering the Myall Creek Massacre, edited by Jane Lydon and Lyndall Ryan NewSouth Books, 215 pp., ISBN: 9781742235752, p/bk, RRP AUS$34.99 On 10 June 1838 twelve men, “in an unprovoked act of violent terror” (p. xi), committed an atrocity known today as the…