Category: History
In 1856, at the height of the alluvial goldrush, Ballarat produced 823,334 ounces of gold. By 1878 the figure was a mere 12,984 ounces. Ballarat was 'on its last legs.' However, in the Black Hill, Llanberris, Temperance and Imperial mines, miners had developed efficient ways to find and extract gold fro ...Show more
Category: History
In 1851, Ballarat was a tranquil and beautiful valley. By 1855, it had become the thriving centre of the world's largest alluvial goldfield. But how did such a feat occur when at the beginning, diggers had little or no knowledge of where to look for gold or how to extract it from the gravel and quartz?F ...Show more
Category: History
Members of the Australian Mining Corps were commonly known as 'tunnellers'. They worked continuously in wet and muddy conditions, under constant enemy threat in often narrow tunnels, under no man's land.The Ballarat Electorate has enjoyed a long history connected with mining and many men with mining exp ...Show more
Category: History
'It was the men who first went below the blue rock who made the reputation of Ballarat.''We have shallow sinking, deep sinking, ground sluicing and quartz mining, and we had to learn everything. All this has been taught us by the pick and shovel of the miner. There have been none to help us, and the kno ...Show more
Category: History
Charismatic, intelligent and handsome, George Scott is unlike any other bushranger. Born into a privileged life in famine-wracked Ireland, Scott's family loses its fortune and is forced to flee to New Zealand. There, Scott joins the local militia and fights as a soldier against the Maori in the brutal N ...Show more
Category: History
No symbol better conveys the intrepid spirit of Australia than the flying kangaroo. Whether it's glimpsed on a red-eye flight to an interstate business meeting, before leaving for adventure or holidays, or when longing to return home, that sweep of red defines air travel in Australia. Qantas has always ...Show more
Category: History
The Windsor Diaries are the never-before-seen diaries of Alathea Fitzalan Howard, who lived alongside the young Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret at Windsor Castle during the Second World War. Alathea's home life was an unhappy one. Her parents had separated and so during the war she was sent to live wi ...Show more
Category: History
This is the untold story of Margaret and Jean Davies and their uncompromising faith, amazing courage and endless endurance.Margaret was called to Korea as an educator from 1910 to 1940. During the Mansei Uprising, Japanese police arrested her for inciting to riot and drove Kim Il-Sung into Manchuria whe ...Show more
Category: History
The Vanished Land is the Western District of Victoria stripped of its identity, its social elite of grazing dynasties departed for their own reasons. This melancholy exodus has increased recently as the myriad pressures of holding inherited land have become intolerable in a nation never intimidated by ...Show more
Category: History
In the late 1990s, John Baker was known as a purveyor of quality rare and old wines. Always entrepreneurial and up for adventure, John was the perfect person for an occasional business partner, Andrew Simon, to approach with a mysterious wine list that was foreign to anything John, or his second-in-comm ...Show more
Category: History
In the bestselling tradition of The Where, the Why, and the How, this offbeat illustrated history reveals 65 people you've probably never heard of, but who helped shape the word as we know it. Muses and neighbours, friends and relatives, accomplices and benefactors, such as Michael and Joy Brown, who gi ...Show more
Category: History
ABC broadcaster and bestselling author of Ghost Empire and Saga Land, Richard Fidler is back with a personally curated history of the magical city that is Prague. In 1989, Richard Fidler was living in London as part of the provocative Australian comedy trio The Doug Anthony All Stars ...Show more
