Lone shark fatality in Manning River
The Manning River’s only recorded shark fatality occurred in 1863 of seventeen year old James Brown. It was a hot January evening…
Grandfather’s birthday
Writers like Steele Rudd and Norman Lindsay have made much of the humorous side of Australian rural life in the late nineteenth century. A counterpoint to this humour was the hardship and tragedy endured and overcome by the Australians of that era…
Santa Claus at Tahlee House
Two days before Christmas 1927, an article appeared in NSW newspapers entitled ‘Santa Claus at Tahlee House’. It was a story set on Christmas Eve 1832 during the time when…
Christmas Bells at Crowdy Head
Between Crowdy Head and Diamond Head is a great plain that has long been home to Australian wildflowers, particularly Christmas bells, Christmas bush and flannel flowers…
Former Rural Bank of NSW, Taree
On Tuesday 25 June 1935 at 10am the newly built Taree branch of the Rural Bank of NSW opened for general business. The opening of the bank…
Manning River VJ Sailing Club
Sailing resumed on the Manning River after WW2. When the VJ Club was established in 1947 it occupied the North Coast Steam Navigation Company wharf…
The Browns and The Big Hairs
Each year on the third weekend in August in Montana USA, the Crow Fair begins. In 1992 during the Crow Fair, the Brown family from Taree were adopted into the Al and Ruby Big Hair family…
The Cloud Wallaby
The Cloud Wallaby is a fable written and illustrated by Pixie O’Harris. It was published in The School Magazine in August 1949. It goes something like this…
Hills of Hate – a “lost film”
“Hills of Hate” published by Angus and Robertson in 1925 was the debut novel of Australian author E V Timms. It tells the story of two feuding bush families…
New Years Day 1911
The Christmas holiday: traditionally a time for families to get together. Such was the case for Bartholomew Lyons…