History

Widely known as The Lyrebird Man and recognised by ornithologists as an authority on lyrebirds, Thomas Henry Tregellas was born in Bendigo on 16 June 1864.

On Sunday 10 May many Australians will celebrate Mother’s Day. The tradition of gift-giving on Mother’s Day, although well-established in the USA, did not begin in Australia until 1924. In 1870, American writer and women’s rights activist Julia Ward Howe, author of the Battle Hymn of the Republic, had proposed that a mother’s day for peace be commemorated every year in June.

On 4 September 2019 I received an email from Venice Italy from a young Italian named Alessandro Cianchetta. He and others in the Verona area volunteer to research military planes shot down over Italy during WWII. Their aim is to return to family members any items belonging to the airmen.

Australia’s first telegraph line was erected between Melbourne and Williamstown in 1853 and 1854 by Samuel McGowan, a recently immigrated Canadian telegrapher. The line covered 17km and went into operation less than 10 years after the opening on 1 May 1844 of the first public telegraph line in the world linking Baltimore and Washington DC.