About Face

Diseased curiosity

Captain Moonlite et al on trial for murder

by Joanna Gilmour, 3 December 2015

Just after 10.00 o'clock on 3 December 1879, four prisoners were brought from their cells at Darlinghurst Gaol and placed in the dock of a courtroom heaving with agitated spectators

An Australian in Paris

by Angus Trumble, 18 November 2015

This week it is impossible not to contemplate the ways in which France has touched many Australian lives.

Missing Persons

Thomas Woolner in Australia

by Angus Trumble, 28 October 2015

Desperately seeking Woolner medallions

A colourful story from Sideshow Alley

Infamy, the macabre & the portrait

by Joanna Gilmour, 27 October 2015

From infamous bushranger to oyster shop display, curator Jo Gilmour explores the life of George Melville.

Cocky McGrath

by Angus Trumble, 1 October 2015

The long life and few words of a vice-regal cockatoo

Longest reign

by Angus Trumble, 11 September 2015

Queen Elizabeth II is now the longest-reigning British sovereign

Anangu landscape learning

by Angus Trumble, 4 August 2015

Angus' initial perception of Uluru shifts, as he comes to see it as central to the entire order of Anangu life.

Brains trust

by Angus Trumble, 1 July 2015

Eminent doctors and scientists have for more than a century consistently caused our nation to punch far above her weight.

Magna Carta

by Angus Trumble, 15 June 2015

On this day eight hundred years ago at Runnymede near Windsor, King John signed Magna Carta.

Waterloo and Mrs. Moore

by Angus Trumble, 1 June 2015

Beyond the centenary of the ANZAC landings at Gallipoli, a number of other notable anniversaries converge this year. Waterloo deserves a little focussed consideration, for in the decades following 1815 numerous Waterloo and Peninsular War veterans came to Australia.

Goods and chattels

by Angus Trumble, 26 May 2015

I have been reading systematically through the ads in the earliest issues of the Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, such a rich vein of information about certain aspects of daily life in Regency Sydney.

Cooey! An Australian Song

by Angus Trumble, 1 May 2015

"Coo-ey, Coo-ey, Coo-ey, Coo-ey—Love has caught the strain, Coo-ey, Coo-ey, Coo-ey, Coo-ey—it whispers back again." The “Australian lady” who composed these fruity lyrics was none other than Desda— Jane Davies, sometime Messiter (née Price) of Leddicott, Lavender Bay.