The note was pinned to the door of Henry Trevascus’ office at No 1. Glebe [Point] Road was written in shaky letters on a plain white business envelope. It read “Back on Friday Gone to Goulburn leave all letters at the shop.” The note has been stuck to the door since Tuesday 31st of October,…
Who Killed “Bully” Cook? Halmar Olsen was an electrical mechanic working in the scrubby gully that dropped away from Clifford Street, Gordon, towards Stony Creek. In 1922, Clifford Street had only recently been subdivided, and Bell Street still did not exist. While navigating the steep sandstone escarpment covered in thick grasses and shrubs, Olsen came…
In 1890, a terrible murder-suicide committed in a bohemian artist’s Darlinghurst home shocked the nation. Detectives revealed a same-sex love scandal. But this was a secret that could never be revealed to the public.
William MacDonald “The Mutilator,” Sydney’s Most Disturbed Serial Killer There was an eerie silence over the streets of Darlinghurst on the night of March 31, 1962. It was a Saturday night, almost 10 pm, and the intoxicated men stumbling home from the pub were nowhere to be seen. Even the dark shadowy figures sipping from…
The Battle of Market Street – 1900 By ELLIOT LINDSAY The doors to the old Victoria Barracks on Oxford Street violently swung open, letting in the chilled air of a late Autumn night. In charged a soldier of the permanent artillery, dishevelled in appearance, his clothing stained with blood. “Those bastards from Engine Street attacked…
By ELLIOT LINDSAY Harry Foy’s portrait, auctioned after his death More than one thousand elegantly dressed individuals clamoured around the arched stone entrance to the Paddington Town Hall. All were attempting to attend what some declared to be the most exciting soiree of the year. Already the venue had reached its maximum capacity with more…
By Elliot Lindsay Murder in Newtown: When the gold rush and the wild west came to Sydney There is gold in Newtown! Thursday, 4 November 1852, a local landholder, Mr D. Cooper, claimed to have found gold while panning in Johnstons Creek (today, the creek is buried under Bedford Street). Cooper took several nuggets into…
By ELLIOT LINDSAY The Narrabeen Kidnapping – Australia’s first kidnapping for ransom. Ronald Powles lived with his wife and son in their home on Pacific Parade, DeeWhy. He was a projectionist at the Narrabeen Roxy Theatre at 15 Waterloo Street. His wife was pregnant with their second child and was due to give birth any…
By ELLIOT LINDSAY Booze, Vice & Racial Segregation: When the Americans came to Sydney during WW2 During the Second World War, Sydney became the destination for tens of thousands of US servicemen on rest leave. These ‘yanks’, as Sydneysiders typically called them, came to Sydney with pockets of cash and looking for a good time….
By Elliot Lindsay The Coogee Aquarium & Baths were full of young families and children on Anzac Day in 1935. The grand attraction was a fifteen-foot tiger shark caught alive in Gunnamatta Bay a few days earlier. Too big for the aquarium, they placed it in the 25-metre lap pool for viewing. A dozen mesmerized…