Murder at 61 Ocean Street Woollahra By Elliot Lindsay The evening of September 8, 1884, was one of glamour and celebration at Como House, the grand Victorian mansion nestled at 61 Ocean Street, Woollahra. Como House stood as a testament to the wealth and high society at the peak of Sydney’s economic boom period with…
An Old Headstone The Devonshire Street Cemetery, established along an ancient sandhill on the outskirts of old Sydney, became a forgotten relic as the city expanded around it. By 1901, it had become a decrepit anachronism from the colonial past, surrounded by the urban sprawl. That year, the government announced a bold plan to exhume…
A Grim Discovery It was a chilly Sunday morning on April 26, 1931, when Andrew Dearsley, a working-class man living in the grimy streets of Surry Hills, Sydney, made his routine stop at his neighbour’s home. Emma Philbrook, a widow in her fifties, had recently moved from her terrace at 5 Smith Street to a…
The Mysterious Life of Charles le Gallien and his Violent Murder in Crows Nest. A Horrific Crime Scene At 11 p.m. Thursday 30th, September 1948, the body of Charles Louis le Gallien was found lying on the office floor of his engineering workshop at Crows Nest. Police described him as the victim of the most savage…
The Murder of Rose Arnold and the Strange Case of Richard Riley. One of Australia’s most horrifying murders. Nickson Street, Surry Hills. Bloody handprints smeared the glass window, which George Rose peered through. The small bedroom on the other side was in a terrible state with furniture knocked over, books and picture frames scattered everywhere,…
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…
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 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….