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….
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…
By Elliot Lindsay The Lane Cove Mystery and the Case of Eugene Falleni (Harry Crawford) The Stringybark Creek Reserve is popular with Lane Cove residents who seek a gentle walk amongst the shady gums and moss-covered sandstone caves. Yet how many would know that this reserve was the centre of a gruesome mystery that shocked…
By ELLIOT LINDSAY Chow Hayes (centre) entering court Ziegfield’s Night Club in Central Sydney once had an unenviable reputation as the paramount venue for good times and not-so-good people. All manner of vice took place within its subterranean rooms, and several lives were lost through misadventure or murder. The whining of the jazz clarinet cut…
Very few Sydney-siders had heard of St. Ives in the 1910s when the district was covered with citrus orchards and cow paddocks. That all changed when the evening news across Australia reported a “shooting in St. Ives” that resulted in the murder of a police sergeant. To this day, mystery shrouds the events that transpired…
By ELLIOT LINDSAY An artist’s impression of the 522 Marrickville Rd confectionary store shootings Esther Vaughan operated the confectionary store that once occupied 522 Marrickville Road, Dulwich Hill. She sold confectionary and fruit to the local children for over 17 years and had watched the neighbourhood boys and girls grow into men and women. Esther…