In December last year, my husband and I visited the Gayndah Railway Complex where we were surprised to discover four M Class Series carriages of the former Sunlander. Do you remember The Sunlander? It was a long distance air-conditioned passenger train operated by Queensland Rail (QR) on the North Coast line between Brisbane and Cairns. […] Read more…
I was a child when television came to Rockhampton in 1963. But I remember it well, for a particular reason, as I will reveal. Television had already been in Australia for 7 years. Two commercial stations, TCN9 Sydney and HSV7 Melbourne, commenced regular transmissions on 16 September 1956 and 4 November 1956 respectively. A national […] Read more…
Do you have a family Bible that has helped you discover more about your family history? Thankfully, I do. I possess a Bible that belonged to my great-grandmother. It dates from 1883. I knew from an early age that my grandmother had this Bible, but I knew little about it or its original owner (my […] Read more…
I’m re-posting this story to coincide with the first game of the 2017 State of Origin series, which is scheduled for Wednesday this week. My story is a little “tongue-in-cheek”, but it has a serious side as well. Read on to discover why. Meet “Buffy”, a gigantic fibreglass cane toad. Buffy’s over 1 metre wide […] Read more…
This story is about a sewing machine. An old treadle sewing machine. In fact, a sewing machine that’s nearly 120 years old! My story’s also about sewing, dressmaking and other sewing machines I have used and owned over the years. I learnt to sew from an early age. I must have been very young when […] Read more…
Do you believe in coincidences? Some people say that out-of-the-ordinary unplanned events happen just by chance. Others say they are due to fate (whatever they mean by that). I have heard it said that they are “God-incidences”. What do you think? In 1946, William Proposch (my father) had a surprise encounter. It was so […] Read more…
At Bundaberg State High School where my husband Tony was a teacher, he shared a staffroom with four other male teachers. They were all science teachers; a couple of them taught mathematics as well. Often, during breaks, they had lively discussions, which covered a whole range of topics – politics, religion, science, the nature of […] Read more…