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Travel

People, Travel

The golden years of travel

12/08/2026
Five tourists dressed in summer outfits stand with mountainous and island view in background

Discrete pieces might seem inconsequential: an isolated letter, a random travel brochure, a stash of photographs. Discovering archival bits and pieces over time also might seem inconsequential, but making connections between these items can reveal untold stories waiting for just the right moment. My aunty was going through her old papers last year and gave me a letter written to her in London by my father sixty years ago.

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Places, Travel

Bitter harvest of mallow

02/06/2026
Exercise book with pressed botanical specimens

‘Would you believe it, the autumnal rains have brought forth in crop more bountiful than ever those accursed marshmallows,’ complained my great grandfather to his son in 1919, ‘the docks we utterly routed but the others will apparently plague and cumber the ground for years’. Would ancestral Irish knowledge have changed his tune?

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Travel

Just a line old chap…

02/12/2020
Black and white photograph of a landscape with a river, trees and small building on the river bank.

Melbourne emerged from a second lockdown in November. Restricted to a five-kilometre radius of one’s home for thirteen weeks, Melburnians had no choice but to get to know the local surrounds intimately. These restrictions kept many from seeing family and friends, and from travelling.

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People, Places, Travel

Knocking on a stranger’s door

23/10/2019

“Talk to everyone” was my mother-in-law’s parting advice before our trip to Ireland. Her advice was more for the great leads and new historical information that comes from talking to people and less for the fact that I’d rather hide in the archives. When we set off for a day trip from Templemore to cross over into County Clare on the western side of the Lough Derg, we had a whole day ahead of us knocking on strangers’ doors.

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Travel

EPIC Dublin

23/10/2019

I had been pondering the emigration question as part of my family history research for a while. Why did my great-great grandparents decide to emigrate to Australia in 1863? Was it hardship, love, famine, political unrest? I had more questions than answers, so I packed my theories into a bag and travelled to Ireland to seek out primary material to put these research questions to the test.

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