Letter from Vincent Meagher to Lux Meagher 1911
03/11/2021
Letter to Lux Meagher from Vincent Meagher 1911 (page 1)
Letter from Mary Meagher to Lux Meagher 1911
03/11/2021
Letter to Lux Meagher from Mary Meagher 1911 (page 1)
Letter from Vincent Meagher to Lux Meagher c.1910
03/11/2021
Letter to Lux Meagher from Vincent Meagher c.1910 (page 1)
Alice in Wonderland
14/06/2021
Late last year, the Athenaeum Theatre advertised a stage production of Alice in Wonderland for children in January. When I saw the email in my inbox, I instantly thought with delighted relief, ‘Christmas presents for my nieces, sorted!’
A little tale of past history by Dorothy Meagher
28/03/2021
Last month, I found a handwritten story in the archives written by my grandmother about her grandmother’s encounter with a bushranger in the 1870s. I could not resist sharing it for Women’s History Month! Dorothy Hogan Meagher (nee Donovan) was ‘Gran’ to me, ‘Dot’ to some of my cousins and ‘Doll’ to my father. She wrote this story in 1996, when she was eighty years old, about a recollection – a little tale of past history – for my mother who was doing family tree research.
Margaret McCormack (1848-1919)
28/03/2021
Margaret McCormack, daughter of William Hogan and Julia McGuire was born c.1848 in County Galway, Ireland. At seventeen years old, Margaret, noted as a servant on the marriage certificate, married tollkeeper, Daniel McCormack, on 1st July 1868 at St Patrick’s Church in Kilmore, Australia. They had seven children: James Daniel (1869-1940); Mary Ellen (1871-1939); Julia (1874-1899); Bridget (1876-1877); Bridget (1879-1959); Kathleen (1880-1961) and William Joseph (1883-1952). Margaret’s mother, Julia Hogan (1818-1886) lived with the McCormack family at Northwood, before dying of senility in 1886.
Rear Window Twist
29/01/2021
The lure of popcorn and a summer holiday matinee of my all-time favourite film, Rear Window (1954), playing at the Lido Cinema in Hawthorn proved irresistible a few weeks back. My dear friend Rebecca and her ten-year-old daughter, Anna, came along with me. They were seeing the movie for the first time. Read more
Just a line old chap…
02/12/2020
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.
Suburban dreams and local lingo
16/09/2020
Writing about my great grandfather’s purchase of his property, Ikerrin, had me thinking about the origins of the common phrase, the ‘Great Australian Dream’. I wanted to know if it stemmed from the post war period in the 1950s, or was an earlier concept.
Ikerrin: Buying into the dream
26/08/2020
The ‘Great Australian Dream’ conjures a picture of a home of one’s own, suburban security, a three-bedroom brick veneer, trimmed lawns and backyard barbeques. This collectively held aspiration for home ownership gained traction in media and literature from the 1960s.
