Tuesday April 27, 2010
Digital volunteers do amazing things
Rose Holley was a big hit at Mosman Library last week and we’re pleased to make available a video of the presentation. If you’re interested in libraries, local histories, web 2.0, crowdsourcing or innovation, it’s all here! Listen out for stories of million dollar cheques and visits from Google.
The talk energised locals in the crowd, some of whom are now looking at open web communities as an avenue for sharing their local history knowledge and research. One participant said “Amazing night! I feel like I’ve been on a trip to the 23rd century, my head is spinning.”
All sites mentioned by Rose are listed below.
Thursday March 25, 2010
Now where did you get that information?
Librarians are not just adept at Boolean, database and catalogue searches. Yesterday a phone enquiry came in from a gentleman who wanted to know what was the column in the water at Bradley’s Head. It proved the usefulness of Google for answering local studies enquiries. After a quick verbal clue from the Local Studies Librarian, I searched Google under “GPO column Bradley’s Head” and up popped joolmp’s photostream on Flickr with a close-up photo of the sign that tells the history of the column. I zoomed in so I could read the sign, called the gentleman and gave him the information he was after all in less than 5 minutes.
Monday August 24, 2009
Attack on Sydney, 31 May 1942
School children and service personnel inspect the mid-section of a Japanese midget submarine on display in the exhibition gardens. This submarine took part in the unsuccessful attack on Sydney harbour on 31 May 1942. Australian War Memorial collection, on Flickr
A website dedicated to the Japanese Midget Submarine that attacked Sydney Harbour has been launched by the NSW Government, uncovering its secrets.
The site has been developed by the Heritage Branch, NSW Department of Planning and showcases the history and mystery of the 1942 submarine attack on Sydney Harbour with feature interviews, underwater footage and unique 3D animation of the submarine. It will be a valuable way of ensuring that the heritage significance of the midget submarine attack is preserved, together with the physical remains of the M24 wreck site.
It was not until November 2006, that a group of weekend divers called ‘No Frills Divers’ located the still intact Japanese midget submarine M24 off Bungan Head, Newport. The submarine was entangled in nets 54 metres below on the seabed
Like all shipwrecks the M24 has a fascinating story to tell — of the events in Sydney Harbour on the night of 31 May and the early morning of 1 June 1942; the role of the Japanese midget submarines, and the Japanese submarine campaign along Australia’s eastern seaboard during World War II.
Visit the M24 midget submarine exhibition online.
Local memories
Here are some local memories of the night the midget subs entered Sydney Harbour.
The peace of Clanalpine Street was shattered on the night of 31 May 1942 when we were awakened by thudding noises and the sound of ornaments moving on mantelpiece and shelves. “It’s an earthquake,” said my mother, who was a New Zealander, but in fact of course it was the unsuccessful Japanese submarine attack on Sydney Harbour.
Ngaire Souter, ‘A marvellous place for childhood ‘ – Mosman Memories of Your Street
We lived there when the Japanese midget submarines came into the Sydney Harbour on 1 June 1942, that night was very frightening with the explosions as we didn’t know until the next day what had happened.
Helen Ekin nee Black, Living in ‘Duncraggan’ – Mosman Memories of Your Street
We used the shelter once, and that was when the Japanese submarines were coming into the harbour. In the middle of night about 2am I think, the air raid sirens went off, and I and Jessie, who was our nice ‘help’ then, got the three children out of bed and put on warm things, and rushed downstairs, and went into the air raid shelter and crouched there terrified until the ‘all clear’ came.
Margaret Joan Holmes – Mosman Voices
I remember when the submarines came into the harbour and they shelled Rose Bay and broke windows, and a few more came in, and it was announced. The house next door to ours – my family home was in Raglan Street. and the home next door built a bomb shelter big enough for the neighbours either side to go in. When we heard this explosion, we were told to fill the baths with water and go under the table, or wherever you could. Well we went in next door. When I went in with my mother, my brother was away at the war, and I said: ‘I don’t think I turned the tap off, I’ll go in and do it’. I had done it.
Patricia Beaumont – Mosman Voices
Were you in Mosman on the night of the attack? Please share your story at MosmanMemories.net.
Thursday December 18, 2008
Tin town, Middle Harbour
Tin Town, Middle Harbour, postcard.
This unique postcard depicting a camp made out of kerosene tins is postmarked Mosman 1908. It is thought to be located in Mosman overlooking Quakers Hat Bay, near Cremorne and opposite Folly Point. Adding to the charm of this post card is the inclusion of a man, no doubt a resident, wearing a hat.
Mosman boasted many camps including artists’ camps, weekend camps for fishing and sailing and those appearing during The Depression of the 1930s.
Mosman Library would like to hear from anyone who may know of this camp and its exact location.
Friday September 12, 2008
Images of Mosman from the State Records archive
First tram in operation to Balmoral. 29 May 1922.
The State Records Authority of NSW has some great photos of Mosman on Flickr, the worldwide photo community website. Have a look at their photostream.
By uploading some of these images to Flickr we aim to highlight our photographic collection and hope that you might be able to join us in identifying unknown scenes, people and places by tagging and commenting on our photostream.
It’s an impressive collection!
We hold tens of thousands of archival photos from the late 19th Century to the present, capturing life in New South Wales in much of its richness and diversity. The original formats of these images vary widely, from glass plates and lantern slides to 35mm negatives, colour transparencies and prints.
Our digitisation program aims to bring many of these ‘hidden’ images to light.
Here are some other Mosman photos in their Flickr photostream:
- House boats moored in Pearl Bay, Mosman
- Building The Spit Bridge, 1924
- Trams on the Mosman and Spit Junction Line
- The Spit at Middle Harbour, Mosman, 1908
- Musgrave Street wharf, c.1900
- View of Bradleys Head Lighthouse showing the Sydney Harbour Trust work boat ‘Aurora’ in the background
- The ‘Queen Mary’ from Bradleys Head, c.1940
Their own online collection of more than 5,500 images can be accessed using the Photo Investigator service.
Sunday August 24, 2008
Vande and Rose Noble Potteries of Mosman
Mosman Library has been collecting unique pieces of pottery made by two commercial potteries that flourished in Mosman during the 1950s and 1960s.
These potteries called Vande and Rose Noble were small but successful operations producing souvenir ware to cater for the booming tourist industry in post-war Australia. In 2002 Mosman Library held the first public exhibition of Vande and Rose Noble pottery.
The collecting initiative has resulted in the Mosman Local Studies Collection having over 60 significant examples that are representative of the ceramics produced by Vande and Rose Noble.
Currently a number of Vande pieces from the Library’s collection are on loan to the Australian National Maritime Museum at Darling Harbour for Trash or Treasure? Souvenirs of Travel, an exhibition that examines collecting travel memorabilia.
Trash or Treasure? Souvenirs of Travel will be on view until May 2009.
Friday February 1, 2008
Postcards from Mosman's past
We recently came across some historic postcards of Mosman’s Bay and Clifton Gardens on the photo sharing website Flickr. They date from the beginning of the last century, roughly 1900 to 1920.
The Mosman’s Bay set features views of the Harbour, its ferries and houses, the wharf at the bottom of Avenue Road and the footbridge across what is today Reid Park.
In the Clifton Gardens set you see the ‘The Clifton Arms’ at Chowder Bay, the first licensed hotel in Mosman, and the very popular ‘pleasure grounds’ that incorporated the Marine Hotel with its dance hall, wharf, pool and accommodation, ‘unsurpassed in the Southern Hemisphere’. The hotel was demolished in 1967. You can also see the Submarine Mining Depot, now accessible to the public.
Tuesday January 29, 2008
The hospital on the hill
This image is from a photo album owned by Margaret Holmes. It is reproduced here with her kind permission. It was taken at the 21st Australian Auxiliary Hospital by her father, the doctor and Army Medical Corps commanding officer at the time (1918), Lieut. Col. W.H. Read. We know nothing more about these two than the caption on the photo.
Georges Heights, here in Mosman, was home to the third largest military hospital in Australia. But who was here? What was life like in the hospital on the hill? Can you help?
Tuesday November 6, 2007
Man shortage in Mosman?
A new study of 25-34 year old singles by statistician Bernard Salt based on the 2006 census figures showed Mosman had more available women than men, with just 85 blokes for every 100 single sheilas.
- Sydney Morning Herald, 21 October 2007
How else has your community changed over the past 5 years?
The Mosman Community Profile has been updated with results from the 2006 Census.
The Community Profile is an excellent resource for the business community, students, researchers and the community in general.
It enables detailed analysis of the changes to the Mosman community over a 15 year period, as it presents statistics from the 2006, 2001, 1996 and 1991 censuses in table and graph format.
The Profile shows that there have been no significant changes to the composition of the Mosman community over the past five years.
The population has increased by 2.9% to 26,236.
20.5% of the population is aged between 0 and 17, and 21.0% is aged 60 years and over. The largest changes in age structure were in the age groups 60 to 69 (+645) and 85 and over (+121 persons).
View the Mosman Community Profile.
Tuesday October 16, 2007
Walking in the footsteps of the Curlew Camp artists
Mosman's Bay - Tom Roberts, 1894 - New England Regional Art Museum, Armidale NSW
The Spring 2007 newsletter (PDF 2Mb) from the Heritage Office and Heritage Council of NSW has a feature story on the Curlew Camp Artists’ Walk in Mosman that opened earlier this year.