What constitutes a good memento of travel?
Kate Holden recently reflected on this in The Age (A2, 20 October 2007, p.3), noting that you can buy Vegemite and Tim Tams in London (so no point bearing these as gifts) and you can get most things in Australia, so what then is worth bringing home as a […]
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Postcards, history and the souvenir hunter
Tropical Island Treasure: article in National Library of Australia News
The only real writing I’ve managed all year is this article on the National Library of Australia’s Mauritius Collection, for the monthly journal National Library of Australia News. It’s wonderful to see the Library’s beautiful painting of a dodo gracing the July issue’s cover, highlighting the rich holdings relating to Mauritius in their collection. I […]
Which history? Restoration or vandalism?
The oldest boat still extant in Australia recently returned to its original home, Tasmania. It had been languishing in a boatyard in New South Wales. A Tasmanian maritime expert confirmed the boat as the Admiral, built of huon pine in 1865 and originally used to ferry dignitaries across the Derwent River in Hobart. The boat […]