History Snoop

A McNish family mystery that ends in Raglan, Victoria, Australia has its roots on a small island in a Scottish Loch. This story is an attempt to unlock the mystery of one McNish clansman, run away George McNish 1838-1888.

My ankle fracture story started with an elegant slip that ended in catastrophe. A fractured ankle is painful both physically and emotionally long after the first six weeks of no weight bearing on the affected leg ends. Life is temporarily…

Police Tracker Edgar Spring was buried a soldier in a simple grave in St John’s Churchyard, Reid, Canberra.  He served his state of NSW as a police tracker for nearly two decades in Cassilis, volunteered to serve his country in war, and…

In 1852 Thomas Chippendale snr left his four boys ranging in age from 11 to 18 years in charge of his newly acquired, and now famous NSW grazing property, Bolaro. What could possibly go wrong? Well a great deal in fact. The youngest brother…

Coombes Church, West Sussex is famous for its medieval religious frescoes, discovered when a piece of plaster fell from a chapel wall during maintenance work in 1949. The Church, built into a hillside amidst lush pastoral surrounds has…

Tracking down Ned Kelly and searching for the place where he murdered three policemen on 26 October 1878 ended in a history scoop.  Clouds hung low over the Wombat Ranges making visibility poor and driving conditions hazardous but this…

Plastics polluting Fairhaven beach on Victoria's Surfcoast highlights a modern day environmental curse. Renowned for its rolling surf, rock pools, rugged beauty, imposing sand dunes and the Mad Max House, the beach is now choking with…

Treating asthma with smoke is not a joke. Before the advent of inhalers and corticosteroid drugs asthma really was treated with smoke. Who would have thought smoke, a chief lung irritant, could successfully relieve an asthma attack?

Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) pilot, Flying Officer Francis Ewen, was the first to die when his plane crashed while participating in a fly past for the afternoon military review on opening day. The second death occurred on 27 July 1927…

The Yarrangobilly bush cemetery is hidden away at the end of a bush track off the Snowy Mountains Highway in the Kosciusko National Park.  This quiet little patch in the Australian bush is the final resting place for some of the pioneers…