History Snoop

Albert Edward KEARNEY (21yo) left for the First World War "fresh" faced, strong and healthy. He returned damaged and scarred for life. He was wounded at Fromelles less than one year after he enlisted. Albert's right hand was blown off…

Edward Johnston KEARNEY (1876-1925), known as 'Ned' has an interesting WW1 War Service record. He was 40 years old when he joined the AIF in July 1915 probably because he was unemployed and had a wife, Susan and young dependent daughters…

When Footscray's Awesome Oarsmen won the most prestigious race on the rowing calendar, the Clarke Challenge Cup for three years in succession between 1880 and 1882 they unleashed a class war amongst Victoria's rowing fraternity. The most…

What happened to the beautiful solid gold trowel presented to his Excellency Sir George F. Bowen, K.C.M.G., Governor of Victoria, when he laid the foundation stone for the Melbourne Exhibition Building on 19 February 1879? Now worth over…

We are missing a photograph of Christina ANDERSON ROME (1866-1909). Between 1891 and 1900 David Paterson McCrae ROME took wife Christina from her family environment and birthplace in Williamstown, Victoria, Australia with their baby son to…

This story is about ‘modern-day’ pioneering women in Australia. They are the women who helped build the ‘Snowy Scheme’ not on construction teams but in construction camps.  Moving with their husbands to the remote high country they built…

Premature Baby Care History 1880s-1940s is a family history research project that travelled globally from Footscray in Melbourne's industrial west to Coney Island's Luna Park in New York and beyond. The Tweddle Baby Hospital in Footscray…

People have been eaten alive by ants.  Stories on this topic in old Australian newspapers make for gruesome reading. They make you feel grateful for the advances in communications, medicine, repellents and first aid. However, these…

The hanging of Louisa Collins was a disaster. She suffered a botched trial and then a botched hanging. It took four trials by jury to convict Louisa of murdering her second husband, Michael, by arsenic poisoning in 1888. Thirty-six men…

My GG Grandmother, Elizabeth CHANDLER was a pioneer of the Healesville district and a well known and respected member of the community. She was one of 43 women in Healesville who signed the Women's Suffrage Petition in 1891. Her kindly…