February / March 2010
Before Canberra will return Easter 2010
Due to unavoidable technical difficulties, beforecanberra.com.au will not be updated for the next 6 weeks (mid February – early April 2010).

Queanbeyan & District – Land & People
Before Canberra will return Easter 2010
Due to unavoidable technical difficulties, beforecanberra.com.au will not be updated for the next 6 weeks (mid February – early April 2010).
Birds of a feather
Each year hats are featured at the Melbourne Cup 1 but none more stunning than the 2006 Melbourne Cup, fashion stakes with a ’sculptural bird cage hat’ with extended plumes taking first prize.
Falling in love again1
Just when you think you’ve left it too late, that your use by date has expired (in fact long, long gone) something comes along that turns you upside down and you go head over heels feeling as light as a feather and as silly as sunshine.
Mayoral family
The Christian names of the three different Mayor Land’s of Queanbeyan, along with the dates of their terms of office, may separate and also help identify the different generations of Mayors with the surname Land.1
1. Mayor Edwin Henry Land (1858-1897); Mayor in 1890, and 1892-1897.
2. Mayor Henry Thomas Land (1884-1929); Mayor during 1927-1928.
3. Mayor [...]
Francis Adams (1862-1893)1
“Something of convictism and the convict still shows itself in Sydney”, said Francis Adams after he had first seen the “sprawling seaport” of Sydney in 1884 with its “288,000 people and 3,167 pubs”.2
Harp of Erin Inn
Indian Jugglers were performing at ‘The Harp of Erin Inn’ located in Macquoid Street, Queanbeyan, when one of their juggling team went missing in November 1861. 1
The missing Indian Juggler was about 40 years old and it was believed that he had been “murdered … shortly after giving a juggling performance”. 2
Dark side of life 1860
“Mrs Soares has lately given birth to a boy but his palate is split into three and he has no roof to his mouth”. 1 “She has no milk and the child is a most pitiable object”, continued Emily Wilson Hutchison in her letter of March 7, 1860, from her home [...]
Christ Church 18601
Perhaps the old Christ Church Parish Hall2 on the corner of Rutledge and Crawford Streets, was sold to the Home in Queanbeyan project to provided the dollars to replace, with new shinning armour, the roof and steeple of historic Christ Church, which is estimated to have cost around $150,000.3
Pre-empting nine-eleven
Dennis Mortimer 1 was using a drawing of portion of a telescopic head, from the New York Twin Towers Buildings, as a symbol of sadness in his paintings before the 2000 disaster when terrorists stole two planes and crashed them into the New York Twin Towers causing them to collapse on day, nine-eleven. 2
[...]
Billy Roohan (1802-1874) 1
PICTURE: Rutledge Street looking towards Christ Church. In this photo taken in 1870, John Gale’s home and business is on the right and Billy Roohan’s timber slab home is opposite. Photographer: Henry Beaufoy Merlin, 1870.2
The Aboriginal people liked Queanbeyan postman Billy Roohan, and when he asked them to mark the trees to [...]
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