Happy Home Lodge
There have been and are a few odd fellows living in Queanbeyan, but it is safer to write about the distant past than the present when referring to the odd men that are part of our town. 1
The actual head count of Odd Fellows in Queanbeyan, or perhaps the Queanbeyan District, in 1856 was at least 60 and that was only six months after William Greg O’Neill founded the Oddfellows Lodge or to give it its correct title: the Happy Home Lodge of the Manchester Unity Independent Order of Oddfellows. 2
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July 18th, 2008 | Category: CONNEE | Leave a comment
1883 Flogging reintroduced
Flogging was abolished in New South Wales, Australia in 1877 and was reintroduced in 1883 – the first priority of the courts was the protection of a man’s property, 1 and thus continued the tradition of the law, in favoring the rich and punishing the poor.
“Something of convictism and the convict still shows itself in Sydney”, wrote Francis Adams after he had first seen the “sprawling seaport” of Sydney in 1884 with its “288,000 people and 3,167 pubs”. 2
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May 15th, 2008 | Category: CONNEE | Leave a comment
A Winter’s Tale
1 It was winter in a country town that pretended to be a city. 2
The wind whistled and the lightning flashed and the rain beat down on the corrugated roof.
Occasionally a wisp of wind came down the chimney and stirred the blackened wood in the fireplace.
Until finally there was a last sparkle of red and then nothing only blackness.
The wind nudged the mother and she tossed restlessly in her sleep.
The mother was struggling to survive in a world that at times could be very threatening.
The wind knew that this was such a time.
The wind saw and knew everything.
And thus began … a winter’s tale.
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April 30th, 2008 | Category: CONNEE | Leave a comment
Reprehensible Character
Towards the closing, cloudy hours of the old year 1 the bells of the Queanbeyan Church of England and the Wesleyan Church rang out lustily calling the “devouts” to the exercise of religious services, which were to bring profitable results to the worshipers during the dying of the old 1894 and the birth of the New Year 1895.
Not everyone went to church on New Years Eve in 1894 as The Queanbeyan Observer newspaper observed, “many indulged in hilarious pastimes, some of a highly reprehensible character for which it is likely the chief actors will yet be called to account”.
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February 23rd, 2008 | Category: CONNEE | Leave a comment
Master Sculptor
George assisted in the enlargement and making of Ante Dabro’s huge Navy Memorial sculpture in Anzac Parade, Canberra – as well as many other works, because as well as producing his own figurative work, others recognized and used George’s talents to their own advantage. 1
Canberra-Queanbeyan sculptor George Zacharewicz 1951-2004 2 could turn his hand to anything, first mastering the technique then creating and moving on, whilst others were left in his wake wondering how it was done.
In 1992 when the British Coat of Arms and the Australian Coat of Arms sculptures, on Canberra’s old and first (1927) Parliament House needed restoration George Zacharewicz was commissioned to do the work. 3
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February 15th, 2008 | Category: CONNEE | Leave a comment
