25 November, 2013

The making of Hamilton

There was not a decent street or footpath in Hamilton; they had creeks and watercourses in every direction.[1]

Truly, the place looked deserted and miserable, no one to be seen but poor old Murphy and his double team dragging a barrow load of coal through the yielding sands into which the wheels of his dray....were sinking almost to the axle.[2] 

These were just some of the challenges facing Hamilton’s first Municipal Council in 1872.

17 November, 2013

Boy boxer from Burnt Bridge

He wore green satin shorts with a white star, and was promoted in boxing circles as Puerto Rican rather than Aboriginal, because of racial prejudice at the time.

07 November, 2013

Masonic Hall

The queue surged with a life of its own along Beaumont Street. An excited buzz rose from the young crowd, dressed to dazzle in their up-to-the-minute gear.

I was on an evening walk with my husband, not long after we had moved to Hamilton, when we encountered what we thought was a nightclub with a line of people waiting to enter. A little surprised that our new suburb apparently had a nightclub, we crossed the street. Looking back, we saw that the building creating so much anticipation was the Masonic Hall, alias The Depot.