Table of contents for Edition 15, 2021 in Traces

Hello and welcome to edition 15 of Traces! This edition, we’re changing things up a bit by exploring a few stories from recent history. On page 8, Natasha Cantwell shares with us the moments of love, war and unity that made the 1956 Melbourne Olympics special, while Wendy Cooper lets us into the world of botanical artist William T. Cooper on page 18. On page 21, regular contributer Dr Peter Hobbins explores the history of the ill-fated Preussen, the German ship that left a trail of destruction wherever it went. Next, on page 24, learn about the dedication and tenacity of Vera Deakin, secretary of the Australian Red Cross’s Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau as Carole Woods takes you back to World War I. In the Character Profile feature on…

Watching the teams wave to cheering crowds at the 1956 Summer Olympics closing ceremony, you wouldn’t realise that Cold War tensions and political unrest were playing havoc with global relationships. The Suez Crisis, the invasion of Hungary by the Soviet Union, and hostility between mainland China and Taiwan had led to a number of countries boycotting the games altogether. Those who did arrive in Melbourne were told to keep politics off the playing field. But human passion could not be quelled. Fights broke out, blood was spilled, and love blossomed across Cold War lines. And throughout it all, a Melbourne teenager watched in despair; his hope that the Olympics could unite the world seemed doomed, until he wrote the heartfelt letter that left a lasting impact on the games. Blood…

This passage, from Vera Deakin and the Red Cross, reveals heavy demands on the Australian bureau, the work of searchers, and the war’s toll on Vera’s circle of friends. It also conveys Vera’s engaging writing style: informative, amusing, lyrical and sorrowful. The Australian inquiry bure au reclaimed Vera’s full attention in late May. The German offensive, which had started in March, soon led to the conquest of Bapaume. The bureau responded to a flood of inquiries resulting from the engagement of Australian soldiers at Dernancourt, Morlancourt, Villers-Bretonneux and elsewhere. Staff received more than 3000 inquiries from the Australian information bureaus in May and nearly 4000 in June. In August, the bureau dealt with 4441 reports, of which 1434 were obtained by Australian searchers in England and France. Two new searchers,…

Jessie was one of many grandchildren of my Irish convict great-great-great-grandmother, Johanna Hartigan. She tapped me on the shoulder when I was researching our shared Johanna: Jessie and I also share a birthday, an escape from small-town Tasmania, a passion for words, and an ambivalence about our names. Jessie Margaret Cordelia Burls was born in Westbury, near Launceston, in 1893. She was living in Melbourne in 1910, aged 18, when she was appointed a ‘Commonwealth organiser’ for the Australian National Prohibition League; shortly after, she organised the first Federal Conference for that movement in New South Wales. She lived and worked at the People’s Palace, King Street, in Melbourne, a temperance hotel run by the Salvation Army to provide affordable short-term accommodation. After studying at university to become a non-denominational…

A mid all this movement and chaos, Ann and George Walker Johnson decided to quietly pose for a portrait with their three young children. They travelled to a hot and humid studio in the summer of 1854 and sat for the photographer in their own clothes. It was an expensive commission – to fit all the family into the image, the portrait needed to be taken as a whole-plate daguerreotype. Three years later, in 1857, it was James Johnson’s turn to sit for a portrait. It was probably the last thing he wanted to do, especially given the fact that the image catapulted the shy young man from Ireland to celebrity status around the country. Suddenly, he was being chased down Sydney’s streets by children desperate to learn more about…

Archives turns to crowdfunding to save heritage The National Archives of Australia has launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise tens of millions of dollars to be used for the digitisation of disintegrating historical materials. The campaign website went live after the archives did not receive the required funding in the 2021 budget. The Archives has identified 384 kilometres of disintegrating audiovisual material requiring urgent digitisation, stating that some of the items will be completely lost by 2025. Currently, the Archives is capable of digitising .26 kilometres of material per year, meaning it would take 1400 years to digitise everything, at a cost of $5.2 billion. In order to rescue just the most urgent, significant material, the Archives is seeking $67.7 million for a seven-year digitisation project, and has turned to…

David Pugsley and his wife, Lucinda, moved to the remote area in 1912. He took a job with a local farm owner as a labourer. The owner of the farm, living several miles away, was also David’s neighbour and landlord. Over the following two years, David saved and was able to lease a comparatively small area of land from Mr Lucas of Youarang. By December of 1914, David was a prominent community member, leading hunting expeditions, and the family had grown to include three small children. Around that time, David Pugsley was going about his usual business when he heard a knock at the front door. It was Bakha Singh, a hawker commonly known as Hindu Butsha the Hawker. He was well-known to the area, and had been travelling door…

THE BIOGRAPHY Comparable only to the likes of Al Capone, Ned Kelly, the Kray Twins and Bonnie and Clyde, Squizzy Taylor was the most prolific and iconic criminal in the history of Western civilisation but has until now gone unrecorded in any complete biography. For over the past 100 years since his death, almost no author has had the tenacity to take on the enormous task of compiling a complete biography of the man who existed behind the legend that became Squizzy Taylor. But now, Australia’s most prolific true crime biographer, Roy Maloy, presents the full story of Squizzy Taylor in one complete work. Spanning over 150 years of history, from his father’s upbringing in Sandhurst, through his adolescence as a street pickpocket, violent thug and standover man, passing by…

Since colonisation, Australia has been home to many bushrangers and convict bolters, with most experiencing a twisting of their story by newspapers and writers of the time. Indeed, that continues to happen today; however, perhaps none have had their lives and actions so completely misrepresented throughout history as Yorkshireman Michael Howe, the self-titled ‘Governor of the Ranges’. Within most texts, Howe is noted as being ‘callous’, ‘cruel’ and ‘brutal’, with names such as ‘Black Michael’ and ‘wild beast of Tasmania’ thrown in for good measure. Thomas Wells, clerk to Lieutenant-Governor Sorell, was the author of most of the misinformation that has tainted Howe’s story, which was published in a pamphlet shortly after the outlaw’s death in 1818. It can be argued that given Wells’s connection to Sorell, his pamphlet was…

When I am working at the University of Tasmania, I don’t speak without first proffering an Acknowledgement of Country, and expressing my awareness that the university is built on Palawa country, Lutruwita. Hobart, Nipaluna, is built on the land of the Muwinina people, in the shadow of Kunanyi (Mount Wellington). In Sydney, I acknowledge the Gadigal/Wangal people, and as I live on Darug and Gundungurra land, I pay my respects to them and their Elders, past, present and emerging. I acknowledge Country for what it means to living people, and I acknowledge what Musquito’s story (page 12) means for his living relatives, including Gai-mariagal man Dennis Foley. It is a small gesture, because it is a painful truth for First Nations people that every non-Indigenous person in Australia lives, walks…