‘One of my greatest finds’:Odd discoveries in Nellie Melba’s home

‘One of my greatest finds’:Odd discoveries in Nellie Melba’s home

Cigarettes,monogrammed crockery,handwritten letters … cataloguing the “time capsule” Victorian abode of the famed soprano opens a treasure trove of intrigue.

  • byMelissa Fyfe

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Postcards from the edge:Relics tell true tales of Antarctic explorers

Postcards from the edge:Relics tell true tales of Antarctic explorers

A piece of a ship is among the Antarctic exploration relics that Tony Shields has collected.

  • byCarolyn Webb
‘My beautiful boy’:The diary of a heart broken at Fromelles
Perspective
Perspective

‘My beautiful boy’:The diary of a heart broken at Fromelles

Frontline nurse Alice Ross-King’s World War I diaries tell of a great love - and a dreadful tragedy.

  • byTony Wright
The surprise encounter revealed in Governor Phillip’s newly unearthed journal

The surprise encounter revealed in Governor Phillip’s newly unearthed journal

When 20 pages of Australia’s first governor’s journal turned up,it was something of a must-have for the State Library of NSW.

  • byTim Barlass
A hero’s welcome home for Flinders,two centuries too late
Opinion
Opinion

A hero’s welcome home for Flinders,two centuries too late

Explorer Matthew Flinders gave Australia its name. He had too much ambition to “rest in the unnoticed middle order of mankind”,but too many of us forget.

  • byPeter FitzSimons
Family makes shock discovery of unknown Captain Flinders portrait
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Visual art

Family makes shock discovery of unknown Captain Flinders portrait

The painting,worth more than $1 million,has gone on public display for the first time this week ahead of a reburial service for the explorer,the first person to circumnavigate Australia.

  • byRob Harris
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Bone found at Balmoral Beach reveals origins of Australia’s apex predator

Bone found at Balmoral Beach reveals origins of Australia’s apex predator

When Sally Wasef sent a bone found in an exclusive Sydney enclave off for carbon testing,she thought it would be a couple of hundred years old. She was wrong.

  • byCatherine Naylor
Ray of hope for beach shack owners in the Royal National Park
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Heritage

Ray of hope for beach shack owners in the Royal National Park

The beach communities at Little Garie,Era and Burning Palms in Australia’s oldest national park are heritage listed. Their licences expire in March 2027,and the government is yet to decide what happens after that.

  • byCaitlin Fitzsimmons
Mystery surrounding treasures from Sydney shipwreck may finally be solved
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Heritage

Mystery surrounding treasures from Sydney shipwreck may finally be solved

Items recovered from the wreck including figurines of baby birds have survived the plundering of treasure hunters.

  • byTim Barlass
I thought my husband was dead. Then 30 years later,a letter arrived in the mail

I thought my husband was dead. Then 30 years later,a letter arrived in the mail

Amid the chaos of the Red Army advance in Latvia in 1944,Milda and Rudis Masens were separated. After five years in displaced persons camps hoping for news of Rudis,the young mother settled in Newcastle,NSW,and eventually remarried.

  • byAs told to Andra Putnis
When rats ruled The Rocks and fear stalked the streets of Sydney
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Healthcare

When rats ruled The Rocks and fear stalked the streets of Sydney

The year was 1900 and public enemy number one in Sydney was the plague-infected rat.

  • byTim Barlass