News location:

Canberra CityNews

Subscribe

Support

Canberra Today 12°/15° | Saturday, May 4, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Toryn Chapman

Canberra culture

Memories of a lost past

THE chance discovery of a letter to a 10-year-old girl in a Sydney orphanage during the Great Depression of the...

No posts found

Follow us on Instagram @canberracitynews

It’s been a hundred years since Frederick Walter

It’s been a hundred years since Frederick Walter Robinson published what is believed to be Canberra’s first book. 📖

Arguably a little premature, he titled it Canberra’s First Hundred Years and it was published in April 1924.

Susan Thomas, assistant curator at the UNSW Canberra Special Collections says the book sees Robinson lament the demolition of early settler buildings.

He also outlines his support for the use of local indigenous names in the new construction plans for Canberra, which Susan says is a testament to his curiosity of the pre-colonial history of the region.

Susan says her favourite of Robinson’s name suggestions is Guruguma, meaning west wind.

“I was born in Canberra and grew up here, even though I live in Bungendore, and that west wind is really a thing,” she says.

“He’s really thinking about the place and wanting to preserve those links.”

But, Susan says, it wasn’t until about five years ago that the special collections team really understood the book’s significance.

“We had a visit from the librarian of the Fryer Library at the University of Queensland,” she says.

“We knew that the Fryer Library had been set up by Frederick Robinson, so we just looked on our catalogue and here was this book, written by Frederick Robinson, so we pulled it off the shelf.

“It was only when we opened it that we realised we had Robinson’s own signed copy, because he signed it at the front and dedicated it to the Royal Military College (RMC).”

Read the Full article on our website citynews.com.au

#canberra #canberranews #canberrahistory #canberrabooks

Dining reviewer WENDY JOHNSON thrills to the taste

Dining reviewer WENDY JOHNSON thrills to the taste of a smoked-trout pizza, but has reservations about the preparation of a couple of others at a new place in Kingston.

The Tumut River Brewing Co was opened by two mates with one dream – to make craft beers in a microbrewery. That was sometime in 2014.

Fast forward to last month and the operation has opened in Kingston with beers made in the Snowy Mountains, wines primarily from Tumbarumba and pizzas made on-site in a huge oven that looks like an igloo. 🍷🍕

Rows of beer, in black cans sporting bright colours, are there for the tasting, and the “True Brew Crew”, wearing black, branded T-shirts, are busy patting down operations. 🍻

Read the full article on our website citynews.com.au

#canberra #dining #canberrarestaurants

“It’s difficult to justify the ACT’s excess

“It’s difficult to justify the ACT’s excess taxation when debt’s rising, the hospital system is the country’s poorest and services for disadvantaged groups are the nation’s worst,” writes JON STANHOPE & KHALID AHMED.

Pick up your copy of this week’s magazine from around Canberra, or visit citynews.com.au for more!

#CityNews #magazine #Canberra#journalism#graphicdesign #advertising

Teacher Vanessa Jones has been living in Higgins s

Teacher Vanessa Jones has been living in Higgins since 2001, and while she loves the area, she says she is “fed up” with the neglectful ACT government.

The Higgins shops have been completely abandoned, says Vanessa, preventing the opportunity for residents to have a community-centred space to socialise.

They only received bins nine months ago, she says, and requests for a water station and repairs to the bus station have gone unanswered.

“It’s very, very slow,” says Vanessa.

“I asked for the zebra crossing on Fullagar [Crescent] to be repainted, and we had to wait about six or nine months.

“That’s just such a long time… we pay a lot of rates.”

Vanessa says assistance from the government only seems to go to communities with time-rich and assertive communities, leaving places such as Higgins, where the majority of households have both adults working full-time and English may not be the first language of the family, at an automatic disadvantage.

“If you’ve got two people working, paying a mortgage, raising two or three kids, they don’t have the time,” says Vanessa.

Vanessa says the lack of attention quieter places such as Higgins is receiving is starting to look a lot like favouritism.

Read the full article on our website citynews.com.au

#canberra #canberranews

Vanessa Jones loves living in Higgins, but tells r

Vanessa Jones loves living in Higgins, but tells reporter KATARINA LLOYD JONES she’s “fed up” with the ACT government; the local shops have been abandoned, preventing residents from having a community-centred space to socialise.

Pick up your copy of this week’s magazine from around Canberra, or visit citynews.com.au for more!

#CityNews #magazine #Canberra#journalism#graphicdesign #advertising