Rainy Days & the Mid-Century Garden in January

Well it's almost the end of January, which here in Queensland means the middle of the wet season and Summer. It's gone from hot and dry to hot and wet in about a week, and we have a cyclone on the way bringing lots of rain and wind.  It's not really great gardening weather, and my new seedlings, especially the lettuces are not happy. 

This is what I came  home to this afternoon - one banana tree down and the tarp almost off the chook dome.

A Thank you, Back to School and a Cyclone Warning

A quick post today - we have a cyclone near by and the gale force winds mean my internet keeps dropping out!  Hopefully the rain will clear up, as we are expecting a king tide this week too, which can mean flooding.  I wish I could send our rain down to drought stricken South Australia!

Anyway, I just wanted to say a quick thank you to all my readers - I have 50 followers now, and 21 on facebook, and over 7,000 page views per month - how exciting! Seriously, I mean it, thankyou!!

With school starting back I am back at work, but I will still have time to blog and research, so if there is anything special you would like to see, please let me know.  I have a stack of 'new' vintage magazines with interesting snippets to share, and when I get organised I will have another give away. For now, an ad with recipes from 1958.

(You can see my three ready for school on Instagram).
And I found this letter in the December 1938 issue of the Australian Women's Weekly, about the cyclone in Mackay in 1918 (the reason we don't have many old buildings in town!).

And tidal wave??!

Stay safe everyone, Deb xx

Foggitts Foods & Turtle Soup

I found this ad the other day - from the Australian Women's Weekly 30 September 1950.

1953

A brand of baked beans other than Heinz - and made in Brisbane!

Mackay - "The Honolulu of Australia" in the 1950s

If you've read my blog for a while, you will know that I live in Mackay in North Queensland, Australia.  It's a town of about 90,000 people that depends more on mining and sugar growing rather than tourism, however it is seen as the gateway to the Whitsundays and the Barrier Reef.

I have lived here for about 10 years.  Apart from having to drive only 10 minutes to work, the best thing about Mackay is it's winters.  We don't need any sort of heating, and usually in winter we don't the air-con or fans either.   I do usually wear a jumper in the evenings, but rarely during the day.  And we don't usually get much rain in winter - the rainy season is November to March.

I recently found this ad from August 1952 which plays nicely on our sunny winters.....

A Night at The Burleqsue

Some more blog changes today. Hopefully it's now a bit more user friendly, and you can now leave comments! Anyway, on to today's post....

via

I mentioned yesterday that I went to a Burlesque night.  Right here in Mackay, as part of our Festival of the Arts.

Mackay Festival of Arts 2013

And all I can say is, WOW.

I had never been to see burlesque before, and it was a bit of an eye-opener (when I could stop my hands covering them!)  If you haven't been to one either, let's just say it's not quite like the movie. . This one was definitely R rated, and featured Imogen Kelly, the World's Reigning Queen of Burlesque 2012, who won the title at The Burlesque Hall of Fame weekend in Las Vegas.

Her acts included 'Metamorph', in which she transformed from a sequin clad inch-worm into a butterfly, basically doing a classic fan dance with her wings, and the very raunchy 'Let them eat cake.' You can read more about Imogen, and see some photos, at her website.  At 41, she is quite inspirational, and has also had to come face to face with breast cancer, which you  can read more about here.

 Imogen Kelly in action

The other stand-out performer was 'That Pole Guy', Travis Scott, Mr Boylesque Queensland for 2013 and a pole-fitness winner as well.  He was amazing - obviously trained in ballet and super-fit. You can read more about  him here.

The night was a dress-up event for the audience, and wow, were there some amazing outfits.  One girl had a peacock themed corset outfit, complete with tail, and there were corsets and fish-net stockings everywhere.  Here are some of my friends in their finery.

I had about 15 minutes to get ready, and was a bit more conservative in all black, with a corset over a black nightdress.  My daughter quickly did my hair for me, and I was quite happy with the result.  (Ignore the messy room!).

There was also a 'neo-burlesque' act which was quite confrontational, a retro 50s house-wife inspired act, and a wonderful 'Russian' host who continued to lose clothes throughout the show. All in all we all had a great night, even my husband.

Have you ever been to a burlesque show?

More vintage burlesque images on tumblr.

Deb xx

A Walk on the beach

On our beach walk this morning there were only two other people, and the kids managed to see a whale when they scaled the rocks. I missed it of course.

On this afternoon't walk the beach was also quite empty - much more than usual for the time of day.  I actually wondered if the beach was closed due to a shark or something  and we had just missed the notice, but there were  a few people swimming at the other end of the beach (if you look closely you can see a few people behind my family). I heard on the news when we got home that all beaches long the cost near Rockhampton and Bundaberg are closed because of debri from the recent storms and floods, so that may explain the lack of people - although the water looked pretty clear to us.

Lambert Beach, Mackay

Before the 1960's this area was cattle farms and sugar cane, with  small beach shacks. Samuel Lambert, Mayor of Mackay in 1899 and owner of Lambert's Department store, took his staff to the beach for Company picnics in the early part of the 20th Century - hence the name Lamberts Beach.  It's still popular for picnics, wedding photos and sea turtle and whale watching.  Swimming can be risky however, as we occasionally get sharks and crocodiles, and stingers are in the water from November until May.

Dead shark displayed on a beach, South Australia 1913

Here are some well used beaches, in scenes from 100 years ago.

Clarence Beach, UK 1913

Palm beach, US, 1913

Our local beach has never been crowded like those ones.  It's more like this beach in an autochrome by  Mervyn O'Gorman, taken in 1913. The model is Christina,his daughter.

Add Christina on the Beach, 1913, source

Isn't that a lovely photo.  Here's another wonderful  image by Mr O'Gorman taken in 1913. Many of his works were used on book covers.  

Christina by a boat, 1913

Off the track a bit, but I love those photos.  A beach really is the best place to be on a hot, humid Mackay afternoon!

Lambert's Beach

As usual more images on tumblr.

Deb xxx

Mackay 1862

Earlier this year I was fascinated by 1942, a time 70 years ago when the world was at war.  Now it is the Victorian era that is stirring my fancy, maybe because of my new interest in Steampunk. According to Wikipedia, the Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901, although the Victorian Era style of clothing is seen to continue until about 1912.

In Steampunk it is British Victorian history and fashion that is paramount, with twists from US military costume (the civil war was going on of course), the wild west and world explorers etc.  Steampunk is not huge in Australia, but I thought I might go back and have a look at some Australian history and fashion during this time,and I thought it would be nice to start around 150 years ago, in 1862, which coincidentally is the year the town of Mackay, where I know live, was founded.

Mackay is on the coast of central Queensland, about midway between Rockhampton and Townsville and 820 km north of Brisbane. It now has a population of about 85,000. 

Map of Queensland in 1861 - neither Mackay or the 'Pioneer River is on it, but it  is the area just south of Port Dennison (now Bowen)

 I don't know much about the history of Mackay, having grown up in Melbourne, Victoria and studied history from a Victorian (Australian) viewpoint, and only having been here for ten years, but I am to find out more.  Let's start with the basics:

Mackay itself was named after the explorer John Mackay who led an expedition from Armidale, New South Wales, in search of northern grazing lands. In May 1860, after exploring inland regions, Mackay reached a huge blue river, which he named after himself.  In 1862 he and a partner took up a pastoral run along the river,  at a site now known  as Greenmount, which is about 14 km west of the town of Mackay.

Greenmount Homestead

The venture did not last long, and in 1915  Albert (A. A.) Cook established the first Aberdeen Angus cattle stud at Greenmount, and built a homestead.  His son Thomas Albert Cook carried on the business. The house is still standing and is open to visitors.

Albert is pictured with his children Althea (on the bike), John and Tom  in the front yard of Greenmount  Homestead . source

Late in 1862 Governor Bowen and Commodore Burnett changed the name of the river to Pioneer,   the name of the boat they travelled in.  This was to avoid confusion with a Mackay River at Rockingham Bay (since renamed Tully River), but they then named the new town on the south bank of the river near the coast after Mackay. By 1870s Mackay had a booming sugar industry (as it does today) and the town was quite grand. By 1871 the population of Mackay was 729 and grew to 2075 by 1881 with the arrival of immigrants, mainly from Scotland, and of workers from the South Sea Islands.  

Cedars Sugar Plantation near Mackay c. 1880 source

By the 1870s there was also a mining industry in the area, mainly for copper - today's mining industry is mainly coal. 

The climate in Mackay is tropical - hot and humid in summer and warm in Winter. I wear a jumper perhaps a dozen times a year, and love air-conditioning in the summer.  Imagine wearing these fashions from 1860 in Summer here!

London fashions of 1860 source

I'm off to do more research......

Deb xxx