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Nailing their colours to the mast

Nailing their colours to the mast

The new Greater Western Sydney AFL franchise has chosen \'The Giants\' as their symbolic name and the colours of orange, blue and grey illustrating the sunset, the Blue Mountains and the granite of the Great Dividing Range. .

  • Australia was preparing for war in 1939

    My late mother, who died in 1995 aged 75, was an aspiring writer. Although, like many of her generation, she had been unable to complete her formal education, she had continued to educate herself about history, politics and world affairs by devouring newspaper articles and any other information she could get her hands on.

  • 1939 President Hacha signs over Czechoslovakia

    In our family archives is a newspaper cutting from the Sydney Morning Herald dated Thursday 30 March 1939, with a photograph of Adolf Hitler in Prague and of Hitler the Chancellor of Germany sitting with Czechoslovakia\'s President Hacha.

  • The throw away culture

    As the Footplate Padre I am an avid reader of all things railway and a subscriber to railway magazines. In recent issues I have noticed the increasing number of articles relating to Diesel locomotives that have been given a second life and sold to another railway system.

  • Jamie Dwyer gets 4th title

    Kookaburra captain Jamie Dwyer was awarded his 4th World\'s Best Hockey Player of the Year (2010) at a gala event in Switzerland after a terrific year of performances with the team winning the World Cup, the Champions Trophy and the Commonwealth Games.

  • Difficult Bible Passages: Matthew 27:34

    This passage, and its parallels, is not actually all that difficult. It only becomes difficult – or contentious – when it is used to promote various activist groups' agendas. Specifically, some people in the pro-euthanasia camp, especially misguided or deceptive Christians, are trying to use this text to argue that Jesus made use of, or approved of, euthanasia or assisted suicide.

  • Just a mum!

    Why should I, as a mother of three young children, feel that I have to come to terms with the fact that I don't receive as much respect as I previously would have received? I have almost come to expect that I will be treated differently.

  • Too fussy or settling for nothing but the ideal!

    Recently there appeared a very interesting article in the Sydney Morning Herald where a Taiwanese woman who had reached 30 and couldn\'t find a suitable man, married herself as she considered herself the best on offer.

  • Royal Stamps from 1937, now a new release

    My late mother was an avid stamp collector, and also kept boxes of newspaper cuttings and her own writings. As I sorted through the archives recently, I came across an article she had kept dated May 22nd, 1937, from The Illustrated London News. It announced the release of a new set of stamps, "Coronation Stamps of the British Empire – 1937" featuring the late King George V and her Royal Highness Queen Mary (whose coronation had been held in 1911).

  • Church workers 'fashion parade'

    It fascinated me to reminisce recently about 'fashion' and the signals we send when we wear particular clothing. As a historian, it echoed our heritage of the different hats that were worn in the Middle Ages, which were mandatory and were specified by the various guilds (forerunners of trade unions), and which denoted what profession or trade the wearer belonged to.

  • A national outpouring of grief - 1936

    My late mother was an avid royal-watcher. This may have been partly because of her English origins, but in fact there were many Australian-born people of her generation who were just as avid about any Royal events as she was. One of the cuttings that she kept, that I recently found in our family archives, illustrates this point.

  • Learning to Embrace Limits

    By now most of you would have heard about the furore that erupted over the decision of Amazon com to sell a book praising paedophilia. After a huge public outcry, the mega online bookseller finally pulled the book. The episode again raises questions about freedom and censorship.