Latest research:

• The point of no return.

  

  This was one panorama you did not want to experience on your visit to Van Diemen’s Land — back when it was Van Diemen’s Land. A small speck of terror amid the rolling canopy of green. Fire has cleansed it of much of it’s horror, so now it is Tasmania’s number one tourist destination once again for …

• Jane Develing no more.

  

  t should be fairly common knowledge by now that Mrs Jane Dyson, before she was Mrs Edwards, was Miss Jane Develing, or Develin, Devlin or Devling… a sixteen year old orphan girl sent to the Colony of Western Australia on the first of the bride ships in 1849. But that was not her name…

• Thompson’s Swamp

  

  I’ve been wading through the history of the Swamp lately. That is — the actual swamp that had Dyson’s name on it — not the metaphorical entity that represents the Dyson family’s life in early colonial Australia. This is the one that is currently known as Lake Jualbup.

• Missing an Allpike link?

  

  Stephen Hallpike (1786-1844) was a convict from Lancashire sent to the Australian colonies. It was in Liverpool that he was finally busted for the most Lancastrian crime it was possible to commit — stealing 100 yards (91.44 metres) of cotton cloth.

• Flame out

  

  The discovery of gold changed everything in Western Australia.

• Shadowy Spouses

  

  Have I uncovered the identity of Emily Bates, the spouses of Jane and Mabel Dyson, and parents of Mrs Jane Dyson?

• Central Perth in cardboard

  

  A guide to the diorama of central Perth before 1880 on display in the Museum of Perth

• Bio: Edward Hales Taylor

  

• I’m sure this is all completely normal

  

  There was nothing particularly unusual about the citizens of Perth suing each other in the civil courts during the 19th Century. It was more out of the ordinary not to be embroiled in some sort of legal action at any given moment.

• The One that Got Away

  

  Much as I would dearly love to visit Tasmania again and wallow amongst the microfilm, that’s not going to be possible any time soon. Then, thanks to a lead not affiliated with any of the “official” sources of knowledge, I learnt that a certain religious sect have in their possession the documents I seek

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