Welcome

to the Ratbag Encyclopedia.

Latest research:

  • On a Roll

    On a Roll

    Was your ancestor a member of the Sons of Australia Benefit Society (1837-1897)?

  • Dyson’s Corner (the Second)

    Dyson's Corner (the Second)

    Joseph Dyson became a husband and a father (though not necessarily in that order) during the year 1872. It was time for him to strike out and get a house of his own. Thus the second Dyson’s corner was formed.

  • Our George Dyson

    Our George Dyson

    A brief overview of George Dyson’s life, the most accomplished Dyson you’ve never heard about.

  • Thomas Dyson: The Canny one

    Thomas Dyson: The Canny one

    When Thomas Dyson was a young boy, he shot the son of his father’s main business rival in the head. After that, his fortunes could only improve.

  • The Fate of The First Wife, Part III

    The Fate of The First Wife, Part III

    Fanny Dyson’s end was horrible and no-one comes out of this event looking good.

  • The Fate of the First Wife, Part II

    The Fate of the First Wife, Part II

    The new evidence

  • The Fate of the First Wife, Part I

    The Fate of the First Wife, Part I

    This is a reconstruction of the last years of the life of Mrs Frances (Fanny) Dyson, the first wife of James Dyson, and mother to his first four children. This is a very different narrative to the one that which has heretofore been told, and has been accepted as the truth for nigh on one …

  • On Cemetery Hill

    On Cemetery Hill

    A visit to the Old East Perth Cemetery, where generations of Colonial Western Australians have been laid to uneasy rest, including all too many Dysons.

  • I demand the right to be labelled a bastard

    I demand the right to be labelled a bastard

    The government has censored our vital documents!

  • Recognise this face?

    Recognise this face?

    Consider this a sequel to the article The Stranger in the Mirror where I bemoaned the lack of available images of the earliest generations of the Dyson family in colonial Western Australia. Of the patriarch, James Dyson—at best, we have an identikit image based on his alleged convict record. Of his two wives, and the vast …

All the articles:

This here is a quokka,
extinct on the mainland,
you shouldn’t kick it like a football,
or feed it by the hand.