Welcome

to the Ratbag Encyclopedia.

Latest research:

  • All the girls love a soldier

    All the girls love a soldier

    Silly names, even sillier hats, a missing Army rifle and a shotgun wedding?

  • In Old Hobart Town

    In Old Hobart Town

    If you want to get an idea of what the Hobart Town of 1834, the year that the convict James Dyson arrived there – was like, you are better off  travelling roughly north about 25km from the modern city to the settlement of Richmond, once a convict depôt and staging post on the road to …

  • Dorothy Dyson Dances

    Dorothy Dyson was the youngest daughter of Joseph Dyson junior and Jessie Christisen nee Strutt.

  • Joseph Dyson the Elder: The Respectable one

    Joseph Dyson the Elder: The Respectable one

    His older brother was dead, his younger brother was mad… It fell to Joseph’s lot to be his father’s heir.

  • Are you my Mummy?

    Are you my Mummy?

    Every family should have a good ghost story, the Dysons are no exception… A second tale of taxidermy and ratbaggery, this time in the old country of Lancashire.

  • Stuffed

    Stuffed

    The origins of Taxidermy in Western Australia. Or why you can’t believe everything you read in the ‘paper… Thankfully…

  • Stones in Cumberland

    Stones in Cumberland

    I visit Cardurnock, Harby Brow and Carlisle in Cumbria.

  • Twenty-one Children

    Twenty-one Children

    Holy S….! James Dyson 1810-1888 was a very ‘busy’ man.

  • Too outrageous a coincidence?

    Too outrageous a coincidence?

    Investigating the first wife of James Dyson. So, how do you feel about conspiracy theories?

  • A Dark Deed in a Damp Land

    A Dark Deed in a Damp Land

    A brutal crime has far reaching consequences for the Dyson family

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.