to the Ratbag Encyclopedia.
All the articles:
An introduction to the Dysons
The Lancashire Hotpot
Van Diemen’s Land
A Dark Deed in a Damp Land
Too outrageous a coincidence?
Twenty-one Children
Stones in Cumberland
Stuffed
Are you my Mummy?
Joseph Dyson the Elder: The Respectable one
Dorothy Dyson Dances
In Old Hobart Town
All the girls love a soldier
Going Postal: The great family rift.
“The Poste Restante”
Hello Sailor…
CSI Halifax
Leetown to Auchterarder
Rottnest Island #1: It’s a start
Secret Squirrel Business
Know your Guv’nor
The Little Boy Lost: Enter Drewy.
Timber!
Steam Powered Luddites
Kill the Joke (AKA: “You had to be there”)
Literally —ing the Patriarchy: Introducing Jane.
Aberdeen
Thurso
Francis Armstrong: Thesis
I hate Maitland Brown
Under the Establishment
The Sons of Australia: Foundation and Foulkes
Winterbottom’s End
Dyson’s Corner (the First)
Dyson’s Hotel
Happy Gunpowder Treason Day
The Smoking Gun
An Anthemic Ancestor
The Stranger In the Mirror
When the apocalypse comes
Astley 1: Orphans of a Perfect Storm
Astley 2: For Sail
Astley 3: The Gallant Ship Australia
Recognise this face?
I demand the right to be labelled a bastard
On Cemetery Hill
The Fate of the First Wife, Part I
The Fate of the First Wife, Part II
The Fate of The First Wife, Part III
Thomas Dyson: The Canny one
Our George Dyson
Dyson’s Corner (the Second)
On a Roll
A Tale of Three Cities
Dyson’s hat
Pavement Archaeology
A Trial on Trial
Choose your own Adventure
Rename Canning Bridge
Alias Hoffington
Boom time.
Won’t you think of the children?
Grave Matters
Going to the Fairies…
What has been left unsaid..
Reconstructing old Perth out of cardboard (so it lasts, this time)
New Government House
A little bit of war profiteering
How 2020 ended…
Bio: Richard Edwards (jr)
Are you … kidding me?
Rank Hypocrisy
Locating the United Service Tavern
Researching a Convict Ship
Tales of the Moffatt
Perth City Council Minutes 1858-1875
Unreliable Witness
A departure from Van Diemen’s Land
Bio: Henry Nickolls
Bio: David Williams
Bio: Lt Pearson Foote (RN)
Bio: Samuel McKee
Four days with the VDL Establishment
The One that Got Away
I’m sure this is all completely normal
Bio: Edward Hales Taylor
Central Perth in cardboard
Shadowy Spouses
Flame out
Missing an Allpike link?
Thompson’s Swamp
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
Four days with the VDL Establishment
Convict James Dyson was assigned to work for the Van Diemen’s Land Establishment for all of four days between 2 and 5 October 1837. What happened next will not surprise you in the slightest.
Bio: Samuel McKee
A Vandemonian Maverick (but weren’t they all?)