Copy of Self Portrait by John Aston courtesy of the family. By Lyn Forde – President/Research Officer of St Marys & District Historical Society Inc. THIS school is located on the Great Western Highway at Mt Druitt beginning in 1861 in Simpson Hill Road. In 1864 the school was transferred to another building and in […]

By Lyn Forde – President/Research Officer of St Marys & District Historical Society Inc. Gallipoli the Landing – By a Man of the Tenth.  “Come on lads, have a good hot supper, there’s business doing.” So spoke No. 10 Platoon Sergeant of the 10th Australian Battalion to his men lying about in all sorts of […]

Photo of Vineyard Cottage 1847 courtesy of Sydney Museum By Lyn Forde – President/Research Officer of St Marys & District Historical Society Inc. THOMAS was born in Devonport, England in 1781 to parents John & Elizabeth Easterbrook (Doidge). In August 1801 at the age of 20 Thomas married Mary Ann Coombe by banns at Buckland […]

Newspaper photo of Peter from the Melbourne Herald By Lyn Forde – President/Research Officer of St Marys & District Historical Society Inc. IN October 1914, a group of young officers of the newly formed Australian Flying Corps met in Victoria. They decided that an Australian Aero club should be formed to be affiliated with the […]

Photo of the original Governor Bourke Inn curtesy of Blue Mountains Library By Lyn Forde – President/Research Officer of St Marys & District Historical Society Inc. DINAH Fanny Jones of ‘’Telopea” Belmore Street in Penrith was the wife of John Jones and was born in January 1845 in the town of Lawson in the Blue […]

Photo shows the Penrith Fire Brigade (1905) in High Street – courtesy of Penrith Library By Lyn Forde – President/Research Officer of St Marys & District Historical Society Inc. A smoulder that probably would have developed into a big fire was discovered on Saturday night (30th July 1920) in a shop in High Street Penrith where […]

By Lyn Forde – President/Research Officer of St Marys & District Historical Society Inc. AUSTRALIAN Royalty family James Evans was born in 1802. He was one of 220 convicts transported on the ship “Batavia” in October 1817 after being convicted at Stafford Assizes for “privately stealing”. At the Assizes the total number of people tried […]

Drawing of John from unknown newspaper By Lyn Forde – President/Research Officer of St Marys & District Historical Society Inc. JOHN Aplitt (Aplett) was born at Castlereagh in April 1852. His father and grandfather were born at Castlereagh on the Nepean River. When his father died at Penrith in 1860, his mother remarried and the […]

Photo Courtesy of Christmas Warehouse Penrith By Lyn Forde – President/Research Officer of St Marys & District Historical Society Inc. AS early as 1892 the Penrith Superior Public School was being written about in the Nepean Times with a cadet parade under the charge of Lieutenant Milne, headed by the Cadet Drum and Fife Band […]

Regentville Tweed Factory taken from a postcard courtesy of “The Past Present” website By Lyn Forde – President/Research Officer of St Marys & District Historical Society Inc. IN 1835 Sir John Jamison bought a modified steam engine for irrigation and the four-storey mill that he built on his property “Regentville.” In 1839 he wrote to […]