Table of contents for Edition 31, 2025 in Traces

Hello and welcome to Edition 31 of Traces! While the frost has truly set in here in Victoria, we have been delightfully distracted by all things heritage. Autumn brought us the National Trust’s Australian Heritage Festival, as well as South Australia’s History Festival. With tours and open days, lectures and workshops, there was plenty to keep us entertained here at Traces HQ! Now it’s our turn to entertain and inform – and we have lots on offer in this edition to do just that. In the Insight section on page 8, Daniel Holland shares what archaeologists found beneath the floorboards of Western Australia’s most significant built heritage site, Fremantle Prison. In our Maritime story on page 16 – and also featuring on this edition’s cover – returning writer Peter Baker…

Fremantle Prison is Western Australia’s most significant built heritage site. It is one of 11 sites across Australia entered on the World Heritage List demonstrating the later stages of the 18th- and 19th-century British system of forced migration. Fremantle Prison operated as the state’s most secure penitentiary until its closure in 1991 – opening as a tourist site in 1992 – and was considered a very inhospitable prison (buckets were used as toilets right up until it was closed). The most significant part of Fremantle Prison is the ‘Main Cell Block’, a four-storey cell block constructed in the 1850s from limestone excavated by convicts onsite, and designed to accommodate up to 1000 men. Within the walls of many of the cramped cells in this building can be found incredible artefacts…

Kate Rounsefell grew up in Callington, England, where she lived with her parents, Jane and Joseph, and William and Thomas. Kate was just 13 in 1886 when her mother passed away, followed two years later by her father. In 1888, at 25 and 15 years of age respectively, Lizzie and Kate left the fractured family nest, and set sail for Brisbane, Australia. Kate initially worked at a stationer’s shop and enrolled as a church member. The congregation regarded her as a ‘bright, lively, strong-minded English girl, well able to take care of herself’. She she soon decided to leave Brisbane, visiting her sister in Bathurst, and then her brother, who had migrated to Broken Hill. By 7 January 1892, Kate was due another visit to Bathurst. On the Melbourne to…

Reading the name of these vintage snacks, you might assume tavern tasties were once commonly sold in (or at least suited to) taverns. They would certainly be at home among other finger foods at a social event. My research into this particular dish took me no further than its appearance in 87 Kitchen Inspirations, but I did discover that the use of canned asparagus in this recipe reflects a culinary trend of the 1930s. Although canning commenced in Australia in the 1840s, it was not until 1926 that Edgell & Sons first began canning asparagus – and on a grand scale. Asparagus was considered a luxury product, but canning it meant it lasted longer and was available to a larger market. Canned asparagus was hugely popular, and was the key…

Since his childhood in Go Yiu, China, Colin Soo had found comfort in Arnott’s arrowroot biscuits from Australia. His roots in Australia grew deeper over the past century, but he remained forever connected to the Go Yiu community. Long before arriving in Sydney, Colin Soo savoured Arnott’s milk arrowroots – a rare treat, as villagers seldom had snacks and Chinese biscuits lacked milk. The biscuits were brought by Australian returnees at his grieving grandmother’s request. Her plea for ‘Gam Saan beng’ (金山餅, ‘Gold Mountain biscuits’) was a tender balm after Colin’s mother passed away when he was just three, in 1929. These early memories forged a link between his village and Australia. Colin’s childhood in Foon Gow (寬郊), a Go Yiu (高要) village located in north-western Guangdong, was shaped by…

When we think of heirlooms, we often thing of valuable antiques; but heirlooms are often simple, humble objects of daily life. Their value lies in the meanings and stories attached to them. Heirlooms encourage curiosity about the people who came before us, and invite reflection on the legacies we want to leave behind. This edition, we share two humble heirloom stories, a silver spoon and a well-loved hat box. ANNE OLSEN’S SPOON When one imagines the colossal fjords of northern Norway, farming doesn’t readily come to mind; however, farming is what this spoon represents. Anne Dorthea (Jakobsdatter) Olsen, my great-great-grandmother, was born in 1849 in Hamarøy, Nordland, Norway. Anne took pride in her homestead at Tysfjord, and always presented a clean barn and healthy livestock. She toiled and tilled the…

When you approach Sydney Harbour from the sea, you pass between North and South heads on a swell. If you follow the roll of the swell instead of slewing away to the south into Sydney Harbour, you will reach the sandstone concave cliffs of Crater Cove, Dobroyd Point. Just off the Dobroyd shoreline, and hidden from sight several metres beneath the waves, are uneven rock shelves. When the swell from the deep harbour passes over the shallow submerged rocks, it will swirl and pull in different directions, and quickly rise into a wave. If the weather is dirty, the current will push and spit and rise dramatically, and break before hitting the rocky shoreline. It is a journey to avoid. The Gayemagal people, who lived above the cliffs and fished…

A side from inspiring the home cook, 87 Kitchen Inspirations had another purpose: to promote the products produced by the Simpson Brothers flour mill. The mill was opened in Brisbane in 1909 by William Simpson, who was originally a flour miller in England. He was joined by his son, and the company began producing self-raising flour, first in Stanley Street, and then in locations in Ann Street and Upper Melbourne Street. On 16 December 1922, The Telegraph declared that the Simpson Brothers facility was a ‘modern, electrically equipped factory’, and ‘scrupulously clean’. It went on to add that the flour was ‘sieved, dressed, and packed without once being touched by human hands’. The business continued to grow, with new machinery installed in 1924 that enabled the firm to double its output.…

Topics include, but are not limited to: • Ancestor stories• Historical research and news• Research tips• Character studies• Historical building profiles• Antiques, collections and preservation• Historical recipes. Send your submissions and pitches to eden.cox@executivemedia.com.au Please note that all article submissions and pitches will be reviewed by the editor. The editor reserves the right to reject submissions. Articles are between 1000 and 1200 words. If imagery is available, it must be high resolution (300dpi).…