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1925 'YOUNG WOMAN FOUND' DEAD.', The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), 21 July,    p. 16. , viewed 19 Sep 2018, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2143457

So the next time someone starts spouting off about ‘people just getting on with things’ back in the day, I’m going to remember Mary Elizabeth Collins, who possibly killed herself because of sleep deprivation and depression.

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@rijane, I feel like you would approve of this question! 

Good afternoon. Do you have any pictures of goats? PS this is not a test question.

Why yes, we do! Here is a selection of digitised images of goats that have no copyright restrictions, though even more are available through our catalogue.

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“It puts out what?!?!”

Now, this entire post is completely irresponsible of me. I cop to that. Because I am about to link you to an article published in The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, dated the 5th of June 1803, on the “methods of culture, and of curing Tobacco in Maryland” by Mr Tatham.

Here you go -  http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article625612

Completely irresponsible of me. 

But my absolute favourite part of this article is that it has the old-school printing technique of ‘f’ for ‘s’? Which means that you get these moments of comic genius:

I’m not ashamed to say I ROFL-ed.

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Postillion boot with spur on

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Embroidered linen tie shoes held by the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences! 

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@hydriotaphia

Booby Island is an official place?!

There is a sad and shaming moment when, in the middle of an earnest trawl for articles on refugees, you find this:

New South Wales Government Gazette, 05 March 1844 [Issue 24]

The shaming moment is naturally when I abandoned any attempt at looking for mentions of refugees and went chasing after information on Booby Island. Because obviously.

Now, there is a useful Wiki article but given that this is Trove blog, who wants the easy way, amirite? So I started with a general check of the Books zone. Turns out it’s not some hidden gem of Australian history. There’s quite a few books about it, including:

- Booby Island: the Post Office island by Gil Jennex

- Via Torres Strait: a maritime history of the Torres Strait route and the ship’s post office at Booby Island by Ian Nicholson

- Pictures, patterns and objects: rock-art of the Torres Strait Islands, Northeastern Australia by Liam M. Brady

Armed with this knowledge, I mosied on over to the Maps zone for this old gem digitised by the National Library of Australia. I decided not to try to fiddle around with inserting some kind of thumbnail into this post because the Government Gazette bit above was enough trouble and anyway, I’m useless with Maps.

I am much, much better with pictures! Like this one:

Booby Island  01-01-1912, James Pinkerton Campbell, Northern Territory libraries, http://hdl.handle.net/10070/7223

Or this digitised image of a wood engraving from the Commissioners of the International Exhibition in Melbourne, 1873:

Digitised by the National Library - https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-140424134

But in all of this, a few basic, salient points emerged:

1) During the heyday of ocean-going colonialism, the Torres Straits were a hotbed of shipwrecks, and so someone decided, ‘hey, let’s store some basic supplies on this island in case shipwrecked sailors end up here’ (see Gazette above) and so they did, leading to it being called ‘a Post Office’. 

2) Things got a bit better establishment-wise and they decided to build a pretty swanky lighthouse which is still there today, though not manned by anyone, since that would just be cruel and unusual punishment, given the scarcity of cocktails and internet. 

3) The history of this island goes back even further than a bunch of shipwrecked sailors because back when colonial civilisations were still trying to tie their shoelaces, the actual people living in the Torres Strait islands were sailing around quite happily leaving amazing rock art all over the place. 

4) Oh, were you actually wondering why anyone would call an island Booby? Well, you can blame this bird:

Booby and chick on Christmas Island  1984, National Archives of Australia (as they own the rights, I’m probably hoping they never find out I’ve reproduced this here) https://trove.nla.gov.au/version/255176507

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Horses have ‘toes’?!?!

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I’m just intrigued as to why the cat is on a tennis racquet!

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Booby Island is an official place?!

There is a sad and shaming moment when, in the middle of an earnest trawl for articles on refugees, you find this:

New South Wales Government Gazette, 05 March 1844 [Issue 24]

The shaming moment is naturally when I abandoned any attempt at looking for mentions of refugees and went chasing after information on Booby Island. Because obviously.

Now, there is a useful Wiki article but given that this is Trove blog, who wants the easy way, amirite? So I started with a general check of the Books zone. Turns out it’s not some hidden gem of Australian history. There’s quite a few books about it, including:

- Booby Island: the Post Office island by Gil Jennex

- Via Torres Strait: a maritime history of the Torres Strait route and the ship’s post office at Booby Island by Ian Nicholson

- Pictures, patterns and objects: rock-art of the Torres Strait Islands, Northeastern Australia by Liam M. Brady

Armed with this knowledge, I mosied on over to the Maps zone for this old gem digitised by the National Library of Australia. I decided not to try to fiddle around with inserting some kind of thumbnail into this post because the Government Gazette bit above was enough trouble and anyway, I’m useless with Maps.

I am much, much better with pictures! Like this one:

Booby Island  01-01-1912, James Pinkerton Campbell, Northern Territory libraries, http://hdl.handle.net/10070/7223

Or this digitised image of a wood engraving from the Commissioners of the International Exhibition in Melbourne, 1873:

Digitised by the National Library - https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-140424134

But in all of this, a few basic, salient points emerged:

1) During the heyday of ocean-going colonialism, the Torres Straits were a hotbed of shipwrecks, and so someone decided, ‘hey, let’s store some basic supplies on this island in case shipwrecked sailors end up here’ (see Gazette above) and so they did, leading to it being called ‘a Post Office’. 

2) Things got a bit better establishment-wise and they decided to build a pretty swanky lighthouse which is still there today, though not manned by anyone, since that would just be cruel and unusual punishment, given the scarcity of cocktails and internet. 

3) The history of this island goes back even further than a bunch of shipwrecked sailors because back when colonial civilisations were still trying to tie their shoelaces, the actual people living in the Torres Strait islands were sailing around quite happily leaving amazing rock art all over the place. 

4) Oh, were you actually wondering why anyone would call an island Booby? Well, you can blame this bird:

Booby and chick on Christmas Island  1984, National Archives of Australia (as they own the rights, I’m probably hoping they never find out I’ve reproduced this here) https://trove.nla.gov.au/version/255176507

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Wonder what they’d think of Trump’s tweets 200 years later.

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Four months late...

But I’m in good company! Just like this 1897 Volume of the Acts of Parliament.

And like that volume, this post will not directly affect the goldfields of Coolgardie, Western Australia. Nor indeed, will it affect the goldfields of anywhere. 

But the fact that it exists tells us that the Coolgardie Miner brought necessary intel to the gold miners. Which is what a newspaper is supposed to do. And over a century after it did that, it’s now bringing news to us again through the resource portal, Trove.

What is Trove? Well, this is what Trove says about itself:

Trove brings together content from libraries, museums, archives, repositories and other research and collecting organisations big and small.

So if you’ve ever wanted to know how to find Hans Fingerhut's frog lesson : a fairy tale / by Archibald Lampman with drawings by Sharon Keyes, or if Theatrum orbis terrarum [cartographic material] : quod ante extremum vitae suae diem postremum recensuit nouis tabulis et commentaris auxit citque illustrauit / Abraham Ortelli is the way you’ve rather spend your evening, Trove has you covered. 

More importantly, it’s free. To anyone. So long as you have a digital device, an internet connection, and a basic grasp of Google search technique, you’re ready to use Trove. 

There’s just one drawback - it’s a resource designed for Australia. Predominantly Australian content held in Australian institutions to put people in touch with Australian resources. 

Can’t be that interesting, really.

Or can it....?!