david coombe history
I occasionally sidetrack from my main project, write an article, then return with fresh energy. Here are those articles.
INDIGENOUS CONTENT: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this website may include images or text relating to deceased persons.
The biographies of George Selth Coppin (1819 – 1906) – "father of the Australian theatre" – fail to mention he was also for seven years the President of Carlton Football Club. I look into what appears to be a curious biographical omission.
2,200 words
2020-03-25
Aboriginal people have been left out of the recent "garage find" said to be an early painting by Colonel William Light. Could the find be a late copy?
2,100 words.
INDIGENOUS CONTENT
2019-09-15
Biography has managed only one of his life's termini – death in 1851 – but neither birth nor burial. I went looking for a birth date and turned up more than I expected and more than George Goodman himself may have hoped.
3,300 words.
Faking It: Sturt's Overland Expedition leaving Adelaide, 10th August 1844
Painting attributed to Colonial Artist S.T. Gill is a Likely Forgery
2,500 words.
2019-01-22
Identifying one of South Australia's Earliest Paintings | Bank of South Australia Partly miscatalogued, the historical significance and value of this painting is now realised.
1,300 words.
2018-05-11
The camel's name was "Harry" and he belonged to (explorer) John Ainsworth Horrocks. Harry is the main actor in a modern joke: Horrocks is described as the only man to be killed by being shot by a camel. But the facts do get in the way of this good story. When did this joke begin?
260 words + sources in a Trove list.
INDIGENOUS CONTENT
2019-10-21
Linking an expedition journal and a sketchbook and identifying an old map.
1,000 words.
2019-01-22