Biggest Haul yet!

I was absolutely delighted when I went to the mail box to find 7 new cards! 

  

More Cards!!

A few lovely stories and memories:

Type

I transcribed these memories from a letter that was in the post box - some wonderful memories of first moving to great buckingham and the birdlife in the street :

The residents that submitted this card actually live in the house that is featured on the stamp on on the Postcards! The picture I took for the stamp came from the below picture

This was taken in 1989

Number 38

Stuart Bright from number 38 submitted the below along with his heritage report that was prepared for his property during renovations - its a great read and I will pop up some of the extracts - it also contains some old survey maps of Great B street!


UPDATE:


It Reads:

"The heritage report prepared for 2008 renovations concludes that nos 32,34,36,38,40,42 of Great Buckingham St were built prior to 1887 and likely in the second half of the 1880s.  The six houses were referred to as Osmond Terrace and originally had no street numbers.

Early residents (Sands Directories) included Madame J Allibrand (Costumier 1892), Miss Annon (Dressmaker 1892/93), Joseph Broderick (Senior Seargeant Police 1895), Mrs Eliza Thomas (1910), James Conner (1915/20), Leslie Best (1925), Mrs McNamara (1928), Mrs Mary Firth (1931).

When renovating the home we found items including old gas light pipes, original locks, the remnants of a 1949 ration card and an old xmas card.

Great Buckingham St is clearly the best street I have lived in in terms of its community and wholly original nature of the street."

number 37

In the blink of an eye

A great story that one of the residents of great buckingham submitted based on an overheard a conversation on great buckingham street and made it into a short story : 

In the blink of an eye: Samuel Kidman

I was crossing Elizabeth street, waiting at the lights, when a young aboriginal boy started talking to his father. The boy would have been about 8 or 9 years old, his father about 30 perhaps. The boy was neat and tidy and a small lad, and he was carrying one of those supermarket shopping bags and I could see a towel. He had a large baseball style cap. It was red and blue. His dad was I'd say 6 foot 3 inches with a large belly. He had a three day growth and was dressed in khaki shirt and shorts. He was also very neat for a warm Sunday afternoon.

I was right behind them and listened to what they were saying. It sounded like water running in a creek.

'You was talking about old Jack, dad. Well you know they found him dead.'
'I know he's dead. Dead as can be.'
'I know something about him.'
'What's that son?'
'He had lead in his belly.'

The boy's father laughed, but not unkindly.

'Son, you can't say that old Jack was shot because that wouldn't be true. He was old, about 60 years old, that's why they called him old Jack. He died because he had nothing more in him.'
'But he did have something in him, dad. He had lead in his belly.'
'Someone shot old Jack? Well that just can't be true.'
'It's not true, dad, but he died because of he had lead in his belly. I heard my aunties talking about it with my grandmother. Am I staying at my grandmother's house tonight?'
'You stay with me, son. Now what is that about the lead in his belly? You tell what they was talking about, all the lead.'
'They was saying that they found a whole lot of lead in his belly from when he worked in that old lead factory.'
'Old Jack did work in that factory. It was around here but it closed like 20 years ago. Jesus...'
'They said he had about 20 bullets worth in his belly. That's why he stopped going.'
'Stopped going?'
'Why he stopped working, that's what killed him. It poisoned him.'
'Right. Is this the shortest way to the pool? I reckon we could cut through the oval and go up them back streets and we'd be there in about 10 minutes.'
'I don't like going that way.'
'It's fine in the day, son. I'm with you.'
'Can we just walk up Redfern Street? I like that way better and then we can walk down George Street and it's no worries.'
'Whatever you want. But it will take longer.'

They were silent for about two minutes.

'Dad, are you coming for a swim too?'
'I reckon I might if the sun stays out.'
'It's warm in the sun.'
'Sure is, son. That's why I'm going for a swim. Is it a big pool?'
'Big enough for your big belly.'

Dad laughed out loud and they kept walking. I turned into Great Buckingham street.

cards!

This is my memory of Great Buckingham Street this one went out with the instructions:

NEW POSTBOX AND POSTCARDS!!

I thought that having a purposed marked mailbox would be the best way to go in terms of people returning the postcards and it will be a visual reminder for people to drop the card - I bought the mail box from Bunnings and designed a graphic that was printed on self adhesive vinyl, thenlaminated and applied by the lovely Igor at my work -  

Mail Box installed by Ryan at number 98

Ryan Quilty kindly installed the mailbox above the sign and here it is in all its glory.


On saturday the 14th Jan - 6 of us - headed out to distribute the post cards door knocking to explain the process - about 50% of people were home and we had a good response from people about the project and a few very enthusiastic people keen to share their stories and memories.

me and the team

my team of wonderful helpers!

the postcard design that are going to press soon!