The point of a blog is to write information, painting a visual picture with words, layering the landscape with detail and colour so it is alive in our imaginations. Yet today is different. The only words I’ll use are the few here, and the stunning pictures revealed today are courtesy of a birds eye view of St Helena Island taken by a drone. This video … Continue reading A bird’s eye view on a golden afternoon
I’ve written a lot about the clearing of the island during the first few years of the prison’s establishment. So today I’ll just post up some interesting paintings, drawings and photographs taken at various times in the island’s history, and your eyes can note the vegetation, the built and natural features and the changes over time. Each image is amazing in its own right. Seeing … Continue reading Story of a landscape
Lauren was recently contacted by descendants of Warder Andrew Craigie, a warder appointed to St Helena Gaol on the 19th November 1867. The conversation goes a bit like this: (Craigie) …have stories but don’t know what is true or false. (Lauren) We’ll try and sort it out…. (Craigie) … family has some wooden chests made from timber on St Helena. (Lauren) OMG! Do you have … Continue reading The last of the Tulipwood
If I asked you to describe a wooden inlaid box, it might not be something that you can automatically envision. Nowadays, fashioning 2000 individual pieces of timber into an aesthetically beautiful and appealing pattern atop an ornament or furnishing is not how many of us commonly spend our leisure time. But on St Helena Island, the very earliest warders created their own unique pastime to … Continue reading Whittling away the hours
Only a few people knew Samuel Olson at the end of his life. They described him as a crotchety and suspicious man, stone deaf, surly and living the life of a hermit in his home in Highgate Hill, Brisbane. (1) This was a long way from his beginnings on St Helena Island. According to the 1864 census, 12,551 people lived in Brisbane, Queensland. (2) By now, Brisbane … Continue reading 3 Scottish men and a world of adventure
It only took one day after the blog went live for an old friend, Amanda Thepanda to make contact. I’m going to be honest and say I did not realise Amanda had such a gift for photography, which is an embarrassing omission! But her gift is to be ours too, as Amanda has given permission for her photos to be included in this site. I … Continue reading A photographer in today’s St Helena Island Community
