Category: People

Martha Rendell, serial child killer of Perth

Martha Rendell (10 August 1871 – 6 October 1909) was the last woman to be hanged in Western Australia, for the murder of her de facto husband’s son, Arthur Morris, in 1908. She was also suspected of killing his two daughters, Annie and Olive, by swabbing their throats with hydrochloric acid.

Jessie Hickman – the Wild Woman of Wollemi – Australia’s unknown outlaw

Australia had several women bushrangers, and their stories are only now being told. Jessie Hickman (1890-1936) – also known as McIntyre, Bell, Hudson, and Murray, was one such outlaw. We’ve pieced together a brief account of her life.

Cara Southern, Australian Impressionist pioneer

Her landscapes are truly poems, full of sentiment and feeling – this early pioneer impressionist artist laid the foundations of Australian Impressionism and for women artists who followed.

Australia’s greatest circus performer, Wizard of the Wire, Con Colleano

Few have heard of Con Colleano, but from humble beginnings in Lismore and Lightning Ridge NSW he became the highest-paid circus performer in the world.