Tag: Australia

Lightleading-Light

The new January Squares challenge, hosted as ever by Becky, the Queen of Squares,  is all about ____light. That’s words ending in light. In this often dull month light of any kind is what we all need to lift our spirits as we wait impatiently for spring to begin. Click on the link to find out more.

lightleading-light

leading-light (noun) or range-lights are usually navigational lights in a harbour used by vessels to manoeuvre into harbour at night. Or it can refer to the pattern of lights at night on the mast of a vessel to indicate its size or in the case of a tug boat, the number of barges it is towing.

I have gone slightly off-piste here to use a (made-up) word lightleading-lights which in this instance are showing the way through this entrance/exit in the National Museum of Australia, Canberra.

January Squares | Day Twenty-Six

An Aussie Post Box

Some of you following this blog may remember my Post Boxes. Whilst searching through the digital shoebox for something else I came across this little beauty in The Rocks, Sydney, Australia

sydney - the rocks (2)

This post box is made by Bubb and Sons Victoria Foundry. The first street posting boxes were cast in bronze by the Bubb & Sons foundry at Pyrmont in 1856.

sydney - the rocks (3)

Robert Bubb, born 23 June 1805 in Avening, Gloucestershire, England, migrated to Australia and established a foundry in Sydney. Victoria Iron Foundry was located at 10 Victoria Place, Sydney (the firm is listed in the Sands Directory until 1880).

sydney - the rocks (1)
These boxes were designed by T. W. Levinge of the New South Wales Postmaster General’s Department and initially manufactured by Robert Bubb and Son of Pyrmont. The boxes were in the style of the Penfold boxes with the Acanthus leaves and bud at the top. Note this one has a vertical aperture so probably one of the earlier designs.

Apparently there is another one in the Rocks district on Hickson Street which is dated to the 1880’s-1890’s with a horizontal aperture and still in use. Other Bubb mailboxes can be found in Sydney suburbs such as Manly and Marrickville. So you Aussies out there see if you can spot one for me!