Rosaleen Norton, or “the witch of Kings Cross,” is finally receiving the attention she deserves. Born in Dunedin in 1917, emigrating with her family to Sydney in 1925, and dying in 1979, Norton was a trailblazing woman and under-appreciated cultural touchstone of 20th century Australia.
A self proclaimed witch, Norton experienced childhood visions. From around the age of 23, she practised trance magic and, later, sex magic in various flats and squats in inner-city Sydney.
Trance magic involved Norton meditating (sometimes with the assistance of various substances, ingested and/or inhaled) and raising her consciousness. The aim was to transcend her physical body and conscious mind to experience higher forms of existence.
Sydney festival has received what it calls an “unprecedented” $5m philanthropic donation, that it hopes will contribute to the arts sector’s recovery in the wake of Covid-19. Swedish-born Australian philanthropist Peter Freedman, 62, said he was making the donation as a way of giving back to the artists and behind-the-scenes workers who have supported his career. The terms of the donation are uncommon for its size, as it is untethered from any.
Farewell to Picnic at Hanging Rock screenwriter Cliff Green australianherald.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from australianherald.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Hidden within the National Library’s collection storage area is an array of nondescript filing cabinets containing the Australian newspaper clippings files, a treasure of largely undiscovered research material waiting to surface.
These files contain articles selected from many Australian national, regional and local newspapers and cover the time period from the late 19th century to 1992.
The great value of these files to researchers is that the majority of articles cover a time period that is largely not covered by online newspaper services such as Trove (with its freely available digitised newspapers largely ceasing in 1954) and subscription databases with more recent content such as Press Reader and Newsbank: Access Global (both available to registered National Library readers via our eResources service).