Eric Riddler
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eriddler.bsky.social
Eric Riddler
@eriddler.bsky.social
910 followers 270 following 180 posts
Art and photography tragic from Wallumedegal Country (Western Sydney)
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eriddler.bsky.social
Making bergamot custard from a homegrown bergamot orange…
A bergamot orange sitting in a brown glazed ramekin on a nineteen-fifties stainless steel sink. Some of the utensils to be used for the preparation can be seen in the background The finished custards on the same sink. The run-off from the water used to temper the two ramekins during the baking process can be seen along the stainless steel ridges between them
October 26, 2025 at 9:24 AM
eriddler.bsky.social
And for all the early generation Whovians this week: “I bring you Sutekh’s gift of feeling very, very old”
archivetvmusings.bsky.social archivetvmusings @archivetvmusings.bsky.social · 16d
On this day in 1975, part one of Pyramids of Mars was broadcast.
October 26, 2025 at 5:26 AM
eriddler.bsky.social
Five pigeons, in search of a breakfast, and a telephone booth, Wallumedegal Country, Western Sydney, Australia
On a sunny morning, five pigeons; three dark grey, two russet red; are watching the photographer from the safety of a supermarket awning, behind a pink telephone booth roof. The two at left are peering out from the side, while the other three are directly facing the camera
October 25, 2025 at 7:27 AM
eriddler.bsky.social
I don’t want to cast shade on British Rock and Roll… after all, The Quarrymen laid down that demo of “In spite of all the danger” and things really kicked off from there… but, on the other hand, I don’t think Iggy Pop ever covered a Tommy Steele song… youtu.be/def3ob2h-1s
October 21, 2025 at 8:35 AM
eriddler.bsky.social
Just revisited Virginia Gay’s impressively rollicking take on Calamity Jane at the Sydney Opera House
A program for a production of the musical ‘Calamity Jane’ is sitting on a table, with a stage set of a Wild West saloon visible in the background A grey-bearded man wearing glasses appears on a ‘Wanted’ poster promoting the musical ‘Calamity Jane’, while a prop cactus stands to one side
October 19, 2025 at 11:39 AM
eriddler.bsky.social
Found slide: El Dorado Motel, Surfers Paradise, Kombumerri Country, at the end of a school holiday road trip from Western Sydney to the Gold Coast, 28 August 1956 [photographer unknown]
On a bright, late winter’s day, the midday sunshine highlights the angular features of a mid-century modern motel on the Australian Gold Coast. In the centre of the photo, a woman, wearing a nineteen-fifties dress and a cardigan, is standing beside a grey nineteen-fifty-five Australian Vauxhall Velox parked in front of one of the motel rooms, between a cream nineteen-fifty-three Ford Customline parked in the motel driveway and a cream nineteen-fifty-three ‘FX’ chassis Holden Forty-Eight-Two-One-Five outside the neighbouring room. In the lower left background, a pile of rubbish, weathered paling fence and telegraph pole intrusively demonstrate why an entire chapter of architect Robin Boyd’s book ‘The Australian Ugliness’ was dedicated to Surfers Paradise. Beyond, Norfolk Island pines, backyard bananas and mango trees surround the suburban houses of neighbouring Broadbeach
October 16, 2025 at 1:11 AM
eriddler.bsky.social
Happy 60th anniversary to Roselands shopping centre, Dharug Country, Western Sydney. Here’s a photo of the famous ‘Raindrop Fountain’ that I took in 1987 as part of a photoessay project. The raindrops had already been turned off and the fountain was removed shortly afterwards
Looking up at an installation of threads descending from a ceiling in three circular groups, lit by spotlights above. The space is darkened as this former fountain, once featured on souvenir 35mm slides, is being dismantled
October 12, 2025 at 9:12 AM
eriddler.bsky.social
… I still feel that the opening titles gave a misleading expectation of projectile sausages in the narrative which followed…
tvark.bsky.social TVARK @tvark.bsky.social · Oct 11
Starting Wednesday 15th October at 6.05pm on That’s TV

Freeview 56
Sky 171
Freesat 164
Virgin Media 150

If you know, you know.....
Grange Hill starts a re-run on Wednesday 15th October at 6.05pm on That’s TV Freeview 56 Sky 171 Freesat 164 Virgin Media 150
October 11, 2025 at 10:15 PM
eriddler.bsky.social
C30T class locomotive 3001 waits at Sydney Central Station before leading an excursion train through the suburbs as part of the Transport Heritage Expo, October 2025
A close up film photograph of a steam locomotive, with steam rising from its boiler behind the smokestack. Modern high rise buildings, one orange, one blue, stand in the background, while two railway fans can be seen watching from the opposite platform at lower left
October 9, 2025 at 9:14 AM
eriddler.bsky.social
Found slide: Celebrating the 90th anniversary of the opening of Sydney’s Luna Park, here’s a 127 format slide of children on a ride below the Sydney Harbour Bridge, Cammeraigal Country, circa 1968 [photographer unknown]
A square format colour photograph of an amusement park ride. Two children are sitting in one of the round cars circling around a central disc. The curves of the ride are echoed by the arch of the Sydney Harbour Bridge behind them
October 5, 2025 at 5:30 AM
eriddler.bsky.social
Happy 175th anniversary to the University of Sydney, founded on Gadigal Country in 1 October 1850. Found slide: Students and family members approach the Main Building of the University of Sydney quadrangle, circa 1954. Photo by a member of the Down family
On a clear, sunny day, a mother and daughter walk past the photographer as they follow several groups of people walking towards a large gothic revival building on the crest of a hill. A yellow and cream Holden 48-215 taxi is passing the pedestrians as it approaches the photographer
October 1, 2025 at 8:42 AM
eriddler.bsky.social
Dancing around the maypole, “Regency Day”, Old Government House, Parramatta Park. Burramattagal Country, September 2025, on 35mm film
A black and white photo of a maypole in front of a Georgian colonial building on a spring afternoon. The dancers, some wearing period costume, are holding their streamers as they prepare for a rehearsal dance around the maypole
September 29, 2025 at 8:53 AM
eriddler.bsky.social
Found slide: Two children watching the tugboat James Paterson making its way along the Birrarung Yarra River through the Docklands of Naarm Melbourne, circa 1958. Photo by Greta Martin
On a cold and overcast day, two children, one in a fawn overcoat, the other in a black overcoat, watch as a tugboat sails past along a river. The storage sheds visible on the other bank of the river indicates that the children are standing at the convergence of Victoria Harbour and the Birrarung Yarra River
September 28, 2025 at 5:48 AM
eriddler.bsky.social
Found slides for: The centenary celebration of the opening of the Sydney to Parramatta Railway: the photographer’s daughter with locomotive 5805 and a general view of the crowd milling around the rolling stock on display, Sydney Terminal, September 1955. Photo by a member of the Down/Tyler families
A young girl stands on the front of a large, polished steam locomotive in a railway yard as other visitors pass by. In the right background the old Henderson’s hat factory can be seen A view across a railway yard during a public display of locomotives, equipment and carriages: the visible locomotives are, from left, 5805, 3813 and 1243
September 27, 2025 at 3:21 AM
eriddler.bsky.social
Found slides: Seventy years ago, the crowds gather around to cheer on the first drivers to cross the finish line of the Redex Round Australia Reliability Trial in Park Avenue, Westmead, Burramattagal Country, Western Sydney, 11 September 1955. Photo by a member of the Down or Tyler families
Looking towards the Redex Round Australia Reliability Trial 1955 road race finish line, marked by banners over a street in Western Sydney. Among the crowd of spectators are a pair of police officers, reporters, photographers, newsreel camera operators on top of vans and several steel caravans Spectators crowd around the garlanded and blue boiler-suited drivers of the first cars across the finish line. Almost everyone’s attention, however, is something happening to the right of the photo: from the their expressions, one could assume that they are listening to the announcement that the winners would not be declared until the condition of the cars was examined (eventually decided in the two drivers’ favour) Another view of the crowds in the street, watching as the two drivers, mostly obscured by the crowd, walk beneath a newsreel camera operator panning across the scene
September 11, 2025 at 6:46 AM
eriddler.bsky.social
Yanada and a hibiscus: obligatory low-res iPhone photo of the lunar eclipse, Wallumedegal Country, Western Sydney, Australia
Looking towards a lunar eclipse, a few minutes before totality, in a slightly cloudy (and digitally enhanced) sky. To the left, a red hibiscus flower stands out against a passing cloud
September 7, 2025 at 6:40 PM
eriddler.bsky.social
Guwali cormorant dries itself on the ship breaking ramp at Shipwreck Point, Homebush Bay, Wangal Country, Western Sydney
A black and white film photograph of a cormorant, silhouetted against the morning sun, perched at the end of a decaying wooden boat ramp. Across the bay a modern suburb of high rise apartments lines the shore
September 5, 2025 at 7:05 AM
eriddler.bsky.social
“A cringing culture cannot be a healthy culture”: the term “cultural cringe” enters the Australian vernacular… A.A. Phillips, ‘The ham subsidy’, Meanjin, volume 9, number 1, Autumn 1950, page 29
A close up of an article in the Australian literary magazine Meanjin, published in early nineteen-fifty. The term ‘Australian cultural cringe’ makes its debut, followed by the observation that “A cringing culture cannot be a healthy culture”
September 5, 2025 at 6:52 AM
eriddler.bsky.social
[found slide] 龙 Loong, an 1890s Imperial dragon imported as part of Australian federation celebrations in 1901, makes one of his last appearances in Bendigo’s annual Easter parade before retiring to the Golden Dragon Museum, Dja Dja Wurrung Country, April 1968 [photographer unknown]
On a slightly cloudy day, Loong, an antique Imperial dragon, is being marshalled through a parade along a shopping street in an Australian regional city in the late nineteen-sixties. Loong’s slightly faded fabric scales and visibly repaired face evoke the time that has passed since his creation in the early eighteen-nineties: in two years’ time there will be a ceremonial changeover to a new dragon and Loong will be preserved in a local museum. The crowd are smiling and waving as he passes by, behind a porter pushing a wooden trolley
August 30, 2025 at 7:11 AM
eriddler.bsky.social
A pair of Warin rainbow lorikeets and a pigeon on the steps of St James railway station, Warrane Sydney, Gadigal Country
Looking down a pebbled concrete stairway, where a pair of colourful lorikeets and a grey pigeon are momentarily startled by a pedestrian passing by
August 29, 2025 at 9:52 AM
eriddler.bsky.social
Ripples around a fallen branch, Haslams Creek, Wellington Point, Wangal Country, Western Sydney
Looking from a bridge into a tidal creek on a clear day. At right, the reflection of a tree in the water is slightly distorted by the ripples forming around a fallen branch in the water nearby
August 28, 2025 at 6:23 AM
eriddler.bsky.social
Aah, three decades of not being completely sure of whether “that bridge that fell down” refers to West Gate in 1970 or Kings in 1962 and worrying what that says about engineering in mid twentieth century Melbourne…
patrickstokes.com Patrick Stokes @patrickstokes.com · Aug 21
At least once a year I point out that the Helen in the song “Happy Birthday, Helen” is now one of the world’s leading academic authorities on war crimes and a former ICRC Director.
mrose.ink Meredith Rose @mrose.ink · Aug 19
Ok folks: what is your favorite fact that you share with people (maybe a bit too) eagerly?
August 21, 2025 at 3:25 AM
eriddler.bsky.social
Found slide: W2 class tram 384, decorated by Howard Arkley for the Transporting Art project in 1980, waiting at the East Coburg terminus before returning to South Melbourne Beach, Naarm Melbourne, slide developed March 1981 [photographer unknown]
On a sunny day in the early nineteen-eighties, a tram of nineteen-twenties vintage stands at a terminus in the northern suburbs of Naarm Melbourne. It is painted white with patterns of colourful air-brushed dots, related to a series of paintings which the commissioned artist, Howard Arkley, was working on at the time. The tram’s destination is already reset for South Melbourne Beach but the trolley poles haven’t been changed for the return journey yet. A white Ford panel van is just visible at right, waiting for the traffic lights to change, in front of suburban gardens and houses of a similar vintage to the tram
August 21, 2025 at 2:54 AM
eriddler.bsky.social
Found slide: The newly opened outdoor café at the Oriental Hotel, the Paris End of Collins Street, Naarm Melbourne, 1958. Photo by Greta Martin
On a sunny day in the city of Naarm Melbourne, colourful umbrellas shelter café tables on the footpath, as a waiter serves diners in the foreground. Nineteen-fifties era Volkswagens and Holdens are parked along the street, while a W2 class tram passes in the distance. Although this café was a short-lived test run for future outdoor dining, it helped to cement the unofficial nickname for this precinct, dating back to at least the nineteen-thirties (and probably as far back as the eighteen-eighties), as “The Paris End of Collins Street”
August 18, 2025 at 1:10 AM
eriddler.bsky.social
Found slide: ‘Dingo’, a 15” narrow gauge diesel locomotive working a holiday loading on the Fairbourne Railway Rheilffordd y Friog, is waiting to leave the Barmouth Ferry terminus for Fairbourne, Cymru Wales, 1957. Photo by Graham J Habbin
On a beach in an estuary in North Cymru Wales, a small streamlined diesel locomotive, painted in British racing green with a lighter green stripe, is waiting for its driver to finish collecting fares from the passengers in the open carriages. In the distance other tourists walk along the beach against a backdrop, across the estuary, of grey stone and whitewashed houses clinging to the shore beneath a rugged escarpment
August 14, 2025 at 4:48 AM