John Low (Christine Davies)
on this website
John Low was born and grew up in North Sydney.
After graduating from the University of Sydney he spent several years as an English-History teacher before qualifying as a librarian and working in public libraries in Wagga Wagga and Cowra.
In 1982 he became the Local Studies Librarian at the Blue Mountains City Library where he remained for the next 25 years until his retirement in 2007.
John Low(photo courtesy of Blue Mountains Gazette)
His poetry has also been published in a number of Australian literary magazines and in a small chapbook published in 2005.
In 2012 he was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for service to the community of the Blue Mountains as a historian, author and librarian.
Though now living in the Central Tablelands, John remains a member of the Blue Mountains Historical Society, Blue Mountains Conservation Society and Blue Mountains Bird Observers and still, when requested, speaks on local history to community groups.
He can be contacted at: grizzlybear3au@yahoo.com
Sometimes
when mist settles on the Mountains
the cliffs appear suspended
and we, too, seem to float
above everything.
Birds drift across the sky,
a silent melody of black notes
until that taut skin of light vibrates
in a beat of white noise
and we’re sliding into the void
with the cockatoos
and it could be 1908, or maybe 1920,
just another present
caught in a camera’s lens,
a blue negative
discarded in the mist.
Olympian Rock, Leura (Petah Low)
Books
Pictorial Memories, Blue Mountains
Pictorial Memories, Blue Mountains, Alexandria, NSW: Kingsclear Books, first published 1991, revised and reprinted 2005, 135pp.
The Prince of Whips, the Life and Works of the Blue Mountains Pioneer Harry Peckman (co-written with Jim Smith), Wentworth Falls, NSW: Den Fenella Press, 1993, 112pp.
The Prince of Whips
Wild Ephemera, Kanona (NY), USA: Foothills Publishing, 2005, 32pp.
Sipping the Nectar: the ‘Bird Notes’ of Graham Alcorn (compiled with Carol Probets and Jill Dark), Katoomba NSW: Oreades Press, 2008, 112pp.
Graham was a council ranger, naturalist and poet, a former president of the Conservation Society and an acute observer of birds.
This Tortuous Ridge(Editor: Eugene Stockton)
"In Quest of the Carmarthen Hills: The Blue Mountains Expedition of William Dawes", chapter 5 in Eugene Stockton (ed.), This Tortuous Ridge, Linden to Lawson, Lawson NSW 2783: Blue Mountain Education & Research Trust, 2014
On Dictionary of Sydney website:
This article can be found here
In Blue Mountains History Journal:
"The Mystery of Linden’s Lonely Gravestone: Who was John Donohoe?", Blue Mountains History Journal, Issue #3, September 2012, pp.26-34
"Watering the Gee-Gees: a Survey of Blue Mountains Horse Troughs, Part 1", Blue Mountains History Journal, Issue #6, December 2015, pp.68-83 [Part 2 will soon appear in Issue #7]
These articles can be found here
In Doryanthes, a Journal of History, Heritage and the Arts:
Doryanthes
"Falling through the Cracks of the Anzac Legend: the Story of Private John Parker", Doryanthes, Vol.7, No.3, August 2014, pp.26-32
"Katoomba’s Proverbial Bad Penny: the Irrepressible Jack Dexter", Doryanthes, Vol.8, No.1, February 2015, pp.8-13
"Black & Blue: Jacky Brooks, an Indigenous Hero", Doryanthes, Vol.8, No.4, November 2015, pp.12-21
"Concrete Relief Maps: Early Aids to teaching Geography & History", Doryanthes, Vol.9, No.2, May 2016, pp.18-21
These articles can be found here - then "Browse this collection" for the issue.
Eric Dark
(courtesy Blue Mountains Library & Mick Dark)
In the Australian Dictionary of Biography:
(Katoomba GP and Eleanor Dark's husband)
"Zacharias Theodore (Jack) Simos (1897-1976)"
(Paragon Café, confectioner)
In the Obituaries Australia:
