A snippet of Mudgee history has come to light in the stomach of a 133-year-old newspaper found stuffed inside a fish at the Natural History Museum in London.
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Curators restoring the insides of a three-metre high sunfish found it contained straw, bits of old floorboards, an old wicker chair seat - and a fragment from The Sydney Morning Herald from January 26, 1883.
The 2.4 metre long fish was discovered stranded in Sydney Harbour on December 12, 1882, and sent to the Australian Museum. It was taken to London to be shown in the Great International Fisheries Exhibition in 1883.
The newspaper found inside the fish reported on the first day of the Ashes test match and a Rabbit Nuisance Bill being debated by NSW Parliament. The “country news” section includes news from Mudgee of "A little boy named Willie Martin, 7 years of age, was accidentally shot dead ... by a boy named Rope, aged 14, uncle of the deceased." It continues to report "some light rain fell this afternoon ... and ... Threshing is in full swing in the district.”
