Statues are out and blue plaques are in.
Statues, in case you missed it, are on the nose due to too many white privileged rich and racist chaps trying to make themselves immortal with fancy monuments that stay in public places for ages and end up becoming ... well... antiquated.
The demise of statues might remind you of another current issue related to... err ... things that seem obsolete.
Anyhow, what's a blue plaque you ask? It's essentially a thing to recognise noteworthy people and events from history.
Some reckon the plaques should replace the desire to erect statues. Makes sense. Blue plaques are a lot easier to remove when dodgy pasts get brought to light. Not that we should erase history.
Sometimes, though, history probably needs a bit of liquid paper.
Anyhow, a blue plaque has been installed for the first time ever in NSW. And the first one, would you believe, is in the Hunter.
NSW Minister for Heritage James Griffin announced the Caroline Chisholm blue plaque in East Maitland on Monday.
It's the first of 21 blue plaques to be installed in NSW.
"Caroline Chisholm [1808-1877] embodied the Australian spirit and was an advocate for women and immigrant families, so it's fitting that her blue plaque is the first to be unveiled," James said.
"Her tireless work towards improving conditions for countless immigrant women and families arriving in Australia is a history that we are proud to commemorate.
"Caroline Chisholm Cottage in East Maitland is now the permanent home for the first NSW blue plaque, and it's just the first of many more sites around the state that will feature the plaques.
"Our $5 million blue plaques program is all about getting communities involved in local heritage, and recognising the extraordinary people and stories that helped shape NSW."
Horse and Sulky
Bob "Minmi Magster" Skelton sent us this old pic of a horse and sulky at Sandgate during the 1955 flood.
Bob was worried about his boat on Ironbark Creek, so his teacher at Tighes Hill Tech College gave him the day off to check it.
"I walked to higher ground and took the photo with my sister's Box Brownie. I didn't hang around too long as the river was still rising," Bob said.
The horse and sulky parked in the floodwater belonged to Bob's mate Westy Manning.
"I didn't know where old Westy went. I thought he might have drowned. Turned out he was OK."
The horse and Bob's boat were OK, too. A bloke named Alan Quail, who had spent the night on his roof, tied the boat to a hut.
Bob said the house in the photo belonged to the Turnbull brothers.
"They were professional fishermen. They worked the river and would boil fresh prawns in front of the Travellers Rest Hotel at Hexham, where McDonald's is now.
"They were beautiful prawns, I tell you. They were about three bob a pound."
Bob reckons you can't get prawns like that nowadays.
Bob also recalled that he travelled with Westy on his horse and sulky, the same one in the photo, when the Queen was in Newcastle in February 1954 - the year before the flood.
Westy never owned a car.
"He overtook all the cars between Sandgate and Mayfield because it was bumper to bumper. He ran the sulky up onto the footpath. It was a rough ride. I nearly got chucked out at one point.
"He was waving at the cars, saying something like: 'This is where I get my own back on them. I'm sick of them passing me and tooting their bloody horns. I wish I had a horn on this sulky, then I'd give them a taste of their own medicine'."
Westy also said "a few words you can't print in the paper".
Air Taxis
It somehow seems fitting that we jump from horse and sulkies to air taxis. We received an email on Monday, declaring that "eVTOLS" are coming to Australia. This very dodgy acronym stands for "electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft".
These electric-powered "air-taxis" can launch and land vertically and fly autonomously.
