The Sydney Passengers

Incorporating The Sherlock Holmes Society of Australia

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The Sydney Passengers is a group of enthusiasts brought together by a common ideal - to share in the enjoyment of the life and times of Sherlock Holmes, the world's first and foremost consulting detective, and his friend and chronicler, Dr  John Watson, made famous in the splendid tales published under the auspices of Dr Watson's colleague, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, himself an author of no small repute.

 As our name might suggest, we are based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. We take our name from the Sherlock Holmes story ‘The Adventure of the Gloria Scott (read story here) in which the survivors of a mutiny at sea are rescued by a ship bound for Australia and "after an excellent voyage the Hotspur landed us at Sydney".

 Our members are of all ages and backgrounds. A great knowledge of the stories is not needed - rather a love of the Victorian atmosphere of foggy cobble-stoned streets, hansom cabs, deerstalker caps, and the immortal scene of Holmes and Watson interviewing a client before a crackling fire in their sitting room at 221b Baker Street. We meet together 3 or 4 times a year for dinner, lunch, a picnic, or an outing to the theatre. Each get-together usually has a theme based on one of the Sherlock Holmes stories, and scholarly, or sometimes scurrilous, papers on some aspect of his adventures are often presented, and quizzes or competitions conducted.

 Our journal, The Passengers' Log, comes out 3 times a year; a meeting notice, Signals, is sent to all Australian-domiciled members prior to each function that we hold, and a calendar showing our meeting dates for the coming year is sent to all members resident in Australia. Those with email facilities can also receive our irregular news bulletin CyberSignals plus other newsletters from overseas. For information on joining, please click here.

 A slide show on the history of the Sydney Passengers can be found here:  From the Archives

Latest News

New Web Address

The website address for The Sydney Passengers is changing to www.sherlock-holmes.au. Please update your bookmarks/favourites with the new address.

Latest Awards

Congratulatons to Passenger Robert Sharfman, Log contributor Liese Sherwood Fabre and Daniel Friedman (presenter at our online meeting in May 2022) who were all invested into The Baker Street Irregulars this January in New York.

Also congratulations to Passenger Brian Pugh who was honoured with a Lifetime Service aware from The ACD Society at their annual awards ceremony.

Beeton's Sighting

Passenger Dan Howard was in Oxford in September and went to an exhibition at the Weston Library (part of the Bodleian) to see an exhibition entitled Gifts and Books that featured a number of famous old manuscripts and publications. “You can imagine my delight”, reports Dan, “to find on display an original Beeton’s Christmas Annual featuring the first Sherlock Holmes story A Study in Scarlet! As this was my first ever sighting of this literary treasure, I asked my wife to take a photo” (see right). So near and yet - separated by the glass display cabinet - so far away!”

2022 Montpellier Award

The Carole Dukes Montpellier Award is open to all articles submitted by Passengers to the Passengers' Log over the course of the previous year and is aimed at encouraging research amongst members that enriches our knowledge and understanding of the Canon. It is named in memory of the late Passenger Carole Dukes, who was an untiring researcher, and ambraces the name of the town in Southern France where Sherlock Holmes spent time carrying out research into coal-tar derivatives (referenced in 'The Adventure of the Empty House').

There were three nomnations for the 2022 Award:

The editorial team would like to extend its thanks to all the Passengers who cast their vote, particularly those who did so for the first time, and hope they continue their participation in future years. The Award is important to our members in giving them a chance to provide feedback on the type of material they would like to see in the jounal.

We are pleased to announce that the winner of the 2022 Montpellier Award is Doug Elliott for his article 'Another Look At Thor Bridge' . The results were conclusive, with Doug's article coming out ahead by a wide margin. Congratulations to Doug, and also the other nominees.

 

 

Site Last Updated: 4 February 2024