Travel

A Convict Road

The Great North Road was one of three great roads built simultaneously out of Sydney, heading north, west and south. While there is little evidence of the Great Western and Southern Roads, much more evidence still exists of the Great North Road. Up to 43 kilometres remain intact. The Great North Road was built entirely …

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The pitfalls of having a border follow a celestial line 

Introduction The South Australian portion of the Nullarbor Plain was part of New South Wales. The reason can be explained by examining the stories behind the development of each of the state borders since colonisation. This blog will initially focus on the creation of the Western Australian, South Australian and Northern Territory border, which is …

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Tales of a Twentieth-Century Explorer

Madigan’s Career at a Glance Dr Cecil Thomas Madigan (1889-1947) studied and later taught Geology at the University of Adelaide. His thirst for exploration started in the Antarctic, working with the famous Sir Douglas Mawson. Madigan survived two polar winters and remained a commanding officer when Mawson failed to arrive in time for the ship ‘Aurora’ to collect them. On …

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A unique ocean current

Introduction I found the coastline of Western Australia so different to places at equal latitude on the east coast. There are rocky islands and ledges that protect the coast from the incoming swells, tropical fringing reefs and vast meadows of seagrass. There is a tropical feel to the waters so far south. The main driver …

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Even more war stories – how Australia came under attack from air raids during WWII

My previous war story blog provided details of the bombing of Darwin and the subsequent battles against the Japanese in the Coral Sea and Papua New Guinea. After the bombing of Darwin on 19 February 1942, the Japanese carried out further air-borne attacks across northern Australia. In total, between March 1942 and November 1943, the Japanese flew …

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Stopping the grey invasion

“The only fence in the world that cuts a continent into two mighty paddocks”. Ernestine Hill Towards the end of the nineteenth century, rabbits began eating their way towards Western Australia. They were known as a serious threat to the environment and ruined profitable farming land in the eastern states. They were difficult to control …

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