Surrey Hills

The Hills of Surrey Hills

When writing the book on the history of Surrey Hills, many people worked at AFH who were not mentioned but deserved praise for their contributions.  One of those was Ross Hills, a Burnie local who rose to a senior position in AFH. As a manager at Burnie during the 1980s, Ross was part of expanding …

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Surveying on Surrey Hills Part 2 – From Chain to GPS

Technological Developments that changed surveying In the first blog, we discussed the labour-intensive and time-consuming aspects of surveying. In this second part, we will look at the changes that occurred as a result of technology and how they made surveying a completely different vocation, and how these developments led to some major civil projects undertaken …

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A bushman and his dogs

Herbert Illichmann has provided some bits and pieces about a gentleman called Harry Fisher. Unfortunately, information about Harry is scant, but there are references to him in Kim McDermott’s excellent book Last of the Wildcats and the memoirs of Herbert’s father-in-law, Lindsay Wilson. There are also a couple of newspaper articles about Harry, but because …

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The pastoralist’s scourge

While researching for my book “Fires, Farms and Forests”, I came across quite a few caterpillar references in the correspondence of the Chief Agents of the Van Diemen’s Land Company (VDL Co.). The caterpillars were killing off improved pastures planted after clearing or logging and scrubbing operations. The caterpillar problem was not unique to the …

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The formation of Bush Watch in Tasmania and its direct links with Surrey Hills

Bush Watch is a community policing initiative which encourages bush users to report unusual or suspicious activities. It was set up like Neighbourhood Watch to deal with the spate of sabotage on equipment, logs etc.  The Bush Watch idea was first developed by the now defunct Forest Protection Society (FPS). FPS started from humble beginnings …

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A fiery summer in north-west Tasmania

Introduction The summer of 1933-34 was very dry across most of Australia, including Tasmania. It began a pronounced drought period that lasted until early 1939.  Victoria had significant bushfires in 1932. “Red Tuesday” on 19 January saw many fires in almost every part of the state, particularly West Gippsland, where nine people died. In the Dandenong …

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A public spat

In Chapter 6 of my book “Fires, Farms and Forests”, I alluded to the acrimonious relationship between James Norton Smith, the Chief Agent for the Van Diemen’s Land Company (VDL Co.) and William Ritchie, the Chairman of the Mount Bischoff Tin Mining Company (MBTM Co.). In early 1881, the animosity spread to a public spat, …

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From theodolite and chain to GPS – A surveyor’s journey with AFH, APPM & NFP (part 1) by Mike O’Shea

I am very fortunate to have worked as a surveyor during incredible technological development and advances in this vocation. This blog is in two parts; part one will deal with my early years up to the mid-1980s, and then the second part will cover the changes in personnel and technology that occurred and how they …

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