In 1859, the first underwater telegraph cable in the Southern Hemisphere and the longest in the world was laid across Bass Strait.
Planning began in 1853 when discussions were held to build an overland line from Hobart in the south to Launceston in the north of Tasmania, extending across Bass Strait to Victoria.
The man who walked the Bass Strait Read More »
Point Nepean, located at the tip of Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, is a site of remarkable historical significance. It houses Australia’s second-oldest surviving barracks-style quarantine buildings and fortifications that once protected the colony’s coastline. As the primary quarantine station in Victoria until 1979, Point Nepean played a pivotal role in safeguarding public health.
Guardians of health and security: Point Nepean’s twin roles in history Read More »
It began as a deep distant rumbling, like the stirring of some gargantuan subterranean beast.
It was unsettling at first, ominous, something you felt in your guts more than you heard with your ears, an eerie subsonic vibration that seemed to rise from the bowels of Hades.
As the she-devil crept closer, the wailing began.
The year Santa never made it to Darwin Read More »
Since European settlement, Sydney has faced frequent water crises due to unreliable water supplies.
The first water supply for Sydney was Tank Stream, named for the “tanks” or reservoirs cut into its sides to save water. The stream, which wound through the early settlement, eventually degenerated into an open sewer and was abandoned in 1826.
More than a mountain of concrete – building Warragamba Dam Read More »
At the start of WWII, Australia was unprepared for a prolonged conflict, processing just enough petrol reserves for three months and limited storage capacity.
Though fuel rationing wasn’t immediately imposed, the government urged citizens to conserve petrol, hoping to avoid drastic measures.
While the motor industry strongly petitioned against any fuel rationing, by 1 October 1940, however, fuel rationing became a necessity.
The unsung timber product during war time Read More »
Rabaul, a town of striking beauty nestled on the north-eastern tip of New Britain in Papua New Guinea, boasts magnificent deep-water harbour encircled by a stunning volcanic flooded caldera three kilometres wide. This natural fortification, combined with its strategic location, made Rabaul a coveted prize for colonial powers and, eventually, a significant battleground in the Pacific theatre of World War II.
Hostages to fortune – soldiers and civilians lost and forgotten in the fog of war Read More »
Gold fossickers were the first settlers to the Evans Head area on the far north coast of New South Wales. Not finding gold, they turned to oyster farming and prawning, with Evans Head becoming Australia’s first commercial prawn port.
In 1919, an Italian immigrant, John Rosolen, built the first General Store.
A sleepy coastal town comes alive during wartime Read More »
While researching for my three-part series on the truth behind the rainforest wars in New South Wales (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3), there was a constant theme in the historical account of utilising one species of rainforest timber. While the cutting of hoop pine (Araucaria cunninghamii) was undoubtedly very extensive in New South Wales, the scale of utilisation in Queensland was even more significant, and one of its primary uses was for butter boxes.
Timber’s role in the rise of Australian butter Read More »
As settlers moved into the rich, fertile areas of the Mary Valley in the 1860s, they wanted a railway to connect them more readily to the outside world and markets for their produce.
The government ignored their early calls, but all that changed when prospectors discovered gold at nearby Gympie in 1867.
The rise and fall and rise again of a valley’s Rattler Read More »
I have decided to write this blog to commemorate and remember the men from settlements in and around Surrey Hills who fought in wars.
In Chapter 10 of my book, “Fires, Farms and Forests”, I outlined some of the war service by men from Guildford Junction. This blog goes into more detail and includes stories about men from Parrawe and Bulgobac.
Special ANZAC stories Read More »
