15 October in Things that happened on a Fairly Large Island through history

1810 Get Frocked, ladies!

Get gussied up to the nines, girls, the 73rd Regiment held the FIRST official HORSE RACE on this lump of soil known as Oz, in Hyde Park, Sin-City (Sydney).

First Sydney Races

1840 The first land sales of Portland were haggled over, fought over and went off like a frog in a sock at Melbourne, Victoria. Prices were as high as the perfume of some socks owing to the fact Portland was a serious contender as Big Smoke for the Southern Region of The Fair Isle of Oz.

1851 That banking badboy, con artist, Ben Boyd fell off the face of the earth when he popped in as the bite to eat with the native peoples at Guadalcanal Island , or so rumour has it, whilst doing a runner from creditors in his yacht Wanderer.

1871 The Germans in South Oz held a large festival in Tanunda to celebrate peace at the end of the Franco-Prussian War.

1895 The Gambling Act was passed with the canapes in sunny Qld which forced Tattersall's to up sticks and shift to Hobart in Tassie.

1915 General Sir John Monash was awarded the Companion of the Order of the Bath(CB).

1940 RAAF Base Townsville was hatched with the motto;

Guarding The North.

1953 Things were really starting to go off like a frog in a sock when the first British nuclear weapons testing on mainland Oz began with a blast into the past at Emu Fields in Crow Eater country South Australia.

Australia's Atom History

1970 The Westgate Bridge in Melbourne fell to earth, killing 35 workmen and injuring 17 more.

1970 Three cheers for the unions who passed a general Black Ban on the proposed redevelopment of Carlton in Melbourne.

1975 Malcolm Fraser, then-leader of the Opposition stated that they'd be blocking supply in the Senate until an election was called as they had no faith in the Whitlam Govt due to messy money matters that had been sort of secret until they weren't.

2004 HMAS Arunta popped in for a cuppa tea at Vladivostok, Russia.

14 October stuff that happened on this day or when I can be bothered to look it up

1824 – W. C. Wentworth and Robert Wardell begin publication of The Australian, the first independent newspaper in Australia. 

1829 - The breaking of the 4 year drought in NSW. 

The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, Thu 15 Oct 1829

1829 - Governor Darling proclaimed the Nineteen Counties of New South Wales which re-defined the Limits of Location, Location, Location beyond which settlement was prohibited.

1840 With the road from Adelaide to Port Adelaide completed the two Aussie Rules football teams could finally get down and dirty on the field. 

"A great procession of people, said to number 5000, travelled down the new road to Port Adelaide. Some 450 vehicles from four-in-hand barouches to bullock teams and donkey carts, as well as 500-600 equestrians made the journey. At the Port a regatta was held and 450 people sat down to a lavish lunch provided in the warehouses of the South Australian Company who had built the road. "

1879 – Author Miles Franklin born at Talbingo, New South Wales. 

1889 - The first electric tram in Oz was flung open for posteriors to be parked upon the bench seats as the people swayed to the rhythm from Doncaster to Box Hill

Opening day 

1923 – Severe floods in Melbourne, two drown. 

Fatalities in Melbourne

1927 - HMAS Adelaide arrived at the British Solomon Islands Protectorate as part of a British punitive expedition. The Royal Australian Navy operated as part of a British empire force in one of the first instances in which Australian forces intervened in regional affairs.

1935 – The Hornibrook Bridge opens, connecting Brisbane and Redcliffe, the 2.8 km bridge is one of the longest timber and girder bridges in Australia. 

1958 – Death of Douglas Mawson, Antarctic explorer and geologist, aged 76. 

1959 – Radio comedian and quiz show host Jack Davey dies. 

1959 – Death of Errol Flynn, flamboyant film actor, in Vancouver, British Columbia, aged 50. He shares coffin space with six bottles of whiskey, a parting gift from his drinking buddies. 

1968 – The town of Meckering, Western Australia, was badly damaged by an earthquake.

9 July Australian History

1791 The Mary Ann, a ship operating independently of the Third Fleet, rocked up in New South Wales, bringing with her 141 female convicts and six children, as well as stores and nine months provisions for the women.

Read here of Elizabeth Lee, Lancashire Lass who travelled on the ship Mary Ann.

Mary Ann

1837 As early as this date the spot for a picnic, aka the Adelaide Botanic Garden, had *possibly been chosen with a drunken game of Pin the Tail on the Donkey.
*Probably not.

1900 Queen Victoria ( she who was never amused but enjoyed the rumpy pumpy) flourished a quill on a bit of parchment that signed The Fair Isle of Oz into the Commonwealth of Oz, which got all frivolous and Federated on January 1, 1901.

1908 The NSW Railway chaps were doing a silly dance (maybe) to celebrate the opening of the Tocumwal Branch Line, from Tocumwal Bridge to Tocumwal.
Tocumwal, from the local Indigenous Bangarang word 'Tocumival' (meaning deep hole).

1971 The Australian Aboriginal Flag , designed by Harold Thomas, was first raised at a land rights rally in Victoria Square/Tarntanyangga, Adelaide, on the then-National Aborigines Day.
From 1940 until 1955, the Sunday before Australia Day was the Day of Mourning, now known as Aborigines Day.

1977 The last Traralgon to Maffra railmotor service operated.
1977 The last Castlemaine to Maryborough railmotor service operated