16 October in Oz

1817 HMSC Mermaid was commissioned on this day ; the Mermaid was the infamous boat in which Phillip Parker King surveyed and chartered the coastline of Oz - and which he managed to drive and crash into a boab tree at what he named as Careening Bay on the Kimberley coast.

Nary a drink or drugs tester in sight.

THEN he had the sheer cheek to carve it into history by carving 'HMC Mermaid 1820' into the aforementioned boab tree.

Hmph, some people...!

1835 Exciting things were happening in the Port Phillip colony with the arrival of John Fawkner and his missus and ankle biters...he celebrated his 43rd birthday a mere four days later by completing the roof on the house he'd just knocked together.

1849 On the Cape York Peninsula Barbara Thompson had been a castaway who'd lived with the local Kaurareg for 5 years before being rescued by HMS Rattlesnake at Evans Bay on this date when she could finally get some decent shoes.

1852 The migrant ship Georgiana was anchored in Port Phillip Bay when the crew had a hankering for the goldfields; after a little mutiny that resulted in the demise of one of the ships' officers, they took to their heels and headed for them thar hills. 

1852 T'was a sunny Sat'dee arvo when bushrangers progressively bailed up and robbed 19 people, all within a few hours, on that little sandy track now known as Brighton Road, St Kilda, at approx. the spot where the Elsternwick Hotel now squats (oh, the tales I could tell about that establishment...!).

1854 There was a major robbery on the Bank of Victoria in Ballarat with up to £15,000 stolen.

1863 Good old Daisy Bates, she who protected and documented many of the Indigenous Peoples, their cultures, languages and wrote a book on her experiences, was pupped on this day. in Tipperary, Ireland.
She was also, briefly, hitched in unholy matrimony to Breaker Morant in 1883 but this must have slipped her mind when she wed, bigamously, a second time to John Bates in 1885.
Oops.

1936 Kiwi flyer Jean Batten took to the skies from Australia in the final leg of her challenge to fly from England - Oz - NZ.

She arrived at Mangere Aerodrome 10.5 hours after leaving Sydney, with the whole journey from England taking her 11 days and 45 mins.

1944 The blokes held a wild tea party at which they voted to rebrand their whole bag o' tricks under the name The Liberal Party of Australia.

1967 Royal Australian Navy Helicopters deployed to Vietnam.

1975 Balibo Five -

1982 At a national federal conference (a wild tea party, perhaps?) the peeps voted to change the brand name of their own bag o' tricks from National Country Party of Australia to just National Party of Australia.

Contrary to popular opinion many did not change their clocks or their socks at the same time.

12 July Australian History

 1818 The Wallambangle River found a pesky chap named George Evans pottering about it's skirts, and was a tad miffed to be told it would now be known as the Castlereagh River, named after the bloke who was then wearing the tiara of the Secretary of The Colonies.

1863 British forces invade Waikato ,NZ

1889 The first women's trade union was formed in NZ in response to the totally crap working conditions in the clothing industry.

1911 The Scottsdale Railway Line (Tas) extended to Branxholm on this very fine day.

1922 The Tasmanian Government Railways line was extended to Wiltshire Junction on this day connecting with the already existing line between Stanley and Smithton.

1942 The Aussies reached Kokoda in New Guinea.

1945 HMAS DIAMANTINA reported the finding of a small roll of paper, identified as a carrier-pigeon message, in the stomach of a shark caught off Saposa, New Guinea.
The message was translated and found to be an appeal for assistance from the 42nd ALC Company, Japanese Army, 7 July, 1945.

1965 Last 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, ambush of Malayan Emergency.

1979 The former Gilbert Islands sashayed her way down the Big Blue Marble catwalk in her new guise as the newly INDEPENDENT Republic Of Kiribati (pronounced Kiri - bas). Party!

1983 At a community meeting at The Laird Hotel in Collingwood to address the then-developing health crisis of HIV/AIDS the Victorian AIDS Action Committee was formed (now known as Thorne Harbour Health).

10 July Australian History

1901 The Royal yacht, Ophir, sailed gaily up the Port River to Port Adelaide with the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall - later known as King George V and his lovely missus Queen Mary.

1911 HRH King George V granted the title of “Royal” for the Royal Australian Navy and it’s Permanent Commonwealth Naval Forces and the Royal Australian Naval Reserve.

1934 The Peak Branch Railway Line (NSW) was flung open betwixt Peak Junction and Occidental Mine.

1936 The 1928 Animals and Birds Protection Act listed the Tiger on the 'wholly unprotected' schedule, and it was not 'wholly protected' until 10 July 1936, only 59 days before it became officially extinct – when the last known tiger died in the Beaumaris Zoo.

Thylacine

1956 The Westbury Branch Railway Line was closed betwixt Westbury Junction and Mangoplah.

1967 New Zealand kicked ye olde pounds, shillings and pence to the kerb in favour of getting all decimal with yon currency.

1985 The Greenpeace ship, Rainbow Warrior, was sunk in Auckland Harbour by French secret agents who had attached explosives to the hull.
One person was killed, a Portuguese photographer named Fernando Pereira.

Rainbow Warrior

2004 Someone had a few brain cells when they reopened the Ballarat to Ararat Railway Line.

July 5 Australia History On This Day

1788 Governor Arthur Philip sent a despatch to the British Under-secretary of state cos Oz was turning spectacularly into Destination Fucked due to the lack of food. 
*We won't point out the obvious that they were surrounded by tucker*

1851 James Esmond made public the fact he'd tripped over a great lump of GOLD! in Clunes, Victoria.

James Esmond

1881 New Zealand Parliament passed the Chinese Immigration Act under which, having received Royal Assent, they then legislated a Poll Tax of £10 ($1,770 in todays money) on the-now restricted numbers of Chinese migrants.

1900 British Parliament passed the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act.
This document set out guidelines for how the Federation would be founded, and how the laws and authorities of The Fair Isle of Oz would be created, and was given Royal Assent on 9 July 1900.

1902 Today Australia fielded a decent team, it seems, as Oz won the only Test they played at Sheffield against England.

1905 Alfred Deakin had a blank spot on his dance card so tossed his hat into the ring for a second turn as PM.

1945 John Curtin had a nasty mischief; he popped his clogs in office.

John Curtin

1957 Lew Hoad won the Men Singles at Wimbledon when he beat fellow Aussie Ashley Cooper.

1967 New Zealand banks were closed today for bank staff to convert their records in readiness of the currency changing from Pounds and Pence to Dollars and Cents.

1968 Rod Laver won the Wimbledon Mens Singles against fellow Aussie Tony Roche.

1969 Rod was back at the scene of the crime when he won against Aussie John Newcomb.

1971 Two hundred protesters demonstrated at Sydney Town Hall against a reception for the ‘Springboks’.

1972 Commonwealth police raided the ABC TV studios at Gore Hill Sydney thirty minutes after underground draft resister (and DRU Secretary) Peter Galvin was interviewed on This Day Tonight.

1980 Evonne Goolagong Cawley beat Chris Evert for the Womens Singles at Wimbledon. 

Evonne Goolagong-Cawley

1981 Jan Stephenson waltzed off with the crown for the du Maurier Golf Classic. 

1987 Pat Cash , despite the 80s big hair, managed to win the Men Singles title at Wimbledon. 

2003 A memorial was dedicated on this day at Gordon, 4.3 km from the crash site of a DC-3 airliner in the Kaimai Range, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand. All 23 passengers and crew were killed in what still remains the worst air crash within New Zealand. 

SOURCES

Ballarat Gold Rush 

Labour History Timeline

4 July Australian History

 1857 - Hundreds of European miners on the search for GOLD! at Buckland River got more than a little casually racist when they went all thug-like on the settlement of 3,000 Chinese miners belting the living crap out of them until they died or left the area.

1868 Te Kooti Arikirangi Te Tūruki of Rongowhakaata, a Māori leader, was arrested in 1865 after allegedly spying. He became one of hundreds exiled to the remote Chatham Islands where he established the Ringatū faith, which was adopted by many of his fellow exiles. On this day he began an uprising; 300 prisoners overpowered their guards, captured the schooner Rifleman and sailed for New Zealand.

1918 The Battle of Hamel took place during the First World Disagreement.

1966 Nine young people were arrested and charged with obstruction for protesting against bombing of Hanoi and Haiphong at U.S Consulate in Sydney.

1967 A rally outside the U.S Consulate in Commercial Road, Melbourne, was followed by a march to a  meeting at the Assembly Hall in Collins Street. The highlight was the debate ‘LBJ’ v ‘Thomas Jefferson’ – ‘U.S independence 1776-Vietnam independence when?’

1968 A moratorium protest against the Vietnam War outside the US Embassy in Melbourne ended in violence as the crowd was having a free-for-all in in what became "the most violent protest in living memory" with the protesters being charged by mounted police.

1969 4000 demonstrators marched down St. Kilda Road towards the U.S Consulate in tight formation. Police on horseback charged protestors at the barricades. The following afternoon twenty Consulate windows were smashed by ‘Melbourne People’s Liberation Army’

1969 Sydney’s 1969 July 4 (‘Freedom Day’) rally highlighted by burning of U.S flag and effigies of Prime Minister Gorton outside U.S Consulate

1970 2000 demonstrators marched in Melbourne and occupied the road in front of Pan-American Airways building in Collins Street.

1970 600 protestors marched in Adelaide in militant demonstration against U.S imperialism.

1971 Police bashed demonstrators at U.S Consulate and South African Trade Commission in Melbourne.

1971 1000 protestors picketed outside the Squire Inn Motel,  Bondi Junction as ‘Springboks’ arrived in Sydney

1972 A lunch-time demonstration, of over 200 young people, gathered in Adelaide to mark American Independence Day with emphasis on U.S bombing of dykes and dams in North Vietnam

1975 Juanita Neilsen, victim in the still unsolved disappearance/murder of The Missing Heiress, was last seen alive on this date when she attended a meeting in Sydney's Kings Cross.

1991 World renown heart surgeon Dr Victor Chang AC was murdered in Sydney in a failed extortion attempt.

2002 American Steve Fossett became the first chappie to pilot a hot air balloon all on his lonesome all around the Big Blue Marble, plopping down in The Fair Isle of Oz 13 days after take-off.

2018 The Fair Isle of Oz and the USA celebrated a century of 'mateship".

Being 100 years since we got together and began killing people.

Sorry, 100 years since we first started fighting alongside each other at the Battle of Hamel under the command of General Sir John Monash.

2023 Australian rules player Heather Anderson sadly became the first known professional female athlete to be diagnosed with degenerative brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) after a landmark diagnosis at Australian Sports Brain Bank

SOURCES:

Labour History Melbourne

Chinese Victims of Buckland Riot

The Missing Heiress

Chilling new clues in missing heiress Juanita Nielsen’s cold case murder

Disappearance of Juanita Nielsen

Juanita Nielsen

History of Mateship

The Battle of Hamel

CTE: Brain disease diagnosed in female athlete for first time

World's first CTE diagnosis in a female athlete

Steve Fossett

Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute

Taking to the streets against the Vietnam War