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.

The Nunawading Messiah aka The Oakleigh Prophet aka James Fisher (nee) Cowley 1832 - 1913

 Unbeknownst to all of us Jesus Christ had, apparently, already made a quick stop-over in the form of a shady AF character named James Fisher.

Who managed to convince people the Son of God had descended into a crop of cabbages and HE WAS TO EAT THEM ALL TO ACQUIRE THE SPIRIT. Stir-fry?

Oddly, he managed to practice polygamy (along with the usual bigamy), having 3 sisters as his wives - WITH THE FULL BLESSING OF THE PARENTS - and broke up the marriage of the 4th sister - again, WITH THE FULL BLESSING OF THEIR PARENTS.

The whole hot mess only came to light when Fisher was taken to Court for NOT ACTUALLY BEING THE MESSIAH because a child died. 

It is valuable to see the methods used by this bloke to winkle money, women, power out of others and into his own control.

There are many well-researched papers on this person, I'm not re-inventing the wheel by repeating it all here; just holding it up, dusting it off and reminding people that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Further reading/Sources -

Australian Dictionary of Biography

Victorian Collections

Fisherite Descendants of Wickipin, WA

James Cowley Morgan (Cowley) Fisher 

New Jerusalem Settlement site 

A Messiah for The West 

The Nunawading Messiah 

The Nunawading Imposter

The Oakleigh Prophet

Baron Joseph De Nosek 1821 - 1894

 Soldiering about, stirring insurrection, Baron Joseph De Nosek found himself in Australia after fighting in the Crimean War.

The little bit of insurrection saw him lose his hereditary estates in Poland, so he turned his hand to gold mining, then in 1869 Baron De Nosek became the President of The Victorian Miners Protection League before settling on the career of a licensed victualler (aka publican) at Campbell's Creek, Victoria.

Further reading -

Baron De Nosek buried at Campbell's Creek Cemetery, Victoria.