1915 The 10th Battalion (South Australia) left Anzac for a 3-day rest period on Imbros island. Captain Nott, the battalion medical officer, wrote:
A perfect holiday picnic
Ha!
Discovered many of my long reliable history bookmarks are now doing the whole,
"404 we don't know you, new webpage, who dis?"
Keeping me out of mischief hunting down new RELIABLE web sources.
1813 Elizabeth Macarthur, manager of Merino sheep on Elizabeth Farm whilst the troublesome spouse was sticking his oar into all sorts of mischief, sent the first commercial shipment of wool to Britain.
1841 Edward John Eyre, was out for a Sunday perambulation post Sunday lunch when he tripped over the King's River, just short of his intended Final Destination of King George's Sound. Finding the river too high to cross on horse back, he tip-toed through the tulips and trout to t'other side.
1863 Letters, of the Patent variety not the air-mail sort, were blessed and signed by Queen Vicky annexing the Top End from the Croweaters in South Australia.
1878 The Main South Railway Line (NSW) was flung open from Bethungra to Junee.1943 Darwin, capital of the Northern Territory, was heavily bombed by Japanese 64 times, today being the last of the heavy bombing although less severe attacks continued.
1955 The Westland District Second World War memorial (RSA building) at Sewell St, Hokitika, NZ was officially opened today by local MP Mr J.B. Kent. The two-storey building incorporated a lobby, the local RSA clubrooms and a social hall. This building was closed because of earthquake risk in June 2013 and demolished in July 2014. The new Hokitika-Westland memorial hall and clubrooms was opened on the site of the old building on 28 February 2017.
1963 The Advertiser (of Adelaide) let it be known to all and sundry that the glorious trolley buses that had toddled about for 31 years were to be no more after the 12th July.
1964 Warrant Officer Kevin Conway from Brisbane became first Australian serviceman to be killed in Vietnam.
1970 Draft resister Karl Armstrong was sentenced in Melbourne to eight days jail for defying the fine imposed for refusing to register.
1971 Three thousand demonstrators caused mayhem at the first ‘Springboks’ match in Sydney at the SCG. There were 59 arrests.
1972 Commonwealth police raided DRU (Draft Resisters Union) headquarters Belmore Street Enmore looking for Peter Galvin.
1979 Brand spanking new LGBT news print media The Star Observer was thrust out into the world.
1983 The AIDS Action Committee (AAC) requested that its role on the NSW advisory AIDS committee be upgraded after it was relegated to merely writing material about AIDS.
1983 In Lismore, NSW, a local social group, Summerland Gay People, was formed.
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.1797 Following much fighting between the European settlers and the Indigenous people in the Hawkesbury area Governor John Hunter sent a group of soldiers to protect the settlers.
1850 Tired of saddling their broomsticks and kick-starting their horses, The Powers That Were got the lads on the tools to begin construction of the First Ever Railway Line in The Fair Isle of Oz; actually t'was the daughter of the Governor Charles FitzRoy, the Honourable Mrs. Mary Stewart, who prettily modelled the spade whilst she turned the first sod of the Sydney Railway Company at Cleveland Paddocks to begin work on the Sydney-Parramatta Railway Line.
1915 The inaugural Violet Day Appeal began, a local remembrance day for the fallen of WW1 in South Australia, started by Alexandrine Seager who had formed the Cheer-Up Society to provide 'general comfort, welfare, and entertainment' for soldiers, for which the annual Violet Day Appeal was the main fundraiser.
1918 Naval ratings all over the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) were feeling a little more secure with their choppers as the first Fang Carpenter aka Dentist joined the RAN , Lieutenant. M. L. Atwill who joined the battle cruiser HMAS Australia in London.
1954 The Yackandandah to Beechworth railway line in Victoria was kicked to the kerb for want of bottoms on seats.
1971 Tennis champion, Wiradjuri Evonne Goolagong won her first Wimbledon Championship, receiving the Women's Singles Trophy from Princess Alexandra after beating Margaret Court 6 - 4, 6 - 1
Sources:
Violet Day; A Tribute to the Dead
1773 Sir Thomas Makdougall Brisbane, namesake of Brisbane aka Party Town Bris-Vegas, was found in the cabbage patch. 1888 The South Coast R...