14 July Australian History

 1770 Today was a shite day for a random kangaroo  ; a crew person on Cook's ship became the first European (that we know of) to eyeball a 'roo.
And then shot it.
It is not true that the word means “I don’t understand”; this is a popular myth often applied to various other Aboriginal-based Australian words.

1952 The main railway line roll-out of diesel powered engines along Victoria Railways began with the delivery of this delicious beast pictured below.

Photo from THIS FABULOUS RAIL RESOURCE

1981 The New Fort Hill Wharf, at Darwin, was opened.

1986 The Sheraton Hotel opened on Mitchell Street, Darwin. Currently known as Hilton Darwin.

1995 Governor General of Australia William Hayden proclaimed both the Aboriginal Flag and the Torres Strait Islander Flag to be 'Flags of Australia' under the Flags Act 1953.

13 July Australian History

 1888 The Star of Greece, a three masted clipper ship, was wrecked on a reef only 200 metres from Port Willunga and within sight of shore but not anywhere near rescue equipment. The captain with most of the crew had been clinging to the mizzen mast rigging where they had been drowned.

Star of Greece

1903 The railway line from Coburg to Somerton was closed due to a rail strike.

1919 The Main South Railway Line now stretches from Central Station in Sydney allllll the way down the slippery dip into the Cabbage Patch aka Victoria and to Marvellous Melbourne...but back in 1919 they were all a'flutter about the line being connected betwixt Picton and Mittagong Junction.

1943 It was agreed that all chemical ammunition (loading and unloading) was to be handled by trained service personnel and that any other non chemical cargo that was stored with the chemical would also to be handled by these personnel.

1945 UK may have Lady Jane Grey, the 9 Day Queen but we beat that with Francis Ford, The 8 Day Queen Caretaker PM.
You wore your crown with pride, Francis!

1945 – Ben Chifley was crowned The Sixteenth Prime Minister of Australia.

1958 The foundation stone was laid for St Mary's War Memorial Cathedral, Darwin.

1997 A crowd of over 100,000 people gathered to watch the Royal Canberra Hospital implosion. Twelve-year-old Katie Bender was killed when debris from the site travelled across Lake Burley Griffin.

On This Day in Australian TV - TOO many to list here, you will have to go to the site for a good stickybeak down memory lane.

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).

11 July Australian History

 

1858 The first completed stage of St Francis Xavier Cathedral, Adelaide, was consecrated today by Father Michael Ryan.

1867 The Main Western Railway Line (NSW) was gaily opened from Penrith to Blaxland Junction.

1877 Today Kate Edger became the first female Kiwi of the species to earn a university degree and the first gal of the British Empire to earn a Bachelor of Arts.

Kate Edger

1882 The Mungindi Railway Line (NSW) was opened today from Gunnedah to Boggabri

1979 Skylab, the first space station, crashed on through the atmosphere to land in parts of Western Australia.

1983 New Zealander Lorraine Downes was crowned Miss Universe; after a career in modelling, Lorraine competed in , and won, the second season of Dancing with The Stars in 2006 raising $112,000 for the Child Cancer Foundation.

1990  Sarah MacDiarmid, age 23, vanished from, and was likely murdered at Kananook railway station, Melbourne. The crime remains unsolved.

1997 Australians were evacuated from Phnom Penh following a bloody coup

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.

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

8 July Australian History

1861 Railway carriages were rocketing up the Great Divide with the opening of the line from Sunbury to Woodend (Vic)

1866 Ballarat & District Orphan Asylum opened.

1882 Percy Grainger, Australian pianist, composer and curious critter, was pupped in Melbourne;

he played an important role in reviving interest in British folk music in the early years of the 20th century.

 1886 Queen Victoria granted John George Clunies-Ross and his descendants the Cocos Islands ‘in perpetuity’. Some members of the Clunies-Ross family still live on the Cocos Islands, as they are known, even though the Australian government bought almost all the Clunies-Ross land on Cocos Islands in 1978. 

1901 Things were rocking on with the Oatland Branch Line (NSW) opening from The Rock to Lockhart.

1904 Sydney’s electricity supply was officially switched on.

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

 1936 The Federal Government announced an increase in military training strength of other people's sons, in response to the rise of fascism in Europe. 

1942 460 Squadron raids Wilhelmshaven

1959 The Avoca to Ararat Railway Line was kicked to the kerb.

 1963 Margaret Court became the first Australian woman to win the Women's Singles tennis championship at Wimbledon. 

1991 The first share offer for the newly privatised Commonwealth Bank was flung about merrily with gay abandon. 

 2005 Defecting Chinese diplomat Chen Yonglin was in the Aussie Govt chook raffle one Friday night when, lo and behold, he won a protection visa.

2010 PM Julia Gillard ruled out a Carbon Tax.

2022 Hospitals were under extreme pressure with both a surge in Covid infections and the winter flu hitting people hard