March 7 in Oz history

1791 - Mrs. Elizabeth Macarthur wrote in a letter to gal pal Bridget Kingdon,"Mrs. Coleby, whose name is Daringa, brought in a new born female infant of hers, for me to see … it was wrapp’d up in the soft bark of a Tree, a Specimen of which I have preserved, it is a kind of Mantle not much known in England, I fancy. I order’d something for the poor Woman to Eat, and had her taken proper care of for some little while, when she first presented herself to me she appear'd feeble and faint, she has since been regular in her visits. The Child thrives remarkably well and I discover a softness and gentleness of Manners in Daringa truly interesting."
Coleby or Colebee was a leading Aboriginal of Sydney and was captured along with Bennelong by Cap. Phillips although Colebee later escaped, while Elizabeth Macarthur was the real power behind the throne of the infamous Merino sheep.

1817 - The Bible Society of NSW was formed in Sydney.

1826 - Duncan McCallum was Hanged at Sydney for robbery at South Creek.

1826 - Peter Roberts was Hanged at Sydney for robbery at South Creek.

1826 - William Patient was Hanged at Sydney for robbery at South Creek.

1826 - William Morrison was Hanged at Sydney for robbery at South Creek.

1831 - Control of the King Georges Sound settlement was transferred from NSW to WA.

1832 - The first issue of the Government Gazette was published in Sydney as part of the Sydney Gazette.

1833 - John Bowen was Hanged at Sydney for burglary and putting in fear at Inverary.

1836 - Doodling in the back of an envelope with his pencils Robert Hoddle laid out the streets of Melbourne 1.5 chains wide (30 mts) with each block of land 10 chains wide.

1837 - George Capsey was Hanged at Sydney for the robbery and assault of Henry Jarvis near Berrima.

1857 - The Seabelle was a ship that left Rockhampton on this day only to be wrecked off Fraser Island the next day; rumours ran rife in the following years that a white woman and 2 white girls were seen living with the Fraser Island Aboriginal people so the NSW authorities had a word to a ships captain to have a look-see ...
The captain brought back two young girls who were placed in an institution, never to be returned to their parents as he'd promised, and both died at an early age.

1860 - Lieutenant Carr and his troopers of the Native Police shot dead 15 Aboriginals at Bendemere just north of Yuleba. Carr had tracked down and surrounded their camp containing around 100 people because the local squatter, William Sim, complained that they were "annoying the shepherds and demanding rations." Upon seeing the troopers they threw their nulla-nullas at them, to which Carr responded with sustained gunfire for over an hour.

1870 - Gee Lee was Hanged at Toowoomba Gaol for the murder of Louis Vernon at Caroline sheep station on the Burenda run, in the Warrego district.

1870 - Jacky Whitton was Hanged at Toowoomba Gaol for the rape of Henrietta Reiss at Bodumba station near Warwick.

1881 - A Victorian Royal Commission looking into this problem of the Kelly Gang outbreak and the state of the police force began asking questions and probably didn't like the answers they were given.

1882 - The north west of Western Australia was hit by a major cyclone which caused damage to the towns of Cossack and Roebourne.

1883 - NSW Premier Henry Parkes threatened to limit Irish migration to NSW if Irish people did not stop transplanting their old world animosities to the new.

1891 - The Toronto Branch Railway Line (NSW) was opened.

1894 - A Victorian Royal Commission looking into the water supply problem was established...obviously we're still waiting to hear the results!

1894 - South Australia won the 2nd Sheffield Shield cricket competition.

1896 - Victoria passed legislation that opened the way for Federation.

1896 -Japan opened its first consulate in Australia, in Townsville, Qld.

1907 - A fire at the Elwood tram depot destroyed the entire Victoria Railways tram fleet of 17 cars.

1911 - Alexander Smart was Hanged for the murder of Ethel May Harris at 5 Cowle Street, West Perth.

1921 - The Commonwealth Department of Health was formed. It took over the quarantine service of the Department of Trade and Customs, the Australian Institute of Tropical Medicine and the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories. It also became responsible for national health functions such as the treatment of infectious diseases in returned soldiers.

1936 - A short-lived experiment involved the exclusive use of six Tait carriages on a special train running from Flinders Street to Port Melbourne, to meet passengers off international ships. Called The Boat Train, the first run departed Flinders Street station at 9:10am for Station Pier, to meet the Italian liner Esquilino. The return trip departed station pier at 10:15am.

1954 - The Sydney Morning Herald reported about a new souvenir craze that saw people plopping pennies onto the railway tracks ahead of the Royal Train of Queen Elizabeth II during her Royal Tour Down Under in order to flatten the coins to create a very unique momento.

1958 - BHP and the South Australian Government agreed on the establishment of a steel plant and rolling mills at Whyalla, SA.

1959 - Chickybabes were doin' it for themselves when Jessie Cooper and Joyce Steele were the first gals elected to the South Oz Parliament.

1961 - Const. Kenneth Flatt, WA Police, died whilst on duty.

1965 - The Qantas Boeing 707 passenger jet 'City of Townsville' completed the first continuous flight across the Pacific. It roughly followed the course taken 37 years earlier by Charles Kingsford Smith in Southern Cross.
The 'City of Townsville' was later purchased by actor John Travolta.

1966 - The Arbitration Court, at long last, finally awarded equal pay to NT Aboriginal Pastoral workers BUT it was to be phased in over a three year period and came with the exemptions that Aboriginal employees could be classed as "slow workers".

1966 - The first academic year at Flinders University, South Oz, began with the enrolments of 382 first year under graduates and 35 graduate students.

1973 - The headquarters of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation in Melbourne were raided by police led by the Attorney-General, Lionel Murphy.

1975 - The Australian Film Commission was established.

1976 - Forbes House, in Makerston Street, Brisbane was purchased and converted into Queensland Police Headquarters and officially opened on this day.

1977 - QEII and Prince Phil started touring all over Or-stray-lia, but without the caravan and boat, to celebrate Liz's Silver Jubilee year.

1979 - The Peak Branch Railway Line (NSW) was closed.

1989 - Larry Kramer’s play The Normal Heart opened for a season directed by Wayne Harrison and starring John O’May and Graham Harvey.

1994 - Over 1/2 million people took part in the 5th Clean Up Australia Day.

1997 - In Australia it was disclosed that the reputed Aboriginal painter Eddie Burrup was actually 82-year-old Elizabeth Durack.

1998 - Entry to the work of lesbian photographer depicting a group of queer women performers, was restricted by the Stills Gallery.

2000 - The Aussie Federation Guard was pupped at Parliament House in Canberra today.

2008 - Captain Paul Watson of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, a protest ship harassing Japanese whalers in the Southern Ocean, said he was shot in a high-seas clash and his crew members pelted with flash grenades, injuring one. Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith and Japanese officials insisted only warning devices were fired.

2009 - Nations United was the theme for the Mardi Gras.

2010 - A severe storm that began its rumblings on March 6th and continued on its merry way on this day saw thunderbolts and lightning (very, very frightening) with large hail stones, flash flooding and a slightly dampish start to Autumn all over Melbourne.
Who could forget the hail that broke the roof of So Cross station and piled up like snow drifts on the platforms, the flooded city line of Hawksburn Station et el, or the streets of Melbourne becoming the new Olympic swimming training facility?!

2015 - That years Mardi Gras in Sydney saw the theme of Passion adopted.

6th day of March in history in Oz.

1784 - Poor old John Hamilton Irving thought his life had come to an end as he was convicted of larceny (and him a surgeon, no less!) and sentenced to 7 years over the briny blue sea but later became Australia's very first emancipist.

1788 - Captain Phillip sent Lt Philip Gidley King off on a 3 hour cruise to settle Norfolk Island as a resort to begin the flax and timber industry which failed so badly that Gidley King began his career as a pole dancer on one of those Norfolk Island pines much to the disgust of the locals.

1812 - Methodism was birthed in the Fair Land of Oz on this day when 3 men attended a meeting; a schoolteacher, a soldier and a convict (walked into a bar....).

1818 - Charles Throsby, James Meehan, Hamilton Hume et al. set out from Camden to find an overland route to Jervis Bay.

1819 - William Gore was imprisoned for debt and suspended as Provost-Marshal with John Thomas Campbell appointed in his place.

1826 - John Burke was Hanged at Sydney for the murder of John Cogan at Mulgoa.

1826 - William Corbett was Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery on the Great Western Road.

1836 - HMS Beagle and Charlie Darwin reached King George's Sound, Australia.

1837 - Hobart had its first legit theatre the Theatre Royal , as opposed to the puppet shows in the lean-to out the back of Aunty Maggie's wash house, in Campbell St.

1840 - Alexander Maconochie became superintendent at Norfolk Island.

1879 - A rabbit plague, previously confined to Victoria, spread into New South Wales. Rabbits were first released 20 years earlier near Geelong on the property of god-damn-you-Thomas Austin.

1883 - A public meeting, where spleens were vented with great gusto, took place in the Protestant Hall in Sydney to rant protest at the Irish National League Reps in Oz.

1891 - Members of a Royal Commission, who were in that neck of the woods to eyeball the environs for a railway, were caught in the deluge at Hawker which flooded Birdsville, Innamincka and Clayton.

1894 - The railway line from Beulah to Hopetoun (Vic) opened. The railway construction was started as a private line by E.H.Lascelles to service his growing (planned) town of Hopetoun but due to the economic depression of that decade it was taken over and completed by the Government-owned Victoria Railways.

1899 - The Wanganui Herald announced that, instead of remaining as 5 pettifogging provinces Australia had finally pulled their digit out and decided to Federate!
Yet the pettifogging remains to this day...

1912 - A general strike in Brisbane, which had lasted five weeks, ended today.

1919 - The sad, miserable remains of an Aussie soldier's water bottle was found on this day at Lone Pine by the Australian Historical Mission.

1919 - The War Service Homes Act of 1918 became operative.

1922 - The Yanco - Griffith Railway Line (NSW) was opened.

1931 - Holden Motor Bodies Ltd merged with General Motors Aust. Ltd.

1944 - The advanced party of No. 19 Replenishing Centre moved from sub depot No. 4 Clarence to its new location at Talmoi and by 13 March 1944 the unit had occupied the new site.

1963 - Moe went from doing the Ugg boot shuffle to becoming a City.

1963 - The first Lifeline Centre commenced operation from its premises in Sydney at 5pm.

1965 - Labor won power in South Australian for the first time in 32 years. Labour leader Frank Walsh became Premier, replacing Liberal leader Sir Thomas Playford, Australia's longest-serving premier, who had held office for 26 years, 4 months.

1966 - Holt announced that the Australian commitment in South Vietnam would be Increased to a 4350-man task force, and would include conscripts.
The 1st Australian Task Force (1ATF) included two infantry battalions, a Special Air Service squadron, combat and support logistic units and eight RAAF Iroquois helicopters (9 SQN).
The Task Force would be supported by 1 Australian Logistic Support Group (1 ALSG) to be established at Vung Tau. For the first time, national servicemen would be sent to South Vietnam.

1970 - Marine scientists warned that the Great Barrier Reef was being severely damaged by a massive explosion in the population of the coral-eating Crown Of Thorns starfish....but don't worry the dredging spoil will take care of those slippery lil suckers.

1975 - A UFO was eyeballed at 4.30am at Lake Sorrel in Tassie with another sighted later that night on the same day in Sydney.

1985 - Sydney Gay Mardi Gras Festival: "Art Exhibition" opened at The Print Source Gallery, Darlinghurst.

1986 - Prime Minister Bob Hawke announced his Government would not proceed with legislation for national land rights.

1987 - At a not defined date in March the rural newspaper The Land refused to accept an advertisement for Country Network, a gay support group saying that it was “not in keeping with The Land General Conditions”.
Yeah, cos those home-Oh!-sex-you-alls are not allowed beyond the city limits into the country.

1993 - International Women's Day saw "Women's Rights Are On The Line." with a march from the
Parliament Steps, followed by a Festival at Lincoln Institute, and a dance that evening at the North Melbourne Town Hall.
3CR celebrated Labour Day Weekend and International Women's Day with a 3-day live broadcast from the Brunswick Pool.

1994 - A petition signed by 90 Federal MPs in an effort to re-schedule the ABC telecast of the SGLMG parade was an epic fail, and the telecast went ahead capturing 45% of the Sydney TV audience.

2001 - The latest issue of the GLBTQ weekly, G, was shrouded in controversy as the editor and staff ceased working and there was a rumoured break between the publisher and the investor.

2003 - The Kinchela Boys Home State Dinner was held at NSW Parliament House.

2004 - The theme for Mardi Gras that year was Metamorphosis.
Monica Hingston, the lesbian cousin of Catholic Archbishop George Pell and partner Peg Moran were the Chiefs of Parade.
130 floats are cheered on by 250,000 spectators in persistent rain at that year’s Mardi Gras parade. 17,000 attended the post parade party.

2004 - Prime Minister John Howard in a talk-back radio interview spoke out against adoption rights for same sex couples.
Pfft.

2006 - PM John Howard in New Delhi said Australia will consider selling uranium to India if it is convinced about New Delhi's commitment to follow global nuclear safeguards for its civilian atomic reactors.

2009 - Melbourne was shaken by a 4.7 earthquake on this day in 2009.
With a little notice we could have had the vodka in the glass.

2013 - The Council of the Australian War Memorial agreed to include all the names of ADF personnel killed in non-warlike service since 1947 (including peacekeeping operations) in the Roll of Honour. These people had previously only been included in the Remembrance Book.

2016 - The Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras was held on this date with the theme of Momentum.

2017 - Cyclone Blanche crossed the northern coast of Western Australia as a category two storm.

March 5 marching through Oz History

1803 - Australia's first fish and chip wrapper newspaper, The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, was born, published by George Howe.

1804 - Castle hill, Parramatta and surrounding areas were declared a bogan paradise aka under martial law as The Battle of Castle Hill was fought between rebelling Irish convicts and NSW Corps.

1804 - Phillip Cunningham, the convict leader of the Castle Hill Rebellion was summarily hanged on the steps of the government storehouse at Greenhills (today's Windsor).

1823 - Drovers rejoiced at the news a droving road between Richmond and Newcastle was open for business.

1824 - The heavy hand of the law arrived in the form of the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Francis Forbes.

1829 - The last survivor and mutineer of the Bounty mutiny, John Adams, died aged 62.

1832 - Patrick McGuire was Hanged at Sydney for the murder of fellow convict Matthew Gallagher at Moreton Bay.

1854 - The St Vincent de Paul Society was born.

1865 - At Wascoe's Inn in the Blue Mountains on his way to Sydney to seek redress for his dismissal from the NSW Police Force, Police Inspector Sir Frederick William Pottinger accidentally shot himself in the upper abdomen while boarding a moving coach, an injury from which he died the following month.

1868 - Six nurses trained by She Who Must Be Obeyed Flo Nightingale, including Lucy Osburn, set foot on Aussie soil, with Lucy Osburn credited with later founding Aussie nursing.

1875 - Victorian Premier Harry Lawson was pupped at Dunolly.

1883 - Palmerston Town Hall opened on Smith Street, Darwin.
Destroyed by Cyclone Tracy, now only the remains at both ends are visible.

1887 - During the Burketown cyclone, Sergeant John Ferguson’s wife kept a lamp burning in the window of the courthouse and her beacon drew many people to the refuge during the storm.

1922 - Train services from Flinders St to Oakleigh (Vic) were electrifying.

1922 - Train services were electrified from Caulfield to Glenhuntly (Vic).

1928 - The railway line from Fawkner to Somerton (Vic) reopened.

1954 - Today marks the date Percy Buttons, a street performer from Perth, popped his clogs. Percy was an acrobat who lived on the streets and earned a pound or 3 by entertaining the passing crowd with his tumbling skills.

1958 - Some 200,000 people attended a music festival in Elder Park (South Oz). The festival was staged to celebrate the visit of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. The Queen arrived at the Park on a flower decorated barge. The official party viewed the proceedings from the Rotunda. The sound stage was filled with 1500 choristers, representing 144 choirs; there were 500 orchestral musicians and four pipe bands. As part of the evening's entertainment a pageant of decorated boats passed down the lake, amongst them a swan chariot, golden carriage, river steamer, gondolas and a royal crown.

1958 - The Queen Elizabeth Hospital at Woodville (South Oz) was officially opened by the Queen Mother who unveiled a portrait of Queen Elizabeth in the foyer.

1970 - A small group from the Humanist Society and the Council of Civil Liberties attempted to form a Homosexual Law Reform Committee.

1972 - The last Australian logistic units left Vung Tau and Australia’s commitment in South Vietnam returned to a training role with the 150-man Australian Assistance Group, Vietnam (AAAGV) and the AATTV.

1975 - TV host Graham Kennedy performed his infamous "crow call" during a live advertising segment on his night-time variety show (Faaaaaaaaaaark). The incident resulted in a flood of complaints and outraged newspaper headlines. After the complaints were investigated by the Broadcasting Control Board, Kennedy was banned from appearing live on TV for an indefinite period. He quit the Nine Network soon after over the network's censorship of criticisms he made of Media Minister Doug McClelland's lack of support for stronger Australian content regulations.

1983 – The ALP, with Bob Hawke as leader won with one of the biggest parliamentary majorities in Australian political history.

1986 - The NSW Anti-Discrimination Board’s conciliation officer, Greg Tillett was elected ACON President, replacing foundation president, Lex Watson.

1987 - The inaugural Police and Neighbourhood Watch Liaison Committee meeting took place at William Street Headquarters, co­chaired by Chief Commissioner S.I. Miller and NHW State Committee Chairman Tom Newman .

1989 - The Australian AIDS Memorial quilt was hung as a backdrop for the AIDS Trust Stars of the Australian Opera benefit.

1990 - The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission began work. It was the result of a merger between the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and the Aboriginal Development Commission.

1994 - Sydney's Mardi Gras was frothy and frilly to the theme We Are Family.
Among the events were ‘Pride and Prejudice’, the first gay and lesbian exhibition held at the Australian Museum; and ‘Looking Good’, the first Aboriginal gay and lesbian visual arts exhibition, held at Boomalli Aboriginal Artists’ Co-op.

1995 - An Australian yacht broke in two and sank in heavy wind and fierce winds off the Southern California coast, the first sinking in the history of America's Cup racing; all 17 crew members were rescued.

1995 - The ABC telecast the coverage of the SGLMG parade on Sunday. It included personalities, Julian Clary, Elle McFeast and Julie McCrossin.

2004 - Hybrid Cyclone caused waves to 14.2metres that were recorded off Stradbroke Island. Severe flooding from Sunshine Coast through Brisbane to Gold Coast.

2005 - Prince Charlie began a tour of The Shaky Isles with the most *shocking* incident to happen was when 2 brazen hussies were uneconomical with themselves and bared their boobs at him in protest after a mis-reported objection by the Prince to a topless Aboriginal dance across The Ditch in Oz.

2005 - No nekkid ladies or lads at the Sydney Mardi Gras even if the theme was Our Freedom, Your Freedom.

2008 - Australia cancelled a one billion dollar (930 million US) contract for US-made Seasprite helicopters following a review of the troubled project.

2011 - Hundreds of thousands of revelers crammed inner Sydney streets for one of the world's premier gay and lesbian parades, the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras which was themed Say Something.

2012 - New South Wales officials said Muslim women will have to remove veils to have their signatures officially witnessed under the latest laws giving state officials authority to look under religious and other face coverings.

2012 - Today was the earliest date couples could legally recognise their partnership in Queensland, as the Civil Partnerships Act 2011 came into effect the previous month.

2016 - Sergeant Geoffrey Richardson, NSW Police, died whilst on duty.

March 4th galloping through this day in Oz history

1804 - Irish convicts at Castle Hill weren't happy campers so over 200 of them launched a full-scale rebellion that became known as Australia's Vinegar Hill.Yep, that'll do it!

1821 - Stable your shanks' pony Mavis, a stage coach began plying its trade between Sydney and Richmond.

1824 - Thomas Harley was Hanged at Sydney for returning from Port Macquarie in defiance of his commuted sentence. Originally sentenced to death in 1822 for burglary from the house of Robert Campbell in George St.

1825 - Due to overwhelming popularity another holiday resort...er, penal settlement was begun on the picturesque isolated Maria Island in Tassie.

1831 – James Stirling was fashioned, frocked and commissioned as Governor of Western Australia, rectifying the absence of a legal instrument providing the authority detailed in Stirling's Instructions of 30 December 1828.

1836 - John Whitehead was Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery at Lane Cove.

1836 - John Hare was Hanged at Sydney for the attempted murder of Major William Elrington at Bathurst.

1836 - John Treish (aka Frisk, Fish, Trish, Frish) was Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery at Lane Cove.

1836 - John Smith was Hanged at Sydney for burglary in the Hunter Valley.

1837 - The native fauna packed its collective pouch and ambled off into the bush as Yass was gazetted for a town.

1837 - The Guv, Sir Richard Bourke, popped down for a gander at the Port Phillip District and Melbourne on a bus-mans holiday.

1853 - The Mary Anne became the first steamship plying the muddy waters of the Murray River.

1864 - Daniel Mannix, the institution who was Archbishop of Melbourne for 46 years and one of the most influential figures of his time, was pupped.

1867 - Having another party away from the womenfolk aka inter-colonial conference in Melbourne, the boys decided on a common postal service and called for more jugs of beer the establishment of a Federal Council.

1868 - The Polynesian Labourers Act was passed with the breakfast prunes in Qld to control *ahem* recruitment of Kanakas aka "blackbirding".

1873 - The Main Western Railway Line (NSW) was opened.

1885 - The Bombala Railway Line (NSW) was opened from Tarago to Bungendore.

1896 - Again with the ugly bits - The Premier's at a conference left their racist shirts hanging out when they agreed to all colonies restricting immigration of coloured people ( those who weren't lily-white enough to pass muster) and amend the Anti-Chinese legislation they'd already put in place.

1899 – Cyclone Mahina hit Bathurst Bay on the Cape York Peninsula killing 410 people.
A nine-metre tidal surge left dead "porpoises" on clifftops, thrown there by the heavy swells.
It destroyed dozens of boats in local pearling fleets, killing about 100 sailors and crew members.
There was a massive tidal surge, flooding the region and causing another 307 known fatalities on land.

1938 - After a long while between drinks - 8 years to be exact- assisted British immigration was back to full steam ahead.

1954 - History was made when QE2 climbed aboard the Royal Train at Spencer Street Station, Melbourne, and began tootling all over Victoria to places far and wide...some of which no longer have a train station or even remember having had one tethered in the main street.

1957 - Those Powers That Be were back to sticking noses into pies that didn't concern them, IE closing down railway lines vitally needed by the public.
This time it was the Birregurra to Forrest line that copped it in the neck.

1970 - Three armed bandits committed the largest payroll robbery in Australian history, stealing $587,980 from a Mayne Nickless security van at a Guildford, NSW, shopping centre.

1978 - That gorgeous tall ship project I wouldn't mind pottering about with in my bath, the Polly Woodside, officially opened on the southern side of the Yarra River.

1978 - The Australian Weekend ran articles on "The New Homosexual".

1981 - Paspalis Centrepoint on Smith Street, Darwin, was opened by the Chief Minister Paul Everingham.

1983 - A party at Club 80 raises $4,000 towards the Legal defence fund (as a result of police raids the previous month).

1989 - The first elections were held in the recently independent Australian Capital Territory.
Finally! Those living in the national capital could actually vote!

1995 - Rains kept crowds to 150,000 for the 18th SGLMG Parade, but 4,000 with 140 entries march to the Showgrounds where 20,000 party which was described as the best one ever.
The theme was Fairy Tales & Lesbian Legends.

1996 - A little slow from the starting blocks but we're starting to catch up - County Court Judge Rosemary Balmford became the first female Supreme Court Judge in Victoria.

2000 - 7,200 marchers, 200 floats and 600,000 spectators took part or watched the 23rd Mardi Gras parade. At the party there was a women’s and a men’s tent and a cabaret featuring such performers as Samantha Leith, Joyleen Hairmouth and Tina C.
That years theme was 2000gether.

2001 - Lucille Balls, the multi orbed dress designed by Ron Muncaster formed part of the Eternity exhibition at the National Museum of Australia.

2002 - The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting at Coolum (Queensland) established a three-person committee to work with the Commonwealth Secretary-General to determine the appropriate Commonwealth responses to Zimbabwe’s democratic shortcomings. John Howard was one of the three members of the committee, along with the Presidents of Nigeria and South Africa.

2004 - Federal health minister, Tony Abbott failed to appoint any HIV community representatives to the new Ministerial Advisory Committee on AIDS and sexual health.

2006 - The Oh So Fabulous Mardi Gras pranced its way through the streets to the theme of Dance · Love · Radiate.

2008 - An Australian aquaculture company claimed a world first in artificially breeding endangered southern bluefin tuna.

2017 - Sydney Mardi Gras was celebrated to the theme of Creating Equality.
And, by Goddess, didn't we FINALLY get that equality!

March 3rd all day til midnight

1772 - French explorer, Capt. Marion du Fresne of the Mascarin and Marquis de Castries, sights Van Diemen’s Land where a party goes ashore, one Aboriginal is shot and killed, others wounded.

1799 - Torrential rains broke the drought with the Hawkesbury River busting its banks and flooding the grain stores.
Typical; either feast or famine with the water in Oz!

1816 - Not liking the cut of their jib, Aboriginal people killed off 4 white settlers near the Nepean River, NSW.

1818 - Hamilton Hume and James Meehan set out to find an overland route from Sydney to Jervis Bay.

1827 - Having something to say and determined to be heard G.T Howe started publishing the Tasmanian newspaper in Hobart.

1828 - Several deaths from whooping cough occurred for the first time in Sydney including the death of Gov Ralph Darling's son.

1837 Rejecting syphilitic John Batman and the names Batmania and Bearbrass (goodness knows why?!) the powers that were curried favour when The City of Melbourne was named after William Lamb, British Prime Minister and second Viscount Melbourne.
Sidenote-Melbourne in Florida, USA was named in a competition by a former Melbournian after Melbourne, Australia.

1840 - The first race at Flemington was off and racing.

1840 - The first sale of wool by auction in Australia was held in South Australia on this day.

1842 - On the corner of Elizabeth and Victoria Street (the site of the then Melbourne Cattle Market in fact but better known as The Queen Vic Market) the fledgling The Agricultural and Pastoral Society of Australia Felix held its first show.....which was deemed a failure due to the lack of resources in such a young colony and another event was not held until 6 years later when farmers ran amok with ploughing races on the banks of the Moonee Ponds Creek.

1854 - Australia's first telegraph line was opened.

1869 - William Lanne, supposedly the last Tasmanian Aboriginal male, died on this day. His death sparked a scramble for his remains and his body was mutilated in the morgue prior to burial.

1876 - Dockworkers in sunny Qld were granted an 8 hour work day so they could spend more time (fishing, surfing and playing beach cricket) with the family.

1885 - A contingent from NSW to fight in the Sudan departed from Sydney.

1891 - Ah Chi alias Li Ki Hong, Chinese, murdered Ah Gin, Chinese, at Daliak, York.

1891 - "One people, One destiny" was adopted as the slogan for the call for Federation by the National Australasian Convention in Sydney.

1897 - A liquor licence was granted to the Renmark Hotel and it became the first community owned hotel in the Commonwealth and was administered by a trust.

1911 - Feeling like a change of pace, Palmerston became known as Darwin.

1933 - A major national cancer conference warned that people should stay out of the sun or wear some kind of protection if they had to be out in it.

1934 - Bondi Surf Club opened a new Clubhouse opened in style.

1942 - A Japanese destroyer shelled Direction Island in the Cocos group of islands.

1942 - Broome, in Westralia, was bombed by Japanese aircraft , which resulted in many of the women and children being evacuated from the town, then the Japanese went on to bomb Wyndham.

1942 - A DC-3 took off from Java transporting civilians being evacuated and a box of diamonds. This DC-3 arrived over Australia during the Japanese air raid on Broom where it was hit by gunfire and the port engine was set on fire. During the attack two of the passengers died from bullet wounds. The damaged DC-3 force landed intact on the beach at the north side of Carnot Bay, roughly 60 miles north of Broom.

1943 - A Soviet embassy was established in Canberra and an Australian diplomat was posted to Moscow.

1945 - HMS Illustrious became the first ship to use the newly completed Captain Cook Graving Dock at Garden Island Naval Base, Sydney, NSW.

1946 - Eight died in flooding across north Queensland.

1949 - Aboriginal People gained the right to vote in Commonwealth elections...but only if their state/territory laws allowed it or if they were returned servicemen.
To be seen to be doing a great deal when there's bugger all being delivered at all.

1949 - Harold Blair, Aboriginal activist and marvellously talented tenor, announced his engagement to Dorothy Eden. They met at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music where both were taking singing lessons.

1950 - Qantas Empire Airways commenced a Sydney - Tokyo commercial air service.

1954 - Australia claimed the Australian Antarctic Territory via a 2 shilling blue stamp based on a photo taken on this date.

1966 - Gough Whitlam narrowly survived an attempt by the executive to expel him from the Labor Party after he criticised the Federal Executive over its opposition to government funding for church schools.

1967 - Liza Minnelli got hitched to Aussie singer Peter Allen.

1969 - 103 years of Morse Code on Victorian Railways came to an end with the final Morse Code transmission from Mildura to Melbourne on this day.
Message was probably something like "milk and two sugars stop and a couple of bikkies please stop ohhh some of that home made midera tea cake would go down a treat stop a foot rub would be nice, too stop I don't suppose your mother made scones again did she? stop jam and whipped cream would be delish stop hello? hello? HELLO????".

1971 - In Darwin the T&G Building on Smith Street was officially opened by the Hon H.C. Chaney CBE AFC.

1976 - Senior Const. Kevin John Laube, Victoria Police, died whilst on duty.

1978 - Former Governor-General Sir John Robert Kerr resigned from his new appointment as Australia's ambassador to UNESCO in Paris on the day he was supposed to have taken up the post. The resignation followed an outburst of public disapproval over the appointment.

1983 - The Socialist Homosexual Conference Planning Collective was first listed at Surrey Hills, NSW.

1983 - The Commonwealth Minister for Home Affairs and the Environment announced payments to twenty scuba divers for recognition of the help they provided towards protection of Australian maritime heritage.

1990 - The Bombala Railway Line (NSW) was closed.

1990 - Gay & Lesbian Rights Lobby organised a march to protest against the rise of anti-gay violence

1997 - The Holiday Inn opened on The Esplanade in Darwin.

2001 - The Sydney Mardi Gras was dancing through the streets to the theme of Out There, Everywhere.
The lead float was titled Behind the Pink Picket Fence and was intended to send a strong political message about gay and lesbian parents and their children.

2006 - The NSW Supreme Court approved an out-of-court settlement offer made by the Immigration Department to the family of Shayan Badraie, a five-year-old boy who was detained for one year in Woomera and six months in Villawood between 2000 and 2002, resulting in severe psychological trauma. A $400,000 compensation payout was made for the psychological harm he suffered.

2007 - Sydney's Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras was shimmering in style, the theme was Objects of Love.

2008 - A new study by the National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinic Research estimated that HIV infection rates could rise 73 percent in Victoria and 20 percent in Queensland by 2015 if current trends continued. Rates in New South Wales were predicted to decline.

2010 - ACON calls on the Government to introduce rapid testing for HIV following disturbing survey results from a study in Queensland which showed that there are still a proportion of men who remain unaware that they have contracted the virus.

2012 - Mardi Gras in Sydney was adored near and far to the theme of Infinite Love.

2012 - Thousands of Australians were ordered to evacuate their homes in Sydney's northwest and elsewhere in New South Wales state as heavy rainfall flooded rivers and waterways.

2014 - The United Nations' highest court banned Australia from making any use of documents it seized from a lawyer working for East Timor in an arbitration case over a multibillion-dollar oil and gas deal between the two nations.

2015 - Ghillar Michael Anderson, leader of the Euahlayi people and ambassador of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra, wrote an open letter to the United Nations in which he stated that the proposed closures of remote communities were to open up the land for mining.

2018 - HAPPY MARDI GRAS!!!
40 years of Evolution

2nd March in The Fair Isle of Oz through history

1788 - Governor Phillip went for a not-so casual stroll as he was a picky bugger and was looking to see if the agricultural grass was greener at Broken Bay than Sydney Cove.

1829 - Daniel Brown was Hanged at Hobart for murder of a fellow-convict named Stopford at Macquarie Harbour.

1829 - John Salmon was Hanged at Hobart for murder of a fellow-convict named Stopford at Macquarie Harbour.

1839 - Joseph Redman was a greedy bugger when he applied to marry Frances Ann Nevin . The application was knocked back as the greedy bugger was already married with 7 children.

1840 - Patrick Leslie was a leader amongst men...or a drover amongst pastoralists when he drove the first mob of sheep overland from NSW to Moreton Bay.

1840 - The first competitive Agricultural Exhibition was held at Fordham's Hotel in Grenfell Street, Adelaide, where people were flashin' their fancies.

1850 - Mystery was the ships name but there was no mystery as to her fate; she struck a rock when the wind changed whilst sheltering under Swan Island, Tas. and her crew abandoned ship. During the following day the lighthouse keepers assisted the crew to salvage the cargo and much of the gear and fittings, before the Mystery broke up in a gale.

1851 - Excitingly the very first census of Victoria revealed that man had been successfully doing the horizontal limbo with the population hitting 77,345.
I have an idea how they were spending their free time....

1857 - Chu-Ah-Luk was Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Ah Pat at Campbell's Creek.

1860 - Stuart departed Chambers Creek on the first of his expeditions to cross from the south to the northern coast.

1860 - The Hall of Commerce was a large iron building in Watt St, Newcastle until it caught alight on this day, was consumed by the flames within an hour and ceased to be a large iron building.

1863 - Const. Thomas Cavanagh (NSW) died whilst on duty.

1865 - The Jardine Expedition north from Carpentaria Downs to establish a settlement at Cape York named Somerset completed its 1,600-mile journey after five months of peril and hardship, travelling over difficult country, and several clashes with the Indigenous residents without loss of human life. Twenty-one horses, the mule, and many of the cattle were lost.

Vale the mule.

1866 - Surprise by name and surprise by nature; the ship Surprise left the Gippsland Lakes for Melbourne on this day and was not seen again.
Surprise!

1884 - Pizarro was sailing from Barrow, England to Cooktown, Queensland with railway material; she passed Gabo Island, Victoria on this day and was never seen again.

1889 - Long Jimmy alias Jimmy Long, a Malay, was Hanged at Fremantle Prison for the murder of Claude Kerr on board a pearling lugger 'Dawn' at Cossack.

1891 - A group of colonial representatives had a knees up in Sydney to form the rules of the Aussie constitution. They tagged Sir Henry Parkes as the president. 

1904 - The second parliament opened and closed with the same Prime Minister, but there were four changes of government and three different Prime Ministers between the 1903 and 1906 federal elections. This was the most unstable of Australia's 40 parliaments.

1916 - Sgt 1/C William Bowen (NSW) died whilst on duty.

1919 - The Main South Railway line (NSW) was opened.

1929 - More than slightly displeased with the reduction in their hard won wages, NSW coal miners staged a strike that lasted all through winter (brrrr) until June the following year.

1933 - The coastline of NSW felt the effects of a tsunami that had originated in Japan.

1942 - Sianta was sank after being torpedoed and shelled by a Japanese submarine 250 nautical miles west of North West Cape, WA. Forty of her crew of sixty-one survived.

1946 - A cyclone generated weather that caused damage to Cairns to Townsville some loss of life.

1949 - A major cyclone hit Gladstone, doing extensive damage to the town.

1955 - Const. McManus (WA) was killed whilst on duty.

1956 - John (King) Kelly, half-brother to Ned, former WA policeman, WW1 ANZAC, and circus stunt rider died in Buenos Aires.

1959 - Standing around leaning on shovels wasn't allowed as work officially began on the Sydney Opera House, although the old tram shed at Bennelong Point had gone the way of the Dodo the year before.

1967 - Prime Minister Holt introduced legislation for a referendum to be held on May 27, 1967.

1971 - Radio station 8HA Alice Springs began broadcasting music.

1971 - Leadbeater's Possum was proclaimed the official animal emblem of Victoria, Australia.

1972 - The last RAAF flight out of Vietnam.

1972 - The first Australian Falcon, the Ford XA, was introduced.

1973 - Boyne was a work boat that was rammed and sunk by the dredge Sir Thomas Hiley at the mouth of the Brisbane River, with one life lost.

1986 - QEII put pen to paper and signed on the dotted line to cut some (but not all, of course) apron string constitutional ties between Australia and Britain.

1987 - The first Aria Awards was held in Sydney but was not televised so therefore did not put anyone off their stroke.

1992 - The Gwabegar Railway Line (NSW) was closed.

1992 - Open Learning University began playing with peoples minds when it started broadcasting on the ABC TV.

1994 – A parcel bomb exploded at the Adelaide office of the National Crime Authority, killing Detective Sergeant Geoffrey Brown and injuring lawyer Peter Wallis.
Dominic Perre was charged but released due to lack of evidence.

1995 - Gay and Lesbian Teachers and Students split as two Executive Committees seek to take control of the Association.

1996 - John Howard became PM of Oz and put everyone right off the very thought of procreation.

1996 - The Oh So Fabulous Mardi Gras glittered its way through Sydney.

1998 - Channel 10 TV won its timeslot with a broadcast of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade.

1999 - Dominic Davies, co-author of The Sexual Politics of Disability, presented a lecture on disability and sexuality.

2002 - The theme of the spectacular Mardi Gras on this day was Happy Mardi Gras!

2004 - And not a can of baked beans in sight...Cyclone Monty shared its lovin' with 210 kmph winds in Westralia.

2005 - A competition for the design of the National Police Memorial in Canberra was launched today.

2009 - In southern Australia rescuers used jet skis, backhoes and human muscle to save dozens of whales and dolphins stranded on Naracoopa Beach on Tasmania state's King Island. Rescuers refloated 54 whales and five bottlenose dolphins. A total of 194 pilot whales and seven dolphins became stranded the previous evening.

2010 - Today was Queensland's wettest day on record, with an area average of 32mm.

2010 - In Australia Seth Enslow, an American motorcycle stuntman twice, broke the world record for the longest distance jumped on a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, sailing through the air near Australia's Sydney Harbor to shatter the previous 10-year-old record. Bubba Blackwell set the previous record with a 157 foot (47.85 meters) jump in Las Vegas in 1999.

2012 - Multicultural Affairs became a Ministerial portfolio, with Senator Kate Lundy being promoted to the position of Minister for Multicultural Affairs.

2012 - Sen Const David James Rixon (NSW) died whilst on duty.
Posthumously awarded Commissioner's Valour Award.

2013 - Mardi Gras once again prettified the streets of Sydney with the theme of Generations of Love.

2016 - Pukumani poles, which tell a traditional Tiwi story about the creation of rituals to help the dead enter the spirit world, were restored and placed at the new Australian Centre for Indigenous Knowledges and Education.

Grim, Grand and Gay with a side serving of Gory, Glory and Groovy was March 1st in The Fair Isle of Oz.

Let's not beat about the bush on this one; she's packed with enough content to sink the Titanic 6 times over!

The Gory & The Grim

1816: Thomas Hill was hanged for cutting and maiming a police constable near Parramatta.

1816: William Langford was hanged for highway robbery on the Parramatta Road, robbing Wm. Wright of a silver watch.

1828: William Fowler was hanged at Hobart for the murder of a little girl.

1828: Henry Williamson was hanged at Hobart for the murder of Malcolm Logan at Green Ponds (Kempton).

1858: Edward Brown and William Jones were hanged at Melbourne Gaol for Robbery With Violence at Ararat Racecourse.

1870: A riot occurred in Adelaide during a recession. Men offered "starvation wages" for digging trenches rushed the Treasury Building and were dispersed by mounted police using the flat of their swords.

1943: Senior Constable Frederick Edward Jones, Victoria Police, died whilst on duty.

1982: Const. Stephen Henry, Victoria Police, died whilst on duty.

2016: A coronial inquest into the death of an Aboriginal woman in police custody in Broome (2012) led to vital changes in local custodial procedures.

🎖️ The Grand & The Glory

1862: The Police Regulation Act passed; all existing forces amalgamated to establish the NSW Police Force under Inspector General John McLerie.

1901: Federation fever! The Postmaster-General's Department (PMG) became effective, controlling all postal and (later) telecommunications services.

1901: The Australian Navy was "pupped" as naval and military forces of the States transferred to Commonwealth control.

1914: Australian military aviation was born when Lieutenant Eric Harrison flew a Bristol Boxkite from Point Cook, Victoria.

1940: Establishment of the Australian Legation in the US; Richard Gardiner Casey presented his credentials as Envoy Extraordinary.

1942: HMAS Perth was sunk in the Sunda Strait alongside the USS Houston. 353 of Perth's 680 crew were killed in the battle.

1970: The Indian Pacific transcontinental train successfully completed its first journey, covering 3,961km in 65 hours.

2012: The 150th Anniversary of Policing in NSW.

🌈 The Gay & The Groovy

1965: The nation was stunned when the Australian Amateur Swimming Union banned Olympic champion Dawn Fraser from competition for ten years following the Tokyo Olympics.

1967: Go-Set headlined with The Bee Gees signing to Brian Epstein's NEMS, while the annual Moomba pop concert was banned by Trustees.

1971: Federal Labor frontbencher Bill Hayden backed gay law reform.

1975: Life changed forever as Colour TV was officially introduced. ABC’s The Aunty Jack Show was the first full show in bright technicolour.

1975: Olivia Newton-John won the Grammy for Record of The Year for I Honestly Love You.

2003, 2008, 2014: The Sydney Mardi Gras marched through history with themes like "25 Years of Fabulous" and "Kaleidoscope," drawing hundreds of thousands to the streets.

2010: 5,200 people embraced stark naked on the steps of the Sydney Opera House for a Spencer Tunick photo shoot.

🛤️ The "G-Side" Serving (Progress & Pitfalls)

1836: The Newcastle Breakwater was inspected and declared a "decided failure." When those pioneers set out to fail, they did it spectacularly.

1845: Taswegians busted open their mattresses to deposit pennies in the Hobart Savings Bank on its first day of business.

1856: Civil registration started in New South Wales (including Queensland).

1869: Thousands of pigeons went hungry as Sydney teemed with people trying to spy the Duke of Edinburgh on his visit.

1910: RC Banks unsuccessfully attempted the first powered flight in Australia at Digger's Rest.

1919: The extraordinary Smith's Weekly hit the newsstands, leaving many speechless with its fury and laughter.

1954: Adelaide was rockin' and rollin' to a 5.4 magnitude earthquake.

1993: The Federal Disability Discrimination Bill made discrimination unlawful on the basis of AIDS/HIV.

2015: The Matagarup Aboriginal Refugee Camp was set up on Heirisson Island in Perth.


💡 Did You Know?
While we celebrate Australia Day in January, March 1st is arguably the day the nation actually started "acting" like a single country.
On this day in 1901, the individual colonial militias were officially disbanded and reborn as the Commonwealth Military Forces. It was the first time Australians from every state wore the same badge and answered to one single government. Essentially, March 1st is the Australian Army’s official birthday—over 120 years of service that started with a simple paperwork transfer!