Mar 11
6029 is a four-cylinder, simple, non-condensing, superheated, articulated 4-8-4+4-8-4 Garratt steam locomotive, of the AD60 class, built by Beyer, Peacock and Company, Manchester, England, for the New South Wales Government Railways (NSWGR).
Vision used courtesy of:
– NFSA (Steam on the main north line; R McKensie and B Kent 1968),
– Transport Heritage NSW
– Bevan Wall (Australian steam locomotive Garratt 6029 – Hawkesbury River – June 2019)
Feb 01
In late May and early June 1942, during World War II, Imperial Japanese Navy submarines made a series of attacks on the Australian cities of Sydney and Newcastle.
Visit
Australian War Memorial – https://www.awm.gov.au/visit
Royal Australian Navy Naval Heritage Centre – https://www.navy.gov.au/ran-heritage-centre
Fort Scratchley – https://www.newcastle.nsw.gov.au/fort-scratchley/fort-scratchley-home
More information
Navy – https://www.navy.gov.au/history/feature-histories/japanese-midget-submarine-attack-sydney-harbour
Sea Museum – https://www.sea.museum/2017/06/14/midget-submarine-attack-on-sydney-31-may-1-june-1942
ANZAC Memorial – https://www.anzacmemorial.nsw.gov.au/our-stories/our-stories/japanese-submarines-sydney-harbour
Woollahra council – https://www.woollahra.nsw.gov.au/library/local_history/world_war_2/stories_from_woollahra/shelling_of_the_eastern_suburbs
A brilliant book on the subject is ‘A Very Rude Awakening – The Night The Japanese Midget Subs Came To Sydney Harbour’ by: Peter Grose https://amzn.to/3HrFJy0
Jan 26
The CSIRO’s Parkes Radio Telescope was commissioned on a former sheep farm in 1961. It was the most advanced radio telescope on the planet at the time, with many innovative features that have since become standard in all large-dish antennas, and it has maintained it’s cutting edge technology and research ever since.
Based in part on an article by John Sarkissian, CSIRO, first published in The Conversation, and on our own research.
Jan 22
Coolamine Homestead is a wonderful example of a heritage homestead and it can be found on the Cooleman Plains in Kosciuszko National Park. It is a rare, surviving example of a permanent pastoral outstation that retains hand-built slab buildings and yards.
National Parks info – https://www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/things-to-do/historic-buildings-places/coolamine-homestead
Artisans of Australia, film about the restoration work – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcoTnER4Efg
All modern photographs of the site © Andrew Hennell, used with permission
Jan 19
The 2003 Canberra bushfires caused severe damage to the suburbs and outer areas of Canberra, the capital city of Australia, during 18–22 January 2003. Almost 70% of the Australian Capital Territory’s (ACT) pastures, pine plantations, and nature parks were severely damaged, and most of the Mount Stromlo Observatory was destroyed. After burning for a week around the edges of the ACT, the fires entered the suburbs of Canberra on 18 January 2003. Over the next ten hours, four people died, over 490 were injured, and 470 homes were destroyed or severely damaged, requiring a significant relief and reconstruction effort. With actual video of firefighters dealing with the firestorm as it hit.
Jan 15
Martha Rendell (10 August 1871 – 6 October 1909) was the last woman to be hanged in Western Australia, for the murder of her de facto husband’s son, Arthur Morris, in 1908. She was also suspected of killing his two daughters, Annie and Olive, by swabbing their throats with hydrochloric acid.
Jan 11
The Commonwealth Boomerang was designed and built in Australia in response to the impending Japanese invasion of the Australian mainland. It’s main issue was that it sucked as a fighter! But it could attack the ground, and found a use in the war.
Jan 08
Australia had several women bushrangers, and their stories are only now being told. Jessie Hickman (1890-1936) – also known as McIntyre, Bell, Hudson, and Murray, was one such outlaw. We’ve pieced together a brief account of her life.
Jan 04
Her landscapes are truly poems, full of sentiment and feeling – this early pioneer impressionist artist laid the foundations of Australian Impressionism and for women artists who followed.