“They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old. Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them.”
Lest we forget
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Category Archives: History
Aussie prison break of 1876
The plot they hatched was as audacious as it was impossible—a 19th-century raid as elaborate and preposterous as any Ocean’s Eleven script. It was driven by two men—a guilt-ridden Irish Catholic nationalist, who’d been convicted and jailed for treason in England before being exiled to America, and a Yankee whaling captain—a Protestant from New Bedford, Massachusetts—with no attachment to the former’s cause, but a firm belief that it was “the right thing to do.” Along with a third man—an Irish secret agent posing as an American millionaire—they devised a plan to sail halfway around the world to Fremantle, Australia, with a heavily armed crew to rescue a half-dozen condemned Irishmen from one of the most remote and impregnable prison fortresses ever built.
100 years ago: Naming of the Federal Capital of Australia
12th March, 1913: The foundation stone for Canberra was laid by His Excellency The Right Honourable Sir Thomas Denman.
Visit this link for more details on the photo.
Early Contact – Australia
Some years back I bought a book edited by Tim Flannery, titled “The Explorers”, from an ABC store in Australia. It’s an anthology documenting almost four centuries of exploration and includes the work of Eyre, Giles, Hume and Hovell, Leichhardt, Mitchell, Stuart, Sturt, Wills, and many others. One episode, involving Charles Sturt, has stayed with me.
The picture above shows Sturt and his party in a desperate situation. But look closely up on the left bank: there is a native running hard and about to dive into the river. He is a “chief” who Sturt had encountered earlier and made peace with. This man had subsequently realized the danger from the next tribe further along the river and took action. His courage and timing were perfect and enabled Sturt to maintain his reputation for not killing any aboriginals. This other reference takes up the story: Continue reading