Aussie Trivia
(Originally published in Aussie Post. Written by Liz Palmer under the name of L.
Palmer)
·
In 1854, gold diggers had to pay 30 shillings a month for a
license. This was annoying enough, but
the way the traps carried out license searches really ticked them off.
·
When James Scobie was killed and the publican of the Eureka Hotel,
Bently, was acquitted, the diggers became really steamed up.
·
A meeting outside the Eureka Hotel started peacefully enough,
but ended with the Eureka Hotel being burned to the ground. Three diggers were arrested.
·
Demands to release the diggers were ignored. At a monster meeting, the diggers raised a
flag of the Southern Cross on a blue background and threw their licenses into
the fire.
·
After more raids by the traps, the diggers built a stockade
on Eureka Hill. Those that didn’t have
guns armed themselves with pikes.
·
The soldiers stormed the stockade very early on Sunday
morning, at a time when most of the diggers had gone home. Five soldiers and 30 diggers were killed.
Buildings On
Lydiard Street Ballarat, Victoria, Australia
Beanland, Glenn
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·
Banjo Patterson was visiting a mate at Dogworth Station,
North Queensland, when Christina Macpherson played Craigielea, a tune
she’d heard at the Warnambool races.
·
That tune, along with some of the things he heard and saw
during his stay, inspired the words to Waltzing Matilda.
·
It’s likely Banjo first heard the term Waltzing Matilda
(which means carrying a swag) while he was at Dogworth. Other Aussie words in the song are jumbuck
(sheep), swagman, coollabah tree (a type of gum tree) and billabong.
·
The first public performance of Waltzing Matilda was
at the North Gregory Hotel in Winton.
The version known by most Aussies was arranged by Marie Cowan in 1903 as
a promotional gimmick for Billy Tea.
·
Waltzing
Matilda was a contender for the National
Anthem in 1973, but it lost out to a song that bugger-all people know the words
to – Advance Australia Fair.
·
Bathurst’s Mt Panorama used to be called Bald Hills. The local rag held a competition to find a
new name, with Mt Panorama the winning entry.
·
The road on Mt Panorama was initially proposed as a scenic
drive.
·
Construction on the road began in 1936.
·
The New South Wales Light Car Club wanted a road that was spectacular,
had balanced technical hazards and was a test of driver skill.
·
It was opened on March 17, 1938.
·
It was first used as a racing circuit on April 16, 1938, when
18,000 people turned up to watch the Easter motorcycle racing.
·
The road would have been a bit hairy back then, as it wasn’t
yet sealed.
·
Australian Touring Car Championship races at Bathurst started
with the Armstrong 500. The race was
130 laps around the famous circuit, making it 500 miles in the old scale.
·
The first winners of the Armstrong 500 were Harry Firth and
Bob Jane. They drove a sporty Cortina.
·
The race turned metric in 1973, changing from 500 miles to
1000km.
·
The track is now 6.213km.
The annual Bathurst 1000 is 161 laps around the track.
·
There’s a winery on the mountain and the Conrod Straight
Chardonnay is a damn tasty drop.
·
The first man to try to cross the mountains was Lieutenant
Dawes in 1789.
·
And others who thought they’d give it a burl included Bass in
1796, and Caley in 1804, who said the trek was like walking “over the tops of
houses in a town”.
·
Blaxland, Wentworth and Lawson are credited with being the
first white men to cross the mountains, but they stopped at Mt Blaxland, having
spoted good land further on.
·
At the time of this journey, 1813, Wentworth was only 23
years old.
·
While crossing the mountains, they traveled two to five miles
a day.
·
Instead of traveling along the valleys, they decided to
travel along the ridge.
·
In 1813, Evans traveled 100 miles further than Blaxland,
Lawson and Wentworth and hit Bathurst.
·
After Evans’ journey, Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth were
named as the first white men to cross the mountains and each given 1000 acres
of land.
The Three Sisters
Rock Formation, Blue Mountains NP, New South Wales, Australia
Stribley, Dallas
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·
The Anzacs turned up at Gallipoli around dawn on 25 April,
1915. The day has been celebrated an
Anzac Day ever since.
·
They were too far north.
Instead of the law sandbanks they were bargaining on, they copped cliffs
almost 100m high, covered in thick scrub.
·
16,000 Anzacs landed at Gallipoli on the first day, and 2000
of them were killed.
·
The Aussies were known for their clobber – or lack of
it! Because of the heat, they went
around practically starkers, giving them the nickname The Naked Army.
·
An inventive lot, they built bombs using old tins filled with
scraps of barbed wire, shrapnel and odd ammo.
·
Disease was a major worry, especially a form of dysentery
known as Gallipoli Gallop.
·
In a truce to bury the dead, the two sides exchanged ciggies and
souvenirs.
·
The Anzacs cleared out of Gallipoli just before
Christmas. About 8000 Aussies were
killed and 19,000 were injured during the eight months of fighting.
Gallipoli
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·
John Simpson Kirkpatrick was born in England. He enlisted in the AIF under the name John
Simpson. As a teenager, he used to give
donkey rides to kids.
·
When the ANZACs landed at Gallipoli, Simpson got separated
from his own unit. He found a donkey
and began his own one-man rescue outfit.
·
He took the donkey, which he named Duffy, around Shrapnel
Gull, Monash Gully and Quinns Post, carting water up and the wounded down. It was a gutsy thing to do as the area was
riddled with snipers.
·
Once he was offered money.
Simpson said “Keep your blinking quid.
I’m not doing this for money.”
·
Simpson was killed on May 19, during an assault by the Turks.
·
He never received a Victoria Cross, as the VC calls for a
single act of valour – Simpson performed many.
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·
The FJ Holden was released on October 29, 1953.
·
The most significant difference from the earlier Holden model
– the FX – was a new radiator grille.
Some other differences included new hub caps, a chromed bonnet mascot
and stainless steel trim around the windows.
·
There were three variations of the sedan – the Standard
(FJ-215), the Business Sedan (FJ-217) and the Special (FJ-225).
·
The utility was introduced at the same time. The panel van followed in December.
·
A station wagon version of the FJ was never produced, but GMH
did build 24 wagons for dealers.
·
The price for a Standard FJ Holden was £1023. A Special FJ Holden cost £1074.
·
Hopalong Cassidy used an FJ when he visited Adelaide on
November 15, 1954. GMH cut out the back
half of the roof of a black FJ, so that Hopalong could stand and greet his fans
as the car drove past.
·
All up, 169,969 FJ vehicles were produced. The last FJ sedan body left the line on June
19, 1956.
The FJ Holden: A Favorite Australian Car
·
In 1956, the Olympics made their first appearance in the
Southern Hemisphere – in Melbourne.
·
Sir Frank Beaurepaire, who lobbied hard for Melbourne to
receive the Olympics, died seven months before they were here. He would have been Lord Mayor when the
Olympics were on.
·
There were a few barneys over the site of the main
stadium. The IOC even threatened to
take the games away if we didn’t sort it out.
·
Eventually, the MCG was chosen. On November 22, 103,000 spectators turned up to watch the opening
ceremony.
·
Even more watched it at home on the box. TV came to Oz in September – just in time
for the Games.
·
The Aussies won 37 medals – 13 gold, eight silver and 14
bronze, making us third in the medal tally behind USA and USSR. Dawn Fraser, Murray Rose, Betty Cuthbert and
Shirley Strickland were among those who won gold.
The Naked Olympics: The True Story of the Ancient Games
Olympic Runner,
1956
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·
Dad and Dave was first published in 1895, in a
short story in The Bulletin, the first of many tales of the Rudd family
and their selection in Snake Gully. In
1899, these stories were published as On Our Selection.
·
They were written by Arthur Hoey Davis, using the pen-name
Steele Rudd and based on his family.
·
Dad and Dave were showbiz icons of the stage,
screen, radio, TV and comics.
·
The first film, On Our Selection (1920), was dedicated
to Aussie pioneers. More films
followed, most starring Bert Bailey.
·
From 1937, there were 2276 radio episodes of Dad and Dave,
sponsored by Wrigley’s chewing gum, with The Road to Gundagai as is
theme tune.
·
At Melbourne Cup time, the radio series aired the Snake Gully
Cup. Some listeners even rang up about
the state of the horses.
·
There are statues of Dad and Dave at the Snake Gully Tourist
Centre, near Gundagai.
·
Harry Harbord Morant was born in England. He came to Australia in the 1880s.
·
It was his reputation as a top-notch horse-breaker than
earned him his famous nickname – The Breaker.
·
It was under this nickname that he published poetry in The
Bulletin.
·
He joined the South Australian Mounted Rifles to fight in the
Boer War.
·
His good friend, Captain Hunt, was killed by Boers and his
body was mutilated.
·
When Morant discovered a Boer named Visser with Hunt’s
clothing, he had him executed.
·
Morant, Peter Handcock and George Whitton were charged with
the murder of Visser, as well as that of eight other Boers and a missionary.
·
Morant claimed he was upset by his Friend Hunt’s death, and
that Kitchener had given orders that no Boer prisoners were to be taken.
·
All three were found guilty of the murder of Visser and the
Boers and sentenced to death.
·
Whitton’s sentence was changed to imprisonment. He was released after three years.
·
Morant and Handcock were executed in February, 1902.
Breaker Morant
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·
The Sydney Harbour Bridge has the nickname, the
coathanger. It is 134m high, 502m long,
48.8m wide and weighs 52,800 tonnes.
·
The first proposal for a bridge to span the harbour came from
Francis Greenway in 1815.
·
Work began on the bridge in 1923.
·
The arch was built in two sections, one from Dawes Point and
one from Milson’s Pooint. The arches
came together in 1930.
·
It was officially opened on March 19, 1932, b the NSW
Premier, Jack Lang.
·
Edward de Groot, of the New Guard movement, threw a hammer in
the works when he rode up on a horse, dressed in a military uniform and cut the
ribbon with his sword. It was then
retied and Lang cut it with scissors.
·
2500 people fainted at the opening.
·
There was a toll of 6d for a driver, 3d for a passenger and a
penny for the kids.
·
The Sydney Harbour Bridge cost around £10
million. Sixteen men died during its
construction.
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Sydney Harbour Bridge,
Sydney, Australia
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·
Two days after Singapore surrendered to the Japanese, 15,000
Aussies marched to Changi, on the east side of the Island.
·
As far as Japanese POW camps went, Changi was the pick of the
bunch. POWs I other camps sometimes
mutilated themselves so they could be sent there.
·
The Japanese kept 15,400 Aussies in a very small area, until
they agreed to sign a declaration that they wouldn’t try to escape. Many of the Aussies made up names – a lot of
Ned Kellys signed that document!
·
Special forces were sent from Changi to work on projects like
the Burma-Thailand railway, where 2650 Aussies died.
·
The main worry for the Aussies was lack of tucker. They tried to add whatever food they could
find to their small portions of rice – even rats, snakes and snails.
·
There were regular concerts with Happy Harry Smith, known for
his catch-phrase, “You’ll never get off the island.”
·
Instead of dunnies, the POWs used bore-holes in the
ground. Bore-hole became slang for
rumour.
Surviving the Sword: Prisoners of the Japanese in the Far East, 1942-45
·
Phar Lap, a colt, was born in Timaru, New Zealand, in 1926.
·
Phar Lap’s original owner, US-born David J Davis, paid just
160 guineas – or $336 – on the advice on trainer Hugh Telford.
·
David was furious when he saw Phar Lap and said he wouldn’t
waste money on such a nag. Telfrod
leased the horse for three years.
·
Phar Lap was sired by Night Raid – an undistinguished
Pommy-bred stallion.
·
Phar Lap did have one thing going for him – Musket, the sire
of Carbine, appeared on both sides of his pedigree.
·
Phar Lap had 51 starts, with 37 wins, three seconds and two
thirds. He won stakes of £66,738.
·
An attempt was made to shoot him in 1930, just before he won
the Melbourne Cup.
·
Just 16 days before his death, Phar Lap won the Agua Caliente
Handicap in Mexico.
·
He died in April 19732.
The official cause was listed as colic, but there were rumours of
poisoning.
·
After his death, Phar Lap’s heart was weighed at 6.3kg.
Phar Lap
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·
Prior to the bombing, 2200 women and children were evacuated
from Darwin.
·
Commander Mitsua, who led the Japanese bombing of Pearl
Harbor, headed the attack.
·
There were 188 aircraft involved in the attack – 81
level-bombers, 71 dive-bombers and 36 Zero fighters.
·
The first raid was at 9.58am on February 19, 1942. It lasted about 30 minutes.
·
There were more than 45 ships in Darwin’s harbour at the
time. One of them was the US destroyer Peary,
which went down with a loss of 81 men.
Seven more ships were sunk and more were damaged, including the hospital
ship Manunda.
·
A second attack took place at 11.58am on the same day.
·
At Darwin’s RAAF base, the station commander gave an order to
assemble “half a mile down the Batchelor road and half a mile into the
bush”. Some of the men took this as
leave to head for Melbourne!
·
At least 243 people were killed in the first two raids.
North of Capricorn: The Untold Story of Australia's North