It was on this day 103 years ago that great great uncle Archie Campbell fell on the battlefield in France. This letter is from his best mate, and neighbour from his childhood Reggie Callister. Reggie was there when Arch fell, he tells us where, and how it happened. This information inspired one of our next stories. “Archie Campbell - Letters from the Great War”
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Sergeant De Sales A Glover of the 458th Bomb Group poses next to his ship Big Time Operator with his waist gun and ammunition. He had completed six missions with the group and won an Air Medal before authorities discovered he was only 16 years old, at which point he was honorably discharged from service
We are camped at Woolomin, not far from Nundle and Ben Hall’s Gap National Park. Was hoping to get in there and see where young Ben Hall once lived as a boy, but bushfires will put an end to that. Will head down to Murrurundi, where Ben Hall parents once owned a store. All this before the legendary Bushranger Ben Hall will burst into history.
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As we pass through Uralla, New South Wales. We stopped for a photo with statue of Frederick Wordsworth Ward “Captain Thunderbolt”, still one of our first and most popular stories.
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Dinner time, Lake Mulwala as we head north. The beginning of a new era of stories. This is Australia!
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It was on this day in 1917 the first passenger service will depart Port Augusta in South Australia for Kalgoorlie in Western Australia. The journey being 1,692km taking 42 hours and 48 minutes, and at no point along the line does it cross permanent fresh watercourse. The railway then known as the Great Western Express was a federally funded railway and used as an inducement for Western Australian to join the federation in 1901.
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On this day in 1949 work will commence on one of the modern wonders of the engineering world. It was the Snowy Mountains Hydroelectric Scheme, and is renowned for the number of different nationalities that came together to work on this project. The project will take 25 years to complete and be under budget. Australia has always been multicultural, few people realise as far back as the first fleet our new Australians included Afro-American’s, West-Indian, Portuguese, Dutch, German, and French convicts and crew.
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On this day in 1867 James Nash will start the Gympie gold rush when he discovered gold in the Mary River. The discovery of Gold was timely as the colony of Queensland was in a severe depression, with work having stopped on the Ipswich- Toowoomba railway, and unemployed marching the streets of Brisbane. The government had offered 3000 pounds reward for a payable find. Nash only received 1000 pounds for the find, as it didn’t meet all the criteria. He invested in an ill fated drapery store that would see him lose most of his money. Nash passed away in 1913 leaving a wife and 5 children.
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On this day in 1953, Britain will conduct it first nuclear test on the Australian mainland. It was the first of two detonations in the Great Victoria Desert in South Australia, at Emu Field. The remaining testing program will be conducted closer to Adelaide at Maralinga. During the testing, scientists expected the radioactive cloud would disperse quickly in the upper atmosphere and were surprised when it didn’t, instead travelling in a concentrated mass over eastern Australia.
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On this day in 1958 Sir Douglas Mawson passed away at his home in Brighton, Adelaide he was 76. Mawson was born in Yorkshire, England and worked as a geologist before joining Ernest Shackleton on his first expedition to Antarctica in 1907-09 and being part of the first ascent of Mt Erebus. Mawson would later lead his own expedition in 1910-13 to Antarctica and become the first person to reach the South Pole. The expedition was better known for being the greatest survival story in history.
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