Australian Explorer
Tuesday, March 27, 1838. : Eyre discovers Lake Hindmarsh in South Australia.
Edward John Eyre was born on 5 August 1815 in Hornsea, Yorkshire. After coming to Australia, he gained valuable bush skills whilst droving cattle overland from Sydney through to the Liverpool Plains, Molonglo and Port Phillip. He was keen to open new stock routes through the country, and aimed to be the first to overland cattle from Sydney to the fledgling colony of South Australia.
On 21 December 1837, Eyre departed from Limestone Plains where Canberra now stands, with one thousand sheep and six hundred cattle. His route took him first to Melbourne where he replenished his supplies, then he hoped to head directly west to Adelaide, thus avoiding returning along the better-known route of the Murray River. Conditions were difficult, with the countryside in the grip of late summer drought, and he was beaten back by the impenetrable mallee country of western Victoria. Eyre was forced to retrace his steps to the Murray River. The party struggled from lack of water and drove the animals as quickly as they could to the almost-dry Wimmera River. On 27 March 1838, Eyre was guided by friendly Aborigines to a previously unknown freshwater lake, where waterfowl was abundant. Eyre named it Lake Hindmarsh, after the first Governor of South Australia, Sir John Hindmarsh.
The overlanding venture ended up covering close to 2,500 kilometres and took nearly seven months. Because of his unsuccessful short-cut, Eyre was not the first to overland cattle to South Australia: he was beaten by drovers Joseph Hawdon and Charles Bonney.
Australian History
Monday, March 27, 1848. : A brutal murder is committed in colonial Brisbane, but the murderer’s legacy eventually leads to the founding of the University of Queensland.
The colony of the Moreton Bay District was founded in 1824 when explorer John Oxley arrived at Redcliffe with a crew and 29 convicts. The settlement was established at Humpybong, but abandoned less than a year later when the main settlement was moved 30km away, to the Brisbane River. Another convict settlement was established under the command of Captain Patrick Logan. In September 1825, the settlement was given the name of Brisbane. The area was opened up for free settlement in 1838, and in 1839, there were calls to cease transportation to Moreton Bay. In May 1842, Moreton Bay was declared a free settlement.
Becoming a free settlement did not mean Brisbane was free of crime. On the morning of 27 March 1848, residents discovered there had been a brutal murder in their midst. Parts of the body of forester Robert Cox, who had been butchered the day before, were found around Kangaroo Point, a settlement on the Brisbane River. While a local cook was arrested, and subsequently hanged, it was later revealed that the wrong man had been convicted.
Patrick Mayne was a local butcher who had committed the murder and stolen the money in order to establish his own shop. Mayne went on to become one of the settlement’s wealthiest people and an excellent businessman, and he was later elected to Brisbane’s first municipal council. Following a deathbed confession of the murder in 1865, it transpired that Mayne suffered from schizophrenia, and had violent tendencies. His children were ostracised, and several suffered from mental illness also. Using their father’s wealth, two of the children, James and Mary, donated the land upon which the prestigious University of Queensland now stands.
There remains some doubt as to whether Patrick Mayne did actually commit the murder. Regardless, the man’s legacy lives on in the University of Queensland.
Australian History
Thursday, March 27, 1930. : Brisbane and Sydney are joined by standard-gauge rail link.
From the beginning of the development of a railway network in Australia, each of the colonies adopted their own gauge, or width of railway track. In Victoria, Tasmania and parts of South Australia, the gauge was 1600 mm; in Western Australia, Queensland and the remainder of South Australia, it was a narrow 1067 mm, while Tasmania also changed to 1067 mm in the late 1800s; and New South Wales adopted the standard European gauge of 1435 mm. Passengers crossing Australia from Brisbane to Perth were required to change trains six times.
There were also difficulties for train travellers between Sydney and Brisbane. For decades, the only rail link between Queensland and New South Wales was at Wallangarra, near the northern New South Wales town of Tenterfield. Here, because of the different gauges, passengers were required to transfer to a new train, while freight had to be transhipped in freight sheds. It was clear that a direct rail link was needed between the capital cities of these two eastern states.
On 27 March 1930, a standard-gauge rail link was opened at South Brisbane, with the ribbon being officially cut by Mrs A E Moore, wife of the Premier of Queensland. The coastal route shaved 101 miles, or 162 km, off the inland route, and saved five to six hours in travel time.
Australian History
Wednesday, March 27, 2013. : Australia’s longest road bridge, spanning the Macleay River and surrounding floodplains in New South Wales, is opened to traffic.
The Macleay River is a river in the New South Wales mid-coast. Over its 298km east-southeast course, it is joined by 26 tributaries before emptying into the ocean near the town of South West Rocks. Because of this, it is subject to flooding. The main eastern highway, the Pacific Highway, crosses the Macleay River floodplains and continues through the nearby town of Kempsey. Due to regular flooding and the location of a major highway through the town, a new Kempsey bypass was planned to alleviate many of the problems associated with flooding and regular roadworks to repair damage. The bridge was constructed as part of the 14.5km bypass.
Unnamed for several months, the Macleay River Bridge, also known by locals as the Kempsey Bridge, was opened to traffic on 27 March 2013, after first being opened for pedestrians for a preview walk on 24 February. With a length of 3.2km, it features 941 concrete super-T beams, each 34m long and 1,500mm deep, supported by 93 piers.
The bridge overtook the Hornibrook Highway in Queensland as Australia’s longest bridge. Joining Brighton on Brisbane’s north shore to the Redcliffe Peninsula, this was Australia’s longest bridge from when it opened in 1935 until it was dismantled in 2011.
World History
Friday, March 27, 1964. : An earthquake of magnitude 9.2 strikes Alaska, killing 125.
Alaska is the northernmost state of the United States, bordered by Canada to the east, the Gulf of Alaska and the Pacific Ocean to the south, the Bering Sea to the west, and the Arctic Ocean to the north. It was also the scene of the most powerful earthquake in US and North American history.
At 5:36pm Alaska Standard Time on 27 March 1964, a fault between the Pacific and North American plates ruptured near College Fjord in Prince William Sound. With a magnitude of 9.2, the quake lasted for three to five minutes in most areas, generating huge tsunamis that swept down upon the Alaskan coast. The earthquake affected some 250,000 km² of the state: much damage was caused by liquefaction, creating landslides, huge fissures and vertical displacement of up to 11.5m in some areas. 131 people were killed as a result of the earthquake: nine in the earthquake itself, 106 from tsunamis in Alaska, and 16 from tsunamis elsewhere. Property damage was estimated at over $300 million (1964 dollars), the equivalent of $1.8 billion in 2005 US dollars.
World History
Sunday, March 27, 1977. : 583 are killed as two jumbo jets collide on a runway in Tenerife, the Canary Islands.
The Canary Islands constitute an archipelago of seven islands in the Atlantic Ocean. They are located off the north-western coast of Africa and form an autonomous community of Spain. On the evening of 27 March 1977, a Boeing 747 belonging to Dutch national airline KLM, and a Pan American 747 travelling from Los Angeles to the island of Las Palmas, collided on the runway at Los Rodeos airport, Tenerife.
Both aircraft, along with at least three others, had been diverted to Tenerife after a terrorist bomb threat closed the airport on nearby Las Palmas. Los Rodeos was a small regional airport, unable to cater for so many large aircraft, having just one runway and one major taxiway parallel to it, as well as several small taxiways connecting them. The diverted aircraft were parked on the long taxiway, meaning that it could not be used for taxiing. Instead, departing aircraft were required to taxi along the runway to position themselves for take-off. Fog limited the visual range to 300m.
The collision occurred when the KLM jumbo preparing for take-off clipped the Pan-Am plane which was taxiing across the runway. The lower fuselage of the KLM plane hit the upper fuselage of the Pan Am plane, ripping apart the centre of the Pan Am jet above the wing. The KLM plane slammed into the ground belly-up 150 m past the point of collision and slid down the runway. 583 people were killed in the resultant explosion and fireball; no-one aboard the KLM jet survived. 335 of the 396 aboard the Pan Am flight survived, including the captain, who was later cleared of any blame. The crash was blamed on the KLM pilot who had not checked if he was clear for take-off.
World History
Thursday, March 27, 1980. : 123 oil rig workers are killed after a North Sea accommodation platform collapses.
The North Sea is in the Atlantic Ocean, located between Norway, Denmark and the UK. North Sea oil was discovered in the early 1960s, with the first North Sea oil coming on line in 1971. It contains the majority of Europe’s oil reserves and is one of the largest non-OPEC producing regions in the world. Most reserves lie beneath waters belonging to the United Kingdom and Norway.
On 27 March 1980, gales in the North Sea generated huge waves which hit the accommodation section of the Norwegian oil platform Alexander Kielland, resulting in its collapse. The accommodation platform contained bedrooms, lounges, kitchens and leisure facilities for workers, most of whom were Norwegian, though there were some Americans and Britons on board. It was later discovered that there was a previously undetected crack in one leg of the platform, weakening the structure. Whilst some workers were able to reach the lifeboats before the platform fully capsized, the accident killed 123 oil rig workers.