May 18
Australian Explorers Tuesday, May 18, 1841. : Eyre’s sole surviving companion, Wylie the Aborigine, gorges himself on a penguin and most of a kangaroo. Edward John Eyre was the first white man to cross southern Australia from Adelaide to the west, travelling across the Nullarbor Plain to King George’s Sound, now called Albany. Eyre originally intended to […]
May 07
Born on this day Thursday, May 7, 1840. : Composer Tchaikovsky is born. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, also Anglicised as Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky, was born in Kamsko-Votkinsk, Russia, on 7 May 1840. His musical talent became apparent while he was still very young, and at age 21 he entered the St Petersburg Conservatory, where he studied composition with […]
May 08
Australian Explorers Tuesday, May 8, 1838. : Eyre’s first overlanding venture is threatened as he discovers the Loddon River is almost dry. 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 […]
May 23
Australian History Tuesday, May 23, 1837. : Streets and squares in Adelaide, capital of South Australia, are first named. Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia, the only Australian state to have remained entirely free of convicts during its early history. The city of Adelaide was designed by Colonel William Light, born at Kuala Kedah, Malaya […]
May 25
Australian Explorers Tuesday, May 25, 1830. : After tracing the Murray River for thousands of kilometres, Sturt’s party finally arrives back in Sydney. Captain Charles Sturt was born in India in 1795. He came to Australia in 1827, and soon after undertook to solve the mystery of where the inland rivers of New South Wales flowed. Because […]
May 02
Australian History Saturday, May 2, 1829. : The city of Fremantle, Western Australia, is founded as Captain Fremantle hoists the Union Jack. The city of Fremantle lies just south of Perth, at the mouth of the Swan River. Dutch captain Willem de Vlamingh named the Swan River in 1697 because of the black swans he saw in […]
May 27
Born on this day Saturday, May 27, 1815. : Australian politician and the ‘Father of Federation’, Sir Henry Parkes, is born. Henry Parkes was born in Warwickshire, England, on 27 May 1815. A failed business venture prompted him to seek passage with his wife to Australia, and he arrived in Sydney in 1839. Moving up from a […]
May 31
Australian Explorers Monday, May 31, 1813. : Explorers Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth view the rich Bathurst Plains for the first time. When the First Fleet arrived in New South Wales in 1788, all efforts concentrated on developing farmland and a food supply to support the convict colony. Free settlers also began to arrive, lured by the promise […]
May 03
Australian History Thursday, May 3, 1804. : The war between white settlers and Tasmanian Aborigines begins with the “Battle of Risdon”. For many years, Van Diemen’s Land (now Tasmania) was thought to be part of the mainland of Australia. In January 1799 Bass and Flinders completed their circumnavigation of Tasmania, proving it to be an island. As […]
May 13
Australian History Sunday, May 13, 1787. : The First Fleet of convicts departs Portsmouth, England, bound for Botany Bay. Conditions in England in the 18th century were tough: the industrial revolution had removed many people’s opportunities to earn an honest wage as simpler tasks were replaced by machine labour. As unemployment rose, so did crime, especially the […]