Australian History

Thursday, March 31, 1988. :   The Skitube alpine railway extension from Perisher Valley to Mt Blue Cow is opened.

The Kosciuszko National park in southern New South Wales is home to some of Australia’s best ski fields, including Perisher Valley and Mt Blue Cow. Access to the popular Perisher snowfields was only enabled by a single road which could become icy and dangerous in winter. As development of the Thredbo and Perisher Valley ski fields expanded during the 1980s, the single road access was no longer sufficient for those travelling for the ski season. Environmental concerns in the delicate alpine region ruled out improved road infrastructure, while costs would have been prohibitive. Chairlifts, overhead gondolas and cable railways were investigated as alternative modes of transport, but each of these had their limitations.

It was determined that a rack-rail system was the most viable option, especially if much of it could be run underground. The rack-rail, or cog/rack, system utilises cogs positioned underneath the powered rail cars which mesh into a rack of teeth beneath the rail tracks. Originally developed in Switzerland by engineer Roman Abt, it is a very safe method of transportation, and used where the grade is too steep for normal wheels to attain traction.

Construction of the standard-gauge rail line began in October 1984, and tunnelling commenced in June the following year. The first leg of the alpine railway extended from Bullocks Flat, through Bilston tunnel, to the resort at Perisher Valley, and was opened in 1987. With the development of the Mt Blue Cow ski fields as well, the decision was made to extend the Skitube from Perisher to Blue Cow. While the tunnel between Bullock Flats to Perisher was constructed using a 5.5m diameter tunnel boring machine, traditional drill and blast methods were used for the Blue Cow tunnel.

The line to Blue Cow was opened on 31 March 1988. The entire length of the Skitube alpine railway is 8.5km, with 6.3km of that underground, while the vertical rise from Bullocks Flat to Blue Cow is 755m. Travel time from Bullocks Flat to Blue Cow is fifteen minutes.

Australian History

Saturday, March 31, 2007. :   The people of Sydney, Australia initiate the very first Earth Hour.

‘Earth Hour’ has developed into a world-wide event, designed to raise awareness of sustainability issues. Across the world, cities, businesses and residents turn off lights and other unnecessary electrical appliances for one hour in a symbolic observance of our use of Earth’s resources.

Earth Hour is now organised by the WWF, but it had its origins in Sydney, Australia well before the original Earth Hour in 2007. At that time, the WWF met with the Leo Burnett Sydney advertising agency to come up with a way to gain the interest and awareness of Australians regarding issues of climate change as the result of people’s current lifestyle. By 2005, the campaign had developed a working title of “The Big Flick”. The advertising agency then worked to develop a title that would go beyond merely turning off lights – and hence, ‘Earth Hour’ was born. When Fairfax media agreed to support the idea via its newspaper ‘The Sydney Morning Herald’, the campaign really took off.

The very first Earth Hour occurred between 7:30 and 8:30pm on 31 March 2007. At the time, 2.2 million homes and businesses in the Sydney area switched off their lights for the period of one hour. Since then, Earth Hour has expanded to the point where, in 2011, it was observed in over 130 countries.

World History

Monday, March 31, 1902. :   The world’s first powered flight of a heavier-than-air craft is said to have occurred in New Zealand, even before the famous Wright brothers.

Much controversy exists around the many competing claims of early aviators. The world’s first powered flight of a heavier-than-air aircraft is credited to the Wright brothers in Ohio, USA, on 17 December 1903. There are claims, however, that the world’s first such flight was undertaken by twenty-five year old New Zealander, Richard Pearse, on 31 March 1902 (some sources quote 1903).

Pearse was a creative and unassuming inventor who essentially built his flying machine out of farm parts. It incorporated tricycle type landing gear and ailerons, or movable flaps on the wings to control its rolling and banking movements. Pearse’s initial flight was an estimated distance of 300m and limited to a straight line, ending prematurely when the flying machine landed in a hedge some 4 metres off the ground. As Pearse did not realise the historical value of his flight, he did not arrange for any photographs to be taken of his flight, and evidence that it occurred has only been provided through the reports of eyewitnesses.

The claim is disputed mostly along the argument that, though his flight was powered, it does not truly come under the category of “controlled and sustained”, unlike the Wright brothers. Regardless of semantics, however, his design was superior and Pearse is regarded as one of the true pioneers of flight.

World History

Saturday, March 31, 1945. :   WWII diarist, Anne Frank, dies.

Anne Frank was born on 12 June 1929. As persecution of the Jews escalated in WWII, she was forced to go into hiding during the German occupation of the Netherlands. She, her family and four other people spent two years in an annex of rooms above her father’s office in Amsterdam. After two years of living in this way, they were betrayed to the Nazis and deported to concentration camps. At the age of 15, Anne Frank died after a typhus epidemic spread through the camp killing an estimated 17,000 prisoners at Bergen-Belsen. The date has been variously estimated as 31 March 1945, just two months before the end of the war. After the war, it was estimated that of the 110,000 Jews deported from the Netherlands during the Nazi occupation, only 5,000 survived.

Anne Frank’s legacy is her diary. It was given to her as a simple autograph/notebook for her thirteenth birthday. In it she recorded not only the personal details of her life, but also her observations of living under Nazi occupation until the final entry of 1 August 1944.

World History

Friday, March 31, 1950. :   Norwegian adventurer Thor Heyerdahl publishes his book, Kon-Tiki, an account of his famous journey across the Pacific Ocean.

Thor Heyerdahl, born on 6 October 1914, in Larvik, Norway, was an anthropologist and marine biologist who developed an interest in the origins of settlement in the islands of the south Pacific. In 1947, he proposed an expedition to prove that people from South America could have settled Polynesia in the south Pacific before European exploration made any impact in the area. He and a crew of 5 sailed on the Kon-Tiki, a simple balsawood raft made in a design similar to that used by South American natives. Heyerdahl sailed the Kon-Tiki for 101 days over a distance of nearly 7,000km across the Pacific Ocean before crashing into the reef at Raroia in the Tuamotu Islands on 7 August 1947. Heyerdahl published the account of his journey in the book entitled “Kon-Tiki” on 31 March 1950.

Heyerdahl believed his journey proved his theory of the origins of the south Pacific peoples, and the subsequent documentary he produced received wide acclaim. However, more recent research and DNA testing has shown that the natives of the area bear more similarities to the people of southeast Asia than to the people of South America.

World History

Saturday, March 31, 1990. :   Riots erupt in central London over the controversial poll-tax.

A poll tax is a tax of a uniform, fixed amount per individual, as opposed to a percentage of income. In 1990, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher introduced a poll tax with reductions for people with low incomes or disabilities. Each person was charged for the services provided in their community. Due to the amount of local taxes paid by businesses varying, as did the amount of grant provided by central government to individual local authorities, there were substantial differences in the amount charged between boroughs, with Conservative boroughs often charging less.

As the charges began to rise, up to 18 million people refused to pay the tax. Enforcement measures became increasingly draconian, and unrest mounted and culminated in numerous riots. The most serious of these happened in London on 31 March 1990, during a protest at Trafalgar Square, London, which soon escalated into riots which then spread to Charing Cross Road, Pall Mall, Regent Street and Covent Garden. Between 100,000 and 200,000 protestors turned out in a mostly peaceful demonstration, until an unruly few thousand resisted the police presence, resulting in violence. Ultimately, 113 people were injured as well as 20 police horses, over 400 protestors were arrested, and property damage was estimated at £400,000. Prime Minister Thatcher resigned in November of that year.