Australian History
Wednesday, May 4, 1842. : The colony of the Moreton Bay District is declared a free settlement.
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. On 10 September 1825, the settlement was given the name of Brisbane, but it was still part of the New South Wales territory. The area was opened up for free settlement in 1838, and in 1839, there were calls to cease transportation to Moreton Bay. On 4 May 1842, Moreton Bay was declared a free settlement.
In 1859, Queen Victoria signed Letters Patent, which declared that Queensland was now a separate colony from New South Wales. On 6 June 1859, the former Moreton Bay District was granted separation from New South Wales, and given the name of Queensland, with Brisbane as its capital city. June 6th is celebrated every year as Queensland Day, the day which marks the birth of Queensland as a self-governing colony. On 1 January 1901, Queensland became one of the six founding States of the Commonwealth of Australia.
Australian History
Tuesday, May 4, 1852. : The Second Gold Escort arrives in Adelaide, returning wealth from the Victorian goldfields to the colony of South Australia.
The discovery of gold in New South Wales and Victoria in 1851 was a great boon to those states, but a disaster for South Australia. Very little payable gold had been found in South Australia, and hopeful prospectors were leaving the colony in droves to seek their fortune. By the end of 1851, around 15,000 men had left South Australia, leaving few to work the mines at Kapunda and Burra. The result was the temporary closure of the mines, and an economic recession for South Australia.
Alexander Tolmer was an English immigrant who had arrived in South Australia in 1840. With his military background, he had been appointed by Governor Gawler to be Sub-Inspector of Police, a position in which he had demonstrated skills in organisation and discipline. In 1852, he was appointed Commissioner of Police and Police Magistrate. In this capacity, he proposed that the gold found by South Australians should be returned to the colony rather than sold in Victoria. Tolmer also proposed that he be the one to bring the gold back to South Australia under escort. men. His proposal was accepted, and the government passed Assay Bullion Act, which authorised the establishment of an assay office and smelting facilities.
Tolmer’s first escort to the Mt Alexander goldfields resulted in the return of £21,000 worth of gold to the South Australian colony in a journey which took eleven days each way. The success of the first escort prompted Tolmer to organise a second expedition, implementing some improvements such as better accommodation and facilities along the route such as changing stations and hay for the horses. He even proposed the establishment of a town near the border, which later became Bordertown. The second Gold Escort returned to Adelaide on 4 May 1852 with 19,235 ounces of gold valued at £70,000′ This was almost four times the amount consigned by the first escort, and collected by around three times as many diggers.
In all, there were eighteen gold escorts between Mt Alexander and Adelaide, with the final escort completing its journey in December 1853. It is estimated that up to £2,000,000 worth of money and gold was returned from South Australian diggers to Adelaide via the escorts.
Australian History
Wednesday, May 4, 1864. : The first trout eggs introduced to Australia begin to hatch.
The term “trout” covers a number of species of freshwater and saltwater fish belonging to the Salmoninae subfamily of the family Salmonidae. Trout are much sought after for fishing and eating, but where they have been introduced, they have created a threat to native species.
Trout were first introduced to Australia in 1864. On 21 January of that year, the clipper ‘Norfolk’ departed England with 90,000 Salmon eggs and 2,700 Brown trout eggs, arriving in Melbourne on 15 April 1864. Eighty percent of the eggs had survived the journey, so they were then transported to Tasmania, to the site of Salmon Ponds Hatchery (established in 1862), the first salmon and trout hatchery in the Southern Hemisphere, at the Plenty River. This site was selected for the hatchery, as the Plenty River had suitably cold water and fed into the Derwent, which would allow the young fish a clear passage to the sea. The first trout hatched on 4 May 1864, and the salmon hatched the following day. These fish became the base stock for streams and lakes in Australia and New Zealand.
By the beginning of the twentieth century, trout had been introduced to virtually all water catchments capable of supporting them in Australia. Several other native species have suffered a decline as a result of introducing the trout, in particular the Barred Galaxias and Mountain Galaxias, as well as the Spotted tree frog. Today in Tasmania, trout are now the only fish species in many waters.
Australian History
Tuesday, May 4, 1897. : The first ocean-going steamer berths at the newly constructed Fremantle Harbour.
Fremantle Harbour is the largest and most important port in Western Australia. Situated on the mouth of the Swan River in the southwest of the state, it was the brainchild of Irish engineer CY O’Connor, who was offered the position of engineer-in-chief by the Western Australian Premier, John Forrest, in 1891.
O’Connor’s grand plan for a safe inner harbour in the mouth of the Swan River met with great opposition as being impractical. A significant rocky bar obstructed the entrance, and the prevailing belief of the locals was that sand movement would cause continual silting. O’Connor studied the data carefully and determined that the sand travel could easily be managed by dredging, then constructing two breakwaters to prevent silting at the entrance from recurring. He proposed blasting the reef and deepening the river mouth. Costs would be high, but Premier John Forrest shared O’Connor’s long-term vision, and pushed the plans through Parliament.
The inauguration ceremony of the harbour works occurred in November 1892, and construction took five years. Lady Forrest, wife of the Premier, opened the new harbour in 1897. On 4 May 1897, the first ocean-going steamer, ‘Sultan’, berthed at South Quay, which was later renamed Victoria Quay after the death of Queen Victoria in 1901.
For his work, O’Connor was awarded the Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George. In 1912, a statue of O’Connor was erected near the harbour. Fremantle Harbour still stands today and remains the most important harbour in Western Australia – without the silting problem predicted by O’Connor’s critics.
World History
Monday, May 4, 1970. : Four students at Kent State University, Ohio, USA, are killed by members of the Ohio National Guard.
On 25 April 1970, USA President Richard Nixon, who had been elected on his promise to bring the Vietnam War to an end, launched an invasion of Cambodia. The previous November had seen the exposure of the My Lai massacre, the massacre by US soldiers of hundreds of unarmed Vietnamese civilians, and this had caused widespread outrage around the world, leading to reduced public support for the war. Since the war had appeared to be winding down throughout 1969, a new invasion into Cambodia angered many people who felt it only exacerbated the conflict. Further, students around the country feared the new “lottery draft”, and it was believed that to expand the conflict into another country would increase their risk of being drafted.
From the beginning of May, students at Kent State university began a protest which was gate crashed by drunken bikies. Over a period of several days, the protests degenerated into riots as more people joined the vandalism. The Ohio National Guard was sent in to dispel the crowds, but conditions worsened. By May 3rd, there were nearly a thousand National Guardsmen on campus to control the students.
On Monday, 4 May 1970, a protest was scheduled to be held at noon. Despite the protest beginning peacefully, the National Guard chose to disperse the crowd, fearing that disturbances would ensue. As the Guard fired tear gas into the crowd, they were taunted by students throwing rocks and advancing on the Guard. Cornered, the Guard fired a volley of shots into the crowd, killing four and wounding nine. Two of the four students killed had participated in the protest, but the other two were simply walking from one class to the next. A nationwide student strike followed, in which over 4 million students protested and over 900 American colleges and universities closed. From 1970 to 1979, lawsuits continued to be filed by families of the victims who were hoping to place blame on Governor Rhodes and the Ohio National Guard. Trials were held on both the federal and state levels but all ended in acquittals or were dismissed.
World History
Friday, May 4, 1979. : Margaret Thatcher becomes Britain’s first woman Prime Minister.
Margaret Hilda Thatcher was born on 13 October 1925 in the town of Grantham in Lincolnshire, eastern England. She was to become one of the dominant political figures during the 1980s after she became Britain’s first female Prime Minister on 4 May 1979. An Oxford-educated chemist and lawyer, she led the Conservatives to a 44-seat majority. Mrs Thatcher’s election campaign promised income tax cuts, reduction in public expenditure, and strategies to make it easier for people to buy their own homes and curb the power of the unions.
Thatcher remained in power for 11 years, implementing tax policy reforms, some of which were successful, and some which were not. Her poll-tax policy of 1990 resulted in protests and rioting in English cities, and largely led to her downfall. Her poll tax, together with her opposition to further British integration into the European Community alienated some members of her own party and in November 1990, she failed to receive a majority in the Conservative Party’s annual vote for selection of a leader. Thatcher resigned in November 1990.