Australian Explorers
Saturday, November 3, 1804. : George Caley crosses the Hawkesbury River in his unsuccessful attempt to cross the Blue Mountains west of Sydney.
George Caley was born at Craven, Yorkshire, England on 10 June 1770, within a few days of James Cook’s observation of the transit of Venus in Tahiti. He undertook a mere four years of formal schooling before leaving to work in his father’s stables. However, his interest in farriery led him to study botany, and eventually to a position in the Kew Gardens. In 1798, renowned botanist Sir Joseph Banks appointed him to go to New South Wales as a collector; Caley duly arrived in Sydney in April 1800.
In New South Wales, Caley undertook extensive studies of the native flora and fauna, and he was the first to study the eucalyptus species in detail. One of his first tasks was to try to procure a platypus, as a drawing sent back to England in 1797 was deemed a hoax. Whilst collecting specimens of various plants and animals for Sir Joseph Banks, he visited Western Port and Jervis Bay, the Hunter River, Norfolk Island and Van Diemen’s Land. However, his real desire lay in crossing the Blue Mountains, a feat attempted unsuccessfully by numerous previous expeditions. He was motivated by ‘an enthusiastic pride of going farther than any person has yet been’. From Parramatta, he headed in a direct line for the range which Governor Phillip had named the Carmarthen Hills, specifically, the most obvious peak now known as Mount Banks. He took with him three strong men, believed to be convicts. On 3 November 1804, Caley crossed the Hawkesbury River, and continued west on his mission.
Caley took a different approach from that of previous explorers who had tried to cross the Blue Mountains: he sought out the ridgetops, rather than travelling through the river valleys. However, like others before him, Caley was confounded by the unpredictability of the terrain, describing himself as ‘thunderstruck with the roughness of the country’. His naming of features such as Devil’s Wilderness, Dark Valley and Dismal Dingle reflected his frustration. The men reached Mount Banks on 14 November, where the precipitous cliffs of the upper Grose Valley prevented them from penetrating any further inland. He was forced to return to Sydney, and later wrote to Banks ’the roughness of the country I found beyond description. I cannot give you a more expressive idea than travelling over the tops of houses in a town.’ He returned to Parramatta on 23 November, unsuccessful, but having reached a point further west than any previous expedition had done.
Australian Explorers
Tuesday, November 3, 1829. : Charles Sturt sets out to solve the mystery of the westward-flowing rivers.
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 they appeared to flow towards the centre of the continent, the belief was held that they emptied into an inland sea. Drawing on the skills of experienced bushman and explorer Hamilton Hume, Sturt first traced the Macquarie River as far as the Darling, which he named after Governor Darling.
Pleased with Sturt’s discoveries, the following year Governor Darling sent Sturt to trace the course of the Murrumbidgee River, and to see whether it joined the Darling. Sturt’s party departed Sydney on 3 November 1829. It was Sturt’s habit to carry a collapsible whaleboat on all his excursions, and this was the one where it proved its worth. On this expedition, Sturt discovered that the Murrumbidgee River flowed into the Murray (previously named the Hume), as did the Darling. By following the Murray in the whaleboat, Sturt found that it flowed to the southern ocean, emptying out at Lake Alexandrina on the south coast.
Australian History
Tuesday, November 3, 1942. : The Australian flag is hoisted as Kokoda is retaken by the Allies, declaring the success of the Australian troops, aided by the Papua New Guinean villagers.
During World War II, Papua New Guinea was the site of an invasion by Japanese troops, which brought the threat of Japanese invasion of Australia closer. Beginning with the invasion of Rabaul in January 1942, the serious Japanese offensive was launched in the South Pacific. The first of over 100 Japanese bombings of the Australian mainland began in February, and on 8 March, the Japanese invaded the New Guinean mainland, capturing Lae and Salamaua.
Port Moresby was the next major target, and in May 1942, the Japanese launched an invasion fleet to Port Moresby from Rabaul. After being repelled by US forces in the Battle of the Coral Sea, the Japanese then sought to invade Port Moresby from the northern coast, over the rugged Owen Stanley Range via the Kokoda Trail, which linked to the southern coast of Papua New Guinea. Kokoda village itself fell to the Japanese after an intense engagement on 29 July which killed Lieutenant Colonel William Owen, the commanding officer of the 39th Battalion, which was virtually the only Australian force resisting the enemy invasion through the Range.
Further battalions were dispatched to retake ground along the Kokoda Track. Fighting remained intense, and casualties were high. With much assistance from the Papua New Guinean natives, dubbed “Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels”, the Australian and the US troops turned back the Japanese forces, which then retreated to bases at Buna, Gona and Sanananda. On 2 November, a patrol from the 2/31st Battalion found that Kokoda village had been abandoned by the Japanese. On 3 November 1942, Major General George Vasey, Commander of the 7th Division, raised the Australian flag once again over Kokoda in a display of confidence in the success of the campaign.
World History
Sunday, November 3, 1957. : Animal welfare organisations are outraged as Russia launches a dog into space.
Laika, the Russian space dog, was part Siberian husky. Prior to being enlisted into the Soviet space program, she was a stray on Moscow’s streets. On 3 November 1957, Laika was launched into space aboard the Sputnik 2 spacecraft. She was fitted with monitors to check her heartbeat and other vital signs and was reported to be calm during the first hours of the flight.
Animal welfare organisations expressed outrage at the Russians sending a dog into space for experimental purposes. The RSPCA was inundated with calls protesting the flight, while the National Canine Defence League called upon dog lovers to observe a minute’s silence for each day Laika was in space. Whilst Laika achieved fame for her part, and provided valuable information about the prospects for human space travel, fears of the animal welfare groups were indeed founded. Sadly, new evidence released in 2002 indicated that Laika died of stress and overheating within a few hours of launch, contrary to the Russian position that she died painlessly when life support gave out after a few days.
World History
Saturday, November 3, 1973. : NASA launches the Mariner 10, which later becomes the first space probe to reach Mercury.
The Mariner 10 space probe, the last spacecraft in the Mariner program, was launched on 3 November 1973. It was the first to use the gravitational pull of one planet, Venus, to reach another, Mercury. Its mission was to measure the atmospheric, surface, and physical characteristics of Mercury and Venus. After taking some 4000 photographs of Venus, Mariner 10 then flew by Mercury, taking the first photographs detailed enough to reveal the planet’s cratered surface and a faint atmosphere of predominantly helium.
World History
Monday, November 3, 1997. : Europe feels the effects as striking truck drivers blockade French roads and ports.
On the evening of the first Sunday in November 1997, truck drivers in France began strike action, blocking access to roads and the Channel ports. By Monday, 3 November 1997, their action had already brought French ports and border crossings to a standstill, and the effects were being felt in other ports across Europe. France is the crossroads of Europe for goods from Spain and Britain headed for other European countries. The strikers focussed on stopping heavy goods vehicles at ports, oil refineries and major roads by erecting heavy concrete barricades or simply using their laden vehicles. Trucks, unable to board ferries, were lined up for kilometres on roads approaching ports all across Europe.
The strike action followed a stalemate in pay talks between employers and the truckers’ union. The strike action ended after five days, when France’s biggest transport union, representing about 75 percent of the country’s truckers, signed a deal with employers. The deal called for a 6 percent raise for truckers and a 4 percent raise for office workers in the transport industry. The drivers’ increase was also extended to bus and ambulance drivers, and all raises were retroactive to October 1.