Australian Explorers

Monday, October 10, 1774. :   Captain Cook discovers Norfolk Island.

Norfolk Island lies approximately 1,500 km northeast of Sydney, and along with two neighbouring islands forms one of Australia’s external territories. The first European to discover Norfolk was Captain Cook, on 10 October 1774. Cook’s reports of tall, straight trees (Norfolk pines) and flax-like plants piqued the interest of Britain, whose Royal Navy was dependent on flax for sails and hemp for ropes from Baltic sea ports. Norfolk Island promised a ready supply of these items, and its tall pines could be utilised as ships’ masts. Governor Arthur Phillip, Captain of the First Fleet to New South Wales, was ordered to colonise Norfolk Island, before the French could take it.

Following the arrival of the First Fleet in New South Wales, Lieutenant Philip Gidley King led a party of fifteen convicts and seven free men to take control of the island and prepare for its commercial development. They arrived on 6 March 1788. Neither the flax nor the timber industry proved to be viable, and the island developed as a farm, supplying Sydney with grain and vegetables during the early years of the colony’s near starvation. More convicts were sent, and many chose to remain after they had served their sentences. The initial Norfolk Island settlement was abandoned in 1813, but a second penal colony was re-established in 1824, as a place to send the very worst of the convicts. The convicts were treated accordingly, and the island gained a reputation as a vicious penal colony. It, too, was abandoned in 1855, after transportation to Australia ceased.

The third settlement was established by descendants of Tahitians and the HMAV Bounty mutineers, resettled from the Pitcairn Islands which had become too small for their growing population. The British government had permitted the transfer of the Pitcairners to Norfolk, which was established as a colony separate from New South Wales but under the administration of that colony’s governor. After the creation of the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901, Norfolk Island was placed under the authority of the new Commonwealth government to be administered as an external territory. Norfolk Island was granted self-government in 1979.

Australian Explorers

Thursday, October 10, 1844. :   On Sturt’s final attempt to find the inland sea he still believes exists, he reaches Menindee before heading northwest.

Explorer Charles Sturt’s discovery and traversing of the Murray River filled in crucial information about the nature of the inland rivers. For years after Australia was first settled, men believed the rivers flowed into an inland sea. When Sturt discovered that the Lachlan River led to the Murrumbidgee and the latter to the Murray River which then emptied out at the southern coast, he seemed to solve the mystery of the inland rivers. That is, he solved it to the satisfaction of everyone but himself.

Dissatisfied with Eyre’s reports of salt lakes and arid desert in central Australia, Sturt determined to settle the question and find out for himself. He was given permission to explore as far north as latitude 28 degrees, and thus he departed Adelaide in August 1844. Avoiding the salt lakes north of Adelaide, Sturt headed northeast first, and arrived at Lake Cawndilla, near Menindee in far western New South Wales, on 10 October 1844. From here, he headed northwest again. Sturt discovered no inland sea; he did, however, find much forbidding countryside and desert, and his name lives on in Sturt’s Stony Desert and the hardy little floral emblem of South Australia, Sturt’s Desert Pea.

Australian History

Saturday, October 10, 1891. :   Australian bushranger Harry Power, mentor to a young Ned Kelly, dies from drowning in the Murray River.

Harry Power, born Henry Johnstone, was a notorious Victorian bushranger. He was born in Waterford, England, in 1819, and transported to Van Diemen’s Land in 1841 for stealing shoes. During the 1850s and 1860s, he frequently found himself in trouble with the law for horse stealing and other crimes. His bushranging career began after he escaped from Pentridge Gaol in 1869. Initially he worked alone, but as he set his sights on higher goals of bushranging, he decided he needed an assistant. A friend, Jack Lloyd, told Power of Lloyd’s nephew, Ned Kelly, who was just 15 at the time. Power served as mentor to Ned Kelly, taking him on as an apprentice in 1870 and teaching him the finer arts of bushranging.

Jack Lloyd was the one who finally betrayed Power to the local constabulary. Enticed by the 500-pound reward, Lloyd led the police to Power’s hideout at the back of Glenmore Station’s homestead. Power was apprehended and, as his crimes were non-violent, he was sentenced to 15 years’ gaol. Six years after his release, Power drowned when he fell into the Murray River near Swan Hill, on 10 October 1891.

Australian History

Saturday, October 10, 2009. :   The Giant Koala at Dadswells Bridge in Victoria is renamed ‘Sam’ in honour of bushfire victim Sam the koala.

Sam the koala gained notoriety in February 2009 when she was rescued during backburning operations prior to the devastating Black Saturday bushfires in February 2009. CFA volunteer firefighter David Tree approached the koala with a bottle of water, from which the animal drank; an unusual occurrence, given that koalas rarely drink water. A mobile phone video of the event was broadcast worldwide, creating an instant celebrity in the koala.

Sam was subsequently taken to the Southern Ash Wildlife Centre in Rawson where she was treated for second-degree burns. After living there happily for several months, along with a young male koala who had also been rescued from bushfires, Sam was found to be stricken with the disease chlamydia. She was euthanised on 6 August 2009 when it was discovered her condition was inoperable.

Dadswells Bridge, a town with a population of around 170 near the Grampians in Victoria, is home to the Giant Koala. Standing since 1988, the Giant Koala is a well-known tourist attraction in the area. It is 14 metres high, cast primarily out of bronze and weighs approximately 12 tonnes. On Saturday 10 October 2009, the Giant Koala was officially renamed “Sam” in honour of the koala. The centre aims to raise awareness of the life-threatening disease chlamydia, while offering a tribute to the hope Sam gave amidst the horrors of the Victorian bushfires.

World History

Tuesday, October 10, 1780. :   The deadliest Atlantic hurricane of all time strikes Barbados, killing 4000, before reaching other areas and causing a much higher death toll.

Hurricane is the name of a violent tropical storm which develops in the northern hemisphere. The equivalent weather phenomenon in the southern hemisphere is known as a cyclone. A particularly destructive force, a hurricane has the capacity to cause extensive damage when it hits the coast, precipitating mudslides, flash floods, storm surges, and wind and fire damage.

The Great Hurricane of 1780 made landfall first at Barbados on 10 October 1780. 4,000 people were killed as the hurricane almost levelled the island on its first day. In the next three days, the Caribbean islands of Martinique and St Eustatius were also hit. As it was the middle of the American Revolution, large numbers of naval personnel were killed when American, British and French fleets were destroyed. It is estimated that around 22,000 people in total died, although the figure could be as high as 30,000.

World History

Tuesday, October 10, 1944. :   In the WWII Holocaust, 800 gypsy children are murdered.

Gypsies are an ethnic group originating in India. During medieval times they took to wandering beyond their homeland, spreading to and throughout Europe. As with the Jewish people, Gypsies were singled out for racial persecution by the Nazis. Whilst they conformed physically to the “Aryan” ideal favoured by the Nazis, suspicion of the nomadic race prevailed, and the Gypsies came under the same attack as the Jews. In all, about 250,000 Gypsies were sent to Auschwitz and other extermination camps, where they were either treated as guinea-pigs for experimental medicines, or executed. On 10 October 1944, about eight hundred Gypsy children were murdered at Auschwitz.

World History

Tuesday, October 10, 1967. :   The Outer Space Treaty comes into effect.

The Outer Space Treaty is more formally known as the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies. The Treaty was opened for signature in the USA, United Kingdom and the Soviet Union on 27 January 1967, and came into force on 10 October 1967. As of January 2008, 99 countries were states-parties to the treaty, while another 26 had signed the treaty but had not completed formal ratification.

The Outer Space Treaty forms the basis of international space law. Included among its principles are:

• That no state or party to the Treaty may claim territory for occupation or exploitation in space or on any celestial body.
• That no state or party to the Treaty may place nuclear weapons or any other weapons of mass destruction in orbit of Earth, on the Moon or any other celestial body, or elsewhere in outer space.
• That outer space remain free for all parties to explore, and that such exploration and use of outer space should only be done for the benefit of all countries and in the interests of all mankind.
• That all states and parties to the Treaty will be liable for damage caused by their space objects, and that they will avoid harmful contamination of space and the celestial bodies.

Essentially, the Outer Space Treaty is designed to protect outer space as a resource, and to protect the people of earth from the consequences of mismanagement of outer space.