Born on this day

Saturday, October 11, 1738. :   Captain Arthur Phillip, first Governor of New South Wales, is born.

Arthur Phillip was born in London on 11 October 1738. He joined the Royal Navy when he was fifteen, and alternately earned a living as a navy officer and as a farmer. In October 1786, Phillip was appointed Governor-designate of the proposed British penal colony of New South Wales. He was a practical man who suggested that convicts with experience in farming, building and crafts be included in the First Fleet, but his proposal was rejected. The First Fleet left Portsmouth, England, on 13 May 1787, and arrived in Botany Bay on 18 January 1788. Phillip immediately determined that there was insufficient fresh water, an absence of usable timber, poor quality soil and no safe harbour at Botany Bay. Thus, the fleet was moved to Port Jackson, arriving on 26 January 1788.

Phillip faced many obstacles in his attempts to establish the new colony. British farming methods, seeds and implements were unsuitable for use in the different climate and soil, and the colony faced near-starvation in its first two years. Phillip also worked to improve understanding with the local Aborigines. The colony finally succeeded in developing a solid foundation, agriculturally and economically, thanks to the perseverance of Captain Arthur Phillip.

Poor health forced Phillip to return to England in 1792. He resigned his commission soon after arriving back in England, and died on 31 August 1814.

Australian Explorers

Sunday, October 11, 1896. :   Lawrence Wells makes the fateful decision to split his exploration party, leading to the deaths of two men.

Very little of Australia was left unexplored by the late 1800s, but the Great Sandy Desert of Western Australia remained an unconquered frontier. In 1896, Albert Calvert, a London-based gold-mining engineer with interests in Western Australia, sponsored an expedition to fill in the unexplored blanks on the map and, hopefully, find some likely gold-bearing country into the bargain. The Royal Geographical Society of South Australia was asked to organise the Calvert Scientific Exploring Expedition, financed by Calvert. The expedition’s leader was surveyor Lawrence Wells, and accompanying him was his cousin, surveyor Charles Wells, along with Adelaide mineralogist George Jones and two other men, a cook and a camel driver.

In October 1896, the party camped at a small permanent waterhole south-east of Lake George, which they named Separation Well. Here, on 11 October 1896, Lawrence Wells made the fateful decision to split the party into two groups. Charles Wells and Jones set off on a bearing of 290 degrees to survey lands for 144 kilometres north-west, before turning north-north-east to rejoin the main party at Joanna Spring, located and mapped by explorer Warburton in 1873. When Lawrence Wells’s party reached Joanna Spring on 29 October, there was no sign of the other party. Unable to even locate the spring, the leader made for the Fitzroy River, where he raised the alarm regarding the missing explorers via the Fitzroy Crossing Telegraph Station.

Although the men were presumed dead, four search parties were dispatched, covering over five thousand kilometres, with no success. Meanwhile, Aborigines had plundered the bodies of all clothing and other items, and when some of these items were located in the Aborigines’ possession, the Aborigines led the searchers to where the bodies lay. On 27 May 1897 the bodies of Wells and Jones were recovered by the white search party, perfectly preserved by the intense heat, just 22km from Joanna Spring. The mummified bodies were sewn in sheets and taken to Derby, where they were shipped to Adelaide and given a State funeral on 18 July 1897.

Australian History

Thursday, October 11, 1906. :   The Coat of Arms of New South Wales is granted by Royal Warrant.

Each of the states of Australia has its own unique symbols and emblems. By the time Federation occurred in 1901, Queensland and South Australia had already adopted a coat of arms. In 1905, the Colonial Office suggested the state of New South Wales apply for a coat of arms to be granted. NSW Premier Joseph Carruthers commissioned NSW Government Printer, William Applegate Gullick, to make several designs, drawing upon symbols already used in the state seal. The final design was conferred by Royal warrant of Edward VII on 11 October 1906.

World History

Saturday, October 11, 1586. :   The trial of Mary, Queen of Scots, begins.

Mary, Queen of Scots, also known as Mary Stuart, was born on 8 December 1542, daughter of Mary de Guise of France and James V of Scotland. When her father died on December 14, the baby Mary became Queen of Scotland but James Hamilton, Duke of Arran, served as regent for Mary. Mary’s mother wished to cement an alliance with France, so arranged a betrothal for the young Mary with France’s dauphin, Francois. At age 6, Mary was then sent to France to be groomed for her future role as Queen of France, which she took up in 1559.

As the granddaughter of Margaret Tudor, the older sister of Henry VIII of England, Mary Stuart was considered to be the rightful heir to the English throne. This was over Elizabeth, daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, whose marriage was not recognised by many Catholics in England because Henry had unlawfully divorced Catherine of Aragon. Mary Stuart, in their eyes, was the rightful heir of Mary I of England, Henry VIII’s daughter by his first wife.

Francois died on 5 December 1560, and Mary’s mother-in-law, Catherine de Medici, became regent for his brother Charles IX. Mary Stuart then returned to Scotland to rule as Queen, but did not recognise Elizabeth’s right to rule in England. Years of plotting and controversy followed as Mary tried to assert her right to the throne, with many conspirators on either side of Mary or Elizabeth being killed as they obstructed the way of the other. Ultimately, the attempt to place Mary on the Scottish throne resulted in her trial, which commenced on 11 October 1586. Mary Queen of Scots was executed on 8 February 1587, on suspicion of having been involved in a plot to murder Elizabeth.

World History

Sunday, October 11, 1987. :   A huge sonar exploration of Loch Ness in Scotland fails to find any sign of the Loch Ness monster.

Loch Ness, or Loch Nis in Gaelic, is a large, deep freshwater lake in the Scottish Highlands, which extends for about 37 km southwest of Inverness. It is the second largest loch (lake) in Scotland, with a surface area of 56.4 km2, but is the largest in volume. It is 226 m deep at its deepest point.

For centuries, witnesses have reported sighting a large monster with a long neck in Loch Ness, Scotland. Famous photographs have been proven to be hoaxes, but still the myth of the monster has persisted. On 11 October 1987, “Operation Deepscan”, a major sonar exploration of the Loch, was undertaken by a team of 20 cruisers. High-tech sonar equipment bounced sound waves to the bottom of the lake, electronically recording any contacts. Three sonar contacts showed up as crescent shaped marks, but the results of the sonar test did not indicate there was anything unusual on the bottom of Loch Ness.