Australian History

Friday, October 12, 1838. :   Second Governor of South Australia, Lieutenant George Gawler, arrives in the colony.

George Gawler was born on 21 July 1795 in Devon, England. Upon finishing his schooling, he was educated at the military college of Great Marlow, where he was an exemplary student. Gawler had led a distinguished military career, and when a group of colonisation commissioners requested recommendations from the Royal Military College for a godly man as governor of South Australia, Gawler was encouraged to apply for the position. His application was accepted, and he was appointed as Governor of South Australia, taking over from the colony’s first Governor, John Hindmarsh. Gawler arrived in South Australia on 12 October 1838.

Prior to leaving England Gawler was concerned by the lack of financial provisions allowed for improvements in the colony, and upon his arrival he discovered many significant problems. Adelaide’s facilities and resources were stretched to breaking point, the legacy of too many settlers being forced to remain in the settlement due to the shortage of land which had been opened up for farming. Gawler was forced to make many expensive improvements, ignoring the instructions issued to him to undertake no major improvements. Upon the retirement of the colony’s first surveyor-general, Colonel William Light, Gawler commissioned Charles Sturt for the position, as his exploration of the Murray River had played a vital part in choosing a site for the new southern colony. Sturt’s expeditions north, plus Gawler’s own explorations, allowed new land for settlement. Many public buildings such as Customs House, the Adelaide Gaol and a new Government House were constructed. Further public works were initiated, such as building and improving roads, improving the facilities at Port Adelaide and establishing a police force and barracks. Despite his limited budget, he was also forced to make provision for the thousands of immigrants who streamed into the colony under free passage.

During his tenure, Governor Gawler made South Australia self-sufficient in terms of agriculture, and restored public confidence. However, the increased public expenditure was a contributing factor to the colony going bankrupt by 1840, as was the effect of drought and crop failure in the neighbouring colonies. Gawler was dismissed, and replaced by Captain George Grey, less than three years after his appointment.

Although criticised for his actions at the time, in retrospect it can be seen that Gawler was placed in a difficult position whereby he had to take decisive action contrary to his instructions. The town of Gawler and the Gawler Ranges are named after him.

Australian History

Saturday, October 12, 1918. :   Australian children’s classic “The Magic Pudding” is first published.

“The Magic Pudding” is a novel by artist and writer Norman Lindsay, who was known for his unusual and creative approach. Norman Alfred William Lindsay was born on 22 February 1879 in Creswick, Victoria, Australia. He was a skilled artist, and his paintings were controversial for their time, concentrating on nudes, often incorporating pagan themes of gods and goddesses, nymphs and satyrs, in an Australian bush setting. Much of his work, which includes watercolours, lithographs, and etchings, can be found at his former home at Faulconbridge, New South Wales, now the Norman Lindsay Gallery and Museum.

As well as his prolific output of paintings, Lindsay was a writer who completed eleven novels between 1913 and 1950. His best-known work is arguable “The Magic Pudding”, first published on 12 October 1918. “The Magic Pudding” is a children’s classic about a sarcastic and bad-tempered walking, talking pudding that can be whatever food it wants to be, and eaten without ever running out. The story was originally written by Lindsay as a way to take his mind off World War I and the tragic loss of his brother at the Somme. The storyline itself was the result of an argument between Lindsay and another writer, Bertram Stevens. Stevens was convinced that children were drawn to stories about fairies: Lindsay believed that food was the drawcard. The ultimate success of Lindsay’s novel would suggest that he was correct.

Despite Lindsay’s own criticism of it, calling it a ‘little bundle of piffle’, “The Magic Pudding” went on to become an Australian classic, enduring for many generations beyond Lindsay’s lifetime.

World History

Friday, October 12, 1792. :   Today marks the first recorded commemoration of Columbus Day in the US.

Columbus Day is a US holiday commemorating the landing of Christopher Columbus in the Americas in 1492. Columbus sought to pioneer a western sea route to China, India, and the gold and spice islands of Asia. In August 1492 Columbus set sail from Palos, Spain and headed west. During his voyages, he explored the West Indies, South America, and Central America. He became the first explorer and trader to cross the Atlantic Ocean and sight the land of the Americas, on 12 October 1492. It is thought that the land he first sighted was an island in the Bahamas which Columbus initially named San Salvador: this is now Watling Island.

The first recorded commemoration of Columbus Day took place on 12 October 1792. It was organised by New York’s Columbian Order, a political group also known as Tammany Hall or the Society of St. Tammany, to recognise the 300th anniversary of Columbus’s landing in the Americas. The first official Columbus Day holiday in the US occurred in 1892 when President Benjamin Harrison issued a proclamation encouraging the citizens of the United States to mark the 400th anniversary of Columbus’s landing, writing: “On that day let the people, so far as possible, cease from toil and devote themselves to such exercises as may best express honor (sic) to the discoverer and their appreciation of the great achievements of the four completed centuries of American life.”

In 1937, Columbus Day became a federal holiday. Originally, it was observed every October 12, but from 1971 was changed to the second Monday in October each year.

World History

Sunday, October 12, 1823. :   Charles Macintosh of Scotland begins selling the raincoat he has invented.

In the UK, raincoats are commonly called Macintoshes, after their inventor. Early in the 19th century Charles Macintosh, after discovering that coal-tar naphtha dissolved india rubber, painted one side of woollen cloth with a dissolved rubber solution, and placed another layer of woollen cloth on top. By so doing, he invented a method for making waterproof garments. Thus, Macintosh produced macintosh coats, which he first began selling on 12 October 1823.

In 1838, Charles Macintosh joined forces with Thomas Hancock, the English inventor credited with founding the British rubber industry. Hancock invented the masticator, a machine that shredded rubber scraps, forming a warm rubber mixture which could then be shaped and mixed with other materials. Together, Macintosh and Hancock improved the design of the macintosh.

World History

Wednesday, October 12, 1994. :   Contact with the Magellan space probe is lost after it completes radar-mapping of the surface of Venus.

The Magellan spacecraft was launched from Florida on 4 May 1989. On 10 August 1990, Magellan entered orbit about Venus. During its four years in orbit around the planet, it mapped over 98 percent of the planet’s surface and collected high-resolution gravity data of Venus. With the deliberate intention of crash-landing the probe, a final aerobraking experiment was carried out in October 1994, achieved by turning Magellan’s solar arrays so that the spacecraft behaved like a propeller. Communications with the probe were lost on 12 October 1994, and the probe burned up in Venus’s atmosphere a few days later. The purpose of the crash landing was to collect data on the atmosphere and on how the spacecraft performed as it descended.

World History

Saturday, October 12, 2002. :   Over 200 people, almost half of whom are Australians, are killed in an explosion at a night club in Bali, Indonesia.

Australians felt the impact of terrorism first-hand at 11:30pm local time on 12 October 2002. 202 people were killed and a further 209 injured when two separate bombs exploded in the town of Kuta on the Indonesian island of Bali, just before midnight. An electronically triggered bomb hidden in a backpack exploded in Paddy’s Bar first. Just a few seconds later, a far more powerful 1000kg car bomb hidden in a white Mitsubishi van was detonated by remote control in front of the Sari Club. The dead included 99 Australians, 38 Indonesians and 26 British, as well as holidaymakers from many other nations.

No group actively claimed responsibility for the bombings, although Indonesian members of the regional Islamic group Jemaah Islamiah (JI) were named as key suspects, particularly since JI has alleged links to al-Qaeda. That same month, Abu Bakar Bashir, a leader of JI, was charged over his alleged role in the bombing. In March 2005, Bashir was found guilty of conspiracy over the attacks in Bali. On 8 August 2003, Amrozi bin Haji Nurhasyim was found guilty and sentenced to death for buying the explosives and the van used in the bombings. Another two participants, Imam Samudra and Mukhlas, were also sentenced to death.

Bashir was released from a Jakarta prison in January 2021.