Australian Explorers
Wednesday, September 2, 1840. : Eyre names Mt Hopeless in South Australia in despair at the seemingly never-ending salt lakes.
Edward John Eyre was born on 5 August 1815, in Hornsea, Yorkshire. After coming to Australia, he gained valuable bush skills whilst droving cattle overland through Victoria. Eager to explore further, Eyre set his sights on finding a route through the Australian continent from south to north.
Eyre left Adelaide in June 1840 to explore north towards the centre of Australia. He encountered salt lake after salt lake: each time he attempted to go around a salt lake, he found his way barred by yet another. This led to Eyre’s theory that Adelaide was surrounded by a vast horseshoe-shaped salt lake. By sheer bad luck, Eyre was unable to locate any of the breaks between the numerous salt-lakes which encircled the area, but by no means prevented access through to Australia’s interior. It was another 18 years before other explorers disproved his theory.
On 2 September 1840, Eyre climbed and named a peak which gave him a vista of shimmering salt lakes in every direction. His feelings were certainly reflected in the naming of “Mt Hopeless”.
Australian History
Saturday, September 2, 1922. : Henry Lawson, one of Australia’s best known writers, dies.
Henry Lawson was born on 17 June 1867, on the Grenfell goldfields in New South Wales. He became one of Australia’s best-known fiction writers of the colonial period. Most of his works dwelt on the Australian bush, accurately depicting the difficult conditions of life on dry, dusty outback stations and in bush towns. Unlike his contemporary, A.B. “Banjo” Paterson, he did not romanticise life in the bush, and any humour he displayed tended to be dry and sardonic, rather than like Paterson’s larrikin wit.
Lawson gained a loyal following when the Bulletin started to publish his stories and poems in 1888. However, he never really recovered from his childhood hardships and rejection from his peers, and in his later years became an alcoholic. He died at home alone on 2 September 1922. He was given a state funeral which was attended by the Prime Minister, William Morris Hughes, and his brother-in-law, Jack Lang, the Premier of New South Wales. Thousands of citizens who had learned to relate to his writing also paid their respects at his funeral.
Australian History
Sunday, September 2, 1984. : Seven people are killed, including an innocent 14-year-old girl, in rival biker gang wars in Sydney, Australia.
The shootings in Sydney on Father’s Day, 2 September 1984, became known as the “Milperra Massacre”. Two rival biker gangs, the Bandidos and the Comancheros, had a showdown in the car park of the Viking Tavern in Milperra, a western suburb of Sydney. The instigator of the violence was William “Jock” Ross, the “supreme commander” of the Comancheros, who made the choice to go to Milperra, in force and armed with guns, knives and baseball bats. In the ensuing gun battle, six bikers and a fourteen-year-old girl were killed. The girl was selling raffle tickets outside the pub when the violence started.
Following the court case, in which forty-three people were charged with seven counts of murder, William Ross received a life sentence. Other members of the Comancheros gang received life sentences and 16 Bandidos served 14 years for manslaughter.
World History
Tuesday, September 2, 0459. : St Simeon Stylites, first and most famous of the “pillar-sitting hermits”, dies.
St Simeon Stylites the Elder was a monk who gained renown for spending 36 years sitting atop a 20 metre pillar. He was an ascetic who, from the time he entered the monastery at age 16, devoted himself to austere living, denying himself any earthly pleasures.
St Simeon was unable to function as one of a community of monks, and was forced to leave the monastery. After this, he isolated himself in a hut at Tell-Neschin. Here, he completed the first of over two dozen seasons of Lent whereby he did not eat or drink for the entire six weeks. He was also given to standing for as long as he was able to, hour after hour. After three years he elected to leave the hut, he went out into the desert where he found a high, rocky platform. After a while he became something of a novelty for other pilgrims who sought him out for his wisdom and prayers. Wishing to isolate himself further from human contact, Simeon had a 3-metre-high pillar built topped by a metre-wide platform, with only a railing for security. Over the ensuing years, this was replaced by successively higher pillars until his final pillar reached some 20 metres in height. All these pillars were left out in the elements, with no recorded shelter of any description.
Here, Simeon spent the remainder of his life, continuing his seclusion and fasting every Lent. He did not isolate himself completely, allowing individuals to seek his counsel via a means of a high ladder placed against the pillar. Occasionally he preached to the crowds that gathered, and he wrote numerous letters, the texts of which have survived through the years.
St Simeon Stylites died on 2 September 459 A.D. In his honour, a church was built consisting of four basilicas built out from an octagonal court, with Simeon’s column in the middle. The remains of this structure still stand about 60 km from Aleppo, Syria, and are known as Qal ‘at Sim ‘ân, or the mansion of Simeon. Following his death, a tradition of pillar-hermits arose, continuing for many generations.
World History
Thursday, September 2, 1666. : The Great Fire of London begins.
The Great Fire of London was one of the biggest calamities in the history of London. It destroyed 13,200 houses and 89 churches, rendered 100,000 people homeless, and destroyed dozens of significant buildings including halls, prisons, bridges and government buildings. It began on 2 September 1666 in Pudding Lane at the house of Thomas Farynor, a baker to King Charles II; it is surmised that Farynor forgot to completely extinguish his oven the previous night. Smouldering embers from the oven ignited some nearby firewood, which in turn set alight the house. Strong winds fanned the flames to nearby buildings, many of which were of highly combustible materials such as timber, pitch and straw. The close proximity of so many buildings to one another also fed the fire.
By the time the fire was spent, 5 days later, an area of 2.5km by 0.8km lay in ashes; 150 hectares inside the city walls and 25 hectares outside. Six people were recorded as killed, but the true death toll is not known. The Great Fire did have one redeeming feature: it cleansed the city of the Great Plague which had claimed over 17,000 lives.
World History
Sunday, September 2, 1945. : Japan signs an unconditional surrender, officially ending WWII.
Japan, a major antagonist in WWII, had suffered catastrophic losses following the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and conventional attacks upon other major cities, such as the firebombing of Tokyo. The Soviet invasion of Manchuria debilitated the only significant forces the Japanese still had left. The USA had captured the islands of Iwo Jima and Okinawa, bringing the Japanese homeland within range of naval and air attack. Hundreds of thousands of people had been killed, and millions more were casualties or refugees of war.
Japan surrendered on 14 August 1945, on the day known as Victory in the Pacific Day in Australia, and Victory over Japan Day elsewhere. The official surrender papers were signed on 2 September 1945, aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, in the presence of 50 Allied generals and other officials.