Australian Explorers
Saturday, September 28, 1861. : The cache buried beneath the ‘Dig’ Tree, revealing the notes and journals of Burke and Wills, is dug up by Howitt’s rescue party.
Burke and Wills, with a huge party of men and supplies, departed Melbourne in August 1860 to cross Australia to the north coast and back. Burke, being impatient and anxious to complete the crossing as quickly as possible, split the expedition at Menindee. He moved on ahead to establish a depot at Cooper Creek, leaving William Wright in command of the Menindee depot. Splitting his party yet again at Cooper Creek, Burke chose to make a dash to the Gulf in the heat of Summer with Wills, Gray and King. He left stockman William Brahe in charge with instructions that if the party did not return in three months, Brahe was to return to Menindee. The trek to the Gulf and back took over four months, and during that time Gray died. A full day was spent in burying his body. When Burke returned to Cooper Creek, he discovered lettering freshly blazed on the coolibah tree at the depot, giving instructions to dig for the supplies Brahe had left. Thus the name ‘Dig’ Tree was spawned.
When Burke left the Dig tree to try to reach the police station at Mt Hopeless, 240km away, he failed to leave further messages emblazoned on the Dig tree. Thus, when Brahe and Wright returned to check the depot, they found no evidence of Burke’s return, and saw no need to dig up the cache beneath the tree. Believing Burke and Wills were lost, a rescue expedition was organised in Melbourne. Headed up by Alfred Howitt, the rescue party reached the Dig tree in September 1861. Finding no sign of Burke and Wills, the men moved downstream. It was there that they found King, the only survivor, who was able to tell how Burke and Wills had died six weeks earlier.
On 28 September 1861, Howitt dug up the cache beneath the Dig tree, and found the evidence which could have saved Burke and Wills. Had the cache been dug up earlier, Burke and Wills’ movements could have been tracked and the tragedy avoided. A Royal Commission into the failed expedition laid the blame on Burke for splitting the expedition party, on Wright for not moving from Menindee more quickly and opening the cache, and on the exploration committee for not acting sooner to rescue Burke and Wills.
Australian History
Friday, September 28, 1973. : The first performance takes place in the new Sydney Opera House.
The Sydney Opera House in Sydney, Australia, sits on Bennelong Point in Sydney Harbour. Designed by Danish architect Joern Utzon in 1955, it has become one of the most famous performing arts venues in the world. Utzon arrived in Sydney to oversee the project in 1957 and work commenced on the opera House in 1959. The building was completed in 1973, at a cost of $102 million, and formally opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 20 October 1973.
The opening was celebrated with fireworks and a performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. Prior to this, however, Sergei Prokofiev’s ‘War and Peace’ was played at the Opera Theatre on 28 September 1973. The following day, the first public performance was held, with a programme performed by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Charles Mackerras and with accompanying singer Birgit Nilsson.
Australian History
Wednesday, September 28, 2016. : Damage from storms and tornados cause a state-wide blackout in South Australia.
South Australia is Australia’s fourth-largest state in area, and fifth-largest in population. As of 2020, it had a population density of 1.62 people per square kilometre, compared to the national average of 3.2 people per square kilometre. At the turn of the century, South Australia began moving more towards renewable energy integration, aiming for 100% renewable energy by the 2030s. By December 2010, South Australia had thirteen operational wind farms, whilst solar power was also gaining in popularity.
With South Australia having the smallest of the mainland electricity grids, by 2015 the state was connected to cheaper brown-coal power from the Latrobe Valley in Victoria by two transmission lines which supplied approximately 25 % of South Australia’s maximum peak load. With the shift towards more renewable energy, Port Augusta’s brown-coal plant and the second-biggest power station in the state, Northern Power Station, closed in May 2016. This left just two major operational power stations, at Torrens Island and Pelican Point near Adelaide. A particularly cold winter in 2016 placed enormous strain on South Australia’s electricity supply. This was exacerbated by one of the transmission lines, or interconnectors, to Victoria undergoing an upgrade, and therefore temporarily operating at reduced capacity.
On 28 September 2016, severe thunderstorms, accompanied by numerous confirmed tornadoes, developed across the mid-North and Flinders Ranges and began tracking southeast, downing high-voltage power transmission lines and towers, among other damage. This triggered a state-wide blackout, or “System black”, meaning a complete shutdown of the state’s entire mainland grid, at 3:48pm. Power was gradually restored throughout the state, although some areas remained without power through the next day.
The findings into the blackout proved controversial as they placed the blame on failures within the renewable energy sector. In its fourth and final report, the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) concluded that the blackout was triggered by “overly sensitive protection mechanisms in some South Australian wind farms”.
World History
Wednesday, September 28, 0929. : Good King Wenceslas is killed by his brother.
Wenceslas was the Duke of Bohemia, and an honest and generous man. Wenceslas was born around 907 in the castle of Stochov near Prague. Having been brought up with a strong Christian faith by his grandmother St Ludmila, he was a man who believed in putting his Christian faith into action. His own mother, Drahomira, was allied with an anti-Christian group that murdered Wenceslas’ grandmother, allowing Drahomira to become regent in Bohemia in 920 AD when Wenceslas’s own father died. Drahomira was deposed, and Wenceslas became king, at the age of 18.
Many of the Bohemian nobles were against Wenceslas’s attempts to spread Christianity, and resented his allegiance to the king of Germany, Henry I. He was murdered on 28 September 929 by his wicked younger brother Boleslav, who joined the nobles plotting to murder Wenceslas. After inviting Wenceslas to a religious festival, Boleslav attacked him along the way, assisted by other assassins.
Wenceslas had been particularly caring towards children, doing what he could to help orphans. Thus in 1853 he was chosen by lyricist John Mason Neale as the subject of a Christmas carol which would give the example of generosity and high principles. The melody is from a 13th century song called “Tempus Adest Floridum,” or “Spring Has Unwrapped Her Flowers.”
World History
Thursday, September 28, 1978. : Pope John Paul I is found dead, with a copy of a devotional he was reading in his hands.
Pope John Paul I was born on 17 October 1912 in northern Italy. After being educated in seminaries within the diocese of Belluno, he was ordained a priest of the Roman Catholic Church on 7 July 1935. He was made bishop of Vittorio Veneto in 1958 by Pope John XXIII. Pope Paul VI appointed him patriarch of Venice in 1969, and he was named a cardinal in 1973.
Knowing his own ill-health, John Paul was surprised to be elected to the papacy on the third ballot of the 1978 Papal Conclave. He took his name in honour of his two predecessors, John XXIII and Paul VI. He quickly became popular for his warmth, beaming smile and ready sense of humour. However, only 33 days after he was elected, Pope John Paul died, on 28 September 1939. His death was supposedly due to heart attack, but as autopsies are not performed on Popes, out of respect, the official finding was never confirmed. Conspiracy theories have abounded concerning the popular Pope’s untimely death, but no evidence has surfaced to support the theories. Pope John Paul was succeeded on 16 October 1978 by Karol Cardinal Wojtyla, who took the name of Pope John Paul II in deference to his predecessor.
World History
Wednesday, September 28, 1994. : 850 die as the ferry ‘MS Estonia’ sinks in the Baltic Sea.
The ‘MS Estonia’ was an Estline ferry which regularly ran from Talinn, Estonia to Stockholm, Sweden. The ferry could be subject to heavy storms, but had always borne up against the impact with no difficulties. However, at 1:00am on the morning of 28 September 1994, after being pounded by a series of unusually large waves the bow door tore off the ship, opening a vital inner door which protected the car deck from the open sea. As water poured in, the ship listed starboard by 15 degrees. By 1:30am, the ferry had sunk.
Of the 929 people who were aboard the ferry that day, 852 were killed. A Swedish-Finnish-Estonian inquiry on the cause of the disaster reported that a combination of incompetent crew and design faults in the ferry’s bow door contributed to the accident. The Meyer shipyard which built the ferry also set up its own investigation, and reported that the accident was due to poor maintenance and excessive speed.