Articles by: Andrew McConville
People & professions, Such was life:
David Wilkinson joined Victoria’s first whaling expedition, aboard the ship Japan under the command of Frederick Barker. On 5 March 1869 Japan weighed anchor in Hobson’s Bay and commenced a voyage from which she would never return.
On Saturday 14 July, 1906 the Grand National race meeting was held at Flemington. During the afternoon young bookmaker Donald ‘Big Mick’ McLeod was beaten to death by an angry crowd after failing to pay out on winning bets. This shocking event gave great impetus to the strident anti-gambling campaign.
People & professions, Such was life:
Antarctica, January 1916…exhausted, ill, running out of food and 650 kilometres from their base on Ross Island, the Ross Sea Party had little chance of survival. Whatever hope they had relied on their four sled dogs…
On Saturday 3 July 1920, the play Advance Australia was staged at the Princess Theatre in Bendigo. Written by a local Catholic priest, John Joseph Kennedy, it would create a national furore.
When Ernest Shackleton’s 1915 Antarctic expedition ran into trouble, the Ross Sea party that was laying out stores for his team continued unawares, facing harrowing challenges of their own.
Andrew McConville, the State Library’s very own mop-top, couldn’t resist commemorating the anniversary of this special madness! In Melbourne on 14 June 1964 all five Beatles, John, Paul, George, Ringo… Read More ›
People & professions, Such was life:
On 30 January 1854, American businessman Freeman Cobb and three associates started a passenger coach service to Castlemaine and Bendigo.
Cities & towns, Such was life:
On 18 March 1910, Harry Houdini, the world famous escapologist, made what is claimed to be the first controlled powered flight in Australia.
People & professions, Such was life:
The world’s first feature film, The Story of the Kelly Gang, premiered at Melbourne’s Athenaeum Theatre on 26 December 1906, twenty-six years after Ned was hanged.
One of world sport’s most famous trophies, cricket’s Ashes urn, was presented for the first time on 24 December 1882.
