Lessons in April

Wednesday 9th April & Wednesday 16th April will be at Industriestrasse 19, Windisch room 105.

2.15 - 3.45 p.m.

There is no lesson on 23rd April and we resume again on 30th April

Territorial History of Australia

Australia - Culture in the Colonies

Chapter 5 Naming Australia

Lachlann Macquarie

   

Major-General Lachlan Macquarie CB (/ˈlæxlən/ or /ˈlɒxlən/ and /məˈkwɒrɪ/; Scottish Gaelic spelling: Lachlann MacGuaire; 31 January 1762 – 1 July 1824), was a Scottish British army officer and colonial administrator. He served as the last autocratic Governor of New South Wales, Australia from 1810 to 1821 and had a leading role in the social, economic and architectural development of the colony. He is considered by historians to have had a crucial influence on the transition of New South Wales from a penal colony to a free settlement and therefore to have played a major role in the shaping of Australian society in the early nineteenth century. An inscription on his tomb in Scotland describes him as "The Father of Australia"^.

Chapter 4 Sydney

     

Sydney /ˈsɪdni/ is the state capital of New South Wales and the most populous city in Australia. It is on Australia's south-east coast, on the Tasman Sea. In June 2010 the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people. Inhabitants of Sydney are called Sydneysiders, comprising a cosmopolitan and international population.
The site of the first British colony in Australia, Sydney was established in 1788 at Sydney Cove by Captain Arthur Phillip, of the First Fleet, as a penal colony. The city is built on hills surrounding Port Jackson, which is commonly known as Sydney Harbour, where the iconic Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge are prominent structures. The hinterland of the metropolitan area is surrounded by national parks, and the coastal regions feature many bays, rivers, inlets and beaches, including the famous Bondi and Manly beaches. Within the city are many parklands, including Hyde Park and the Royal Botanic Gardens.
Sydney is a consistently high-ranking world city for quality of life. It has hosted multiple major international sporting events, including the 1938 British Empire Games (now known as the Commonwealth Games), the 2000 Summer Olympics and the final of the 2003 Rugby World Cup. The main airport serving Sydney is Sydney (Kingsford Smith) Airport and its main port is Port Botany.

wikipedia.com

Indian Pacific

Sydney to Perth

The Indian Pacific is an Australian passenger rail service running between Sydney and Perth. It is one of the few truly transcontinental trains in the world. The train first ran in February 1970 after the completion of gauge conversion projects in South and Western Australia.
The route includes the world's longest straight stretch of railway track, a 478-kilometre (297 mi) stretch over the Nullarbor Plain. In 1983 the service was extended to serve Adelaide. A one-way trip originally took 75 hours, but with line and efficiency improvements it now takes 65 hours. The train currently has four classes, branded as Platinum, Gold Service and Red Service Sleeper and Red Service Daynighter and also a Motorail service to convey passengers' motor vehicles.
In February 1993 the train became part of Australian National and in October 1997 was sold to Great Southern Rail

  

Chapter 2. Broken Hill, Menindee & White Cliffs

 Menindee

It is the oldest European settlement in western New South Wales, and the first town to be established on the Darling River. The first European to visit the area was the surveyor and explorer Major Thomas Mitchell in 1835. He was followed by Charles Sturt in 1844 and the town was the advance base for the Burke and Wills expedition in 1860.

Burke and Wills

Main article: Burke and Wills expedition

The Burke and Wills expedition camped at Menindee on their journey to cross Australia from Melbourne to the Gulf of Carpentaria. They arrived here on 14 October 1860, crossed the Darling River at Kinchega Station and made Camp XXXIV (their thirty-fourth camp since leaving Melbourne). There was dissent within the party and the deputy-leader George Landells resigned. Robert O'Hara Burke split the party, heading north to Cooper Creek with half the men, stores and animals. The remaining men, stores and animals made a depot camp at Pamamaroo Creek and a sign and cairn mark the site of the camp. This camp was used for the remainder of 1860 and for most of 1861. While in Menindee, Burke stayed at the Maiden's Hotel, which was then owned by Thomas Pain and was known as Pain's Hotel.

Menindee is located where the transcontinental railway line crosses the Darling River. The town is serviced by the NSW TrainLink 'Outback Xplorer' passenger train from Sydney to Broken Hill on Monday, returning from Broken Hill to Sydney on Tuesday. The GSR Indian Pacific also stops once-weekly [twice-weekly in September and October] in each direction on request. The railway line is about 900 km west of Sydney and about 110 kilometres south-east of Broken Hill.
A weir on the Darling River near Menindee diverts water from the river into a series of shallow, otherwise dry, overflow lakes. The Menindee Lakes, also known as the Menindee Water Storage Scheme, regulate the river flow for irrigation downstream into South Australia. Situated on the western edge of town is the Kinchega National Park.

Climate

Menindee has a desert climate with an annual average rainfall of just 245.8 mm (9.6 in), however rainfall varies significantly from year to year, with the town often going without rainfall for months on end, but occasional severe rainstorms can cause falls of over 100 mm in a day, the last time this happened was January 2011. Menindee is tied with Bourke in recording the hottest temperature in New South Wales, with a temperature of 49.7 °C (121.5 °F) recorded on the 10 January 1939.

Broken Hill

Broken Hill is Australia's longest-lived mining city. In 1844, the explorer Charles Sturt saw and named the Barrier Range, and at the time referred to a "Broken Hill" in his diary.^[3] Silver ore was later discovered on this broken hill in 1883 by a boundary rider named Charles Rasp. The "broken hill" that gave its name to Broken Hill actually comprised a number of hills that appeared to have a break in them. The broken hill no longer exists, having been mined away.
The area was originally known as Willyama.^[4]
Before Charles Sturt's naming of the town, the surrounding area was referred to by the local Aboriginal population as the "Leaping Crest".

White Cliffs, New South Wales

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

White Cliffs

White Cliffs is a small town in outback New South Wales in Australia, in Central Darling Shire. White Cliffs is around 255 km northeast of Broken Hill, 93 km north of Wilcannia. At the 2011 census, White Cliffs had a population of 103.^[1]
The primary school opened in 1895, and has operated continuously since then. White Cliffs was one of the many places visited by Bill Bryson in research for the book In a Sunburned Country.
The town was established in the late 19th century when opal was discovered. Opal has been mined ever since. The first Australian opal was found 20 years before in Queensland in 1872, when a party of kangaroo hunters were operating in the White Cliffs area. One of them, who had left the party to track down a wounded kangaroo over some low stony hills, picked up a pretty stone which appealed to him. When taking back the stone, they suspected it could be opal which the local jeweler confirmed. He advised to get as much opal as possible since this could be more profitable than kangaroo hunting. When the group filed a claim, opal had not yet been listed under gemstones, and it was decided to file the claim under the "Gold Mining Act".^[2]
Many of the residents live underground, using mining equipment to dig extensive homes in the hillside to avoid the intense heat outside. There are also two underground motels called The White Cliffs Underground and PJ's Bed And Breakfast, as the town is becoming more dependent on tourism.
Cricketer Bill O'Reilly was born in White Cliffs, the son of the first school teacher

http://undergroundmotel.com.au/