Been There Done That

14 Oct 2015

Mac, M.Shepard, Bali, Snowy, Westgate, Magic Pud, Wine, Coniston

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The duo of Gordon and Phil hold the fort today. David and Paul are busy and Chris got back to Australia last night but is probably suffering from Jetlag. No excuse!

Birthdays this week include our very own Gordon on the 13th of October, the dubiously young-looking singer Cliff Richard on the 14th, Oscar Wilde on the 16th, Martina Navratilova on the 18th and Australian author Sumner Locke Elliot on the 17th.

On this day in 1823, Mr Macintosh got the idea of rubberizing fabric and thus invented a waterproof raincoat. The very first Mac!

The Matthew Shepard case in the USA happened on 12 October 1998; a horrific gay hate crime which woke up America and resulted in a law against this sort of crime. This was also a bad date in 2002, for many Australians and others in Bali when religious fanatics set off 2 bombs in a nightclub.

On 17 October 1949, work started on the Snowy Mountains Hydroelectric scheme, a huge undertaking that took 25 years and changed Australia forever.

15 October 1970 was a day etched in memory where 35 construction workers were killed when a span of the Westgate Bridge in Melbourne collapsed

A more fun thing for October happened on 12 October 1918 when The Magic Pudding was first published and has been in print ever since. It was written by controversial Australian artist Norman Lindsay and it was borne out of an argument he had with another writer.

On 16 October 1837, the first group of German migrants arrived in the colony of South Australia escaping religious persecution in Prussia. They effectively started up the Australian Wine Industry.

18 October 1928 marks the last known massacre of aborigines in Coniston Cattle Station, NT. Less than a century ago.