Australia

[Hallo Alfie]

There are times when I wish I wasn't right.

 

[Sideroxylon]

There are times when I wish I wasn't right.

I was right about them not going down without a fight. Soccer is a frustrating sport though - too often you are left wondering "what if".

Oh well, the mind is already on the coming footy season.

 

[Sideroxylon]

Taking up dual citizenship

I am seriously considering taking up Turkish citizenship mostly because it will save a bit of money and make a lot of paper work easier. I have been here 10 years and will be living here for the foreseeable future. Also, if its good enough for my wife and son it should be for me.

But I have held off because I strongly identify myself as Australian as far as the general views and attitudes of the people go and the emotional attachment to the wide brown land itself. These feelings were reinforced when I got home last year.

Turkey is a great place and so are its people but Australia is home. It feels a bit wrong to take up citizenship for mostly pragmatic reasons but this is the way it has to be.

Anyway, I have had another read online to check that it won't impact my Australian citizenship status (as a naturalised Aussie) and it seems it won't. I was surprised to see that pre 2002 that this was not the case.

I guess some of you may have gone through this process and I wonder how you felt about it.

 

[Hallo Alfie]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDLXdUnd-3o

 

[Sideroxylon]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDLXdUnd-3o

That says it.

 

[Hallo Alfie]

Cheers mate.

 

[icerat]

First the floods and now this.

sometimes I wish I believed in prayer.

 

[George 152]

First the floods and now this.
[qimg]http://images.brisbanetimes.com.au/file/2011/02/01/2162000/cyclone-anim-article.gif[/qimg]

sometimes I wish I believed in prayer.

It's that god thing that could stop it.
Batten down you guys. You're on your own

 

[Akhenaten]

Cat: Is that what I think it is?
Lister: What d'you think it is?
Cat: An orange whirly thing in space!

— Red Dwarf

 

[Akhenaten]

Jeebus!

Take care, Cobbers.

http://www.bom.gov.au/products/IDQ65002.shtml

 

[Sideroxylon]

I wonder how my dad went up at Malanda, which looks to be in the second circle of the "bullseye".

 

[Akhenaten]

It seems that they're getting back to normal now, mate, after a very close call.

Cairns.com

Tablelands Regional Council​

 

[Akhenaten]

I haven't done one of these for a while. Thinking caps on!

Identify the Place - Part 6

The Southern Cross in its climate-controlled hangar/memorial on Airport Drive, near the International Terminal at Brisbane Airport, Queensland

Southern Cross is the name of the Fokker F.VIIb/3m trimotor monoplane which in 1928 was flown by Australian aviator Sir Charles Kingsford Smith and his crew in the first ever trans-Pacific flight, from the mainland United States to Australia (c.11,667 km (7,250 miles)).

History

The Southern Cross began life as The Detroiter, a polar exploration aircraft of the Detroit News-Wilkins Arctic expedition. The aircraft had crashed in Alaska in 1926, and was recovered and repaired by the Australian expedition leader, George Hubert Wilkins. Wilkins, who had decided the Fokker was too large for his Arctic explorations, met with Kingsford Smith and Charles Ulm in San Francisco and arranged to sell them the aircraft, without engines or instruments.

Having fitted the aircraft out with engines and the other required parts, Kingsford Smith made two attempts at the world endurance record in an attempt to raise funds and interest for his trans-Pacific flight, however, the New South Wales government withdrew its sponsorship of the flight and the money ran out. Kingsford Smith was forced sell the Southern Cross and it was bought by American aviator and philanthropist Allan Hancock, who then loaned it back to Kingsford Smith and Ulm.


Trans-Pacific Flight

On 31 May 1928, Charles Kingsford Smith, Charles Ulm, and Americans Harry Lyon (navigator) and James Warner (radio operator) took off from Oakland, California, USA. The Southern Cross first stopped for rest and refueling in Hawaii before setting off for Fiji. This leg of the journey took 34 and a half hours of flight across open seas before gliding past the Grand Pacific Hotel in Suva, where a large and enthusiastic crowd saw the first aircraft to land in Fiji touch down at Albert Park.

The Southern Cross landed at Eagle Farm Airport in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia on 9 June, where a crowd of 25,000 people were waiting to greet her and flew on to Sydney the following day.


Trans-Tasman flights

Kingsford Smith and Ulm also made the first nonstop Trans-Tasman flight in the Southern Cross - over the Tasman Sea from Australia to New Zealand and back (c. 4,020 km (2,500 miles)) - beginning with the first crossing on 10 -11 September 1928. Guy Menzies completed the first solo trans-Tasman flight in the Southern Cross Junior in 1931.


Preservation

Shortly before Kingsford Smith's death in 1935, he donated the Southern Cross to the Commonwealth of Australia, for display in a museum. The aircraft was brought out of retirement briefly in 1945 for the filming of the movie Smithy. The Southern Cross is now preserved in a special glass 'hangar' memorial on Airport Drive, near the International Terminal at Brisbane Airport in Queensland, Australia. There is also a full-sized flying replica of the Southern Cross in South Australia. This aircraft was built in the 1980s and is the largest replica aircraft in the world.

Fun Facts:

The Southern Cross's original registration was "1985" — this number can be seen on the wings and tail of the aircraft in photos taken at the time of its first record-breaking flight. Kingsford Smith re-registered it in Australia as "G-AUSU" (4 July 1928 to 3 July 1929), and then VH-USU (5 April 1931 – ). The "1985" marks and original colour scheme were restored when the plane went on public display.

The Southern Cross was named after the Southern Cross Constellation, a popular symbol of the Southern Hemisphere in general and Australia in particular. Kingsford Smith continued the theme with his later aircraft Southern Cross Minor and Southern Cross Junior (both Avro Avians), Miss Southern Cross (Percival Gull), and Lady Southern Cross (Lockheed Altair). He also produced a car with the name, and gave the aircraft operated by his airline, Australian National Airways, similar names beginning with Southern.

In September 2010, the Old Gateway Motorway, which runs past the site of the original Eagle Farm Airport, was renamed Southern Cross Way.


Wikipedia

Cadman's Cottage, Sydney, New South Wales

Cadman's cottage on the western side of Circular Quay is the oldest surviving residential cottage in Sydney. Its design has sometimes been attributed to the convict architect Francis Greenway. This modest double-storey sandstone building was built as the coxswain's barracks in 1815–16. Originally intended as barracks-style accommodation, it later housed four successive government coxswains and their families, as well as offices, until the mid-1840s.

Maritime trades were dominant on the western side of Sydney Cove from the first days of European settlement. This was where the government shipyard and commissariat stores were located, near the present-day Museum of Contemporary Art.

Sydney relied on the harbour and its river tributaries for transport in the early years of the colony. The government coxswain oversaw the government boats, which distributed and collected produce and supplies.

Cadman's cottage was named after John Cadman, who held the position of government coxswain from 1827 until his retirement in 1845. Cadman arrived in the colony as a convict aboard the Barwell in 1798, convicted of stealing a horse. He became a well respected member of the community, working on the government boats from at least 1806, and received a free pardon in 1821.

Of the four government coxswains appointed from about 1810, Cadman was the longest serving. He lived at the cottage while government coxswain, probably with his wife, fellow convict Elizabeth Mortimer, and her two daughters. Before he held this position Cadman had been the assistant government coxswain from about 1814, then served as the master of the government cutter Mars from about 1824 to 1826.

The job of government coxswain was abolished after Cadman retired in 1845. The convict transportation system had officially ceased in New South Wales in 1840, and was phased out over the next decade, which meant there was no longer a need to supply convicts with provisions from the stores. The consolidation of a radial network of roads from Sydney meant that the harbour and its tributaries were no longer the primary means of local transport, although the harbour continued to be used for commercial trade.

Following Cadman's departure, the cottage was occupied by the Sydney Water Police from 1846 to the mid-1850s, during which time the building was extended for offices and lock-up cells. The water police moved to a purpose-built building (now the Justice and Police Museum) in Phillip Street in the late 1850s.

The longest occupant of Cadman's cottage was the Sydney Sailors' Home, a benevolent association devoted to reforming and housing itinerant seafarers. The Sailors' Home building, a four-storey structure to the north of Cadman's cottage, was built in 1864. Cadman's cottage provided accommodation for the superintendent and his family until the 1920s. Thereafter, the cottage was used for overflow accommodation from the home until the 1950s.

By 1976, Cadman's cottage had been transferred to the ownership of the National Parks and Wildlife Service, and it was renovated that year as an information centre.

During the work many of the accretions to the building were stripped away to reveal the original sandstone structure. Cadman's cottage continues to be used by the National Parks and Wildlife Service as a museum and as the Sydney Harbour National Park Information Centre.

NSW Department of Environment, Climate Change & Water

Dictionary of Sydney

Point Danger Light, Coolangatta (QLD)/Tweed Heads (NSW)

Also known as the Captain Cook Memorial Light, this is an active lighthouse located on Point Danger, a headland between Coolangatta, Queensland and Tweed Heads, New South Wales, marking the border between New South Wales and Queensland, Australia. It was the first lighthouse in the world to experiment with a laser as a light source.


History

Point Danger Light was the third of a group of seven concrete towers erected in Queensland between 1964 and 1979. Constructed in 1971, it commemorates the bicentennial of Captain Cook's first voyage, and specifically the voyage along the east coast of Australia in 1770. It commenced operation on 18 April 1971.

The original light source was an experimental laser based light, and the lighthouse may very well be the first in the world to experiment with this light source. However, the experiment failed, and the light source was replaced in 1975 by a regular electric lamp.

Anecdote Warning!

As near as I can recall it used to do weird things when it was cloudy, such as reflecting/refracting in such a way as to appear to be in the wrong place, or scattering and lighting up the whole sky.

I also recall claims of it being too directional to serve its intended purpose of warning shipping of reefs which were fairly close inshore (which is to say that vessels could come in under the beam where it was no longer visible to them.

/warning​

Fun Facts:

The light characteristic shown is two white flashes every ten seconds, visible at 170° - 330° for 20 km (11 nautical miles). The light source is an electric lamp, fed by a battery float charged from the mains electricity.

The lighthouse is constructed of four concrete columns, marked with the four cardinal directions, and a bronze sculpture hung between the columns.

Nearby is a one-story building housing the NSW Marine Rescue station.

The light is operated by NSW Maritime. The site is accessible, but the tower itself is closed to the public.


Wikipedia

Woomera Rocket Range, Woomera, South Australia

Woomera, an Aboriginal word meaning spear-launcher, was established as a long-range weapons' research facility by the Australian and British governments in the far north of South Australia in 1946.

It soon became a major settlement and although located in the outback, Woomera quickly turned into a cosmopolitan centre providing employment for Army, Navy and Airforce personnel from both Australia and overseas, as well as civilians from all Australian states and newly arrived migrants from Europe.


The Rocket Range

On 2 October 1999 a plaque was unveiled commemorating the Rocket Range and its important engineering heritage, which reads:

Established under the Anglo-Australian Joint Project following the Second World War, this range and the associated Weapons Research Establishment in Salesbury were the largest and most expensive scientific and engineering activity ever conducted in Australia in peacetime. The equipment used and tested here was at the forefront of technology and especially in fine mechanics, advanced optics, telemetry and rocket fuel chemistry. While participating in programmes conducted here, Australia was in the forefront of scientifically and technologically advanced nations. The successful launch of the WRESAT satelite from Woomera in 1967 gained Australia international recognition and membership of the exclusive 'Space Club'.​

Dedicated by The Institution of Engineers, Australia, 1999.​

SouthAustralianHistory.com

The Stockman's Hall of Fame, Longreach, Queensland

The Australian Stockman's Hall of Fame and Outback Heritage Centre is Australia's premier outback heritage institution. Since its opening in 1988, the Hall of Fame has played host to over one million interstate and international visitors - providing each one with a spectacular outback experience.

Situated in Queensland's central western town of Longreach, the museum, stunningly constructed from timber, stone and corrugated iron, is truly reminiscent of the outback. With its unique design, the Hall of Fame stands comfortably amongst the rugged yet vibrant rural landscape.

Inside, the Centre's five themed galleries proudly display the history behind some of Australia's greatest and bravest explorers, stock workers, pastoralist, and Aborigines. The exhibits comprising an eclectic mix of objects, images, touch screens, audiovisual presentations and open displays, allowing visitors to interpret the outback story in their own unique way.

The museum also houses a vast reserve collection which forms a unique work-in-progress display. From behind a glass wall, visitors can view archival material, photographs, artworks and various other items used for research and in new display development.

The actual story behind this true Aussie icon began in 1974 when Hugh Sawrey dreamt of creating a grand tribute to the unsung heroes of remote Australia.

This dream, it turned out, was shared by other outstanding Australians, including the legendary R.M. Williams. Following a massive fundraising effort coordinated by this group of visionaries, Sawrey's 'vision splendid' began to take shape.

The quaint rural township of Longreach became the chosen site for the monumental project, and a national competition was held for the design of the building. Sydney architect, Feiko Bouman won the national competition with his design, inspired by the unique buildings, silos and water tanks of the outback.

With further financial support from the Federal and Queensland State Government 1988 Bicentennial program plus an extensive fundraising effort by supporters, commerce and industry, work began on the magnificent museum.

The building was completed in 1987 and was opened by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, on 29 April, 1988.

The Australian Stockman's Hall of Fame and Outback Heritage Centre has since become an incorporated, self funding not-for-profit company which operates without any debt or on-going government assistance. Money for the running and maintenance is provided from admissions, sales of souvenirs, catering, membership subscriptions, sponsorships and donations.

OutbackHeritage.com

Burswood Entertainment Complex, Perth, Western Australia

The Burswood Entertainment Complex is located on the Swan River near the city of Perth, Western Australia, and is owned by Crown Limited. The complex includes a 24-hour casino, seven restaurants, eight bars, a nightclub, two international hotels (a luxury 5-star InterContinental and a 4-star Holiday Inn), a Convention Centre, Theatre and the Burswood Dome.

Burswood Train Station, near the Burswood Dome, provides a public transport link to the Perth CBD.

When it opened on 30 December 1985, Burswood Island Casino (as it was then known) was the largest in Australia, and third-largest in the world. It was expected to receive two to three million visitors per year and have an annual gross profit of A$100m. The public interest in the casino proved so much in its early months of operation that it posted a gross profit of A$1 million per day for its first two months, far outstripping expectations. In its early weeks of opening, people were reportedly forced to queue at the entrance for hours as the gaming floor was at its full legal capacity.

Come in spinner!


Burswood's Home Page

 

[MG1962]

Number One - Something to do with QANTAS in Longreach?

Number Two - Cadmans cottage, The Rocks

Number Three Thompsons Corner

Number Four - Womera launch facility used for Stedman tests

Number Five - "The Ringer" Stockman's Hall of fame Longreach QLD

 

[Akhenaten]

 

[MG1962]

Womera is definately on my bucket list, and I did not realise they had built that at Thompsons Corner, very nice. And the Ringer - damn you homesickness lol

 

[arthwollipot]

I didn't get any of those. Except, of course, for Woomera.

 

[lionking]

Didn't get number one, although I must have passed nearby dozens of times, but got the others. I've stayed at number six a few times.

 

[Damien Evans]

Womera is definately on my bucket list, and I did not realise they had built that at Thompsons Corner, very nice. And the Ringer - damn you homesickness lol

I wouldn't get too excited about going to Woomera, other than a nice but small rocket museum there's nothing to see, they hardly even launch anything from there anymore, and since the immigration centre shut down the town's just about dead.

ETA: The only one I got was the Stockmans Hall of Fame, and that and the plane are also the only ones I haven't been to. Pretty silly really. I confused myself into thinking the Woomera picture was a mineshaft!

 

[arthwollipot]

ETA: The only one I got was the Stockmans Hall of Fame, and that and the plane are also the only ones I haven't been to. Pretty silly really. I confused myself into thinking the Woomera picture was a mineshaft!

Er, me too. But I was too embarrassed to mention it.