Tuesday, June 25, 2024
Monday, June 24, 2024
Saturday, June 22, 2024
WARTIME FIGHTER PLANES / VENGEANCE
Photos of US Curtis P40 Warhawks, called KIttyhawks in Australia, of the 49 Fighter Group, like the one above , based in the Northern Territory Top End from 1942, will be included in a soon to be published booklet.
Called DeepWater, it has been compiled by Darwin agronomist and activist Robert Wesley-Smith, pictured sorting out his extensive files,
The title is derived from a deep waterhole on the Margaret River on Mount Bundy Station which enabled an abattoirs to be built by Alben Perrett who played an important part in the Territory meat industry . Perrett's grandson, Gary Richards , supplied Wesley-Smith with much background information about the large property, including wartime photos of the base located near the Adelaide River township .
There were 900 soldiers at the base with its dirt airstrip which had a hospital, a naval radio station which intercepted Japanese messages , a large vegetable garden and fruit trees.
Fighter planes pictured include one named Tojo's Hypo which included a drawing of a hypodermic needle. In another ,below, a man standing next to a plane numbered 55 , on which Smile is faintly visible in white lettering , is identified as Lieutenant Clyde "Smiley" Barnett . He was in planes which engaged Japanese over Darwin on April 29, l942.
UPCOMING: Another important project contemplated by Wesley-Smith is about Sammy Kruger , buried in Alice Springs, who is said to have played a part in Operation Vengeance , the April l943 shooting down by Americans of the plane carrying the Commander of the Imperial Japanese Navy, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, on a flight from Rabaul to Balalae Airfield, a small island near Bougainville . Yamamoto was blamed for the attack on Pearl Harbour, hence the name of the special operation to get him .
Friday, June 21, 2024
VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS
Recent additions to Little Darwin's earthquakes and volcanoes collection were two items , the above book covering the l937-l943 Rabaul eruptions , and a July 1998 National Library of Australia news magazine with a striking cover photo by Sarah Chinnery, a keen photographer who lived in New Guinea from 1921-l937 and experienced the massive l937 eruption which killed more than 500.
The magazine has an article about her under the title The Remarkable Mrs Chinnery, marking the publication by the library of Madaguna Road:The Papua and New Guinea Diaries of Sarah Chinnery , edited by Kate Fortune.
Irish, in 1918 Sarah met and married in England her Australian law clerk husband who was in the Flying Corps .
Arriving in Australia with her husband in 192O, Mrs Chinnery, who had been interested in photography since she was 14 , and is listed in Australian Women Photographers 1840-1960, contacted artist Ellis Rowan.
Rowan had painted New Guinea and North Queensland flowers , birds and butterflies and passed through Townsville on her trips . In addition, Rowan spent 12 years illustrating books on American fauna by Alice Lounsberry.
Sarah's husband became Government Anthropologist and Director of Native Affairs in New Guinea .
She was out and about in a boat taking photographs during the l937 catastrophic eruptions of two volcanoes which devastrated Rabaul .
The Volcano Town book includes some of her photos and under the heading Scoop!, describes how Australian newspapers went to great lengths to try and get the first photos and accounts of the disaster.
A Sydney Daily Telegraph team which inaugurated the first Rabaul-to-Sydney air mail was delayed by a cyclone between Brisbane and Sydney.
The Sydney Morning Herald obtained a collection of photographs which were brought by Guinea Airways pilot Jack Turner to Port Moresby and then Townsville , the plane refueled in mid-air from petrol tins carried in the cabin .
The photographs then went on by air aboard an aircraft piloted by prominent aviator P.G. Taylor, which escaped the cyclone.
Thus the SMH was able to publish the scoop pix on June 7,1937, 24 hours before the Daily Telegraph .
During WWll, when Rabaul was occupied by the Japanese , it is said the Allies bombed the dormant volcanoes in the hope they would erupt.
Thursday, June 20, 2024
Wednesday, June 19, 2024
FLIGHT CONTROL HOLDING BAYS
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| Bowerbirds. |
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| Mainly Whistling Ducks . |
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| Ibis. |
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| Book ends. |
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| Arty Ingham Bush stone - Curlews . |
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| Magpie. Vallis flight of fancy series. |
Monday, June 17, 2024
CHINESE PANDER TO TASMANIANS AS WELL AS SOUTH AUSTRALIANS
Thankfully, there are no attention grabbing Pandas in this made in China Tasmania souvenir tile found in an old wares Townsville market . There is , however, a rare sighting of an extinct Tasmanian Tiger and other critters that cavort about the Apple Isle and waters. Felt backed, the tile is heat proof and can also be hung on the wall .
RENEWED LOVE IN THE TROPICS AND ADVICE FOR WOMEN OVER 50
Set in Townsville and on nearby Magnetic Island, this interesting novel , by island resident Sue McLean , published by Austin Macauley , London, somehow escaped the attention of the mainland media. Our Shipping Reporter points out the Sydney to Hobart yacht race , about which he has had a long passionate interest , which will be explained later , gets a mention in between hugs .
Sunday, June 16, 2024
Saturday, June 15, 2024
ARTISTIC SPIDERS
Early morning dew--laden spiderwebs provide illusion of floating feathers , Magnetic Island.
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| Abra pix. |
ALL THAT GLITTERS IS NOT GOLD
Attempts to wow women prove exhausting.
A frequent visitor to Little Darwin's clothesline is this Great Bowerbird intent on snaffling one or more of the highly desirable bright metal pegs with which to decorate its bower to attract a female.
Unfortunately , the pegs are spring loaded and refuse to be taken away , which annoys the bird . This causes him to fly about the yard looking for other desirable gems , which include green and blue objects , bright threads .
Still , he regularly comes back to the clothesline ,often when it is draped with washing , and after a hard day tugging pegs and looking for bullion to dazzle a flighty feathered femme who believes diamonds and ingots are a girl's best friend, recovers by sunbaking.
Friday, June 14, 2024
Thursday, June 13, 2024
Wednesday, June 12, 2024
Tuesday, June 11, 2024
VIETNAM WAR ALBUM : KOREAN , AUSTRALIAN ENTERTAINMENT , HELICOPTER CRASH
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| Margaret Wood , the Australian Servicemen's friend . |
Monday, June 10, 2024
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