DEVASTATING EARTHQUAKE AND TSUNAMI

On December  28, l908 , Europe's most powerful earthquake shook southern Italy , killing more than  80,000 people.  Survivors  relocated  to other  cities, some immigrated to  the United States . The epicentre was in the  Strait of  Messina which separates  Sicily from the Italian mainland . Messina was completely destroyed  . These  postcards, in  the Little Darwin  earthquake collection,  came  from  a  British  traveller who had  visited the  area and said they could  be  valuable one  day.  

(Earthquake, Messina. USA.)

HISTORIC HOTEL

It is hard to believe   Darwin's   Victoria  Hotel, which opened in 1890  and   accommodated   pioneering   aviators  who  flew  into  the gateway  of  Australia, is  now  closed  . 

 

It was  dubbed the aviators' home away from  home and played  a  large part in  the city's  polygot life.  Its publicans included  two prominent ,enterprising   women and  the Fong  Lim  family. It  survived cyclones and the Japanese bombing  in  WWll .

An unusual   event  started  outside  the  Victoria  Hotel  when  American  magician and   film actor, John Calvert,  blindfolded  , with police approval ,  drove down the main street to the Town Hall to  promote  a show he was putting  on  to  raise   funds.

Calvert  had sailed  the luxury yacht Sea Fox , above , down from Singapore in l959. One of the passengers was a chain-smoking chimpanzee  he  claimed  had  been  Jimmy the Chimp  in  a Tarzan  movie.

When the Sea Fox  set out   for Sydney where  Calvert was  to put on a magic show  it got into difficulties, began to sink  off  Arnhem Land, and RAAF planes were called in  from  Darwin and  even Townsville  to  find it, the navy coming to the rescue . 

Jimmy the Chimp ended up in Taronga Zoo, Sydney .

A visiting American gourmet  experienced  buffalo meat in the Vic  for the first  time which had been specially  cooked for him  by  Richard Fong  . A local character known as  the Oyster King  claimed in court he  had been  donged  by  Fong . 

Many journalists and authors  wet  their whistles in the  Vic, including the  great crusading  editor of  the Northern Territory News" Big Jim" Bowditch who hid  stayput Portuguese sailors  and Malay divers  from police and was  himself arrested  from time to  time . Jack  White , the man who found the Rum Jungle uranium deposits, frequented  the  hotel .

Another imbiber with a derogatory nickname  was  said to  have stalled  the  getwaway  car in  a  failed  London  bankrobbery. 

The  Vic Hotel in the  l970s was  thriving ,closed 2014. 

(Hotel. Darwin. Tarzan.)

DROMEDARY TERRITORY

Mindil Beach, Darwin. Photo by camel driver Petros.

 (Camels. Darwin. Beach.)

NAVY BRINGS BACK OLDE RUM RATION

To cope with the ice  age sweeping across the southern states , the  Royal Australian Navy's  HMAS Adelaide is shown here in sunny  Cairns   taking  on  emergency rum barrels at Hemingway's Brewery, a daily tot of which will warm up  matelots when they sail  south into dangerous iceberg waters. This  (Ernest) Hemingway short story scoop includes photos by Aeronautical  Correspondent  Abra.  

(Navy. Rum . Cairns. )

BEFORE AND AFTER HOTEL

Shipping  Reporter  on  confusing  pub  crawl .

 

Townville's  Hotel  Sea-View which opened in 1929 changed in colour  and  profile over the years , now  in the  scooter age .

(Pub. Reporter. Townsville. 

RATBAG ODE TO A PACIFIC ISLAND

Magnetic Island  , off  Townsville, was  extolled in a poem   by the late Keith Garvey  in  the  book, Rhymes of  a  Ratbag  , published  by Hutchison in  l981 , the  jacket and  poems  illustrated by cartoonist  Dennis Hutton,the Magnetic Island  one   below. 

The drawing carried the message that leaving  Magnetic  Island  and  returning  to   the mainland  was  going  back to  the rat race. The island wildlife displayed  included  a  Peacock, a  Curlew, Laughing Jackasses-Kookaburras -and strange card- playing  creatures .

Garvey, born at Frog Hollow, Moree, NSW, of an Irish father and colonial mother,  in l922,  worked on many outback  jobs . He became   known as  the scribe  from the bush,  big  on  the  ABC  and   wrote  several  popular books .

Ned Kelly  and Captain Bligh  got a  mention in  his poems . So too did Lasseter's lost gold reef, the Dead Heart, Ted Egan's  songs  about the Northern Territory ,Gallipoli  battlefields  and  Korea.

(Poems. Island.  Garvey.)

TIDAL FLATS

Cairns. Aeronautical Correspondent Abra  photo.