February 2015 5.3Mb

Free Copy February 2015 Find us at our NEW WEBSITE! jillongpocket.wordpress.com This edition, plus all back issues of the Jillong Pocket are available for download from this new website. In This Edition: Page Page Pako Festa 2 Robert Burns 20 Trickster Publicans 3 The History of Soccer 22 Black Thursday 4 Mexico-Fast Facts 24 Morris Jacobs 6 Ginger Meggs 25 Sulphur-Crested Cockatoo 8 Arnold Schwarzenegger 26 J. McPherson– Bushranger 10 Recipe—Damper 28 Kalgoorlie-Boulder 12 Word Search—Car parts 29 Sydney Kidman 14 Banknotes: John Monash 30 Corio-The Early Days Part 14 16 150 Years Ago 31 Mausoleum at Halicarnassus 18 Then… & Now 32 When locals of Geelong hear the two words “Pako Festa”, everybody automati- cally thinks of excitement, celebration and multiculturalism—which is exactly what this particular day is about. On February 28, 2015 locals as well as visitors to Geelong will come to Pakington Street to celebrate and explore the variety of cultures that span the world. Currently the free festival attracts the participation of up to 30 community groups, and a total attendance in excess of 100,000 people, making it the largest multicultural festival in Victoria. Pako Festa began in 1983. Now into its 32nd year it has been celebrated on the last weekend in February ever since. A feature of the festival is the parade, with over 90 floats participating last year, all of them representing their country of origin and sharing their cultural heritage with the wide ranging audience. The festival stretches for over a kilometre, and takes in not only Pakington Street but some of the carparks, public squares and parklands. The lively community atmosphere stretches into the shops and pubs, including the Barking Dog and Petrel Hotel. Pako Festa is also an exciting learning experience for young and old. From trying the traditional, delicious foods; to strutting your style on the dance floor; casting an eye over the kaleidoscope of colourful costumes; tuning your ear into the maze of languages and music, and learning about the history of people who now call Geelong home—there is something for everyone. And the local Aussies are not forgotten either, with BBQs and bush bands blending into the mix. With over 60 stalls to buy from, and free performances for all to enjoy, why not bring the family along and join in the fun? 2 A letter written by Geelong Police Magistrate, Captain Foster Fyans in 1853 presents a superbly detailed picture of early settlement in Victoria: “Of all the impositions inflicted on mankind an inn in the district is the Swan Hill Pioneer Settlement most dreadful abomination. It appears to me the licensee’s... sole object is money – not to make it honestly by a return of common comfort; his bill is the object, and pay it you must, though five hundred per cent is overcharged... The landlord is generally to be seen playing quoits in front of the hut with a pipe in his mouth, cursing and swearing, and surrounded by half a dozen idle, drunken men… The interior of the hut is generally built of wood and weatherboards; the floor is boarded, and a fine rattling breeze rushes in at all parts. Your company is not very refined – all smoking, spitting, singing loudly and rioting; cursing and damning Governors, and formerly Crown Lands Commissioners... In short, one of these licensed huts may be turned inside out during the row, and be nothing the worse for it on the following morning. The stable, as it is called, is a place tossed up of all manner of things; it has a kind of a roof, with slab sides of the rudest material and is often dangerous in passing, from old spike nails and broken bottles; dung and filth are there a foot or two deep; at the head of the stall is an old gin case fixed as a manger for oaten hay… A man who has a horse has almost to fight for his grub, paying dear for it. At the present time the expenses of a night for one horse at a bush inn will cost the owner twenty shillings. A licensed man keeping a bush inn can charge as he thinks fit; but his great game formerly, before the gold-fields, was the shepherd or hut-keeper on his way to town with his cheque for perhaps a year or two years’ wages. This unfortunate man was generally overwhelmed with kindness, made drunk and kept so for three, four or five days; on regaining his senses, he naturally seeks his hard earnings, which are not to be found; he applies to the landlord, who tells him that he is in debt; that the £60 is expended. On asking how – “How?” repeats the host, “do you forget the shout you stood – the shout for all hands?” “You are in my debt now £5 and I shall keep your gun and pack until I am paid, “says the landlord, pushing the unhappy fellow from his door perhaps without a rag to his back. For a new colony, only inhabited, I consider that there is more vice than is to be found in any part of the world.” 3 Painting of Black Thursday by William Strutt. 1864 Many will recall 5 years ago this month (February 7, 2009), Black Saturday bushfires claimed 173 lives and destroyed 2029 homes, making it the most deadly fire in Australia’s history. It was also Victoria’s hottest day, with the temperature at Geelong reaching 47.4oC. Thirty-one years ago, on February 16, 1983, the Ash Wednesday bushfires killed 75 and destroyed 3,700 buildings. And old-timers will remember Black Friday on January 13, 1939 when 71 people perished. However, for sheer size, the Black Thursday bushfires on February 6, 1851 were the largest ever experienced, with over a quarter of the colony of Victoria completely destroyed—approximately 5 million hectares. This is over 2½ times more land destroyed than the next biggest bushfire– on Black Friday 1939, and nearly 12 times bigger than the Black Saturday fires. The year 1850 had been one of exceptional heat and drought. By lunchtime on February 6, 1851, Melbourne residents were claiming that the temperature had reached 47.2oC.* The first fire was reported in the Plenty Ranges, in what is now the northern suburbs of Melbourne. Embers blown away from camp fires lit by bushmen and bullock drivers started most fires, while a few started from smouldering tree stumps that had initially burned in fires days or weeks earlier. Within the early afternoon hours the sky all over Victoria was turned into a broiling black mass of smoke with streaking embers. Worst hit areas included the hills to the north of Melbourne, Dandenong, Gippsland, the Wimmera District, and Portland. However, the greatest toll of destruction arguably occurred in the districts around Geelong. At Geelong the mail coach had started to Melbourne, but near Cowie's Creek the driver found that neither he nor his horses could continue in the face of the scorching wind and flying embers which threatened destruction to the mail. He prudently turned his back to the fiery, blinding blast, and returned to Geelong. Meanwhile the farmland around Geelong burned. Farm houses, fences, crops, orchards, gardens, haystacks, bridges, and wool-sheds, were all swept away by the rush of flames, which left behind them nothing but charred heaps of ruins. * The claimed temperature of 47.2oC (117oF) cannot be verified. Thus the official Melbourne record stands at 46.4oC (115.5oF) recorded on Black Saturday, February 7, 2009. 4 At Corio, the pastures were destroyed in a flash as the fires raced through. Farm sheds and houses were all incinerated. The only thing left standing were the chimneys, as memorials to suggest where the fires should have been. A Mrs Murphy, along with her two children were typical of many who were obliged to flee. So close were the flames upon her that her hut was ablaze before she left it. Taking refuge in the Moorabool River the three stood, breathing in with difficulty the suffocating atmosphere, while listening with terror to the roar of the elements and the cries of the disoriented and burning animals. Jumping the Moorabool, the fires burned everything across the Barrabool Hills, leaving behind hundreds of dead animal carcasses. Terrified horses in the district fared better. Forming one giant mob they jumped the fences and most outran the flames to reach safety. While no-one lost their life, few houses was spared. From Teesdale to Waurn Ponds the devastation was complete. Even the brass fittings melted off the cooking implements. On the Bellarine Peninsula spot fires started by flying embers ran out of control. At Indented Head, four of the stores at the Pilot Station were destroyed. Farmers found refuge by shepherding their families into the ocean until the fires roared past. The Otway Ranges were unable to avoid the conflagration either. Although not as populated at the districts State Library of Victoria around Geelong, vast areas of bush Desperate families, livestock and wildlife seek shelter in were soon devoid of life. Even ships the river on this engraving of Black Thursday. out at sea in Bass Strait were not spared– being showered by smoke, dust and fiery embers which had to be doused with water, lest the ships catch fire. Northern Tasmania was blanketed with an eerie smoky fog that smelt of death. Late in the evening a strong sea-breeze began to blow, driving back the heavy pall of smoke that only deepened the darkness of the night.

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