Australian History

[Balmain Bob]

What has happened to Tathradj??

 

[the duck]

He will get here
I see we are about to hit Half a million views to this post well done every one thats have contributed to this post

Trevor

 

[goldtruck59]

What has happened to Tathradj??

Hey Bob,

I don't reckon he'd mind if you put up a question !! Keep it moving and something to think on while bumming around waiting for the wind to drop LOL
GT

 

[Tathradj]

Had a bit of a family crisis that distracted me.
I am so sorry. :8
Balmain Bob,
Over to you mate.

 

[the duck]

Ill jump in and post one, my nickname was ned and i lived from 1833 till 1908, what am i famous for in the transport industry

 

[davent]

Edward Devine. Coach driver, drove a huge coach called Leviathan, famous for driving the 1st English cricket team to Australia. Cobb and Co bought his route.

 

[the duck]

Edward Devine (1833?-1908), coach driver, was born probably on 10 August 1833 at Brighton, Van Diemen's Land, son of Thomas Devine, a free migrant who became a farmer at Cove Hill, near Brighton. Edward went to Victoria as a youth and in 1854 was driving coaches on the Geelong-Ballarat Road. After Cobb & Co. acquired this route, Devine soon became one of their best-known drivers. For a time he drove the 'Leviathan' coach, the largest to appear in Australia, and by 1862 he was earning the very high wage of 17 a week. In that year he was assigned to drive H. H. Stephenson's cricketers, the first All-England team to visit Australia, on their tour of Victoria. His spectacular handling of a new coach with twelve magnificent light greys won him widespread fame. Something of a showman, he drove the cricketers right on to the oval at a match in Geelong. When the tour ended, the Englishmen presented him with a purse of 300 sovereigns at a complimentary dinner. In 1863 Devine went to New Zealand, where for fifteen years he drove for Cobb & Co., first on the South Road out of Dunedin, and later on the North Road from Dunedin to Palmerston and Oamaru. He retired from coaching in New Zealand in 1878, reputedly warning his successor to 'mind the peat bog, and give my love to the tussocks'.

Devine acquired his nickname of 'Cabbage Tree Ned' by wearing a hat made from the fibrous leaves of the cabbage palm. A photograph taken in New Zealand shows that he was of medium build with a strong, broad face, square chin, straight nose and deep-set eyes. His generosity, free-spending habits and fund of tall stories enhanced his popularity; but he had weaknesses. A casual attitude to such details as way bills, a quick temper and a passion for practical jokes, some rather unfair, probably made him seem more human against the background of his unequalled skill as a whip, his shrewd judgment of horses and his calmness in emergencies. Stories about his achievements were legion. Once he drove a team of twenty-two with four postilions. Another time he was descending Fyansford Hill near Geelong when his horses bolted; Devine kept lashing them into greater speed to prevent the coach from over-running the wheelers until they could be safely pulled up on the opposite hill.

Devine's activities after 1878 are obscure and difficult to authenticate. He has been credited with a little more coach driving, spells of work as a barman and farm labourer, travelling with a stallion, running a livery stable in Melbourne and drifting to the Murchison goldfields in Western Australia. Certainly at Ballarat he gave an exhibition drive with an eight-horse team harnessed to a Cobb & Co. coach, and on 12 July 1904 was admitted to the Ballarat Benevolent Asylum. As driver of the institution's wagonette, he became a familiar figure on the city's streets. He died aged 71 and unmarried on 18 December 1908. Years later he was found to have been buried in an obscure corner of the Ballarat new cemetery. Admirers in Australia and New Zealand supported the appeal of a Memorial Committee to raise funds for his remains to be moved to a more prominent location with a fitting monument. On 7 February 1937 the new tomb with a distinctive headstone was unveiled by Frank Smiley, president of the Cobb & Co.'s Old Coach Drivers' Association.

Correct Davent your go

 

[davent]

Okey dokey.....Famous lady (of ill repute) of the North Queensland gold rush in the 1880, s.
Alledgedly made what bathroom accessory of the day from gold and threw it into the Endevour River?

Who was she, and what did she chuck in the river?

Its an easy one, because it took so long for me to respond, just back from a swing, nearly keeled over from dehydration!

 

[Magilla]

Palmer Kate is said to have had a gold chamber pot made from local gold but I wasn't aware she had thrown it into the Endeavour, might have to take my diving gear next time I head north.

 

[davent]

You got it Magilla!

Just one of the many goldrush stories! She and her girls were often paid in gold.

 

[Magilla]

She is certainly well known up north, must have been a real character during the gold rush.

Looking for a town that at one time had nearly 50 pubs and a population of 5000 but now has a population of less than 200 and just two competing pubs. Should be another easy one.

 

[Magilla]

Gold was the attraction, still is a bit.

 

[Balmain Bob]

Gday Magilla.
Would that town be Ravenswood in Queensland? With the Imperial and the Railway Hotels being the remaining 2?

http://www.smh.com.au/news/Queensland/Ravenswood/2005/02/17/1108500203686.html

Cheers

Bob

 

[Magilla]

Yes it would be Bob, great place to go for lunch. We were entertained by the manager of the Railway Hotel while we had a great lunch there, he tells a good yarn. He also seemed to enjoy having the young Swedish backpackers working for him.

 

[fatbellied expert]

Hi I'm new but very good

 

[Balmain Bob]

Thanks Magilla,

I am yet to visit that part of the world but hope to get up there in the next few years

I will be back shortly with a question.

Welcome Fatbellied expert.

See how you go with my question. It should be posted by 9pm

cheers

Bob

 

[Balmain Bob]

In Australia women were not permitted to do this until towards the end of the 1920s.

But two women did this in the in the lat 1900's, ie between 1905 and 1910, to become the first women in the country to do so

Many women had been doing this overseas for more than 15 years before being allowed to do this here.

Who were the women and what was their first?

Cheers

Bob

 

[Balmain Bob]

Clue.
Men worldwide were only able to do this from 1903 onward.

Bob

 

[goldtruck59]

swimming with exposed limbs at the beach? Don't know why I said that. LOL
GT

 

[Balmain Bob]

Sorry Gt not that

Think more along the lines of what could people not do in the late 1800's but do in the early 1900's

Bob