Billy Hughes
I’ve just finished reading “Billy Hughes” by Aneurin Hughes (not related). The sub-title is “Prime Minister and controversial founding father of the Australian Labor Party”. It’s not a full biography and tries to paint a portrait of the man, rather than the politician. But Hughes lived for politics, becoming the longest serving elected member in [...]
Admella Festival
It’s unusual to commemorate the anniversary of a shipwreck, but as someone with an interest in history I’m strongly in favor of anything like that. One hundred and fifty years ago today the SS Admella ran aground on Carpenters Reef near Mount Gambier. Over the next eight days, 89 people lost their lives, but miraculously, [...]
Basketball and Gough Whitlam
The Border Watch runs a weekly “looking back” column with news extracts from 10, 20, 30 and 40 years ago. This week I noticed the town’s basketball stadium was officially opened 40 years ago by Gough Whitlam (photo below). Known today as the Icehouse, the stadium hosts local basketball and the town’s only sporting team [...]
AP Valiant and EK Holden
This photo of my father and I in 1967 shows a Valiant in the front and a Holden at the back. It was probably on a family Sunday drive. The Valiant is an AP6 model (or maybe AP5), according to my study of photos on the web. They were introduced in March 1965. Wikipedia says [...]
