ABC RN Online Producer Andrew Davies has brought to our attention the following articles which may be of interest to historians.

The History Council of NSW is proud to present the Annual History Lecture 2014

 'The Battle within ourselves' - POWs in post-war Australia

Presented by Professor Christina Twomey, Professor of History at Monash University

on 9 September 2014 from 6 pm to 9 pm at The Mint, 10 Macquarie Street, Sydney.

Colonial South Australians 1836-1900 who were they?

Presented by Ron Gibbs – Historian and Author

“21 Objects, 21 Stories: celebrating community collections”

exhibition was held at Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery (QVMAG) in Launceston.

WA Natural Disasters Resilience Program

‘Past Masters heritage group defends throwing old Chinese coin into sand dune’

A Northern Territory heritage enthusiast group, Past Masters, located a brass coin, thought to be from the Qing Dynasty and minted between 1736 and 1795, on Elcho Island in July 2014. The heritage group, which includes a geomorphologist, an anthropologist and several archaeologists, was on Elcho Island, about 600km east of Darwin off the coast of Arnhem Land when they made the discovery. They located the coin using a metal detector and said they photographed the item and left it on the sand dunes where it had been found.

News of its discovery stimulated international interest, with speculation on ancient links between China and northern Australia. It was also noted that similar Chinese artefacts had been found around goldfields in the Northern Territory.

The decision to leave the coin in the sand has been criticised.

‘A spokeswoman for the Northern Territory Department of Lands, Planning and the Environment, which deals with heritage matters, said there was no rule or requirement that valuable items be returned to their original location. However, she said the research undertaken by Past Masters was conducted at a known Macassan archaeological site. Macassan people are known to have visited Australia for hundreds of years from Indonesia to trade in trepang, or sea cucumbers, and there are legal protections for these sites. Such sites are automatically protected by the Heritage Act as heritage places. This means that a permit is required for any disturbance of the site, she said.

Curator of the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Paul Clark, stated that picking up a coin and taking it from where it was found would mean it lost its context. ‘Metal detectorists and heritage enthusiasts and general members of the public are not encouraged to collect artefacts from the field,’ he said. Mr Clark said it was impossible to know how the Chinese coin came to be on the remote island.

Two World War II servicemen are buried in unmarked graves on Garuwa Island in the Wessel Islands of North West Arnhem Land . They died of wounds sustained in an attack on an RAN vessel on 22 January 1943 when bombed by a float plane from Dobo in Anu Island in Indonesia. They were Percival Cameron of east Sydney and Gitjbapuy Markulu from East Arnhem Land. The story of the attack on the ship, their wounding and deaths is outlined in the Arafura Times newspaper of 29 July 2014.

(Source: Arafura Times 29 July 2014 pp.1-3 including three photographs)

The historic boab tree, Andansonian gregorii,  in the GPO car park in Darwin has been entered on the Northern Territory Heritage Register. It was planted in the late 1800s. The Northern Territory government has pledged $10,000 towards preservation of the tree.

(Source: Litchfield Sun 23 July 2014 p.5 including photograph)

An 1813 ‘Holey Dollar’ and other coins were stolen from a display at State Library of New South Wales on 6th August 2014. Sydney Police are investigating the theft of 12 coins dating from 1850s to 1920s. Police stated that the coins were in a steel framed glass cabinet with heavy and armoured locks. The State Librarian, Dr Alex Byrne, stated that the State Library knew the value of the coins financially and historically. The ‘Holey Dollar’, Australia’s first coin, is the inspiration for the Macquarie Bank logo. Mr Jim Noble, managing director of Noble Numismatics and official valuer for the State Library of New South Wales, stated that sale prices of ‘Holey Dollars’ have ranged from $70,000 to $400,000. The ‘Holey Dollar’ was minted in the Lima Mint in Peru and was the start of currency in Australia. Governor Lachlan Macquarie bought 40,000 Spanish silver dollar coins to resolve the colony’s currency shortage. A hole was punched in the centre to devalue. Each coin became two coins – the larger donut outer ring and the smaller coin, the Colonial Dump. A second theft occurred nearby on the same afternoon – jewellery from a George Street hotel.

(Source: Australian Financial Review 9-10 August 2014 p.2 including photograph)