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FEDERATION OF AUSTRALIAN HISTORICAL SOCIETIES INC

 

e-BULLETIN No. 82 – 20 April 2011

 

Hon Editor, Dr Ruth S. Kerr

 

 

1) Prime Minister's Prize for Australian History - 2010-2011

 

2) New Zealand - Ministry for Culture & Heritage program

 

3) Heritage Victoria artefact collection online

 

4) Google Books settlement

 

5) Learning & Teaching Academic Standards Project in history and geography

 

6) Australian Prospectors and Miners Hall of Fame - nominations for mining inductees

 

7) Local history - New South Wales - National Trust Heritage Awards - St James Church (Sydney) - Saraton Theatre (Grafton) - Maitland Jewish Cemetery

 

8) Queensland - Anzac history - Mount Molloy, North Queensland - The Dar...Dar...Dardanelles and Darby Macnamara

 

 

1) Prime Minister's Prize for Australian History - 2010-2011

 

Nominations are being sought for the Prime Minister's Prize for Australian History for 2010-2011. The Prize is for any work first published, produced or broadcast between 1 July 2009 and 31 December 2010 and may include a published book, a documentary film, a documentary for radio or television, CD-ROM, DVD, other form of multimedia or a series of these works.

 

The subjects of works submitted could include, but are not limited to historical events; historical figures (including biographies); and work covering a particular subject.

 

Nominations close at 5.00 pm AEST, 18 May 2011.

 

Further information (including the 2010-2011 Prime Minister's Prize for Australian History Guidelines and the 2010-2011 Prime Minister's Prize for Australian History Nomination Form) is available at the Prime Minister's Prize for Australian History website (www.deewr.gov.au/schooling/programs/australianhistory)

 

(Source: Declan O'Connell, Prime Minister's Prize for Australian History Secretariat, Phone: (02) 6240 8183, Email: pmhistoryprize@deewr.gov.au)

 

2) New Zealand - Ministry for Culture & Heritage program

 

Ministry for Culture & Heritage (Wellington) has a large body of historical work to its credit, and seems to be well-resourced (at least in comparison to Qld, and probably other states and territories).The following websites provide an idea of the scope of the work of historians there:

(Source: Professional Historians Association (Queensland) – 31 March 2011)

 

3) Heritage Victoria artefact collection online

 

Heritage Victoria's artefact collection can now be searched online.

The database, designed to provide public access to the more than 60,000 artefacts held at Heritage Victoria's Centre for Conservation and Research, can be accessed at www.dpcd.vic.gov.au/heritage/archaeology/material-and-artefact-conservation-about

Maritime archaeologists remove artifacts from historic shipwrecks to protect them from physical danger or from looting. Valuable shipwreck artifacts were handed in during 1993 when an amnesty was declared on artifacts from historic shipwrecks.

 

During alterations to registered buildings or gardens, samples of materials, construction techniques or artifacts may be removed. Artifacts from all these sources are conserved in the Heritage Victoria Centre for Conservation and Research and then kept in the collection and used for research, education, publicity and displays.

 

As more objects and more images are added to the collection, they will become available through the website.

 

Contact: Annie Muir|Curatorial Officer & Archaeologist Heritage Victoria, Department of Planning and Community Development, 4 Harper Street, Abbotsford, 3067 (Level 4, 55 Collins Street)
www.dpcd.vic.gov.au
T: 03 9415 4402 / 8644 8901 | F: 03 9415 4433
Email anne-louise.muir@dpcd.vic.gov.au

 

(Source: asha-bounces@flinders.edu.au – 7 April 2011)

 

4) Google Books settlement

 

The Amended Settlement Agreement in the Google Books case has been rejected IN THE COURT. It was drafted by Google, authors and publishers to settle a dispute over the digitisation of books.

 

Judge Chin in the Southern District of New York decided that the settlement was not fair, adequate, or reasonable.

 

He acknowledged that the digitization of books and the creation of a universal digital library would benefit many, but decided that the settlement went too far as it would give Google a significant advantage over competitors.

 

It represents a significant setback with parties left to review their options. The judge noted that the settlement would be more palatable if it were 'opt-in' for authors rather than 'opt-out'.

 

www.nysd.uscourts.gov/cases/show.php?db=special&id=115

 

5) Learning & Teaching Academic Standards Project in history and geography

 

The Learning and Teaching Academic Standards Project chaired by Professor Iain Hay at Flinders University, concluded in 2010. The History and Geography Standards Statements have now been published by the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC).

 

Hard copies are available from the ALTC (email standards@altc.edu.au) and electronic copies may be downloaded from the ALTC website at www.altc.edu.au/standards/disciplines/ASSH

 

(Source: standards@altc.edu.au - Geography, Population and Environmental Management, School of the Environment Flinders University – 12 April 2011)

 

6) Australian Prospectors and Miners Hall of Fame - nominations for mining inductees

 

Nominations are being called for mining people to be inducted into the Australian Prospectors and Miners Hall of Fame (APMHOF). The nominations close by COB on 30 June 2011.

 

Candidates for induction into the Hall of Fame must be individuals who have demonstrated outstanding lifetime achievements for the benefit of the Australian minerals industry. Any person may nominate a miner. A nomination pack is available from the APMHOF at: Phone: 08 9026 2700; email: admin@mininghall.com.

 

(Source: Australian Prospectors and Miners Hall of Fame, Goldfields Highway, Kalgoorlie – 13 April 2011)

 

7) Local history - New South Wales - National Trust Heritage Awards - St James Church (Sydney) - Saraton Theatre (Grafton) - Maitland Jewish Cemetery

 

The ordinance marks on the orb and cross on St James Church in King Street, Sydney have been restored. They were stamped by convicts who built the church in 1824. This work was recognized in the National Trust Heritage Awards on 4 April 2011. The St James Church restoration cost $1.3 million which was funded by donations and grants.

 

Saraton Theatre in Grafton (built in 1926) and the Maitland Jewish Cemetery also received Heritage Awards.

 

(Source: Sydney Morning Herald   5 April 2011 p.5 including photo)

 

8) Queensland - Anzac history - Mount Molloy, North Queensland - The Dar...Dar...Dardanelles and Darby Macnamara

 

Some of the English-speaking world's best known and best loved poems were inspired by the First World War. Most were written by British soldiers who fought on the Western Front but one that has recently come to light is the work of an Australian who served with the Anzacs on Gallipoli. It's called the Dar... Dar... Dardanelles.

 

The circumstances surrounding the poem's creation are shrouded in mystery but it was preserved by a North Queenslander called Darby Macnamara. He served in the 5th Light Horse Regiment and saw action on Gallipoli. He claims to have been present when the poem was written and for many years he'd recite it at the annual Anzac Day ceremony in Mount Molloy (a former mining town situated 100km or so north-west of Cairns).

 

Darby Macnamara was born in 1890 in Montalbion. It too was once a North Queensland mining town. When the silver ore was discovered great things were expected but it soon became apparent that it was a rich surface deposit. It closed in 1893.

 

Darby spent the greater part of his life in dusty mining towns - in particular Mount Carbine and Mount Molloy – doing a variety of odd jobs. Shortly before the outbreak of World War I he became friendly with a young man who was destined to become one of Australia's most prolific authors, Ion Idriess. Darby is mentioned in two of his books – Men of the Jungle and The Desert Column. In 1914 Darby and Idriess joined the Australian Army and they trained together in Enoggera Barracks in Brisbane. They both saw action on Gallipoli.

 

As Darby lay dying in the Mareeba Base Hospital in August 1974 the schoolteacher, Mr Mike Rimmer, who'd recorded Darby's reminiscences in the early 1970s, promised him he'd do all he could to ensure that he's not forgotten. The appearance in this e-Bulletin and the War Graves Photographic Project Newsletter of the poem he was associated with for so many years should go some way to honouring that promise!

Below is the poem:

The Dar.. Dar.. Dardanelles

The Aussie found it sultry, when he went to fight the Turk
but hot with indignation he soon warmed unto his work.
At first he shed his khaki coat and then he shed his vest
and getting down to nature's worth, he showed his manly chest.
He seldom wore his boots at all — bare-footed he would go.
He said he wasn't mending socks —He'd give them to the foe.
His trousers he cut down to shorts and nearly naked then
, the Turks looked on the Aussies and saw that they were men.
They're handy with a rifle and the big guns that drop the shells.
They could do a lot of spadework —in the knells of the Dardanelles.
And the Turk he shakes his solemn head, and to his brother tells,
he wished those big Australians, hadn't come into the knells,
with its shells and yells and little hells,
Of the Dar ... Dar ... Dardanelles.


Now the Aussie has a brother who's the big New Zealand kid,
He came to help the contract —Turkey's sorry that he did.
He arrived without a welcome and they wished he'd go away,
but he plonked his foot down on the shore and said he'd come to stay.
He's got a mighty fist on him Lord help the Turk he biffed.
They tried to push him back again, But found he wouldn't shift.
His feet they don't turn back — To a rout he's never gone,
the more they try to push him back, the more he pushes on.
He says he doesn't like the Turk —He's nasty and he smells.
There'd be sweeter air without him in the knells of the Dardanelles,
and so he hunts the vermin in the cliffs and in the dells
in time with gentle Lizzie's voice that screeches from the knells
For its shells and yells and little hells,
in the Dar ... Dar ... Dardanelles.

You put the two together, as a couple they're a treat
hard as nails and tough as leather,
Two deuces hard to beat.
They've settled down in Turkey, and with steel have pegged a claim,
they've christened their new country and ANZAC is its name.
Which stands for that Australian, and that New Zealand chap,
a name they made up in their heads It wasn't on the map.
But now by cripes, It's written there in blood, and will e'er remain.
A new name printed deep no Turk will e'er erase again.
So, let us remember ANZAC And the glorious tale it tells,
now Britain from the overseas, came to the Dardanelles,
with its shells and yells and little hells,
Of the Dar ... Dar ... Dardanelles
.

(Source: Mr Mike Rimmer, UK – 11 April 2011; War Graves Photographic Project Newsletter April 2011)