The Shot Tower

Today I am going to tell you a little bit about The Shot Tower, we visited this place while in Tassie but on the day we went there it was closed, naturally.

Anyway the Shot Tower is on the Channel Highway about 11.26 kilometres from Hobart, it is one of the states most historical industrial buildings. It was completed in 1870 by Joseph Moir, the tower is the only circular stone shot tower in the southern hemisphere.

It is said that the tower was completed in eight months but realistic it would have been more like eight years he then had to discover how the secrets of shot making. He made his first shot in September 1870.

It was no doubt with some pride that Joseph Moir himself inscribed the keystone over the Tower entrance which records his achievement and reads.

“This Shot Tower was built by the proprietor, Joseph Moir in the year 1870, in its erection he acted as Engineer, Architect, Carpenter and Overseer. With merely the assistance of two masons it was completed in eight months, when the secrets of shot making had to be discovered. After many persevering efforts the first shot was dropped on the 8^th September 1870”

The Shot Tower is 48 metres high, has a 6.37metres diameter base and is 3.81 metres at the top. The walls are .86metres thick at the base decreasing to .52 metres at the top. The staircase within the tower was the original scaffold and is made up of 31 landings and 287 steps. The small unglazed openings spaced at intervals in the tower walls give natural lighting to the stairways, the openings were originally glazed during the erection of the tower.

Tim would have liked to be able to climb to the top of the tower but as I said the day we visited it was closed.

On the 8^th August 1956 the Tower, Tower House and just over 3.23 hectares was acquired by the Crown and gazetted as a Historical Site. On the top floor of the factory building a museum area was set up with photographs, information panels and short video describing the shot making process. The museum was open when we were there and we had a look around it but the tower itself was closed. There is also a tea room located at the area which also was closed on the day we were there.

Me and my siblings

So lets talk about my siblings as all will know I have three sisters and one brother all younger then me which is ok with me I have no problem being the eldest, however, I have to say I often feel left out I don't know why I just do.

I married Tim way back when and I guess that is why I have been pretty independent, I had Tim and I had Kathy-Lee and Natasha and later of course Jessica and my girls took up my time so I didn't have time to hang out with my sisters Jeannie and Sue. Sue in fact when she was only 16 decided to go and live with Rex her boyfriend at the time who was 32 yeah you read that right she later married him but then when her youngest Kelli was only a toddler she left him and they later divorced.

Sue lived about a 40-45 minuted drive from the rest of the family and we didn't see her very often to be honest way back then I felt that Rex didn't like our family and that was why she didn't come to many family functions not even Christmas, I don't know for a fact that was how he felt it was just the feeling I got.

Also Sandra and David are a lot younger then me, I was 15 when Sandy was born and 16 when Dave was born so when I married Tim and left home they were still pretty young I was nearly 22 when I married Tim.

Of course now that we are all older and such we still all see each other often and talk often, hell I am going to dog sit for Dave at the end of the month and I spoke to Sandy last night and saw Jeannie on Friday with Sandy and Dave at breakfast at the local shopping centre.

I know I am lucky to be so close to my siblings as I know some people are not, people like Tim he hasn't really spoken to any of his siblings since his step-father passed away and as some will know Tim doesn't talk to his father any more.

A to Z from me about stuff

Hi am pinching this from Lauren who can be found here: http://www.lotfortyeightblog.com, she pinched it from Erin who can be found here: http://www.twothirdshazel.com and now I am using it because it is a post I don't have to think much about to write.

A- age: 53

B- biggest fear: Losing a loved one

C - current time: 12.55pm

D - drink you last had. Pepsi Max

E- every day starts with... Blogging (more or less)

F - favourite song. Don't have one

G - ghosts, are they real? Sure are

H- hometown. Gateshead (suburb of Newcastle)

I- in love with Tim ( husband)

J - jealous of: Nothing and no one don't do jealous

K - killed someone? Only in my dreams

L- last time you cried? A few nights ago (don't know why)

M - middle name: Nita named after my great aunt

N- number of siblings: 4, 3 sisters & 1 brother

O- one wish. Happiness for those I love

P - person you last called. Mum

Q - question you're always asked: W hat's for............lunch or tea (dinner)

R - reason to smile. My family

S- song last sang. Can't remember

T - time you woke up. 7.45am

U - underwear colour. Black

V- vacation destination. Anywhere

W - worst habit. Not being able to say no to the family

X - Xrays you've had Knees, Hips and back

Y- your favourite food. Pizza

Z - zodiac sign. Scorpio

Now..... you go, if you feel like it if not then don't

Port Arthur A Timeline

Today I am just going to share with your all Port Arthur a timeline...............we start in 1830 and go through to 1877.

1830 Port Arthur penal settlement is established as a small timber station.

1831 Wooden huts for convicts and soldiers and cottages for officers are completed.

1833 Charles O'Hara Booth began 11 year term as commandant and the semaphore signal system began.

1834 1^st group of boys transferred to Point Puer (boys prison/reform school)

1836 Foundation of the Church laid and Guard Tower constructed.

1837 1^st public service held in the Port Arthur Church

1841 Introduction of probation system lead to growth in convict numbers

1842 Construction of the Corn Mill and Granary (later to be the penitentiary) commenced and the completion of the brick hospital was done.

1844 At the end of commandant O'Hara Booth's term Port Arthur included 1100 convicts and 634 boys at Point Puer.

1848 1^st stone of Separate Prison was laid

1849 Point Puer Boys' Establishment closed and approximately 3500 young prisoners had passed through it.

1853 Transportation to Van Diemen's Land is abolished, James Boyd became commandant

1868 Completion of the Asylum is done

1877 End of the convict era at Port Arthur

All I have is this for today as I am so exhausted

A stressful morning

Talk about drama this morning it was a little more crazy and chaotic in the house, started with me as usual telling Leo over and over to get dressed for school and to change his socks and put his shoes on, nothing new there.

Then Tim got up went into his office and couldn't find his phone, or glasses he has two pairs a cheap pair of reading glasses and $400 pair of bifocals he wears to work and other places as well.

So we call the boys in to see if they could tell us what happened to them and of course both boys at first said nope don't know, have no idea. Now I might add that Natasha had come home from work she thought she could drive Blain to school but got a phone call as she pulled up and had to leave again but since she was here she got into the act and was going off at the boys about Papa's lost things.

Now we found the phone after ringing it and then we found the cheap glasses but still couldn't find the good glasses after a bit Blain retrieves them for a shelve when asked how he knew where they were he said Leo told him, I sent Leo from the room and asked when did Leo tell him he just stood there with his arms folded and said nothing. I came out and spoke to Leo he said he told Blain about hiding them after he did it so I go back and speak to Blain he said the same thing more or less.

After all this Natasha got on her high horse about Tim calling Blain and liar (which he did) and how it was all Leo and nothing to do with Blain and how we should apologise to Blain. I did go and tell Blain I was sorry for going off at him for something he may not have done, but with Papa going off his head it made me feel tense and frustrated.

Now here's the thing after all was said and done, Blain tells me he was in the room with Leo when the things were hidden and knew all along where they were and like Leo he didn't want to get into trouble so he lied just like Leo.

Leo was willing to take the fall for Blain and had told me Blain knew nothing about the hiding of Papa's things so I think Natasha owes Leo an apology for going on that it was all Leo when the truth be told it was both of them, which is what I thought to start with. Also she went on about us accusing Blain for something he had no part in but in fact he did have a part he said he was the one who hid one pair of the glasses not Leo.

Blain told Leo that both me and Papa thought it was all Leo all along and only accused him because they (we) didn't want Leo to think we were picking on him, this pissed me off as this was not the case, yes I d id think Leo would have been more likely to do it but also thought Blain knew more the he was saying and may have been involved.

I also told Tim that he wasn't helping being so angry and going off his head, I wanted to calm Leo down before I took him to school as if he goes to school in a bad mood he gets into more trouble.

Tim was snapping and snarling at me all the way to the school and over to the hospital, he has an appointment to have a camera down to check out his hernia, when I asked him why he was in a mood he goes well I am going to have a day procedure, I snapped back and how many have I had over the years, he said nothing..............he also kept going on about what time he had to be there, I got him there 15 minutes before he needed to be there. I hope he comes home in a better mood.

So all in all I have had a somewhat stressful morning.   

The places I have lived

As all know that I live in a suburb of Lake Macquarie in the state of New South Wales, which is on the east coast of Australia.

I was born at Western Suburbs Maternity hospital, as mentioned in the last post about me that we lived with my grandparents for a while by a while I mean 18 months before we moved to a Dept of housing place in Blacksmiths about 20 minutes from my grandparents mum and dad didn't really like living that far away from my grandparents and when I was 5 ½ we moved from Blacksmiths to Gateshead still a Dept of Housing place and just in time for me to start school.

Gateshead is only 5 minutes from where my grandparents lived so that made mum happy as she was and still is very close to her parents. When we first moved to Gateshead we lived in Gateshead but a few years later we moved to Gateshead West which is now just known as Gateshead, then in 1980 we moved again to a different part of Gateshead West, these moves were due to the increasing family we went from a 2 bedroom, to a 3 bedroom to a 4 bedroom which is the house mum & dad are still living in.

When I married Tim we moved into a flat above the Gateshead shops only a few minutes from my parents place then when Natasha was a baby we got offered a Dept of Housing place here in Warners Bay we have been in this house since May 1988 and we have no plans on moving this is home. Oh yeah when I meet Tim he was living only a few streets from my parents place, he was sharing a house with a couple of girls.

The one thing about living in the Lake Macquarie/Newcastle area is that you can pretty much get from point A to point B within 20-30 minutes. This is something Tim really likes as he is from Sydney and there it can take ages to get from point A to point B, also in Sydney if you take a wrong turn it can take ages to get back on track here if you take a wrong turn it will often only take a few minutes to get back on track.

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He doesn't listen and he doesn't look but still I love him

As all know, I love Tim but sometimes he drives me crazy he doesn't think, doesn't listen and doesn't look. The other night he asked me to get something for him when I do the shopping tomorrow, so I told him to write it on the list on the fridge.

Now for the last few years I have had a shopping list note pad on the fridge but since it isn't the list I take with me I write things that we run out of on the list and Thursday night when I do the shopping list I take the sheet of paper into the lounge room where I am writing out the shopping list and add the things from it to the shopping list and cross out what has been written and using a fridge magnet I attach the sheet of paper to the fridge for future use.

So I use one sheet off the pad a number of times I write on both sides of the paper and as said I attach the sheet to the fridge with a magnet.

Now for some reason whenever Tim writes something down he uses a fresh sheet of paper doesn't matter that I have a sheet there with things written on it already he still writes on a new sheet of paper.

So the other night when I see him go to use a new sheet I walked out and said use this sheet that already has things written on it, what does he say, “oh I didn't know there was a sheet already being used” open your eyes and look Tim it is there right next to the pad you were going to write on.

If it was a new thing I was doing I would get that he may not realise but what the hell Tim I have been doing things this way for a few years. He also had the nerve to say that I never tell him what I am doing and he had no idea what all the sheets of paper were on the fridge for.

He also has a terrible habit of walking away when someone is talking to him if he isn't interested in what is being said or he tunes out and just doesn't listen then he complains that I didn't tell him something, it isn't that I didn't tell him it is that he wasn't interested so he didn't take it in.

So what I have to end this with is that love can be so annoying..................................

My house starting to look more like my house

Richmond Gaol

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Ok about time to tell you that I am going crazy this morning with two little boys running around and going crazy and of course not listening to what nanna says.

Now let us move onto something different from me and my family, Old Richmond Gaol, located in Richmond in Tasmania. Never heard of the gaol that's ok me either till we went there and we went to Richmond for something different but ended scrapping the first thing and touring the gaol.

Richmond was named in February 1824 and within a decade the region had the third largest population in the island, later on Richmond would become an important centre for the military.

Now Richmond gaol was built in 1826 and it is the only gaol with the original buildings, it hasn't been restored like most old gaols. It was in the mid 1820's that there was a burst of building activities requiring a large number of convict labourers and so a local place of imprisonment was needed for those who committed offences while employed on the new public works. Also there were surrounding rural properties which belonged to gentlemen farmers which had a large number of assigned convicts who acted as slave labour. So what better way to keep all those convicts in order then to have the threat of a stretch in the local gaol or lash of course.

The first gaoler was W J Speed and ex-schoolmaster from Clarence Plains who had many personal family problems he was appointed on the 1^st February 1826 but only served as gaoler for 4 years before being removed from office after charges of keeping rations for himself. The man also abandoned his wife and the mother of his 12 children, denying his marriage and tried to get his wife committed to the Lunatic Asylum in Sydney. He was 66 when he was appointed gaoler and 70 when he was dismissed.

The gaol held many Aborigines usually without charges being brought against them, their only real crime was being an Aboriginal, members of the Stoney Creek tribe were placed there in late 1828. Yummarra, the tribal chief managed to escape only to be recaptured later. At the request of Governor Arthur the conciliator and protector of the Aborigines George Robinson visited the gaol he was compelled at one visit to complain about an assault upon an aboriginal female by a soldier sentry who attacked her with the butt of his musket.

The of course there were bushrangers in 1827 the gaoler requested arms as he felt it was likely that the gaol would be attacked, the sheriff expressed doubt as to whether Speed would be able to make a defence, however, the gaol was not attacked.

In 1832 a Gaoler's Residence, Watch House and Javelin Men's Room were constructed because of a letter from Lt Barrow which pointed out that 42 men in irons as well as others waiting for trial occupied a room .72m x 4.11m with some prisoners having to sleep in the cells and passage ways.

Now I mentioned that Yummarra escaped but of course he was not the only one to escape from the gaol. The insecurity of the gaol was highlighted through a number of escapes in 1834, with one break-out being achieved by going through the floor boards and cellar with eight men escaping. Another escape involved the piling up of bedding to such and extent that the prisoners could simply jump over the paling fence. In 1849 six men escaped by stacking bricks from an old privy against the corner wall to climb over it, after removing stones and lintels from their cell windows.

In 1839 the Gaoler Randall Young was gaoled in his own gaol for debt, he was replaced by a Samuel Whittacker who proved from his want of energy method and regularity totally unfit for the Office of Gaoler what that means I don't know. However, he was replaced by a William Jemott in May 1844 and this man had a disagreement with the hangman of Hobart concerning carrying of water to the gaol the matter was referred to the Visiting Magistrate and resulted in the Gaoler being threatened with being locked up in his own gaol for disrespect.

When the transportation of convicts ceased and the operation of the gaol moved pasted its peak the Colonial Secretary suggested to the Sheriff that the gaol could be better used as a Watch House so the gaol passed from the jurisdiction of the Sheriff to that of the Police.

On the 10^th June 1861 Richmond became a Municipality and the gaol again passed hands to the the newly formed Municipal Police. The opening minutes of the Richmond Council moved that the present force continue for one month and it was determined that one Sergeant was to act as Watch House Keeper and that the Superintendent was to reside in the Gaol House and keep a horse ready for immediate use. Various people were designated as Gaoler at Richmond up to 1880.

Council minutes show that councillors were quick to sieze any opportunity to keep the Gaol in repair and prisoners were detained for the purpose of erecting stables, with enticements offered of money, sugar, tea and tobacco to be shared between them.

A circular from the Colonial Secretary in 1877 suggested the centralisation of the Police and the closure of the Municipal Force at Richmond by the Police Act of 1898. The gaol, however, was still in need of repairs and another inmate with roofing skills was utilised to do the repairs.

In 1943 the Richmond Council agreed the Gaol should be returned to the State Government and as a result the Richmond Gaol became a State Reserve on the 18^th December 1945, under the control of the Scenery Preservation Board. In 1971 the National Parks and Wildlife Service was formed and Richmond Gaol was then classified an Historic Site.

About Me Growing Up

Now today I am going to tell you what I wanted to do when I grew up, some people know what path they wanted their life to take like what job the wanted to have but me not so much as a child I never thought about what I wanted to do when I grew up.

I went to school because it was what was expected when I left school I had no plans or ideas my best friend at school wanted to do a secretarial course at the local Tafe (technical and further education) so I went with her to enrol as it turned out I got into the course and she didn't she did a night-time receptionist course.

When that was over I started to look for work but really wasn't sure what I wanted to do, I applied for secretarial and receptionist type work only getting a 17 week training job to give me some experience.

Deep down I knew what I wanted to do I wanted to me a mother and spend my days raising my children but I didn't even have a boyfriend and when my nan asked me one day what type of man would I like to marry I didn't know what to say. All I could think of was a man like my dad who in my eyes was perfect, hell he still is pretty prefect.

I was lucky that I meet Tim who is so much like my dad it isn't funny, and he was happy for me to stay home and raise our daughters, I wanted to have 5 children Tim wanted to only have 2 so we compromised and had 3.

Both Tim and I wanted girls more then boys, when I was pregnant with Jessica many would say do you want a boy this time, we were like no not really if we have a boy then that will be great but if not then so be it. It was not important, in fact usually when asked what we wanted boy or girl we would say healthy we wanted a healthy baby that was the most important thing to us.

Meltdowns

Hi all, how many of you have had a melt down due to a dirty, messy house?

I think many of us have at one time or other, I know I have.

When my daughters where little I had many of them, it was the norm for me to have to ask, tell, demand and yell for something to be done in the way of housework.

I in fact yell this fact to my youngest daughter only today, she rings here after her dad tried to ring her to ask if she was coming for lunch and she was crying and he wasn't sure what the problem was he knew it had something to do with Leo so he gave the phone to me and I listen for a moment and told her I would be there in 5 minutes.

I get to her place and she is going off her head at Leo because the house is a mess, she had a real melt down saying she hated the house and why was she the one always having to clean the house , why couldn't Leo clean his room and help her clean when she asked. I said because he is a child and like most children he has to be told over and over to do stuff and like many mothers she has to yell to get the child to listen and take notice.

I also told her that she is the mother, she is the one who is responsible for cleaning the house and if she cleaned more frequently maybe the house wouldn't be that bad. I also told her she said the same things about the house in Swansea so it isn't the house it is that she doesn't really like doing housework and yeah Leo is terrible when it comes to helping. Also she has a habit of sleeping in and then complaining that Leo is up getting into stuff while she is still in bed.

We all know that yelling isn't productive but many of us end up doing it in frustration, I did it more then I liked but when I would calm down I would tell the girls I was sorry about the melt down and Jessica is the same she will have a melt down and when she has calmed down she tells those she went off at that she is sorry. She said sorry to me this morning as well as to Leo, after she went off she felt bad for going crazy.

Now let us talk about Natasha she also had a melt down yesterday about the state of this house, but this house isn't that dirty or messy, the problem she has is that I don't clean the way she likes. She goes off about not doing mess and not cooking in a messy kitchen and so forth I said that I clean up all the damn time. I always pack the dishwasher she said she doesn't use the dishwasher she prefers to wash by hand and I said I know that and I am ok with that but I always make sure the dishes are in the dishwasher I pack it and I unpack it.

I do not only mine and Tim's washing I often hang her clothes and cleaning clothes on the line for her as well as getting them off and some weeks I vacuum two or three times other weeks I do it only once a week and even then I don't do it good enough for her. I have told her is I don't do it good enough she if free to do it herself but stop complaining that I am not doing anything when in truth I am not doing it the way you like and that is the big problem.

Natasha did, however, tell me she was sorry for her melt down and didn't mean to take things out on me.

So melt downs have been happening here the last couple of days.

Jo-Anne

A little bit about Jo-Anne today, some of this people will know, some of this people may not know. I was born way back in November 1962 on the 16^th, I was a premature baby by around 6 weeks and was only 4lb 2oz in weight and 12 inches long. My grandmother was worried I wouldn't live and had me christened that night at the hospital. I spent 4 weeks in a humidicrib before being allowed to go home.

For those who don't know a humidicrib is also known as an incubator or isolette, it is a clear box type crib that provides a warm controlled,clean and enclosed environment where baby can be easily observed. It also helps protect the baby from infection. It may be totally enclosed to keep baby warm and protected it may have the humidity set to high so the baby does not lose water through their skin which is very thin.

Anyway back to me I went home just in time for Christmas, when I was a baby we lived with my grandparents (mum's parents) and my nanna would fuss over me and would jump out of bed at night if she heard me stir often before mum had time to get up herself. In fact at times by the time mum heard me nan had already put my bottle on to warm and was changing my nappy. I would also go to sleep at night while nanna fed me.

I have always had a close relationship with my nanna, as a teenager I would go and help her with her cleaning job three days a week, this I did from about the age of 13 till around the age of 23 and loved those days. I was also the one who when mum was in hospital would stay at nan & pop's place my sisters went to other relatives, at one time Jeannie went and stayed with mum's Aunty Nita for a while I of course do not remember this though.

Speaking of Aunty Nita I was named after her, my middle name is Nita, how I got the name Jo-Anne I am not sure I think mum had said to dad and nan that she liked the name Jo-Anne so when I was being christened nanna said mum liked the name Jo-Anne. She liked the name Jo and her grandmother was named Mary Anne so she took the name Anne and called me Jo-Anne.

I can tell you I like that my name is hyphenated when I was in year 6 at school there was 6 girls named Joanne but only one named Jo-Anne, me which I really liked.

This and That

Hello everyone, life here is good the weather today is really pretty warm and dry and for the second day this week I do not have to get Leo from school as his mum doesn't have any work this afternoon but the next three days she will need me to get him from school.

On Sunday night when she dropped the boys off she tells me that Leo's shoes fell apart so she would have to buy him new shoes for school, which she did thankfully other wise he would have had to have the day off school, see she can do things when she really has to.

Tim is off work today, he has to have a CT Scan of his sinuses and put in for a couple of hours off but they gave him the whole day off instead.

Yesterday was Landon's 4^th birthday he was spoilt with presents most of which he got on Sunday when we were all at nan & pop's place and he had a big ass cake well not an ass cake but a big cake. Why so big? Don't know just the size his mum ordered she said she didn't realise it would be so big. The cake was nice though.

Mum said yesterday he was carrying the card from Aunty Jo and Uncle Tim around because it had his name on it. However, not long after he was dropped off mum found him in the lounge room looking sad and like he was going to cry, when she asked him what was wrong he said nothing but she could tell something was wrong turned out he wanted his mum and thought she was taking too long to turn up. She had things to do before she could go over and see him when she did turn up his mood improved.

Last night while I was on the phone to mum we lost power, no power no phone, so I had to ring her back on my mobile we had no power for just under and hour and Blain was complaining a bit that he was bored as there was no tv and he couldn't use it Xbox. We also had no lights and it was after dark so the house was pretty dark.

Natasha made the comment that she thinks it would be cool to have lived in a time that there was no power a simpler time I said you only say that because you like many have this image of what it would be like which is in fact very different to what it was like. My mum who grew up in the country with no lights only lamps you had to lite and no heating only an open fireplace and a wood burning stove that had to be lit first thing in the morning and went all day. Also as mum said back in those days many places didn't have inside toilets often just a dunny down the back. Mum says she wouldn't like to live like that again.

Tim said to me you can at least use the internet, I told him no can't do that I am however, doing other stuff on the laptop that doesn't involve being online. I had a mini melt down as when I went to get batteries Jessica had taken all my batteries over the weekend. Tim got pissed off because when he went to start up the generator it wouldn't start and he couldn't figure out why and it pissed him off.  

A bit about the history of the Olympic Games

Since it is the time of the Olympic Games yet again a time that comes around every four years, I thought I would share a little about the history of the Olympic Games here today.

According to historical records, the first ancient Olympic Games can be traced back to 776 BC. They were dedicated to the Olympian gods and were staged on the ancient plains of Olympia. They continued for nearly 12 centuries, until Emperor Theodosius decreed in 393 A.D. that all such "pagan cults" be banned.

The site of the ancient games was Olympia, it is in the western part of the Peloponnese which, according to Greek mythology, is the island of "Pelops", the founder of the Olympic Games. Olympia functioned as a meeting place for worship and other religious and political practices as early as the 10th century B.C.

The Games were named for their location at Olympia, a sacred site located near the western coast of the Peloponnese peninsula in southern Greece. Their influence was so great that ancient historians began to measure time by the four-year increments in between Olympic Games, which were known as Olympiads.

Participation in the ancient Olympic Games was initially limited to freeborn male citizens of Greece; there were no women’s events, and married women were prohibited from attending the competition.

After the Roman Empire conquered Greece in the mid-2nd century B.C., the Games continued, but their standards and quality declined. In one notorious example from A.D. 67, the Emperor Nero entered an Olympic chariot race, only to disgrace himself by declaring himself the winner even after he fell off his chariot during the event.

It would be another 1,500 years before the Games would rise again, largely thanks to the efforts of Baron Pierre de Coubertin (1863-1937) of France. Dedicated to the promotion of physical education, the young baron became inspired by the idea of creating a modern Olympic Games after visiting the ancient Olympic site.

In November 1892, at a meeting of the Union des Sports Athlétiques in Paris, Coubertin proposed the idea of reviving the Olympics as an international athletic competition held every four years. Two years later, he got the approval he needed to found the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which would become the governing body of the modern Olympic Games.

The first modern Olympics took place in 1896 in Athens, and featured 280 participants from 13 nations, competing in 43 events. Since 1994, the Summer and Winter Olympic Games have been held separately and have alternated every two years.

In the opening ceremony, King Georgios I and a crowd of 60,000 spectators welcomed 280 participants from 13 nations (all male), who would compete in 43 events, including track and field, gymnastics, swimming, wrestling, cycling, tennis, weightlifting, shooting and fencing. All subsequent Olympiads have been numbered even when no Games take place (as in 1916, during World War I, and in 1940 and 1944, during World War II).

The official symbol of the modern Games is five interlocking coloured rings, representing the continents of North and South America, Asia, Africa, Europe and Australia.

The Olympic flag, featuring this symbol on a white background, flew for the first time at the Antwerp Games in 1920.

The Olympics truly took off as an international sporting event after 1924, when the VIII Games were held in Paris. Some 3,000 athletes (with more than 100 women among them) from 44 nations competed that year, and for the first time the Games featured a closing ceremony.

The Winter Olympics debuted that year, including such events as figure skating, ice hockey, bobsledding and the biathlon. Eighty years later, when the 2004 Summer Olympics returned to Athens for the first time in more than a century, nearly 11,000 athletes from a record 201 countries competed. In a gesture that joined both ancient and modern Olympic traditions, the shotput competition that year was held at the site of the classical Games in Olympia.

The Female Factory

As I mentioned while in Tassie we visited the Cascades Female Factory, this place is Australia’s most significant historic site associated with female convicts. It was a purpose built, self-contained institution intended to reform female convicts and is the place to discover the stories of Australia’s convict women.

Thousands of women and children were imprisoned there and many never left, due to high rates of illness and infant mortality. Days after the first women were relocated there from the older prison which housed both men and women, the rules and regulations for the management of the house of correction were issued to the principal superintendent. The rules outlined the staff required to manage the establishment including a superintendent, a matron, an overseer and a task mistress for the crime class, a porter and a clerk and two constables. They also outlined how the women were to be divided in class and duties. There were three classes and on no account were they classes to communicate with each other.

The first class consisted of women recently arrived from England who exhibited good behaviour on the journey as well as those returning from service with good characters and those who had successfully seen out their probation in second class. This class was considered assignable and the women were sent to service when the appropriate employment could be found.

The second class was to comprised of those who had been guilty of minor offences and those who by their improved conduct were removed from third class also known as the crime class.

Those is third class or the crime class consisted of women who had been transported for the second time, those guilty of misconduct on their journey to the colony as well as those convicted of offences before the Supreme Court or those who committed offences while in the establishment.

One such offence was the offence of becoming pregnant yes becoming pregnant was an office didn't matter if the sexual act was consensual or not so even if a woman had been raped and became pregnant it was still an offence to be pregnant. The baby would be born inside the prison and stay there for the first three years of life before being removed to an orphanage where they would remain till around the age of 13.

The class system regulated both clothing and daily tasks of the women, the first class were employed as cooks, task overseers and hospital attendants. The second class were employed in making clothes for the establishment and preparing and mending linen. The crime class was sentenced to the wash-tub, doing laundry for the factory, the orphan school and the penitentiary, they also carded and spun wool but of course all tasks were subject to change at the discretion of the Principal Superintendent.

When we were there is was raining sleet and so bloody cold and there were puddles of water around, we were told that the ground was a metre or two higher then it was back when it was in operation so during the winter months the women would be out doing their work in icy cold water up to their knees, they often did the washing in cold to icy cold water.

During the summer months the inmates spent many long hours usually around 12 hours a day working and even the slightest disobedience to the rules was punishable.

“Females guilty of disobedience of orders, neglect of work, profane, obscene, or abusive language, insubordination, or other turbulent or disorderly or disrespectful conduct, shall be punished by the superintendent with close confinement in a dark or other cell, until her case shall be brought under consideration of the Principal Superintendent.”

When convict transportation to “Van Diemen's Land” as Tasmania was once known as ceased in 1853, parts of the Female Factory site were used by new institutions with the main site being proclaimed a gaol in 1856 with its running being transferred to local authorities although it remained to be known as the Female Factory. The site housed a male invalid depot, a female invalid depot and a boys reformatory in 1869.

It was at this time the Female Factory was scaled back to yards 1 and 2 and rear of yard 5 at it's hight the Female Factory took up the whole of the street it is housed in but only a small part of it is left and it is now a historic site.

The years to follow saw other institutions come and go including a Contagious Diseases Hospital a Living-in-Home and Hospital for the insane. The Women's Prison site finally closed in 1877 and by 1904 the place was no longer used at all.

In 1905 the site was auctioned by the government to private buyers at that time nearly all the buildings had been demolished with a number of industrial buildings constructed across the site. It was in the early 1970's that the Women's Electoral Lobby sought out a Federal government grant to purchase yard 1 handing over management to the Parks and Wildlife Service.

It was between 1999-2004 that the Female Factory Historic Site Ltd acquired yard 3 and the Matron's Quarters and in 2008 the Tasmanian Government purchased the remaining part of yard 4 to form the Historic Sit as it is today.

Who Knew................Not Me

Hello everyone started this yesterday afternoon but with one thing or another never got around to finishing it and posting it which was somewhat annoying, if I want something done I really need to do it in the morning, guess I am more a morning person then an afternoon person.

At the moment I am reading a book called Oddfellows by Nicholas Shakespear, it is about something that happened in Broken Hill which is New South Wales on the first of January 1915, something I knew nothing about but I was inspired to get on line and do some research about the incident this is what I found out.

On January 1st. 1915 at 10.00am, an overcrowded picnic train left Broken Hill carrying 1200 excited men, women and children to attend the annual Manchester Unity Order of Oddfellows New Years Day celebration picnic at Silverton.

The long train consisted of two break vans and 40 ore trucks where people sat in rows, shoulder to shoulder on flat wooden benches.

Approximately a few kilometres out of town, by the railway fence on the northern line of the water main from Umberumberka, an ice cream cart flying a Turkish flag was noticed and two men later identified as Gool Mohamed and Mulla Abdulla, were seen crouched behind a mound of earth.

As the train drew level with the men, the ore trucks were swept by a hall of bullets as they opened fire on the passengers with their
Snider and Martini Henry rifles!

The firing continued as the train trudged slowly passed with 20 or 30 shots being fired. The picnickers panicked and thrown into confusion when they seen people falling around them.

The train was brought to a halt further up the line to determine the number of the passengers injured,if not killed. Two people were killed and six wounded on the train, Alma Cowie aged 17 died instantly. William Shaw a foreman in the Sanitary Department was killed and his daughter Lucy was injured. Another 5 people were also wounded. Three of the victims were removed from the train and taken to the pumping station at the reservoir and medical men summoned from Broken Hill to attend to them.

Alfred Millard, a pipeline inspector was killed when he received a fatal wound to the head as he was cycling beside the train.

Constable Robert Mills received two bullet wounds during the pursuit.

Jim Craig the fourth fatality, was chopping wood in his back yard at the rear of the Cable Hotel when a stray Turkish bullet killed him during exchange of fire.

Soon after the attack Gool and Abdullah withdrew towards the west. During their attempted escape they came across and murdered Millard. By this time the police were in full pursuit, when they sighted the two running assassins they fired their guns above their heads in order to force them to surrender, but Gool and Abdullah returned fire and wounded Mills.

The murderous pair made their last stand at the top of a hill where they found refuge behind large rocks a few hundred yards west of the Cable Hotel.

Local militiamen, police, members of the rifle club and citizens spread out on the adjoining hills, there was an hour and half of heavy gun fire poured into the enemy's position, the Muslims returning fire with spirit but without effect, the stronghold was rushed where it was found that Mullah Abdulla was dead and Gool Mohammed so severely injured that he died in hospital a few hours later.

What was the motive behind the attack, it seems a miner found three statements beneath a rock at the "Turks" last stand written in Urdu (a language used by Afghan tribesman of the North-West Frontier Provinces around 1915). Two of the documents revealed the motives for attacking the picnic train; the third proved to be an application by Gool Mohammed to join the Turkish Army.

In neat writing Gool Mohammed wrote, "I kill your people because your people are fighting my country". Mullah Abdulla had been worried because of a recent court conviction for killing a sheep on private property, in his capacity as a Moslem official. On one hand there was a fiery young Afrida itching to strike a blow for Turkey; on the other a simple friendless old man ready to join forces against authority.

The whole city was incensed at the needless slaughter and looked for some means of reprisal. The Germans and the Turks were at war with the Allies: The German Club building stood empty in Delamore Street and by nightfall was in flames. Because the "Turks" were Moslems a crowd rushed to the camel camp, ready to vent its anger on the Islamic community, but the road was blocked by police and militia and the crowd dispersed.

Local Muslims were horrified at the tragedy and refused to be responsible for the burial of the murderous pair.

The bodies were later interred in an unhallowed secret location in Broken Hill.