Gday...

1848  -     Kennedy lands at Rockingham Bay, to commence his fateful expedition.

Edmund Kennedy was born in 1818 on Guernsey, one of the Channel Islands of the English channel. As a surveyor, he arrived in Sydney in 1840 where he joined the Surveyor-General's Department as assistant to Sir Thomas Mitchell. In 1845, he accompanied Mitchell on an expedition into the interior of Queensland (then still part of New South Wales), and two years later led another expedition through central Queensland, tracing the course of the Victoria River, later renamed the Barcoo.

In 1848, Kennedy was chosen to lead an expedition to explore overland to Cape York Peninsula, mapping the eastern coast of north Queensland. On 21 May 1848, his party was deposited at Rockingham Bay, north of Townsville, from where he intended to travel with 12 other men to Cape York, where the ship 'Ariel' was to meet him at the conclusion of his journey. Dense rainforest and the barrier of the Great Dividing Range made the journey extremely difficult. By the time Kennedy's party reached Weymouth Bay in November, they were starving and exhausted. Kennedy left eight sick men and two horses at Weymouth Bay before continuing on with three white men and a loyal Aborigine named Jackey-Jackey.

Kennedy elected to leave the three white men near the Shelburne River when one of them accidentally shot himself in the shoulder. Continuing on with Jackey-Jackey, Kennedy was close to reaching his rendezvous with the 'Ariel' when he found himself surrounded by hostile aborigines. Their spears quickly found their mark with Kennedy, whilst Jackey-Jackey tried to hold off the Aborigines with gunfire. On 11 December 1848, Kennedy died in Jackey-Jackey's arms, signifying the tragic loss of a promising young explorer.  

1840  -     Governor William Hobson declares British sovereignty over the islands of New Zealand.

The first known European to sight the islands of New Zealand was Dutch trader and explorer Abel Tasman, who did so in 1642. The next explorer to venture through New Zealand waters was James Cook, who charted and circumnavigated the North and South Islands late in 1769. In November, Cook claimed New Zealand for Great Britain, raising the British flag at Mercury Bay, on the east coast of the Coromandel Peninsula. This signalled the start of British occupation of the islands previously occupied only by the Maori.

In 1839, the British government appointed William Hobson as consul to New Zealand. New Zealand was made a British colony following the Treaty of Waitangi, which was signed by over 50 Maori chiefs of New Zealand and William Hobson, on 6 February 1840, and another 500 or so chiefs throughout the islands between February and October.

Hobson was also instructed by the British authorities to obtain sovereignty over all or part of New Zealand, but he was required to have the consent of a sufficient number of chiefs. On 21 May 1840, Hobson issued a proclamation declaring British sovereignty over the Islands of New Zealand. Formal approval of the assertion of sovereignty over New Zealand by the British Government was published in the London Gazette on 2 October 1840.

1932  -     Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. 

Amelia Mary Earhart was born on 24 July 1897 in Atchison, Kansas, USA. She was the first woman to achieve the feat of flying across the Atlantic. Her first trip across the Atlantic in a Fokker F7 Friendship took 20 hours and 40 minutes. Five years after Charles Lindbergh became the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic, Earhart became the first person to repeat his feat, and the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. Departing from Newfoundland, she landed in Ireland on 21 May 1932. For her achievement, she was awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross by the US Congress.

On 11 January 1935 Earhart became the first person to fly solo from Honolulu to California. She had departed Wheeler Field in Honolulu, Hawaii, and after a journey of over 3,800km in 18 hours, she arrived at Oakland Airport in Oakland, California, to be awarded the prize of $10,000. In 1937, together with her navigator Fred Noonan, she attempted a round-the-world flight in a Lockheed Electra. Approximately five weeks after she set off, her plane disappeared, last heard about 100 miles off Howland Island in the Pacific. Speculation has been rife over the years regarding what happened to Amelia Earhart.

2008  -             It is reported that the Tasmanian government has declared the Tasmanian Devil an endangered species.

The Tasmanian devil, Sarcophilus Harrisii, is a dasyurid, or carnivorous marsupial, now endemic to the Australian island state of Tasmania. There is fossil evidence to suggest that this marsupial was once found on the mainland, but it is believed that the introduction of the dingo by the Australian Aborigines created too much competition for food, leading to the extinction of the tasmanian Devil on the Australian mainland.

A nocturnal hunter, the Tasmanian Devil eats other mammals, and is an opportunistic feeder, readily eating carrion and roadkill. However, once European settlement in Australia began, the Tasmanian Devil population suffered a major decline, as farmers believed it was a threat to their stock, and tended to shoot the animal on sight. A further major threat to the Tasmanian Devil has been the emergence of DFTD, Devil Facial Tumour Disease, which causes facial lesions that increase in size until the animal can no longer eat, and thus it becomes susceptible to infections.

DFTD has caused a massive blow to the Tasmanian devil population, reducing numbers by 64% in the decade to 2008. On 21 May 2008, it was reported that the Tasmanian Government had officially declared the Tasmanian Devil to be an endangered species.

Cheers - John