Gday...

1813  -     Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth reach Mt York, from where they sight rich grazing land on the other side of the mountains.

Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth were Australia's first inland explorers. They were determined to find a way through the impassable Blue Mountains to the rich grasslands they believed lay inland. Setting off on 11 May 1813, they followed the ridges, unlike previous attempts which had all focused on following the rivers, invariably ending up against sheer cliff faces or mazes of impassable gorges. The men faced difficult terrain, and had to use machetes to hack their way through the thick scrub.

On 28 May 1813, the explorers climbed Mount York, at the western end of the Blue Mountains, from which they sighted the rich grasslands on the other side of the mountain barrier. Blaxland wrote in his journal that they "discovered what [they] had supposed to be sandy barren land below the mountain was forest land, covered with good grass". The men explored the forest and grassland for several more days, and culminated their exploration with their ascent of a high hill they named Mount Blaxland. Sections of the Great Western Highway from Sydney still follow parts of the trail the men blazed back in 1813.

1814  -     Governor Macquarie offers a free pardon to absconded Tasmanian convicts, except for murderers. 

Unlike in the penal colony of New South Wales, Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) remained largely a convict settlement for its first fifty years. Little was done to encourage free settlers to take up land on the island. The colony faced starvation in the first few years of its existence, so Governor of Tasmania, Colonel Collins, was forced to send out the convicts to hunt. Lured by their unexpected freedom and undaunted by their isolation from the mainland, many convicts chose not to return, but undertook a life of bushranging.

Bushranging soon reached epidemic proportions, and in May 1813, Lieutenant Governor Davey demanded all absconded convicts and bushrangers return by December, or face being shot on sight after that date. Concerned by the ramifications of the subsequent outrage, on 28 May 1814 the Governor of New South Wales, Lachlan Macquarie, offered a pardon to all convicts except for those who had been convicted of murder, if they surrendered within six months. Taking the proclamation as a licence to bushrange, many convicts continued their crimes until the last moment. True to his word, Macquarie pardoned them of all previous crimes, whereupon many of them promptly returned to bushranging. 

1908  -     Ian Fleming, author of the 'James Bond' spy novels, is born. 

1934  -     The Dionne quintuplets, first known quintuplets to survive infancy, are born. 

The Dionne Quintuplets were born on 28 May 1934 in Ontario, Canada. The first quintuplets known to survive their infancy, they were born two months premature, each weighing no more than 0.9kg. The five identical sisters were named Annette, Cecile, Emilie, Marie and Yvonne.

The custody of the babies was withdrawn from their parents by the Ontarian government when the girls were barely a year old. They were then put under the guidance of Dr Dafoe, who had delivered them, and who subsequently exploited the girls for his own gain and fame. They were interred in Quintland, a theme park located just across from the parents' home. The sisters could be viewed by visitors through a one-way mirror. Approximately 6,000 people per day visited the park to observe them.

The girls were also used to publicise commercial products such as corn syrup and Quaker Oats. They starred in some Hollywood films, including The Country Doctor (1936), Reunion (1936), Five of a Kind (1938) and Quintupland (1938). After a nine-year court fight between the government and their father, the quintuplets were returned to their family in 1943. Emilie, Marie and Yvonne died in 1954, 1970 and 2001 respectively.

1937  -     Neville Chamberlain Becomes Prime Minister of England.

2000  -     250,000 people walk across the Sydney Harbour Bridge in the People's Walk for Reconciliation during Coroboree 2000.

Cheers - John