Gday...

1789  -     Governor Arthur Phillip sets out to trace the course of the Hawkesbury River.

Captain Arthur Phillip was Governor of the colony of New South Wales, the first settlement of Europeans on Australian soil. Phillip was a practical man who suggested that convicts with experience in farming, building and crafts be included in the First Fleet, but his proposal was rejected. Thus, he faced many obstacles in his attempts to establish the new colony, including the fact that British farming methods, seeds and implements were unsuitable for use in the different climate and soil.

Less than three months after the arrival of the First Fleet to Australia, Phillip set out to explore Sydney Harbour, in search of more land suitable for settlement. Together with eleven men and enough provisions for six days, Phillip travelled as far as he could by boat up Sydney Harbour, tracing the Parramatta River to the point where Parramatta itself would be established six months later, as Rose Hill. The party then spent four days travelling overland towards the Blue Mountains. Further progress was halted by ravines and untraversible countryside, and insufficient supplies, and Phillip returned to Sydney Cove determined to send out further exploration parties.

On 28 June 1789, Phillip departed on a journey to trace the course of the Hawkesbury River as far upstream as he could. Phillip noted the promising rich soil and timber as he traced the river to Richmond Hill, which his party had first seen in April 1788. He then reached the junction with the Grose River, where rocky falls prevented further progress. 

1790  -     Father of the Australian wool industry, John Macarthur, first arrives in Sydney. 

Australia is known as the country that was built on the sheep's back. Its reputation as the world's largest producer of fine quality wool is due to the man often regarded as the Father of the wool industry in Australia: John Macarthur.

John Macarthur arrived in Port Jackson as a lieutenant in the New South Wales Corps on 28 June 1790. Under Commanding Officer Major Francis Grose he was appointed paymaster for the colony, and later promoted to Inspector of Public Works. In 1793, Macarthur was given a land grant of 100 acres which he cleared and improved, assisted by convict labour. After receiving another land grant, he and his wife Elizabeth worked hard to improve and develop the land, eventually planting 120 acres of wheat, and numerous fruits and vegetables.

In October 1797, the first flock of Spanish merino sheep arrived in Australia. They had been bought in South Africa by British officers Henry Waterhouse and William Kent, who then sold some of them to the Macarthurs. The Spanish Merino was a hardy sheep which was tolerant of Australia's extreme conditions. Unlike other settlers, Macarthur did not try to cross-breed the sheep with other breeds, which only resulted in sheep with coarse wool of a lower quality. By 1803, the Macarthur flock numbered over 4000. The Macarthurs had improved the bloodline and strength of the flock by purchasing merinos from flocks in different regions, thus limiting inter-breeding of similar bloodlines. The first bales of wool were sent to England in 1807.

1836  -     Snow falls in Sydney in the only significant snowfall event to occur in that city to date.

Regular snow in Australia is restricted to the Snowy Mountains and high country of the southern states. Snowfalls have occurred during unusual weather patterns in southwest Western Australia and southern Queensland, but given the size of the continent, snow is very limited.

Of all Australia's capital cities, the one most likely to receive snowfalls is Canberra. While snow is not uncommon in the Blue Mountains and west to Orange, it rarely hits the New South Wales capital. Sydney recorded its first and only significant snow event on the morning of 28 June 1836. On this day, snow began around 6:00 am and continued through to mid-morning, coating the hills in white. The Sydney Morning Herald reported that "the terrified state of the natives indicated the rare nature of such a visitation". Snow fell again to a lesser degree on 2 July and 5 July, as it was a particularly cold winter.

1838  -     Queen Victoria is crowned in Westminster Abbey, a year after her accession to the throne. 

England's Queen Victoria was born on 24 May 1819 at Kensington Palace in London. Although christened Alexandrina Victoria, from birth she was formally styled Her Royal Highness Princess Victoria of Kent. Victoria's father died when she was less than a year old. Her grandfather, George III, died less than a week later. Princess Victoria's uncle, the Prince of Wales, inherited the Crown, becoming King George IV. When George IV died in 1830, he left the throne to his brother, the Duke of Clarence and St Andrews, who became King William IV. Victoria was recognised as heiress-presumptive to the British throne, and in 1837, at the age of 18, she succeeded her uncle, William IV, to the throne to become the last monarch of the House of Hanover.

Victoria was crowned in Westminster Abbey on 28 June 1838. Although respect for the Crown had waned in preceding years, Victoria proved to be a popular Queen who was well informed of political matters and worked well with Lord Melbourne, Prime Minister in the early years of her reign. Victoria's 64-year reign was marked by enormous growth and expansion of the British empire.  

1845  -     Aborigines attack the exploration party of Ludwig Leichhardt during the night, killing John Gilbert. 

Ludwig Leichhardt was born in Prussia and studied in Germany. He was a passionate botanist who had an interest in exploration, although he lacked necessary bush survival skills. In October 1844, he left from Jimbour Station on the Darling Downs on an expedition to find a new route to Port Essington, near Darwin. The trip took 14 months and covered over 4,800km.

Whilst on this trip, Leichhardt had a few encounters with Aborigines, often unnoticed. Leichhardt was sympathetic towards Aborigines and their culture, but in some way he or his party offended them: there were rumours that some of his men had interfered with Aboriginal women. On the night of 28 June 1845, Aborigines attacked the party. One of Leichhardt's men, John Roper, suffered a spear through his arm. The shaft of the spear had to be broken off and the head pulled through in order to extricate it. He was also struck by a spear through his cheek, which damaged an optic nerve. James Calvert, 19 years old, was struck by five spears, penetrating his knee and groin.

John Gilbert was a collector for John Gould, the man famous for producing thousands of detailed sketches of Australian birds. On the night of the attack, Gilbert was killed instantly by a spear through his neck. The men buried him at the site, and his grave was only discovered in 1983. Leichhardt honoured his fallen comrade by naming the Gilbert River, which flows into the Gulf of Carpentaria, after him.

1914  -     Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie are assassinated, sparking WWI.

Until 1878 Bosnia and Herzegovina, just outside Austria, had been governed by the Turks. After the Treaty of Berlin in 1878, Austria was granted the power to administer the two provinces. Bosnia was populated primarily by the Croats, ethnic Serbs and Muslims. Nationalism among the Bosnian-Serbs was inflamed when Austria annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina directly into the Austro-Hungarian empire in 1908.

His Imperial and Royal Highness Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Este, born 18 December 1863, was an Archduke of Austria and from 1896 until his death, heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne. The Archduke was one of the leading advocates of maintaining the peace within the Austro-Hungarian government during both the Bosnian Crisis of 1908-1909 and the Balkan Wars Crises of 1912-1913.

"The Black hand" was a secret nationalistic Serb society who determined to assassinate Archduke Franz Ferdinand when he accepted the invitation of Bosnia's governor to inspect the army manoeuvres outside Sarajevo. Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated at approximately 11:00am on 28 June 1914. The assassination led to war between Austria and Serbia, which escalated into World War I as other European countries allied themselves with one side or the other.

1919  -     The Treaty of Versailles officially ends WWI. 

Six months of negotiations at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 culminated in the Treaty of Versailles. The Treaty of Versailles was the peace treaty which officially ended World War I between the Allied and Associated Powers and Germany. It was undersigned by German foreign minister Hermann Müller on 28 June 1919 and ratified on 10 January 1920. The Treaty required that Germany claim full responsibility for causing the war and that it make reparations to certain members of the Allied forces. Further conditions imposed by the Treaty included Germany losing a certain amount of its own territory to a number of surrounding countries and being stripped of all its overseas and African colonies. Germany was also required to substantially reduce its military to limit its ability to make war again.

Cheers - John