Gday...

1831  -             New London Bridge is opened, replacing the 600-year-old London Bridge.

There have been a number of different London Bridges over the past 2000 years. In 46AD, the Romans built the first bridge across the Thames River; it was a simple wooden construction which was burnt down in 1014. The replacement bridge was destroyed by a storm in 1091, and the next bridge after that was destroyed again by fire in 1136. Forty years later, construction of a stone bridge was begun, leading to the opening of the new bridge in 1209. This bridge contained an intricate complex of houses, shops and a chapel, had 19 small arches and a drawbridge with a gatehouse at each end. It was so heavily populated that it was made a ward of the City with its own alderman. Due to the heavy population of the bridge, it suffered damage from many fires over the years, deaths from fire and deaths from drowning as the many arches produced vigorous rapids underneath. The houses were not removed from the bridge until the mid 1700s.

By the early 1800s, traffic congestion and the dangers posed by the bridge prompted the necessity for a new bridge. Engineer John Rennie started construction in 1825 and finished the bridge in 1831. The design was superior, containing only five high arches, and constructed from strong Dartmoor granite. It was opened by King William the fourth, accompanied by Queen Adelaide, on 1 August 1831. However, a necessary widening process some 70 years later weakened the bridge's foundations to the point where it began sinking an inch every eight years. In 1968, it was auctioned and sold for $2,460,000 to Robert McCulloch who moved it to Havasu City, Arizona, where it was rebuilt brick by brick, and finally opened and dedicated on 10 October 1971.

The current London Bridge was completed in 1972 and officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1973. It was built in conjunction with the careful dismantling of the previous bridge, so that a river crossing was maintained in use at the site at all times.

1872  -             George Taylor, little-known pioneer in Australian aviation, is born.

George Augustine Taylor was born in Sydney on 1 August 1872. As a child, he worked to perfect the cellular kite, or box kite. On 12 November 1984, he was lifted about 5 metres on a kite above the beach at Stanwell Park, Sydney. As a student and admirer of aviator Lawrence Hargrave, Taylor developed a keen interest in gliding. Together with Edward Hallstrom, he pioneered gliding in Australia, launching from the sandhills at the northern Sydney beach of Narrabeen on 5 December 1909. His craft was a biplane with a box-kite tail for balance, built from coachwood and covered with oiled calico. Taylor's wife also tried her hand at gliding that day.

Taylor went on to be an architect, engineer, founder and Secretary of the Australian Air League, and cartoonist for Bulletin and Punch magazines. He also founded the Wireless Institute of Australia, contributing much to the spread and development of wireless technology in Australia.

1873  -             The world's first cable car is installed in San Francisco.

The Californian city of San Francisco, on the west coast of America, is notable for its steep streets. Horse-drawn carriages could become dangerous in wet conditions, as the cobblestone roadways provided insufficient grip for the horses' hooves.

In 1873, British inventor Andrew Smith Hallidie devised a system for overcoming the problem of public transport in the hilly city. Using wire ropes, pulleys, tracks, and grips, he invented the first cable car, based on a system he had already implemented in cable drawn ore cars for use in mines. On 1 August 1873, the first cable car cruised down Clay Street, San Francisco, and was able to return back up the steep grade, a distance of 853 metres, rising 93 metres.

1944  -             WWII diarist Anne Frank makes the final entry in her famous diary.

Anne Frank was born on 12 June 1929. As persecution of the Jews escalated in WWII, she was forced to go into hiding during the German occupation of the Netherlands. She, her family and four other people spent two years in an annex of rooms above her fathers office in Amsterdam. After two years of living in this way, they were betrayed to the Nazis and deported to concentration camps. At the age of 15, Anne Frank died of typhus at Bergen-Belsen. The date was March, 1945, just two months before the end of the war.

Anne Frank's legacy is her diary. It was given to her as a simple autograph/notebook for her thirteenth birthday. In it she recorded not only the personal details of her life, but also her observations of living under Nazi occupation until the final entry of 1 August 1944.

1949  -             The Australian government sends in army troops to work the mines during the extensive Coal Miner's Strike, effectively ending the strike.

The Australian coal miners' strike of 1949 was sparked by a clash between the miners' basic rights and concerns, and the government's interest in supporting business and mining interests. Coal mining had a high fatality rate, with around 25 miners being killed at work annually, so miners sought the implementation of essential safety policies, as well as a 35-hour week, long service leave, and a 30 shilling a week pay rise. To counter the control of the unions, some of which were led by members of the Communist Party of Australia, the Chifley government brought in strong anti-union laws. Thus, beginning on 27 June 1949, 23 000 coal miners, primarily in New South Wales and Queensland, went on a strike that lasted for seven weeks.

Because so much industry was forced to shut down, unemployment increased. Electricity supply was severely restricted and laws were brought in to prevent wastage of the limited supplies. Attorney General, Dr Herbert Vere Evatt and Prime Minister Ben Chifley together introduced the National Emergency (Coal Strike) Bill into federal parliament, putting it into immediate effect. the bill froze any trade union funds intended to assist the strike, and made it illegal for anyone to offer financial aid or support to any of the striking miners. Several officials of the Miners' Federation, Federated Ironworkers' Association and the Waterside Workers' unions were arrested and imprisoned for failing to hand over union funds to the Arbitration Court.

The strike finally ended when, on 1 August 1949, Chifley sent in 2,500 army troops to operate coal mines at Minmi, near Newcastle in New South Wales, Muswellbrook and Ben Bullen. Two weeks later, miners returned to work, without their demands being met. This was the first time the Australian military was sent in during peacetime to end a strike, and it became the precedent for numerous later incidents in which defence force troops were used to end strikes.

1949  -             The Snowy Mountains Authority comes into being, initiating Australia's greatest feat of engineering in the 20th century.

The Snowy Mountains Hydro Electric Scheme is a hydroelectricity and irrigation scheme in Australia, covering about 5,124 square kilometres in southern New South Wales. Considered to be one of the wonders of the modern engineering world, it involves sixteen dams, seven power stations, a pumping station, 145 km of underground tunnels and 80 km of aqueducts. The scheme generates enough electricity to meet roughly 10% of the needs of New South Wales, depending on seasonal rainfall and melting snow.

The Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme was first proposed in 1918, driven by the needs of farmers who wanted to be able to divert the waters of the Snowy River inland for irrigation, rather than having it all simply flow out to sea at the river's mouth. In 1946, the Federal government, together with the state governments of Victoria and New South Wales, co-operated to investigate the possibilities of such a Scheme. The Government accepted a proposal in 1949 and the Snowy Mountain Hydro-Electric Power Act was passed in Federal Parliament in July 1949. Led by prominent New Zealand engineer Sir William Hudson, the Snowy Mountains Authority came into being on 1 August 1949.

Construction on the massive undertaking began in October 1949. Together with Governor General Sir William McKell and Prime Minister Ben Chifley, Sir William Hudson, then first Commissioner of the Snowy Mountains Scheme, fired the first blast at Adaminaby. The scheme took 25 years to complete and was built at a cost of $1 billion - well under budget. During construction, over 100,000 men and women from over 30 countries worked on the Scheme, whilst Australians made up most of the workforce. These immigrants contributed significantly to the post-war boom. 121 people died whilst working on the project, but given the size of the scheme, it maintained a high safety record.

Apart from the obvious benefits provided by the electricity and the numerous dams, the Snowy Mountain Hydro-Electric Scheme was significant for raising Australia's profile as a technologically advanced country. In 1967 and 1997, the American Society of Civil Engineers ranked the Scheme as one of the great engineering achievements of the twentieth century.

Cheers - John