Sydney Can Put on a Storm, Year Two Excursion to the Maritime Museum, and The Secret River

Sydney Can Put on a Storm!

This past weekend the eastern coast of Australia received relentless rain storms. I have not seen so much water all at once!  The weekend's wild weather broke rainfall records across the city, but Sydneysiders (what they call residents of Sydney) finally saw relief as the worst of the weather eased up on Monday.  In less than 48 hours, the heavy downpours passed the average total June rainfall of 132 millimeters, causing flash floods across the city.

Rainfall totals between 200 mm and 400 mm (7.8 - 15.7 inches) were recorded in eastern New South Wales and the southeastern Queensland coast, and in northern and eastern Tasmania, with Illawarra, Upper North Coast and South Coast districts of New South Wales reported totals in excess of 400 mm, including the highest weekly total of 645 mm at Robertson (The Pie Shop) in the Illawarra district.

Here are some news photos of the past weekend's storm!

A Joey Koala Displaced from it's Mum's Pouch

A Swimming Pool Falling Away from the House!

All the Rivers Were (of course) Spilling Over Their Banks!

In Lane Cove, NSW (near where we live)

Year Two Excursion to the Australian National Maritime Museum

On Thursday (9th) I took my students on a delightful excursion to the Sydney Maritime Museum.  I have been looking forward to the day because the Maritime Museum is a place that Mitch and I have been wanting to check out, but we have not had a chance to do so yet.  So, I was going for my own learning and pleasure, as well as for the benefit of my students.  We have been studying various forms of transportation, and we were not disappointed in the numerous types of water vessels that we saw and learned about!  Here is some information on the Maritime Museum:

The Australian National Maritime Museum (ANMM) is a federally operated maritime museum in Darling Harbour, Sydney. After considering the idea of establishing a maritime museum, the federal government announced that a national maritime museum would be constructed at Darling Harbour, tied into the New South Wales State government's redevelopment of the area for the Australian bicentenary. The museum building was designed by Philip Cox, and although an opening date of 1988 was initially set, construction delays, cost overruns, and disagreements between the state and federal governments over funding responsibility pushed the opening back to 1991.

One of six museums directly operated by the federal government, the ANMM is the only one located outside of the Australian Capital Territory. The museum is structured around seven main galleries, focusing on the discovery of Australia, the relationships between the Australian Aborigines and the water, travel to Australia by sea, the ocean as a resource, water-based relaxation and entertainment, the naval defence of the nation, and the relationship between the United States of America and Australia. The last gallery was funded by the United States government, and is the only national museum gallery in the world funded by a foreign nation. Four additional gallery spaces are used for temporary exhibits. Three museum ships – the HM Bark Endeavour Replica, the destroyer HMAS Vampire, and the submarine HMAS Onslow – are open to the public, while smaller historical vessels berthed outside can be viewed but not boarded.

Here are some photographs of our day at the Maritime Museum:

Book Recommendation for You!

Since our arrival in Australia I have been intrigued to learn about the early history of this country.  Settled primarily as a penal colony in the early 1800's, Australia's "past" has been instrumental in the evolution of the country to what it is today.  In subsequent blogs I hope to delve into more of the history that I have found fascinating, but today, I would like to recommend a book to your summer reading list!  

The Secret River by Kate Grenville

The Secret River, written by Kate Grenville in 2005, is a historical novel about an early 19th-century Englishman transported to Australia for theft. The story explores what may have happened when Europeans colonised land already inhabited by Aboriginal people.

The Secret River was inspired by Grenville's desire to understand the history of her ancestor Solomon Wiseman, who settled on theHawkesbury River at the area now known as Wisemans Ferry. Her inspiration to understand this came from her taking part in the 28 May 2000 Reconciliation Walk across Sydney Harbour Bridge during which she realised that she didn't know much about the early interactions between the settlers and the Aboriginal people.^[3] Initially intended to be a work of non-fiction about Wiseman, the book eventually became a fictional work based on her research into Wiseman but not specifically about Wiseman himself. The novel took five years and twenty drafts to complete.

The novel is dedicated to the Aboriginal people of Australia. Although sparking hostility from some historians it received a positive response from many Aboriginal people, Grenville has said "they recognise that the book is my act of acknowledgement, my way of saying: this is how I'm sorry".^[4]

The Secret River has been adapted for the stage by Andrew Bovell; the play was presented by the Sydney Theatre Company in January 2013.

After a childhood of poverty and petty crime in the slums of London, William Thornhill is sentenced to death for stealing wood, however, in 1806 his sentence is changed to transportation to New South Wales for the term of his natural life. With his wife Sal and children in tow, he arrives in a harsh land that feels at first like a death sentence. However, there is a way for the convicts to buy freedom and start afresh. Away from the infant township of Sydney, up the Hawkesbury River, Thornhill encounters men who have tried to do just that: Blackwood, who is attempting to reconcile himself with the place and its people, and Smasher Sullivan, whose fear of this alien world turns into brutal depravity towards it. As Thornhill and his family stake their claim on a patch of ground by the river, the battle lines between old and new inhabitants are drawn.

The early life of William Thornhill is one of Dickensian poverty, depredation and criminality. Though Thornhill is a loving husband and a good father, his interactions with indigenous inhabitants are villainous. Thornhill dreams of a life of dignity and entitlement, manifested in his desire to own land. After befriending Blackwood under his employ, Thornhill finds a patch of land he believes will meet his needs, but his past comes back to haunt him. His interactions with the Aboriginal people progress from fearful first encounters to (after careful observation) appreciation. The desire for him to own the land contrasts with his wife wanting to return to England. The clash is one between a group of people desperate for land and another for whom the concept of ownership is bewildering.

Next week's blog will highlight the quest for the making of 22 paper mache hot air balloons without going totally nuts!  Stay tuned!