VIsiting Salem

Autumn

In transito a Mignanego (GE) il 30 Maggio 2015.

In the city

In Westmount but Montreal in background

www.lonelyplanet.com/jordan/amman/sights/fortress/citadel...

The area known as the Citadel sits on the highest hill in Amman, Jebel al-Qala’a (about 850m above sea level), and is the site of ancient Rabbath-Ammon. Artefacts dating from the Bronze Age show that the hill was a fortress and/or agora (open space for commerce and politics) for thousands of years. The complex is surrounded by 1700m-long walls, which were rebuilt many times during the Bronze and Iron Ages, as well as the Roman, Byzantine and Umayyad periods. The Citadel ticket office is on the road leading up to the Citadel’s entrance. The Citadel’s most impressive series of historic buildings is the UmayyadPalace, which stretches out behind the National Archaeological Museum. Believed to be the work of Umayyad Arabs and dating from about AD 720, the palace was an extensive complex of royal and residential buildings and was once home to the governor of Amman. Its life span was short – it was destroyed by an earthquake in AD 749 and was never fully rebuilt. Coming from the south, the first major building belonging to the palace complex is the domed audience hall, designed to impress visitors to the royal palace. It is the most intact of the buildings on the site and is shaped like a cross because it was built over a Byzantine church. After much debate as to whether the central space had originally been covered or left open to the elements, consensus came down on the side of the ceiling dome, which was reconstructed by Spanish archaeologists. A courtyard immediately north of the hall leads to a 10m-wide colonnaded street, lined with numerous arches and columns, and flanked by residential and administrative buildings. Further to the north is the former governor’s residence, which includes the throne room. East of the audience hall is the Umayyad Cistern, an enormous circular hole with steps leading down to the bottom, which once supplied water to the palace and surrounding areas. The small disc on the floor in the centre once supported a pillar that was used for measuring water levels. Back towards the museum to the south is the small Byzantine Basilica, most of which has been destroyed by earthquakes. It dates from the 6th or 7th century AD, and contains a few dusty mosaics. About 100m south of the basilica are the remaining pillars of the Roman Temple of Hercules. Once connected to the Forum, the temple was built during the reign of Marcus Aurelius (AD 161–80). The only obvious remains are parts of the podium and the columns, which are visible from around town. Nearby is a lookout with sweeping views of the urban sprawl. There are information boards in English and Spanish at a few places around the Umayyad Palace, though they can be a little confusing to follow. Guides (up to JD5, depending on the length of time and number of people) may approach you when you arrive (or you can ask at the museum), and can really enhance your visit. The National Archaeological Museum, just northwest of the Temple of Hercules, has a good collection of items spanning all eras of Jordanian and regional history, ranging from 6000-year-old skulls from Jericho to Umayyad-period artwork. It also boasts some examples of the Dead Sea Scrolls found at Qumran in 1952, a copy of the Mesha Stele and assorted artefacts from Petra and Jerash. Most exhibits are well labelled in English. The crown jewels of the collection are three of the Ain Ghazal statues, dating back to 6500 BC, and some of the world’s earliest sculpture. Finds from the Citadel itself include the head from a statue of the Greek goddess Tyche and some Egyptian-style carvings. Note that there are rumours that this collection might one day be shifted to the new National Museum, though at the time of writing, there was little evidence of this happening soon. The only access roads to the Citadel are from Al-Malek Ali bin al-Hussein St. It’s better to hire a taxi for the trip up (less than JD1 from downtown), though it’s a nice walk if you’re headed downhill. Steps lead down from east of the Citadel complex, past a viewing platform to Hashemi St, opposite the Roman Theatre.

Child in a manger born, lies in a cattle stall

Safely he’s sleeping, Mary is keeping

Close beside her baby so small.

Jesus, my Lord.

PHOTO NOTE:

The old barn really is in Tasmania where I photographed it. Around it I have placed selections from Christmas card images to tell the story of the first Holy Night.

In The First Row -- Pentax K 3 + Pentax DA*smc 60-250mm f/4 ED IF SDM -- Property Of The Author Giuseppe Sartori Iscritto Alla SOCIETA' ITALIANA DEGLI AUTORI ED EDITORI SIAE n° 33070

but purity of intentions, and, in carrying these into effect, fidelity and diligence :-)

George Washington

Resist!!

sarah p duke gardens, duke university, durham, north carolina

Ken & I witnessed a great phenomena on our way home! The little patch of mown ground looked like leftover cotton, or maybe trash, maybe white pelican feathers? I got out to take a closer look and discovered it was a rare form of frost! Frost feathers, or frost flowers- something we have NEVER seen before, and apparently requiring JUST the right conditions! It was like cotton candy/candy floss, scattered along the side of the road!

bulletin.cmos.ca/feather-frost-or-frost-flowers-crystallo...

In the starting build for the Symphony of Construction, I wanted to leave a bit of ambiguity in the scene for Max to interpret. The diorama leaves several questions unanswered: Was the event anticipated? What time period is this? Where is this happening? Where are the signs of life? Max Pointner, in his brilliant piece, Skeleton continues this sense of ambiguity.

Be sure to check out the full interpretive progression of four MOCs and three musical compositions in the Round 1 thread in the Symphony of Construction group here.

To view more of my images, of Orford, in Suffolk, please click "here"!

I would be most grateful if you would refrain from inserting images, and/or group invites; thank you

Orford is a small town in Suffolk, England, within the Suffolk Coast and Heaths AONB. Like many Suffolk coastal towns it was of some importance as a port and fishing village in the Middle Ages. It still has a fine mediaeval castle, built to dominate the River Ore. The main geographical feature of the area is Orford Ness, a long, wide shingle spit at the mouth of the Ore. Orford Ness has in the past been used as an airstrip testing facility and in the early 1970s it was the site of a powerful radar station as part of the Cold War defences against low flying attacking aircraft; today it is a nature reserve run by the National Trust. Orford provides the only point of access to the nature reserves of Orford Ness and Havergate Island. Both sites can only be accessed via ferry boat from Orford quay. The Orford Ness ferry runs on selected days between April and October and the Havergate Island ferry on selected Saturdays. The population of Orford greatly increases during the summer months due to its flourishing sailing club. As well as the Castle, Orford's attractions include river cruises, three pubs, a traditional post office which sells fresh bread, a traditional bakery, a smokehouse and a restaurant; the Butley-Orford Oysterage.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

@skittles_bountyhunter Whole movie, how she was captured: www.instagram.com/p/CF_FdNCF5Hu/

# 7 Rainy Day - 112 pictures in 2012

The beautiful flowers 花見山park was a popular tour spot that attraced many tourist to visit here during the spring season, all the flowers inside the park were blooming on time,we got here at early morning and though it was a little rain , but the flowers included sakura , tulips and other different trees that full of various color , all the scenery was so amazing and wonderful that we thought we were in dream garden

In these strange times, a strange image of Fountains Abbey.

For this image, I tried to make it look Infrared. If it worked or not is up to you. It is certainly an image which is not right out of the camera.

Used the 10-24mm Fujinon Lens, to set the scene of Fountains Abbey, North , Ripon, North Yorkshire. Taken in October 2020, with few visitors around, the ruins were even more atmospheric than usual. .

In the jungle above Rishikesh town

In the spring of 1998, Jim Thorpe was still home to many private cabeeses. I always like the different Pennsy cabins. Kodachrome scan.

Afternoon in Souban, Koulikoro, Mali. A woman washing clothes in the river while four men are preparing to download the sand collected in the river center.

So yesterday the family and I visited the National Botanic Gardens in Glasnevin, Dublin. The plan was to see a photo exhibition there that i have a few prints in but while we were there i managed to spend half an hour walking through the green house and caught a few shots on the stroll...

In return for the thirty minutes i had to climb two trees with herself (someday she's going to realise that i like climbing trees even more than she does, but for now is a good bargaining ploy)

While i was shooting i had the notion that i would try to get a series of black and white "shapes" all to be presented in square format - well some of the plan stuck i guess!

Cold autumn day in a nearby forest preservation area in Oulu, Finland. The tree trunk provides a nice divider of fore- and background. The center of attention are of course the nicely coloured mushrooms, which sprout everywhere in this moist autumn weather. The white birches provide a nice contrast in the dimm forest setting.

In Stourbridge, West Midlands.

En mi barrio, In my neighborhood

See more photos of this, and the Wikipedia article.

Details, quoting from Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum | Curtiss P-40E Warhawk (Kittyhawk IA):

Whether known as the Warhawk, Tomahawk, or Kittyhawk, the Curtiss P-40 proved to be a successful, versatile fighter during the first half of World War II. The shark-mouthed Tomahawks that Gen. Claire Chennault's "Flying Tigers" flew in China against the Japanese remain among the most popular airplanes of the war. P-40E pilot Lt. Boyd D. Wagner became the first American ace of World War II when he shot down six Japanese aircraft in the Philippines in mid-December 1941.

Curtiss-Wright built this airplane as Model 87-A3 and delivered it to Canada as a Kittyhawk I in 1941. It served until 1946 in No. 111 Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Force. U.S. Air Force personnel at Andrews Air Force Base restored it in 1975 to represent an aircraft of the 75th Fighter Squadron, 23rd Fighter Group, 14th Air Force.

Donated by the Exchange Club in Memory of Kellis Forbes.

Manufacturer:

Curtiss Aircraft Company

Date:

1939

Country of Origin:

United States of America

Dimensions:

Overall: 330 x 970cm, 2686kg, 1140cm (10ft 9 15/16in. x 31ft 9 7/8in., 5921.6lb., 37ft 4 13/16in.)

Materials:

All-metal, semi-monocoque

Physical Description:

Single engine, single seat, fighter aircraft.

Long Description:

Whether it was the Tomahawk, Warhawk, or Kittyhawk, the Curtiss P-40 was a successful and versatile fighter aircraft during the first half of World War II. The shark-mouthed Tomahawks that General Claire Chennault led against the Japanese remain among the most popular airplanes of the war. In the Phillipines, Lt. Boyd D. Wagner became the first American ace of World War II while flying a P-40E when he shot down six Japanese aircraft during mid-December 1941. P-40s were first-line Army Air Corps fighters at the start of the war but they soon gave way to more advanced designs such as the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt and the Lockheed P-38 Lightning (see NASM collection for both aircraft). The P-40 is not ranked among the best overall fighters of the war but it was a rugged, effective design available in large numbers early in the war when America and her allies urgently required them. The P-40 remained in production from 1939 to the end of 1944 and a total of 13, 737 were built.

Design engineer Dr. Donovan R. Berlin layed the foundation for the P-40 in 1935 when he designed the agile, but lightly-armed, P-36 fighter equipped with a radial, air-cooled engine. The Curtiss-Wright Corporation won a production contract for 210 P-36 airplanes in 1937-the largest Army airplane contract awarded since World War I. Worldwide, fighter aircraft designs matured rapidly during the late 1930s and it was soon obvious that the P-36 was no match for newer European designs. High altitude performance in particular became a priceless commodity. Berlin attempted to improve the P-36 by redesigning it in to accommodate a turbo-supercharged Allison V-1710-11 inline, liquid-cooled engine. The new aircraft was designated the XP-37 but proved unpopular with pilots. The turbo-supercharger was not reliable and Berlin had placed the cockpit too far back on the fuselage, restricting the view to the front of the fighter. Nonetheless, when the engine was not giving trouble, the more-streamlined XP-37 was much faster than the P-36.

Curtiss tried again in 1938. Berlin had modified another P-36 with a new Allison V-1710-19 engine. It was designated the XP-40 and first flew on October 14, 1938. The XP-40 looked promising and Curtiss offered it to Army Air Corps leaders who evaluated the airplane at Wright Field, Ohio, in 1939, along with several other fighter proposals. The P-40 won the competition, after some modifications, and Curtiss received an order for 540. At this time, the armament package consisted of two .50 caliber machine guns in the fuselage and four .30 caliber machine guns in the wings.

After production began in March 1940, France ordered 140 P-40s but the British took delivery of these airplanes when Paris surrendered. The British named the aircraft Tomahawks but found they performed poorly in high-altitude combat over northern Europe and relegated them to low-altitude operations in North Africa. The Russians bought more than 2,000 P-40s but details of their operational history remain obscure.

When the United States declared war, P-40s equipped many of the Army Air Corps's front line fighter units. The plucky fighter eventually saw combat in almost every theater of operations being the most effective in the China-Burma-India (CBI) Theater. Of all the CBI groups that gained the most notoriety of the entire war, and remains to this day synonymous with the P-40, is the American Volunteer Group (AVG) or the Flying Tigers. The unit was organized after the Chinese gave former U. S. Army Air Corps Captain Claire Lee Chennault almost 9 million dollars in 1940 to buy aircraft and recruit pilots to fly against the Japanese. Chennault's most important support within the Chinese government came from Madam Chiang Kai-shek, a Lt. Colonel in the Chinese Air Force and for a time, the service's overall commander.

The money from China diverted an order placed by the British Royal Air Force for 100 Curtiss-Wright P-40B Tomahawks but buying airplanes was only one important step in creating a fighting air unit. Trained pilots were needed, and quickly, as tensions across the Pacific escalated. On April 15, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt quietly signed an Executive Order permitting Chennault to recruit directly from the ranks of American military reserve pilots. Within a few months, 350 flyers joined from pursuit (fighter), bomber, and patrol squadrons. In all, about half the pilots in the Flying Tigers came from the U. S. Navy and Marine Corps while the Army Air Corps supplied one-third. Factory test pilots at Bell, Consolidated, and other companies, and commercial airline pilots, filled the remaining slots.

The Flying Tigers flew their first mission on December 20. The unit's name was derived from the ferocious fangs and teeth painted on the nose of AVG P-40s at either side of the distinctive, large radiator air intake. The idea is said to originate from pictures in a magazine that showed Royal Air Force Tomahawks of No. 112 Squadron, operating in the western desert of North Africa, adorned with fangs and teeth painted around their air intakes. The Flying Tigers were the first real opposition the Japanese military encountered. In less than 7 months of action, AVG pilots destroyed about 115 Japanese aircraft and lost only 11 planes in air-to-air combat. The AVG disbanded on July 4, 1942, and its assets, including a few pilots, became a part of the U. S. Army Air Forces (AAF) 23rd Fighter Group in the newly activated 14th Air Force. Chennault, now a Brigadier General, assumed command of the 14th AF and by war's end, the 23rd was one of the highest-scoring Army fighter groups.

As wartime experience in the P-40 mounted, Curtiss made many modifications. Engineers added armor plate, better self-sealing fuel tanks, and more powerful engines. They modified the cockpit to improve visibility and changed the armament package to six, wing-mounted, .50 caliber machine guns. The P-40E Kittyhawk was the first model with this gun package and it entered service in time to serve in the AVG. The last model produced in quantity was the P-40N, the lightest P-40 built in quantity, and much faster than previous models. Curtiss built a single P-40Q. It was the fastest P-40 to fly (679 kph/422 mph) but it could not match the performance of the P-47 Thunderbolt and the P-51 Mustang so Curtiss ended development of the P-40 series with this model. In addition to the AAF, many Allied nations bought and flew P-40s including England, France, China, Russia, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa, and Turkey.

The Smithsonian P-40E did not serve in the U. S. military. Curtiss-Wright built it in Buffalo, New York, as Model 87-A3 and delivered it to Canada as a Kittyhawk IA on March 11, 1941. It served in No. 111 Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF). When the Japanese navy moved to attack Midway, they sent a diversionary battle group to menace the Aleutian Islands. Canada moved No. 111 Squadron to Alaska to help defend the region. After the Japanese threat diminished, the unit returned to Canada and eventually transferred to England without its P-40s. The RCAF declared the NASM Kittyhawk IA surplus on July 27, 1946, and the aircraft eventually returned to the United States. It had several owners before ending up with the Explorer Scouts youth group in Meridian, Mississippi. During the early 1960s, the Smithsonian began searching for a P-40 with a documented history of service in the AVG but found none. In 1964, the Exchange Club in Meridian donated the Kittyhawk IA to the National Aeronautical Collection, in memory of Mr. Kellis Forbes, a local man devoted to Boys Club activities. A U. S. Air Force Reserve crew airlifted the fighter to Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland, on March 13, 1964. Andrews personnel restored the airplane in 1975 and painted it to represent an aircraft of the 75th Fighter Squadron, 23rd Fighter Group, 14th Air Force.

• • •

Quoting from Wikipedia | Curtiss P-40 Warhawk:

The Curtiss P-40 Warhawk was an American single-engine, single-seat, all-metal fighter and ground attack aircraft that first flew in 1938. It was used by the air forces of 28 nations, including those of most Allied powers during World War II, and remained in front line service until the end of the war. It was the third most-produced American fighter, after the P-51 and P-47; by November 1944, when production of the P-40 ceased, 13,738 had been built, all at Curtiss-Wright Corporation's main production facility at Buffalo, New York.

The P-40 design was a modification of the previous Curtiss P-36; this reduced development time and enabled a rapid entry into production and operational service.

Warhawk was the name the United States Army Air Corps adopted for all models, making it the official name in the United States for all P-40s. The British Commonwealth and Soviet air forces used the name Tomahawk for models equivalent to the P-40B and P-40C, and the name Kittyhawk for models equivalent to the P-40D and all later variants.

The P-40's lack of a two-stage supercharger made it inferior to Luftwaffe fighters such as the Messerschmitt Bf 109 or the Focke-Wulf Fw 190 in high-altitude combat and it was rarely used in operations in Northwest Europe. Between 1941 and 1944, however, the P-40 played a critical role with Allied air forces in three major theaters: North Africa, the Southwest Pacific and China. It also had a significant role in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, Alaska and Italy. The P-40's performance at high altitudes was not as critical in those theaters, where it served as an air superiority fighter, bomber escort and fighter bomber.

P-40s first saw combat with the British Commonwealth squadrons of the Desert Air Force (DAF) in the Middle East and North African campaigns, during June 1941. The Royal Air Force's No. 112 Squadron was among the first to operate Tomahawks, in North Africa, and the unit was the first to feature the "shark mouth" logo, copying similar markings on some Luftwaffe Messerschmitt Bf 110 twin-engine fighters. [N 1]

Although it gained a post-war reputation as a mediocre design, suitable only for close air support, more recent research including scrutiny of the records of individual Allied squadrons indicates that the P-40 performed surprisingly well as an air superiority fighter, at times suffering severe losses, but also taking a very heavy toll on enemy aircraft. The P-40 offered the additional advantage of low cost, which kept it in production as a ground-attack fighter long after it was obsolete in the air superiority role.

As of 2008, 19 P-40s were airworthy.

In the words of the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin.

Thank you all so very much for your comments and faves, but most of all I thank you for just taking the time to look. I appreciate each and every one of you! Gracias. Merci. Danke. Obrigado. Grazie. Go raibh maith agat. Tapadh leat. Gratias tibi.

All images are ©Tom Harrington and may not be used in any way without my permission. Thank you.

Tora, Manikganj, 2011

My Bangladesh

With all the essence colour and custom it represent an extravagant illustration of beauty

It’s a land of six amazing seasons

Its a country of all the aroma of wonderland

Lets come and unbound your soul in the valley of colour land.

In the right light, it's hard to find a more beautiful bird than the male starling in spring.

As a rule, starlings are not a favorite bird. This one is standing guard, not a behavior usually attributed to starlings

His mate somehow got trapped in the garage and for a day and a half, this male sat on the bell tower, watching the garage

.

Finally we opened both garage doors and the female flew out and immediately went to the male.

Thanks to Pareeerica for the background.

Dad at far left in NYC immediately after his release from Democrat FDR's infamous prisons for citizens of Japanese descent. FDR stripped him of his citizenship yet required him to carry his draft card at all times in prison. He was unable to find gainful employment being right after WWII so he enlisted in the US Army soon thereafter.

Minolta SR-T Super

Kodak Gold

MD ROKKOR 50mm 1:1.7

Getting my snowmen in a row.

Copyright © John G. Lidstone, all rights reserved.

You are warned: DO NOT STEAL or RE-POST THIS PHOTO.

It is an offence under law if you remove my copyright marking, or post this image anywhere else without my express written permission.

If you do, and I find out, you WILL be reported for copyright infringement action to the host platform and/or group applicable.

The same applies to all of my images.

My copyright is also embedded in the image metadata.

Auf dem Gelände des Klostergutes Michaelstein (nach dem Erzengel Michael benannt),befindet sich das Fischrestaurant “zum Klosterfischer” . Schon in Mittelalter züchteten in Michaelstein Zisterziensermönche schmackafte Süßwasserfische. Heute wird diese Tradition fortgesetzt und Regenbogen-, Lachs- und Bachforellen, Schleien und Karpfen in sauberer Natur und sauberem Wasser herangezüchtet.

An den zum Teil historischen Teichanlagen kann man wunderbar spazieren gehen und die Natur sowie schöne Ausblicke auf die Umgebung genießen.

Ich hab mich in der warmen Vor-Frühjahrssonne gleich mal an die Uferböschung gelegt und bäuchlings in die Teiche hineinfotografiert :-)))

(DSCN2314McKnightTransportationPrimaryColorsCrpResamInitContShrpFlickr042822)

I got sunshine in my stomach...

Broken Hill is a well-known mining town in the far west of New South Wales. Whilst it is most famous for its mineral wealth, Broken Hill also has a reputation for its hotels, with no less than 71 being licensed in the city's history.

The Royal Exchange Hotel is an imposing two storey art deco style hotel building, and being situated at the corner of Argent and Chloride Streets, it is arguably at the centre of Broken Hill's central business district. In considering its history, it is important to take into account the history of Broken Hill hotels generally.

The Broken Hill settlement grew spectacularly from the first ore discoveries of 1883. On the 31st of July 1885 the first hotel, the Bonanza Hotel, was opened on the corner of Argent Lane and Delamore Street by William Delamore. Unfortunately, it was destroyed by fire on the 6th of February 1894 and the license was cancelled on the 8th of September 1894. The hotel site is now a car park for the City Art Gallery. The only other hotel to be licensed in 1885 was the nearby Silver King Hotel on the corner of Delamore and Argent Streets which was licensed on the 9th of October 1885. It closed in 1993, but its building survives today, and is among the oldest surviving hotel buildings. Five hotels were licensed in 1886, one of which, the BHP, (or, the West Darling Hotel), is the city's oldest surviving licensed hotel. Five more hotels were licensed in 1887 and in 1888 no less than 40 hotels received licenses, making a total of 52 licenses issued in Broken Hill's first five years.

The fifty third hotel license for Broken Hill was granted at the Silverton Licensing Court by Messrs Wyman Brown and J J Williams, LM's, to Barnett Harris on the 25th of Janurary 1889 for the Royal Exchange Hotel and the hotel opened that day. The Royal Exchange Hotel most likely takes its name from the nearby Broken Hill Stock Exchange which was in operation at the time. An Exchange Hotel (now the Theatre Royal Hotel) had opened almost opposite the Stock Exchange in 1886, and it is not unusual to use the "exchange" name for buildings near a Stock Exchange. The Broken Hill Stock Exchange was situated in Argent Street almost next door to the Royal Exchange Hotel, and the facade of the building survives.

The original Royal Exhange Hotel building was of single storey made from stone and brick with an iron roof. It was built and owned by Barnett Harris who was alsot the first licensee. The Argent Street for on the 5th of November 1888 caused £800 (about $110 000) worth of damage to three shops also being built by Harris and it is reasonable to assume that this damage extended to the partially built Royal Exchange Hotel. The damage must not have been to severe however, as the hotel opened for business 11 weeks later.

A newspaper article has stated that the Royal Exchange Hotel building was brought in from Parramatta by means of bullock wagon in 1886. It was said to have been owned by W Reynolds and destroyed in the Argent Street fire of 1888. This story is incorrect and refers to the Exchange (now Theatre Royal) Hotel nearby which Reynolds owned and transported from Prunamoota. Reynolds was the first licensee of the Exchange Hotel, but never a licensee of the Royal Exchange Hotel.

In its early days the Royal Exchange Hotel was no stranger to dramas. On the 6th of March 1889, fire destroyed a small building owned by licensee Harris in Argent Lane (Gawler Place) behind the hotel. In November 1890 a William Kilroy died after being ejected drunk from the hotel. The inquest into his death was conducted at the Mayflower Hotel which was situated at 196 Chloride Street. The Mayflower Hotel closed in 1893.

Rebuilding the Hotel:

By the 1930s the Royal Exchange Hotel was owned by the South Australian Brewing Company (SABC), who also owned the Freemasons (now BHP/West Darling) Hotel. In 1936 the SABC disposed of the Freemasons Hotel to rival brewers Tooth & Co of Sydney and this then left SABC without a quality hotel in Broken Hill. As early as 1936 SABC had announced that they were considering rebuilding the Royal Exchange as a luxury hotel, to give them a means to satisfy the growing market for such accommodation. The lack of quality accommodation in Broken Hill was receiving much unfavourable press coverage, so the move by the SABC was well timed and well received, but nothing happened for about two years.

In Janurary 1938, the SABC proposed to rebuild the Royal Exchange Hotel as a four storey building with 44 rooms, at a cost of £45000 (about $3.6mil), but the project was reduced in scale to a new two storey building with the cost estimated at the time of £33000 (about $3.35mil). The architects were F Kenneth Milne and Associates of Adelaide. In December 1939 an Application was made to the Licensing Court for approval for the rebuilding work which involved demolition of the existing hotel and the erected of a new two strorey building. This was approved by the Licensing Court on the 14th of December 1939. Local folklore says that the construction stone came from the old shearing sheds at Mount Gipps Station, however this is not confirmed in the architect's specifications. The construction of the new hotel was carried out by builders Fricks Bros, and completed in late 1941 at a final cost reported as £48000 (about $3.5mil). During the construction period, demolition of the old hotel was carried out progressively and sections of the new hotel built. This allowed the hotel to continue to trade temporary bar facilities, which were moved several times during the rebuilding work.

The completed building had 33 rooms and 13 bathrooms, and boasted a number of features which were modern for their day including air conditioning (claimed to be one of the first hotels in Australia to be so equipped), telephones in most rooms, a public bar counter 100 feet (30m) long and a saloon bar counter 46 feet (14m) long.

The 1941 building is substantially the building which exisits today, but there have been a number of alterations to the interior of the hotel over the years since.

Of interest, whilst the SABC were rebuilding their Royal Exchange Hotel, Tooth & Co were upgrading the Freemasons (now BHP/West Darling) Hotel which they had bought from the SABC in 1936. Tooths also owned the luxury Grand Hotel, diagonally opposite the Royal Exchange (now trading as a guesthouse), and were eager to keep their dominance in the luxury hotel market. Whilst the Freemasons was not completely rebuilt as was the Royal Exchange, none the less Tooths spent 46000 (about 3.5mil) on their purchase of the Freemasons Hotel from SABC and on its rebuilding work. All this building work on the Royal Exchange and Freemasons Hotels happened whilst there was wartime restrictions on building works generally, but somehow in Broken Hill $7mil in today's money was spent on luxury hotels. How this got around the wartime building restrictions remains a mystery.

The Royal Exchange Hotel Today:

The Royal Exchange was acquired by the Broken Hill Legion Club in 2001, and they set about undertaking a complete refurbishment of it, providing the facilities that it presents today. There are currently 23 rooms and all have ensuite bathrooms. The lounge and dining areas are superbly furnished giving the hotel a magnificent ambience. In a link with the past, some of the former 1941 "business" facilities remain near the reception desk.

On the 8th of December 2011, the Royal Exchange Hotel was purchased by the current owner, John Gavranich.

Source: Barrier Miner 26/1/1889, Silver Age 7/11/1888, Barrier Miner 6/6/1969, Barrier Miner 7/3/1889, Barrier Miner 25/11/1890, Noel Butlin Archives Centre, Russel & Yellan Architects, Barrier Miner 14/12/1939, Barrier Miner 6/12/1941, K Dansie (1986), the Broken Hill City Library, University of SA Architectural Museum, the Tooth & Co Files N60 - YC (ANU Canberra).

Buddy Patrick Photography would like to acknowledge and extend warm regards to John Gravranich for allowing this photographic session to take place Saturday 19 July 2025.

服を着たおばけ

in ammirazione della Fontana Maggiore

© All Rights Reserved - No Usage Allowed in Any Form Without the Written Consent of Connie Lemperle/ lemperleconnie

Have a nice day everyone.

"Impressive in the details, overwhelming in its entirety: The BMW M6 Gran Coupé is more than a combination of high-performance technologies. It represents the art and craft of BMW M engineers. So passionate, you just have to experience it for yourself. The enormous power of the 560 hp-strong M TwinPower Turbo V8 petrol engine makes the experience into a thrilling encounter with the M philosophy..."

Source: BMW

Photographed at Cars & Coffee Ireland

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Marcin Wojciechowski Photography

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