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The South Brisbane Branch of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia at 87 Grey Street, was constructed by Frank Lee in 1929. It was open for business by 1930. Prior to this, the bank had occupied temporary premises in and around Melbourne Street since the 3rd of January 1921. Plans for this purpose-built bank designed by the architects in the Commonwealth Department of Works are dated on the 9th of December 1927.
The site on which the bank is located was one of thirty allotments sold in the Brisbane land sales of 1854. It was acquired by Deed of Grant on the 11th of May 1854 by William John London. Situated within the Brisbane town limits drawn up in 1846, this allotment was affected by each of the major urban developments on the South Brisbane peninsula; the development of the public transport systems, the declaration of first-class urban areas, and the widening of the major arterial roads (Melbourne & Stanley Streets). Subdivision of the original blocks was underway by 1870 and allotment 1 section 15, of which this site is a part, was acquired by Patrick Maunsell on the 3rd of March 1871. Once it was sold by Maunsell's widow in 1897, it passed through various hands until the site was acquired by Janet Mearns Pike and Richard Pike in 1912.
The more diversified nature of commerce in the area from that time is reflected in the tenancy of the Pikes Building which was erected on the site by 1917. The State Department of Works leased the site in 1917 and various State offices including the Chief Protector of Aboriginals and the Department of Water Supply were situated there. In 1925, the whole of the site was resumed by the South Brisbane City Council. It passed to the Brisbane Municipal Council in 1927 when part of the land was dedicated for road purposes. Re-subdivision of the land followed and subs. 1 & 2 of allot 1 of section 15 were sold to the Commonwealth Bank of Australia by the Brisbane City Council in September 1927. The property was taken over by the Commonwealth Trading Bank of Australia in September 1956.
Centrally situated in one of the three distinct shopping centres which developed in South Brisbane in the early twentieth century, that at Bayard's Corner Melbourne Street, the Commonwealth Bank was ideally placed to take advantage of the industrial and commercial development which was the predominant feature of the early 1920s. Custom would have been further enhanced when the in-bound lane of the tramway in Stanley Street was relocated in Grey Street in 1918. From that time, all in-bound trams from West End, Dutton Park, Ipswich Road, Coorparoo, Greenslopes, and Balmoral stopped at Bayard’s corner.
When the Melbourne Street Railway Station became the terminus for both the interstate line through Kyogle as well as the southside commuter services the business potential was further enhanced. By this time, the bank was both a trading and savings bank and it also had the custom of the Queensland Government. The South Brisbane Branch was one of a number of suburban branches established in the 1920s. Its move into the area reflects the bank's optimism and confidence in the potential of the locale and its desire to capture a share of the area's financial market; a confidence and a desire which it apparently shared with its counterpart and rival, the Queensland National Bank which adjoined. The building, in its aspect and architecture, reflects both the optimism for the future and the challenge which was being posed by the bank, casually dismissed at its inception in 1911 as "a new bank controlled by political amateur financiers."
The property remained in the ownership of the Commonwealth Bank until the early 1990s. It has been subsequently been used as office space and is a coffee shop today.
Source: Brisbane City Council Heritage Register.
One from April 2009 at Stoke Prior, where Advenza Freight 57006 was working a set of empty JNAs & JKAs forming the 6E66 09:48 Cardiff Tidal to Shipley, where the open boxes will be loaded with scrap.
All images on this site are exclusive property and may not be copied, downloaded, reproduced, transmitted, manipulated or used in any way without expressed written permission of the photographer. All rights reserved – Copyright Don Gatehouse
This image may not be used in any way without prior permission
© All rights reserved 2016
Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
Toronto Pearson International Airport CYYZ
F-GLZU
Air France
Airbus A340-313
377
Twitter: @TomPodolec
This is a West Mexican Chachalaca or Chachalaca Pallida a bird with a loud, jarring call. Get a dozen them together and it gets very noisy. The birds are about the size of skinny chickens with long necks, legs, and tails.
You can listen to the Chachalaca call here:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0H8ZwFc8EU
Chachalacas spend most of their time foraging for fruits, berries, and seeds they feed on. Chachalacas are arboreal living in trees rather than on the ground.
Chachalacas are social and often live in large groups of up to a dozen individuals. Members of a group call to one another, and they can be quite loud. Most vocalization occurs in the early morning just prior to sunrise before the birds head out to forage for food.
Chachalaca Pallida is found on the semi-arid Pacific Slope of southern Mexico. It was approximately 5 years ago we first saw/heard them around Bahia de Zihuatanejo. The numbers have steadily increased.
This and the prior image were shot with my A6500. Since there were two windows, I had a camera at each one to reduce the setup time for shots. The bright spotlight from Roosevelt Island made the spots on the window more visible on the river.
©2012 Vincent Demers
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La vita e' fatta di priorita'...
Trova la tua priorita' piu' grande e vivi per quella priorita', altrimenti perderai per strada l'essenziale, inseguendo false chimere portate dal tempo.
Prendi in mano la tua vita e vivila nel profondo.
"Corri, corri a perdifiato contro la corrente che trascina; infrangi la marea di chi ti porta in giu'; distruggi le barriere dell'indifferenza; sorridi a chi non sa che la vita non si ferma MAI!
Anche nei giorni tristi la vita e' amore, anche tra le bufere la vita e' amore, tutta la vita e' un dono canta per lei, canta per lei...".
In questo modo intona una canzone che tanto porti nel cuore, non devi aver paura di fermarti un attimo ad aspettare...
ASPETTA, prenditi il tuo tempo; il tuo tempo non e' quello della fretta, della rabbia o della paura, se hai una difficolta', siediti, fai silenzio intorno a te e dentro di te, una dolce musica giungera' al tuo orecchio: e' la CONSAPEVOLEZZA.
Quella consapevolezza che tinge i tuoi occhi di lacrime ogni volta che ne percepisci il profumo.
Notti scure a volte ti sembra di vivere, ma non perdere mai il sereno, perche' se ci sono le nuvole nel tuo cuore non potrai ! gustarti l'alba.
Riparati dalle nuvole che passano qualvolta sopra il tuo cuore ed aspetta, non aver paura di aspettare.
Siediti in quell'angolino piuttosto vicino alla siepe ad aspettare; tanta gente passera', avrai il dubbio di doverla seguire, ma tu aspetta, non aver paura di aspettare; quando sara' il momento pero', ALZATI sicuro di te, senza indugio e sali in quell'autobus che aveva come capolinea quell'angolo piuttosto vicino alla siepe dove tu, aspettando, eri seduto.
Church of St George the Martyr, Dean Prior, Devon was first recorded by the Bishop in 1186 as part of the possession of the Priory of Plympton. The first known priest, Gervase of Crediton, was ordained in 1261. Of his church, however, only the late 13c / early 14c west Tower and font remain.
The remainder was rebuilt in 15c on the site of the Norman church, followed by 17c alterations and heavily restored in late 19c when the south porch was built.
The two stage tower has a central polygonal stair-turret on the south side, with bell openings and an embattled parapet.
The 12c red sandstone Norman font is intricately carved with frieze crosses, Saltire and two elongated dragons. The font cover, much restored, dates from 17c . www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/pRT0h47m28
The poet Robert Herrick 1591 - 1674 was vicar here from 1629-1647 when he was evicted during the Cromwellian period, returning after the Restoration of the monarchy in 1662 to the end of his life. In those days the parish population was about 400 people - now the population has reduced to approx 160.
Robert Herrick composed the epitaph to his patron Sir Edward Giles 1637, lord of the manor, and his wife Mary Northcote who kneel with their son on the south nave wall. www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/7hxf22E34r
The great yew tree in the churchyard was planted in 1780.
The lych gate was built last century www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/28v4i8082n and replaced the church house and almshouses.
The village surrounding the church, once included a school, and many cottages, these were all pulled down to build the new A38 Devon Expressway, between Exeter and Plymouth. . leaving the church lying directly to the left of the main road,
The interior has plastered walls. The four bay north and south arcades with low monolithic granite octagonal piers, have crude uncarved octagonal capitals and double-chamfered two-centred arches. The arch-braced nave and aisle roofs appear to be 19c www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/E1u57FT4Co The late 19c / early 20c furnishings include:- painted wooden reredos and wainscoting in chancel, www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/8aVTN26byc carved choir stall ends and octagonal pulpit.
Herrick is buried in an unmarked grave in the churchyard but is now remembered with a wall memorial and glass in the east chancel window
Janice Dennis www.findagrave.com/cemetery/2368069/st-george-the-martyr-...
Just prior to RTA 101's image conversion, a team of graphics pros prep the carbody sides for peel-on "wrap". When done, 101's sides will look a lot like it did 40 Years prior.
Prior to us catching the 11 to Nottingham, Centrebus' 833 was due through a few minutes in front from the opposite direction.
833 arrives into Cropwell Bishop with an 833 to Bingham the long way round via Granby, Orston and Aslockton.
that figure is doing all the heavy lifting in this frame. - Oak T.
Providence, RI - January 2010
title is a quick nod to one of the better bands of the 90's and one of my favorite songs from them
In other news, I need to buy another batch of film. Any interesting color film suggestions? So far I only used Kodak Gold(not very good) and Agfa Vista(I like it but the colors are sometimes too saturated).
full frame
Prior to the beginning of the evening Aarti puja at the main ghat in Varanasi, this girl, dressed in traditional ritual costume and make-up, agreed to pause for a moment while I snapped a few shots.
Technical Info:
Canon FD 50mm f1.4
f1.4
1/160 sec.
ISO 640
Manual focus
Thank you all so much for your views, comments and faves! I really appreciate them!
Best viewed large!
The Capitol Theatre was built in 1926 by Messrs Silver and Ollrich.
Prior to this, pictures were shown in the old town hall but with only 350 seats it became inadequate for a prosperous town.
Messrs H. W. and Thos Rees, tiring of waiting for a new town hall, decided to build their own theatre. It was officially opened on the 15th of May 1926 by Mr A. R. G. Hawke, local Member of Parliament and later Premier of Western Australia.
It had seating for 1020 people and included a very large stage. The two round leadlight windows near the top of the building incorporate the letters "CT" (Capitol Theatre).
Silent movies were shown, and live shows were also featured. The "Talkies" were introduced in 1930. The latest film releases came by train from Broken Hill, so Peterborough was the first town in South Australia to see them.
Following a massive restoration efforts, the building was re-opened as a cafe in 2011.
Peterborough, South Australia:
Peterborough was part of the Eldoratrilla Run from 1851 until the Hundred of Yongala was broken up for selection in 1871. Farm land was taken up in 1875 by a group of German settlers; Peter Doecke (after whom the town was named), Johann Koch, and Herman Rohde.
In 1880, while the railway was under construction from Port Pirie, Koch surveyed his land into town allotments and named it Petersburgh. The coast railway arrived from Port Pirie through Jamestown in February 1881, and the inland line from Burra through Terowie connected with it in May 1881, so within months of its foundation Petersburg - as the Post Office and South Australian Railways insisted on spelling it - became a major railway junction.
The town rose to prominence very quickly, and has remained the major population centre in the eastern half of the region. From its early development, Petersburg became a classic railway town in layout - like Gladstone and Quorn - with its main street parallel to the railway, and its principal hotels, banks, and commercial buildings clustered opposite the railway station. Petersburg's growth was assisted by the extension of the railway to Broken Hill in 1887, and by the construction of the Transcontinental Railway to Perth and the
Ghan line to Alice Springs in the early twentieth century, making it a strategic hub of the national railway network.
Under Railways Commissioner William Webb, a large railway maintenance workshop was built at Petersburg, and a suburb of railway workers housing went up at the western end of town, using innovative cast concrete construction techniques developed by Adelaide builder Walter Torode.
In 1918 the Nomenclature Committee renamed the town Peterborough, oblivious to the irony that its German founder had originally given it an English name, and it had only been
made to look German by a bureaucratic mis-spelling. During the 1930s depression, a gold crushing battery was built at Peterborough to encourage local mining. The town has lost most of its railway function since the 1970s, but remains an important regional centre.
Source: District Council of Peterborough, Heritage Of the Upper North, Volume 6 - District Council of Peterborough, page 115.
Copyright © John G. Lidstone, all rights reserved.
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Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
Toronto Pearson International Airport CYYZ
Twitter: @TomPodolec
Just prior to sunrise ceremony in honour of fallen Canadians from Southern Alberta, Field Of Crosses, Calgary, Alberta
Prior to our recent trip to Churchill, we had no idea that Polar Bears have a black tongue, or black nipples, for that matter.
Raising a cub well into its second year is an achievement these days.
I feel that this momma bear has an expression of patience and contentment, sitting in the middle of an autumn snow squall, with windy currents coming from many directions simultaneously.
Yet her focus is on her baby, who is suckling and has been doing so for over 20 minutes.
Now, that's focus!
Churchill, Manitoba, Canada, October 2024
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.
I drove the GF to her doctor's appointtment last Saturday, the 15th, in Sacramento, California and as usual, I had to wait out in the car. It was a nice pleasant sunny day and my photo gear was in the trunk so I decided to look for fall colors to shoot. Cannot venture out too far and leave my other photo equipment unattended in the car and this was the second tree I ran into with fall colors. There was a mild breeze blowing so tonemapping three bracketed images without blurred leaves was a bit of a challenge but Photomatix Pro 4.1 did it again.
View large in lightbox.
Copyright ©2011 - C. Roy Yokingco, aka Nextier Photography
All Rights Reserved. Please do not use my images without prior consent.
Prior to commencing scheduled services to Los Angeles via Dublin Ethiopian Airlines Dreamliner ET-ASG paid a publicity visit to the Irish capital 20/3/15.
"Lunch break"
Biarritz (Pyrénées-Atlantique - Pays Basque)
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The reproduction, publication, modification, transmission or exploitation of any work contained here in for any use, personal or commercial, without my prior written permission is strictly prohibited. All rights reserved."
The Ravenswood Mining Landscape and Chinese Settlement Area is situated south of Elphinstone Creek and to the west of School Street and Kerr Street, in the town of Ravenswood, about 85km south of Townsville and 65km east of Charters Towers. The Ravenswood goldfield was the fifth largest producer of gold in Queensland during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its main mining periods, prior to modern open cut operations (1987 onwards), were: alluvial gold and shallow reef mining (1868 - 1872); attempts to extract gold from sulphide ores below the water table (1872 - 1898); the New Ravenswood Company era (1899 - 1917); and small scale mining and re-treatment of old mullock heaps and tailings dumps (1919 - 1960s). In 2016 the Ravenswood Mining Landscape and Chinese Settlement Area contains surface structures from eight mines: the Grand Junction, Little Grand Junction, Sunset No. 1 and Sunset No. 2, Deep, General Grant, Duke of Edinburgh, and Grant and Sunset Extended mines, as well as the mill associated with the Deep mine, and the Mabel Mill tailings treatment plant (most structures dating from the New Ravenswood Company era). It also includes remnants of two treatment plants (Partridge and Ralston’s Mill, and Judge’s Mill) from the 1930s; and the Chinese settlement area (1870s to the early 20th century, covering the first three mining periods at Ravenswood).
The place contains important surviving evidence of: ore extraction (from underground shafts) and metallurgical extraction (separation of gold from the ore) conducted on and near the Ravenswood goldfield’s most productive reefs during the boom period of the town’s prosperity (1900 - 1908); later attempts to re-treat the mullock heaps and tailings dumps from these mines; and Ravenswood’s early Chinese community, which made an important contribution to the viability of the isolated settlement and was located along Deighton Street and Elphinstone Creek. The Ravenswood Mining Landscape and Chinese Settlement Area also has the potential to reveal evidence of early alluvial and shallow reef mining, as well as domestic living arrangements on the Ravenswood goldfield. It is an evocative reminder of the precarious and short-lived nature of North Queensland’s mining booms, and has a special association with Archibald Lawrence Wilson, who established the New Ravenswood Company and improved both ore and metallurgical extraction processes on the goldfield.
Settlement and mining in North Queensland:
European settlement of the Kennedy Land District in North Queensland commenced with the founding of Bowen in 1861, and the spread of pastoralists through the hinterland. Pastoral stations were established up the valley of the Burdekin River, including ‘Ravenswood’ and ‘Merri Merriwa’. Townsville and Cardwell were both established north of Bowen in 1864.
However, mining, not pastoralism, proved to be the main catalyst for European settlement of North Queensland. In 1865 the founders of Townsville offered a reward for the discovery of a payable goldfield, and gold rushes occurred in the region from 1866. Mining employed 19.8% of the North Queensland population in 1868, and 50% by 1876, before dropping to 15% in 1911. Although gold mining attracted people to North Queensland, alluvial finds of gold usually led to temporary townships, whereas underground reef mining held the promise of more stable and permanent settlements.
Alluvial gold and shallow reef mining (1868 - 1872):
Alluvial gold was discovered south of the later site of Ravenswood, in tributaries of Connolly Creek on Merri Merriwa Station, north of the Burdekin River, in late 1868. Prospectors soon established ‘Middle Camp’ (later Donnybrook) on Tucker’s Creek, and ‘Lower Camp’ on Trieste Creek, with about 700 miners on the field by early 1869. Further north, in April 1869, the goldfield’s richest alluvial discoveries were made in three dry creek beds close to the site of Ravenswood: Nolan’s, Jessop’s, and Buchanan’s gullies. Despite these finds, many miners soon left for the rush to the Gilbert River (over 300km west of Townsville).
The parent reefs of the alluvial gold found in April were located about the same time as the exodus to the Gilbert – the General Grant being discovered first, followed by the Sunset. Both were visible above ground level, and both reefs would play an important part in the future prosperity of Ravenswood. In the next 40 years, nearly £3 million of gold would come from the reefs ‘in the little triangle between Buchanan’s Gully, just east of Macrossan Street, Jessop’s Gully, southwest of the town, and Elphinstone Creek’.
Other reefs were soon found north of Elphinstone Creek, and in Nolan’s Gully; and meanwhile, reefs had been discovered at Middle Camp. However, a lack of water meant that miners did not establish ‘Upper Camp’ (later Ravenswood) near the General Grant and Sunset reefs until October 1869, after a storm temporarily resolved the water issue. By this time, most miners had returned from the Gilbert. The three camps on the goldfield had a population of 600 by January 1870, most in Upper Camp. Work was slowed by a lack of water, until rains in February 1870 enabled panning and sluicing, the results of which confirmed that Ravenswood was the first significant reef mining goldfield in the northern half of Australia.
However, the miners needed to crush the quartz ore to extract gold. The first machinery for this purpose, WO Hodkinson’s five stamp crushing battery, the Lady Marion (or Lady Marian) Mill, was operational at Burnt Point (south of Upper Camp) from the 18th of April 1870. The first month’s crushing results caused ‘an even greater “rush” than that … caused by the discovery of the alluvial gold’. A second battery was operational in Upper Camp in August 1870, when the goldfield’s population was about 1200.
Official recognition of the goldfield and settlement soon followed. Government Geologist Richard Daintree visited Upper Camp in August 1870, and the Ravenswood goldfield (about 300 square miles) was proclaimed on the 3rd of November 1870. By this time, the goldfield had a population of about 2000, and Upper Camp had 10 ‘public houses’, with six public houses in Middle Camp.
The Government Surveyor, John von Stieglitz, arrived in November 1870, but was too late to impose a regular grid pattern on the settlement. Instead he formalised the existing plan, which was centred on the crossing of Elphinstone Creek by the main road (Macrossan Street), with tracks radiating out to the various diggings. Most commercial buildings were located along Macrossan Street. The resulting juxtaposition of mining, habitation and commerce gave the town its distinctive character.
The town was proclaimed on the 19th of May 1871, with an area of one square mile (259ha). This was later expanded to four square miles (1036ha) on the 13th of July 1883. Although gold had been discovered on Merri Merriwa Station, the name Ravenswood, after the run located further southeast, downstream on the Burdekin River, was preferred.
In 1871 the population of the goldfield was 900, with over half being in Upper Camp/Ravenswood, and by the end of 1871 there were five machines in Ravenswood. Hodgkinson’s mill had been moved into town, to a site just north of Elphinstone Creek, and was renamed the Mabel Mill. In 1871 the town had 30 licensed hotels, although these were referred to as ‘shanties’ and did not offer accommodation.
By this time Ravenswood also had a Chinese population, due to an influx of Chinese miners who had been forcefully evicted from the Western Creek diggings near Gilberton in mid-1871. At least three of the hotels of 1871 had Chinese licensees. The first Chinese had arrived in North Queensland in 1867, during the rush to the Cape River, and there were 200 Chinese looking for alluvial gold at Ravenswood in 1871. In January 1872 it was estimated that there were about 1500 Chinese present on the Ravenswood goldfield, and a matching number of Europeans. As the Chinese focussed on alluvial gold, and also provided other services, they were tolerated at Ravenswood, because the Europeans were now focusing on reef mining. The quartz reefs were originally worked at shallow depths by means of a windlass (hand-wound rope and bucket), or a horse-powered whip or whim (using poles, ropes and pulleys) raising the ore from shallow shafts.
Extracting gold from sulphide ores (1872 - 1898):
Despite its promising start, in 1872 the Ravenswood goldfield entered a ‘period of depression’, as its most important mines reached the water table at about 70ft (21m) deep – starting with the Sunset in 1871, followed by the General Grant, Black Jack, and Melaneur in 1872. Although the oxidised quartz (‘red stone’ or ‘brown stone’ quartz) close to the surface yielded its gold to traditional methods of mechanical crushing, below the water table the gold was in fine particles, which was not easily recovered by mechanical means. It was also mixed with sulphide ores; mainly iron sulphide (pyrite, or ‘mundic’ ore) but also sulphides containing lead, copper, zinc, arsenic, and antimony, which interfered with chemical treatments such as amalgamation (amalgamating the gold with mercury; then heating the resulting amalgam in a retort to vaporise the mercury) and chlorination (exposing roasted, concentrated ore to chlorine gas, and then precipitating gold out of the chloride solution). A process that worked on the ore from one reef might not work for an adjacent reef, due to a varying distribution of different types of sulphides. In addition, even if a process worked on a small scale, it could be uneconomical on a larger scale, given the price of transporting fuel to Ravenswood for smelting, or transporting concentrates for smelting elsewhere.
Once the mundic had been struck, ‘mining was "worse than dull" as the field grappled with the realisation that to break below the waterline, the days of the individual miner were over and the time of companies was looming’. The 1870s was a decade of major gold discoveries in Queensland, and miners keen on quick profits had plenty of new goldfields from which to choose. Many miners joined the rushes to Charters Towers (1872) and the Palmer River (1873). Charters Towers soon overtook Ravenswood as the most important inland town in north Queensland; and the Hodgkinson rush (southwest of Port Douglas) in 1876 also drew away miners.
However, Ravenswood grew during the 1870s and 1880s, despite the goldfield’s ‘refractory’ ores, and ‘mundic problem’. The goldfield had a population of 950 in 1877 (with 50 Chinese), rising to 1100 in 1880 (including 250 Chinese), and 2000 in 1883 (including 300 Chinese; with 190 working the alluvial, and 10 quartz miners).
The 1877 Pugh’s Almanac listed one Chinese hotelkeeper (out of seven hotelkeepers) in Ravenswood, and one Chinese storekeeper. The Chinese, as well as working alluvial claims and operating hotels and stores, were employed as wage labour in some mines; worked as roasters and chlorinators at the Mabel Mill; and operated 24 licensed gardens on the Ravenswood goldfield in 1883. Chinese gardens were vital in providing fresh vegetables to North Queensland’s goldfield populations.
For 19th Century diasporic Chinese communities such as Ravenswood’s, the establishment of specific cultural settlement areas, or ‘Chinatowns’, that ‘provided a range of sacred and secular services, including temples, stores, and accommodation’, was an important aspect of community building. Deighton Street, west of Macrossan Street, was the centre of Chinese life in Ravenswood. There were two eating houses close to Macrossan Street’s bridge across Elphinstone Creek, in the 1870s; and market gardens were located between Deighton Street and Elphinstone Creek, as well as north of Elphinstone Creek, interspersed amongst several crushing machine operations. There was also a temple south of Deighton Street. Temples were not just places of religious worship; rather, they were an integral part of a Chinese village. ‘They were places to meet, to check one's horoscope before embarking on a new venture and places where ancestors were venerated’. As well as being a place where the community could worship at any time, major gatherings were held at temples on festival days, with feasts and processions. The Ravenswood temple appears on an 1874 survey plan, making it the earliest known Chinese temple in Queensland. The nearby pig roasting oven is also a rare example of its type, and demonstrates the usual spatial arrangement of temple and oven, for community feasts.
Ravenswood continued to develop during the 1880s. By 1885, the Ravenswood goldfield had an estimated population of 2294 Europeans and 227 Chinese, with 1490 Europeans and 148 Chinese located in Ravenswood itself. Ravenswood at this time had four Chinese storekeepers, and two Chinese produce merchants, but all six hotel licensees were European. The Ravenswood National School, which began in late 1873, had an average attendance of 110 students in 1878, and reached its peak enrolment of 390 by 1889.
The 1880s were also a period of experimentation in metallurgical (gold extraction) technology. In 1883, the only method for dealing with sulphide ores was stamper mills and rotary buddles (which used water and gravity to separate and concentrate the crushed ores), but later Ravenswood ‘was the first place where the chlorination process and Wilfley tables, developed in 1896, to shake the ore and separate out different sized particles, and were used in Queensland, and probably the first place where the cyanide process (dissolving fine gold in a cyanide solution, and later precipitating the gold out of the solution) for extracting gold was used in Australia’. Other techniques attempted included fine grinding (using ball mills), roasting (burning off the sulphides), and smelting (prohibitively expensive, as it required high temperatures and thus a lot of fuel). By 1888 a new company at One Mile Creek, formed by Duncan and Peter Macintyre, had adapted an abandoned Cassell’s patent plant (a version of the chlorination process which was applied and failed in Ravenswood in 1886), to work on a ‘secret process’ (cyaniding).
Ravenswood mining continued to be viable, although only a (fluctuating) percentage of the gold was being recovered from the ore. In the mid-1880s there was even a temporary increase in the goldfield’s production, due to good returns from the Sandy Creek mines on the John Bull reef. For the next eight years, the principal producers of the district were the General Grant, Sunset, New England, Wild Irish Girl, Melaneur, and John Bull reefs, plus the silver lodes of the One Mile (at Totley).
Ravenswood’s economy survived the 1880s due to the development of silver mines at Totley, a township established about 2km north of Ravenswood. The silver mines opened circa 1879 - 1880, and Richard King floated the Ravenswood Silver Mining Company Ltd in 1882 – the year of Ravenswood’s lowest gold production between 1878 and 1898. Silver prices were high during the 1880s, and the Totley mines encouraged the Queensland Government to approve a branch railway line (off the Northern Railway between Townsville and Charters Towers) to Ravenswood in 1882, completed in 1884. The railway meant that some gold ores could be crushed, concentrated and sent for treatment at the Aldershot works just north of Maryborough or overseas to Swansea, in Wales. However, all silver mining had stopped by 1891, due to falling silver prices and over-expenditure on treatment plants.
Gold mining at Ravenswood continued during the 1880s and 1890s. Hugh Hawthorne Barton, who had operated Brothers Mill on Elphinstone Creek from the late 1870s, took over the General Grant, Sunset, and Black Jack mines, and the Mabel Mill (and later the Melaneur and Duke of Edinburgh mines), and floated the Ravenswood Gold Mining Company in 1887, with £100,000 in capital. From 1884 to 1896 Barton’s group was the largest and most successful operation in Ravenswood, its profitability assisted by the railway, economies of scale, and flexibility in ore-treatment methods. Barton utilised roasting, chlorination (by 1889), and smelting, and employed Chinese workers at the Mabel Mill. Along with their market gardens along Elphinstone Creek, Chinese employment at the Mabel Mill also influenced the location of the Chinese settlement area in Ravenswood. Meanwhile, the landscape was being altered by mining. The need for timber for boilers and for timbering-up mine shafts led to the loss of native trees in the locality, and goats also helped shape the landscape by eating regrowth.
By the mid-1890s, Barton was in debt to the Queensland National Bank, and his properties were seized in 1896, with the General Grant, Black Jack, and Mabel Mill being let on tribute (where a party of miners worked a mine, while giving the mine owner a percentage of any results) in 1897. The tributers refused to employ Barton’s experienced Chinese workers at the Mabel Mill, leading to disastrous attempts at chlorination. However, the goldfield’s production was boosted in the late 1890s when work resumed on the Donnybrook reefs for the first time in 20 years, and the Hillsborough (Eight Mile) reefs were taken up.
The New Ravenswood Company era (1899 - 1917):
Ravenswood’s boom period of gold production (1900 - 1908, with 1905 the year of highest production) is reflected in the town’s surviving mining infrastructure and commercial and public buildings. This boom occurred due to the efforts of Archibald Laurence Wilson (1852 - 1935). After gaining a diploma in mining engineering in Edinburgh, and working in New Zealand and on the Palmer River, Wilson arrived in Ravenswood in 1878. He was publican of the Silver King Hotel in Totley in the 1880s. As manager of the John Bull mine at Sandy Creek in the mid-1890s, he raised capital in London and installed a cyanide plant.
Wilson later travelled to London in 1898, where he floated both the Donnybrook Blocks Mining Syndicate and the New Ravenswood Company in 1899. Wilson was the General Manager of both companies, under their London directorates. Until 1917, the New Ravenswood Company was the largest mining operation on the Ravenswood goldfield. Registered with a capital of £50,000, the company purchased the General Grant, Sunset, Black Jack, Melaneur, and Shelmalier mines, and the Mabel Mill, from the Queensland National Bank (and later obtained the Saratoga, Duke of Edinburgh and London North mines), and initiated a new era in ore and metallurgical extraction. Using British capital, Wilson introduced modern machinery to work the mines, and effectively reshaped Ravenswood’s landscape. Wilson was known as ‘the uncrowned king of Ravenswood’. He was also Chairman of the Ravenswood Shire Council for some years, and was later on the Dalrymple Shire Council, until he resigned from poor health in 1934.
From 1900, both the Sunset and General Grant (also known as the Grant) mines were redeveloped by Wilson. These became the key earners for the New Ravenswood Company; by 1903 the two mines employed about 205 men, and were ‘the “backbone” of the town’.
The Sunset reef, which runs roughly northwest-southeast through the Ravenswood Mining Landscape, was the largest producer on the goldfield (almost a quarter of the total). It produced 14,722oz of gold from 1870 - 1894, and by 1900 it was worked from an underlie (an inclined shaft, following the dip of a reef) branching off from a vertical shaft 130ft (40m) deep. It was stated at this time that the reef had ‘much the same history as the General Grant, the two being generally worked together’. By 1903 the New Ravenswood Company had extended the underlie shaft right up to the surface, where a headframe was constructed to haul ore directly up the slope. The Sunset’s yield of ‘free gold’ (pure gold not combined with other minerals), which could be extracted at the Mabel Mill, peaked in 1904, then fell slowly. In 1905 an average of 170 men were employed at the mine. In 1908 the reef was being worked by the main underlie shaft, 900ft (274m) deep (Sunset No. 1); and a vertical shaft, 556ft (169m) deep (Sunset No. 2). As the Sunset reef was worked in conjunction with the General Grant and the Duke of Edinburgh reefs in the New Ravenswood Company era, its exact total production of gold is hard to calculate; but from 1876 to 1912 the reef probably produced about 177,000oz of gold; and probably most of the 22, 000oz that the company extracted from 1912 - 1917.
The General Grant, one of the most productive reefs on the goldfield, running roughly north-south just east of the Sunset reef, was worked almost continuously to the late 1880s, and periodically thereafter. By 1895 returns had diminished, due to the small size of the reef and its highly refractory ore. In 1900, the General Grant had a vertical shaft to 110ft (34m), and then an underlie of 610ft (186m), the bottom of the latter being 450ft (137m) below the level of the shaft mouth; but operations were ‘almost completely suspended’ as the New Ravenswood Company concentrated on the Sunset reef. To 1900 the General Grant had produced 23, 651oz of gold; and after crushing of ore from the mine resumed at the beginning of 1903, it was treated with ore from the Sunset. On average, 40 men were employed on the mine in 1905. In 1908 the powerhouse for both the Sunset and the General Grant mines was situated on the General Grant lease, with three Cornish boilers. By 1912 the General Grant had produced about 36,000oz of gold.
To the east of the General Grant was the Duke of Edinburgh reef, running roughly northwest-southeast. This was one of the early reefs discovered on the goldfield; and in 1872 it was identified by Warden TR Hackett as one of the 28 principal reefs. It was worked in several episodes prior to the 1890s, and was re-opened in 1891, producing 1286oz of gold during 1891 - 1895. In 1908 the mine was taken over by the New Ravenswood Company, and was reorganised as an underlie shaft with haulage machinery from the Golden Hill mine, being worked in conjunction with the General Grant until 1917.
Along with his modernisation of the goldfield’s best mines, Wilson also abandoned chlorination at the Mabel Mill, increased the mill’s crushing capacity to 30 stamps (by 1904), and introduced the first Wilfley tables to Queensland. Crushing resumed in January 1900. Wilson improved metallurgical extraction by ‘postponing amalgamation of the free gold till the great bulk of the sulphides had been removed by concentration’. The ore was crushed in stampers without using mercury. Then, using the Wilfley tables, the heavier Galena (lead sulphide ore) and free gold was separated from the lighter sulphides. The free gold and galena was then ground in Berdan pans with mercury, while the remaining sulphides (containing iron, zinc and copper) were dispatched to the Aldershot works (near Maryborough) for smelting. In 1902 - 1903, a raff wheel, 14.5m in diameter, was built at the Mabel Mill to lift tailings (post-treatment residue) up to a flume, which carried them over to the south side of Elphinstone Creek, where they could be treated with cyanide. The cyanide works (of which remnants still remain south of Elphinstone Creek) was erected circa 1904. A 21m long girder bridge was constructed across the creek to carry steam water pipes and electric cable from the Mabel Mill to the new works, which eventually comprised two Krupp ball mills and 12 Wilfley’s tables.
Due to the New Ravenswood Company’s efforts, the goldfield’s production increased between 1899 and 1905. Gold recovery increased from 18, 016oz in 1899 to 24, 832oz in 1900 and to 42, 465oz in 1905. The New Ravenswood Company paid impressive 50% dividends to its shareholders in 1901, 1902, and 1904; and 75% in 1903.
The productivity of Ravenswood’s mines during the New Ravenswood Company era was also reflected in the goldfield’s population, which rose from 3420 in 1901 to its peak of 4707 in 1903. The 1903 population included 215 Chinese, 89 of these being alluvial miners. In 1905 two Chinese were listed as ‘storekeepers and grocers’.
The population increase led to a building boom in the first decade of the 20th Century. Hundreds of new houses, the town’s first two brick hotels – the Imperial hotel (1901) and the Railway Hotel (1902) – as well as brick shops such as Thorp’s Building (1903), and the brick Ravenswood Ambulance Station (1904) were constructed in this period; the use of brick being spurred by the threat of fire. The New Ravenswood Company also rebuilt the mining landscape in and around the town, with expansion of the Mabel Mill, and new headframes and winders, magazines, boilers, and brick smokestacks erected beside all the principal shafts.
However, not all Wilson’s ventures in this period were successful. In 1902 he floated Deep Mines Ltd, with a capital of £100, 000, to sink a shaft east of the New Ravenswood Company’s leases. This mine (also within the Ravenswood Mining Landscape) was an ambitious attempt to reach a presumed intersection of the General Grant and Sunset reefs at depth. Using the capital raised, Wilson built a model mine and mill. The shaft was started in late 1902-early 1903, and construction work on the buildings and machinery was completed later in 1903. The mine reached 512m, the deepest on the goldfield, with extensive crosscutting and driving, but only about 240oz of gold was recovered. No ore was crushed at all in 1908. By 1910 a new shaft was being sunk ‘near the western boundary’; but the mine was abandoned in 1911, and never worked again. Wilson’s London investors lost at least £65,000.
The Deep’s mill, built nearby and operational by 1906, was a smaller version of the Mabel Mill, with gravity stamps, Wilfley tables, and a cyanide plant. Its site, adjacent to the mine, ran counter to the normal practice of siting mills near water courses. With the failure of the Deep mine, it milled ore from other mines until about 1917.
Another mine, the Grand Junction, was located north of the New Ravenswood Company’s most productive mines, in the Ravenswood Mining Landscape. The Grand Junction Consolidated Gold Mining Company was formed in 1900, and a shaft was sunk in 1901 (probably the No. 1 shaft on the Grand Junction Lease No. 520). In 1902 another exploration ‘deep shaft’ (No. 2) was sunk at the southwest boundary of the Grand Junction Lease No.503. The Grand Junction mine was another failed attempt to locate a presumed junction of the General Grant and Sunset reefs at depth; by 1908 it was owned by the New Ravenswood Company. Total production was about 425oz of gold.
Slightly more successful was the Grant and Sunset Extended mine, at the southern end of the Ravenswood Mining landscape. This was a deep shaft sunk by the Grant and Sunset Extended Gold Mining Company, a Charters Towers-owned company with Wilson as its local director. During the 19th Century, small mines had been operated in the Rob Roy reef, to the southeast. The Grant and Sunset Extended was floated in 1902, the intent being to locate the General Grant and Sunset reefs south of Buck Reef. The plant and buildings of the Yellow Jack mine, southeast of Ravenswood, were re-erected on the site. The shaft was down 70ft (21m) in 1902 and 930ft (283m) by 1908, with 50 men employed at the mine by the later date. The mine closed by 1910, but was worked on tribute until 1917, with about 15,000oz of gold obtained over 1904 - 1918.
The boom period at Ravenswood did not last. As well as losing money on the Deep and Grand Junction mines, the New Ravenswood Company faced the closure of the Aldershot works in 1906, and declining yields from 1908 to 1912. Although Wilson experimented with flotation (agitating crushed ore in oil and water, and extracting fine gold particles on the surface of air bubbles) and cyanide processes at the Mabel Mill, it was too late to save his company. The Shelmalier had closed by 1904, the Black Jack in 1909, and the Melaneur in 1910. By that year, the General Grant, Sunset, Duke of Edinburgh, and London North (obtained 1910) were the New Ravenswood Company’s only producing mines.
Few new buildings were constructed in Ravenswood after 1905. The hospital closed in 1908. That year the goldfield’s population consisted of 4141 Europeans (including 2625 women and children) and 181 Chinese (including 94 alluvial miners). This dropped to 2581, including 92 Chinese, by 1914.
Increased costs and industrial disputes in the 1910s hastened the end of the New Ravenswood Company era. During a miner’s strike between December 1912 and July 1913, over lay-offs, the fresh vegetables and business loans provided by Ravenswood’s Chinese community helped keep the town going. Although the miners won, it was a hollow victory, as the company could only afford to re-employ a few of the men. World War I (1914 - 1918) then increased labour and material costs for the New Ravenswood Company. The London North mine closed in 1915, and on the 24th of March 1917 the New Ravenswood Company ceased operations; ending large-scale mining in Ravenswood for the next 70 years.
By 1917, the Ravenswood goldfield had produced over 850, 000oz of gold (nearly a quarter coming from the Sunset mine), and 1, 000, 000oz of silver; making it the fifth largest gold producer in Queensland, after Charters Towers, Mount Morgan, Gympie, and the Palmer Goldfield. Ravenswood was also the second largest producer of reef gold in north Queensland, after Charters Towers.
Small scale mining and re-treatment (1919 - 1960s):
After 1917 the Ravenswood goldfield entered a period of hibernation, with intermittent small-scale attempts at mining. In 1919, Ravenswood Gold Mines Ltd took over some of Wilson’s leases and renovated the Deep mine’s mill, but obtained poor returns. Ravenswood Gold Mines also worked the Duke of Edinburgh from 1919 to 1930, with good returns reported in 1924. The General Grant and Sunset were also worked on a small scale from 1919 - 1921, while the Mabel Mill continued to provide crushing services for the limited local mining.
Consequently, Ravenswood’s population declined and the town shrank physically. In 1921 the town’s population fell below 1000, and by 1923 there were 530 people left, including 8 Chinese. During the 1920s, prior to the closure of the railway branch line to Ravenswood in 1930, hundreds of the town’s timber buildings were dismantled and railed away. By 1927, only the two brick hotels remained operating as hotels. The Ravenswood Shire was abolished in 1929, and by 1934 only 357 people remained in the town.
Despite this decline, some gold was still being extracted. There was a small increase in gold production between 1923 and 1927, and due to the gold price rise of the 1930s, some mines were re-worked and efforts were also made to treat the old mullock heaps (waste rock from mining) and tailings dumps with improved cyanide processes. Between 1931 and 1942, 12, 253oz of gold was obtained from the goldfield, the peak year being 1940.
A number of companies were active in Ravenswood in the 1930s-early 1940s. In 1933, the North Queensland Gold Mining Development Company took up leases along Buck Reef and reopened the Golden Hill mine, and the following year their operations were taken over by Gold Mines of Australia Ltd. The 1870s Eureka mine (near the Imperial Hotel) was revived by James Judge in 1934. In 1935 the Ravenswood Concentrates Syndicate began re-treating the Grant mullock heaps in the remaining stampers at the Mabel Mill, and dewatering the Sunset No. 2 shaft; while the Sunset Extended Gold Mining Company, with James Judge as manager, dewatered the Grant and Sunset Extended shafts (which connected to the Sunset, General Grant and Duke of Edinburgh shafts), and re-timbered the Grant and Sunset Extended, General Grant, and Sunset underlie (No. 1) shafts. The London North mine was reopened by R J Hedlefs in 1937, and Basque miners were working the Sunset No. 2 shaft at this time.
The Little Grand Junction mine, located at the intersection of Siggers Street and School Street, on the old Grand Junction Lease No. 520, was operated from 1937 - 1942 by local miners Henry John Bowrey and John Thomas Blackmore. Five men were employed at the mine in 1940. The shaft had apparently been sunk previously by the Grand Junction Consolidated Gold Mining Company; and Bowrey and Party reconditioned it and extended the existing workings.
In 1938, Archibald and Heuir set up a mill on the bank of One Mile Creek to treat mullock dumps, and the Ravenswood Gold Mining Syndicate (formed 1937, with James Judge as manager) began treating the mullock dumps of the Sunset mine in late 1938. The same syndicate also dewatered and reopened part of the Grant and Sunset Extended; and the Grand Junction mine was reopened by Judge circa 1939 - 1942.
The Ravenswood Gold Mining Syndicate’s (Judge’s) mill initially consisted of 10 head of stamps obtained from the Mother Lode Mill at Mount Wright (northwest of Ravenswood), powered by a diesel engine. The ore was crushed by the stamper battery, concentrated with Wilfley tables, and then either treated with cyanide or sent to the Chillagoe smelters. Initial success with some rich ore led to enlargement of the mill to 30 stamps in 1939 - 40. A Stirling boiler and a 250hp engine were also obtained from the Burdekin meatworks (Sellheim), and a rock breaker, elevator, and conveyor were installed. However, the upgraded mill proved to be overpowered and required a lot of timber fuel; the brick foundations used for the machinery were not strong enough; and the best ore from the Sunset had already been treated, so the mill closed early in 1942 and the plant was moved to Cloncurry.
Also in 1938, Maxwell Partridge and William Ralston installed a new plant south of Elphinstone Creek, to the immediate west of the Mabel Mill’s old cyanide works, to re-treat the old tailings with cyanide. A ball mill, filter, and other plant were purchased from the Golden Mile, Cracow in 1939, while later that year a suction gas engine and flotation machine were also installed. This operation closed circa 1942, and the coloured sands on the site today are residues from the flotation process: the yellow sand is from the floatation of iron pyrites; the grey sands are copper tailings; and the black material is zinc tailings.
There was limited activity on the goldfield in the late 1940s to early 1960s. The Empire Gold Mining Syndicate treated mullock dumps from The Irish Girl, London, and Sunset mines from 1946 to 1949, as well as some of the dumps from the Grand Junction (1947). The Duke of Edinburgh mine was briefly reopened by Cuevas and Wilson in 1947, and the Cornish boilers on the site (one with the maker’s mark ‘John Danks & Son Pty Ltd makers Melbourne) may relate to this (unsuccessful) operation. Percy Kean reopened the Great Extended mine at Totley in 1947, and later purchased Partridge’s mill in 1951 to use it as a flotation plant to treat the silver-lead ore from Totley, adding a diesel engine, stonebreaker, Wilfley tables, and classifier. The Totley mines closed in 1954, although the Great Extended mine was briefly sub-leased by Silver Horizons No Liability, in 1964. Partridge’s mill was closed circa 1965.
Other attempts were made in the early 1950s to rework old sites. A Townsville syndicate led by Leslie Cook and George Blackmore reopened the Grand Junction mine in 1951, but it soon closed. James Judge also recommenced gold mining at Donnybrook, but closed in 1954; while 900 tons of tailings from the Deep mine’s mill site were taken for re-treatment at Heuir’s cyanide plant in the early 1950s.
A new industry:
In the 1960 and 1970s, Ravenswood’s population shrank to its nadir of about 70 people. At the same time, there was a growing nostalgic interest in old towns in Australia. In 1968 the landscape of Ravenswood was described in romantic terms: ‘Mute testimonials are the numerous mullock heaps which dot the countryside; the rusty remains of steam engines; stampers which were used to crush stone; and collapsed cyanide vats… Derelict poppet-heads…stand above deep, abandoned shafts. Colossal columns of chimney stacks rise majestically from the entanglement of rubber vines and Chinese apple trees.’ Some locals realised that preserving the town’s surviving historic buildings and structures was necessary to attract tourists and create a new local industry.
From this time onwards the town’s mining heritage was seen as an asset. The National Trust of Queensland met with locals in 1974, and a conservation plan for the town was published in 1975. Later, the town sites of Totley and Ravenswood were both entered into the National Trust of Queensland Register. Comments from an International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) trip to northern Australia in 1978 included ‘Ravenswood…is one of the most evocative (gold towns of Australia) and this must be preserved. A policy of “all that is necessary but as little as possible” must be strongly pursued’. The increased population of North Queensland, longer paid holidays, improved roads, and the rise of car ownership after World War II, all increased visitation to Ravenswood, as did the completion of a road past Ravenswood to the Burdekin Dam, in the 1980s. As a result, the town and its mining landscape have been represented in brochures, art, and photography. In particular, the landmark qualities of the tall brick chimneys are a distinctive feature in representations of Ravenswood.
Modern operations:
However, gold mining recommenced at Ravenswood in the 1980s, due to a rise in the gold price and the efficiencies gained from open cut mining and modern cyanide metallurgical extraction processes. From 1983 - 1986 the Northern Queensland Gold Company Ltd conducted agglomeration heap-leaching (spraying a sodium cyanide solution on previously mined material heaped on a plastic membrane), in the process removing a landmark tailings dump at King’s mine in Totley, and mullock heaps from the Grant and Sunset mines. In 1987 Carpentaria Gold commenced open cut mining of the Buck reef (the Buck Reef West pit) near the old Grant and Sunset mines on the south side of the town. Later, pits were dug further east along the reef. Some underground mining was also undertaken from the Buck Reef West pit until 1993, which broke into the old workings of the General Grant, Sunset, and Duke of Edinburgh mines. The old headframe at the Grant and Sunset Extended was demolished in 1988, and replaced with a new steel headframe, which was used until 1993 and then removed. The Melaneur-Shelmalier-Black Jack-Overlander reef complex, on the north side of the town, was mined as an open cut 1990 - 1991, before being backfilled as a golf course. The Nolan’s Gully open cut commenced in 1993.
Although modern mining revived the economy of the town, it did not replicate the building boom of the early 20th century.
The heritage significance of Ravenswood’s surviving mining infrastructure was recognised in a 1996 Queensland Mining Heritage Places Study by Jane Lennon & Associates and Howard Pearce; and a 2000 Conservation Management Plan by Peter Bell. In 2006, the population of Ravenswood, the oldest surviving inland town in north Queensland, was 191.
By the mid-2010s the population of Ravenswood stood at 255 people.
Source: Queensland Heritage Register & Australian Bureau of Statistics.
These Lego test pieces were molded in the Marbon Technology Center at the Woodmar Borg-Warner in Washington, West Virginia sometime prior to 1977. The Woodmar plant supplied Cycolac ABS pellets to the Samsonite Lego factories in the USA and Canada.
There were two testing centers at Woodmar. The Color Lab did color testing, while the QA Lab did physical testing. The Lego test parts produced at Woodmar come in standard colors - red, blue, green, yellow, white, gray, and black.
Pure milky ABS was used to purge molds between colors, so milky marbled parts also exist. Sometimes, the molding machine temps were elevated in order to test color stability at higher temperatures - this causes ABS to turn yellowish, so the "pure" color becomes darker.
These parts should look familiar. The quadrate is identical to others I've seen. The paddle piece looks like those that Beryll has found (Jamie's has additional ejection pin marks on the ends). The specimen plate is also similar Beryll's, though the ejection pin holes are deeper.
The 8xC bricks, however, are unique. They have no markings underneath, and the surface variations on the studs are not like other bricks I've seen. Both bricks are slightly different, suggesting they came from two different mold positions.
All parts came from the collection of a former Woodmar employee. I have no idea how many of these parts are in the wild - I've never heard of anyone finding test pieces in United States. Maybe it's time to visit West Virginia and poke around in some flea markets :)
Waiting to depart P2, Northern no. 156471 stands at Carlisle prior to working 2C42, the 1106 service to Barrow-in-Furness.
nhq201806060001 (June 6, 2018) --- Expedition 56 flight engineer Alexander Gerst of ESA (European Space Agency), top, flight engineer Serena Auñón-Chancellor of NASA, middle, and Soyuz Commander Sergey Prokopyev of Roscosmos, bottom, wave farewell prior to boarding the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft for launch, Wednesday, June 6, 2018 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Gerst, Auñón-Chancellor, and Prokopyev will spend the next six months living and working aboard the International Space Station. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)
Built in 1826 at no. 201 Delaware Street.
"New Castle was originally settled by the Dutch West India Company in 1651 under the leadership of Peter Stuyvesant on the site of a former aboriginal village, "Tomakonck" ("Place of the Beaver"), to assert their claim to the area based on a prior agreement with the aboriginal inhabitants of the area. The Dutch originally named the settlement Fort Casimir, but this was changed to Fort Trinity (Swedish: Trefaldighet) following its seizure by the colony of New Sweden on Trinity Sunday, 1654. The Dutch conquered the entire colony of New Sweden the following year and rechristened the fort Nieuw-Amstel ("New Amstel", after the Amstel). This marked the end of the Swedish colony in Delaware as an official entity, but it remained a semi-autonomous unit within the New Netherland colony and the cultural, social, and religious influence of the Swedish settlers remained strong. As the settlement grew, Dutch authorities laid out a grid of streets and established the town common (The "Green"), which continue to this day.
In 1664, the English seized the entire New Netherland colony in the Second Anglo-Dutch War. They changed the name of the town to "New Castle" and made it the capital of their Delaware Colony. The Dutch regained the town in 1673 during the Third Anglo-Dutch War but it was returned to Great Britain the next year under the Treaty of Westminster. In 1680, New Castle was conveyed to William Penn by the Duke of York by livery of seisin and was Penn's landing place when he first set foot on American soil on October 27, 1682. This transfer to Penn was contested by Lord Baltimore and the boundary dispute was not resolved until the survey conducted by Mason and Dixon, now famed in history as the Mason–Dixon line.
Prior to the establishment of Penn's Philadelphia, New Castle was a center of government. After being transferred to Penn, Delaware's Swedish, Dutch, and English residents used to the relaxed culture of the Restoration monarchy grew uncomfortable with the more conservative Quaker influence, so Delaware petitioned for a separate legislature, which was finally granted in 1702. Delaware formally broke from Pennsylvania in 1704. New Castle again became the seat of the colonial government, thriving with the various judges and lawyers that fueled the economy. Many smaller houses were torn down and replaced in this era. In February, 1777, John McKinly was elected the first President of Delaware (a title later renamed "Governor"). During the Revolution, when New Castle was besieged by William Howe, the government elected to move its functions south to Dover in May, 1777. McKinley was captured by the British and held prisoner for several months. New Castle remained the county seat until after the Civil War, when that status was transferred to Wilmington. Three signers of the Declaration of Independence were from New Castle—Thomas McKean, George Read, and George Ross.
The 16-mile (26 km) portage between the Delaware River and Chesapeake Bay saved a 400-mile (640 km) trip around the Delmarva Peninsula, so this brought passengers, goods, and business to New Castle's port. In the years following the Revolution, a turnpike was built to facilitate travel between the two major waterways. Later, New Castle became the eastern terminus of the New Castle and Frenchtown Railroad, the second-oldest rail line in the country, launched in 1828 with horse-drawn rail cars, then converting to steam power when an engine was purchased from Great Britain in 1832. The line traversed the Delmarva Peninsula, running to the Elk River, Maryland, from where passengers changed to packet boats for further travel to Baltimore and points south. This helped the New Castle economy to further boom; however, by 1840, rail lines were in place between Philadelphia and Baltimore, which had a stop in Wilmington, thus leaving New Castle to deal with a substantial decline in traffic and revenue.
The decline in New Castle's economy had the long-range fortunate effect of preventing most residents from making any significant structural changes to their homes. So, the many buildings of historic New Castle look much as they did in the colonial and Federal periods.
New Castle has a tradition, dating back to 1927, of tours of historical homes, churches, and gardens. These tours, called "A Day in Olde New Castle", are usually held on the third Saturday of May. Householders dress in colonial costumes and an admittance fee is collected which is used toward the maintenance of the town's many historic buildings. In June the town holds its annual Separation Day celebration.
On April 28, 1961, an F3 tornado hit the north side. Although no fatalities or injuries occurred, it was the only tornado of this magnitude ever recorded in Delaware." - info from Wikipedia.
The fall of 2022 I did my 3rd major cycling tour. I began my adventure in Montreal, Canada and finished in Savannah, GA. This tour took me through the oldest parts of Quebec and the 13 original US states. During this adventure I cycled 7,126 km over the course of 2.5 months and took more than 68,000 photos. As with my previous tours, a major focus was to photograph historic architecture.
Now on Instagram.
Prior to the fragmentation of LT into separate operating companies, a few garages were home to rent paying privately owned buses. One such was Edgware and on 27 February 1980 RTW 497 and RF 395 were present along with BL 72 and SMS 376. I wouldn`t be surprised if the rent for storage was less here as it was the only LT garage where almost all of its allocation were parked outside.
I walked through the university campus in downtown Toronto prior to my class, keeping an eye out for an interesting person to meet and photograph when I saw her. She appeared to have stepped outside on this beautiful fall day for a break between buildings and was listening to music through earbud headphones. I walked up to her and she responded with a smile and removed the earbuds. She listened with obvious interest to my introduction and invitation to become part of my project. “I’ll do it” she said without further ado. We shook hands. Meet Julianne.
We were in a rather unattractive location, between some buildings in a laneway with dumpsters and little that was positive – other than the light which was diffuse and good for a portrait. I suggested we take a few steps and use some painted plywood on the side of a building as a simple grey background. By closing the lid of a dumpster and positioning myself and Julianne carefully I was able to get a “clean” background and avoid the advertising messages above. It was all a bit iffy at first and Julianne was patient with the process and seemed a bit bemused by my efforts to transform the junkheap location into a studio.
Julianne was a natural smiler so I took the initial few photos of her smiling. I then suggested a few with a more neutral expression and explained my thinking – that sometimes peoples’ individuality shines through more when they move away from the traditional smiling pose. I knew I would have a hard time choosing later on. Once I was sure I had some usable images, I asked if she had a few more minutes to try a location I had noticed around the corner featuring metal grating over some store windows. She was good-natured about it and picked up her backpack and followed me to the storefront where we completed a few more portraits before settling into chat mode.
Julianne is 22 and was born and raised in Toronto. She is studying Philosophy at university and when I asked what she was going to do when she graduates, she hopes to pursue a graduate degree and mentioned both the University of Toronto and the University of Chicago as possibilities. I’ve studied at both universities and we had a nice time with me telling her a bit about Chicago.
When I asked Julianne what has been the greatest challenge she has had to deal with in life she asked “You mean really?” “Yes, really” I replied. “Mental illness” she replied. “Can you tell me more?” I asked. “Yes. Depression. Deep depression. I spend four years in that pit in high school and it is terrible.” “How are you doing now?” I asked. “So much better” she said. “I’m really doing well and enjoying life again.” I explained that I knew about depression both through my career as a therapist and through the experience of people in my life and it was wonderful to hear that she is now doing so well. “How did you get to this better place?” I asked. “Did you get therapy and/or medication?” “No, I didn’t” she said. “I just did it myself.” “How?” I asked, thinking it might be useful to others who read her story. “I just made myself reach out to others because I knew social contact would be the way forward, even though it didn’t feel like it would. I also made myself listen to music and read, both of which I knew would be healthy for me.” “And now?” I asked. “There is no comparison” she said with a smile. I told her others have likened it to having the world change from black and white to color and she agreed with the description. It was an inspiring story of one woman’s recovery from depression. While many benefit from medication and a therapy relationship, occasionally one meets someone like Julianne who manages to create her own way out although it was clear that human connections were an important part of her path to health.
In her spare time Julianne enjoys reading science fiction, a genre my brother loves but one which I have not learned how to enjoy very much. I told her I have a hard time suspending my disbelief but that it is interesting the way science fiction often paves the way for inventions and discoveries in the fields of science and technology. When I asked how her friends would describe her, Julianne said somewhat shyly “Probably that I’m smart and a good, loyal friend.” “You don’t have to feel arrogant saying that” I told her. “It’s just your friends talking, right?” We laughed. Her message to others? “Reach out, the world is a magical place. Enjoy it fully.”
"What was it like to be approached by a complete stranger to take part in his photography project?" "I was flattered" she replied. "I really like the way you described your project and everyone has a story to tell."
It was time to say goodbye and thank Julianne for her candor and for joining my Human Family project. Double-checking about permission to share her story, she smiled and said “Of course you can tell it. I wouldn’t have shared it otherwise.” I think it is through the courage and honesty of people like Julianne that issues like depression are being seen for what they are – illnesses which can ruin lives but which can also be overcome. I found the time I had spent with Julianne very enjoyable and very inspiring.
Thank you Julianne for taking the time and for your engaging with The Human Family. Stay healthy and I wish you well with your studies. If you make it to the University of Chicago, I hope you enjoy the unique community of Hyde Park where I grew up.
This is my 80th submission to the Human Family group on Flickr.
You can view more street portraits and stories by visiting The Human Family.
Aggregates carrier Bert Prior sailing up the Rive Thames and passing Gravesend, viewed from across the river, below Tilbury Marshes. Bert Prior is one of a fleet of similar (small) vessels carrying building materials into London, operated by a small local-ish firm, JJ Prior. They have a distinctive, gentle engine note and I like their shape; since coming to Gravesend they've been favourites of mine. Bert Prior is currently at Wivenhoe, on the River Colne, where JJ Prior is based.
Gravesend's Gordon Promenade is just visible, with Siri Guru Nanak Darbar, the Gravesend Sikh Temple, dominating the skyline. Unlike JJ Prior, the Temple is post my arrival here and I pass it often: it's a lovely building and a superb achievement.
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This photo at the Southaven Walmart was another taken in early 2014, hence the old orange low price signs. The original Project Impact overhead signs had character and depth to them, and I'm actually starting to miss those old orange signs a little bit as well :( Oh wait, orange came back with a vengeance in the new Pickup department and it's singnage. Never mind about missing any orange Walmart décor!
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Walmart, 1998-built, Southcrest Pkwy near Goodman Rd., Southaven, MS
Swan Hill.
It has been estimated that the largest group of Aborigines (about 600) in what was to become Victoria lived in the Swan Hill district prior to white settlement. The first white men to see this area were the crew of Captain Charles Sturt’s exploration of the Murray River system in 1830. Sturt’s published report in 1832 excited others to see this district. The next to do so was Major Thomas Mitchell on his 1836 Australia Felix explorations of the Murray and the Western Districts of Victoria. In fact it was Mitchell who named the location Swan Hill. Three years later in 1839 illegal squatters moved into the Swan Hill area. They had been encouraged by the success of Joseph Hawdon and Charles Bonney (January-April 1838) and Edward John Eyre (October-November 1838) who had all overlanded the first cattle and sheep from the Albury district of NSW along the River Murray into South Australia and down to the sale yards of Adelaide. One of the first official leaseholds was granted in 1847 for the Murray Downs property across the river from Swan Hill. NSW was reluctant to allow squatters along the River Murray but they could not resist once illegal squatters moved along the Murray. Murray Downs and its grand homestead (built in 1870) still stand and the property had a major influence on the later development of the town of Swan Hill. It covered 150,000 acres and most development occurred under the ownership of Suetonius and Charles Officer from 1862 to 1883 and then Charles Campbell took over from 1884. The other early property near Swan Hill was Tyntyndyer station of about 30,000 acres. It was occupied from 1846 with a formal leasehold later in 1848. The Beveridge brothers especially Black Beveridge ran the property. Black Beveridge was known for his good relations with the local Aboriginal people when others did not have a good relationship. Despite this Aboriginal and white deaths still occurred on Tyntyndyer station in the early years. The early timber homestead is now heritage listed. Tyntyndyer station ran up to Piangil and inland. It was owned by the Beveridge brothers until 1876. It is now owned by the local Aboriginal community and sometimes opened as a museum of Aboriginal experience on a white pastoral estate. Another important property was the Swan Hill run itself taken out by Curlewis and Campbell in 1848. Their leasehold covered 60,000 acres in the Swan Hill district.
Swan Hill was a town that emerged rather than a town that was surveyed and created. The crossing of the River Murray at Swan Hill was the best and easiest for a 100 mile stretch of the river so naturally travellers and stockmen gravitated to that spot. A kind of ferry/punt service began at the spot in 1847 and around the same time Gideon Rutherford and John McCrae opened the Lower Murray Inn. They were still the licensees in 1853. Others settled near the river crossing and the hotel. The punt service was taken over by John Gray in 1860 and he and his family operated it for 30 years until the first pontoon bridge was built across the River Murray in 1891. Back in 1849 the NSW government began a mail service to Swan Hill from Mount Macedon and opened the first Swan Hill Post Office with John McCrae of the Lower Murray Inn (then the Swan Hill Inn) as the first Post Master. There were settlers in the district but no town as such existed at that time. The NSW government also employed Native Troopers at Swan Hill from 1850 to quell any violence. In 1851 the Swan Hill district became part of the new colony of Victoria and the first elections were held and a Police Constable was stationed there from 1851 and court sessions were held there from 1852. Then the discovery of gold late in 1851 at Bendigo was to transform the district as failed gold diggers moved north to the River Murray to start a new life. This was followed by the arrival of the first two River Murray steamers from South Australia in 1853 – The Lady Augusta captained by Cadell of Goolwa and the Mary Ann captained by William Randell of Mannum. From 1853 onwards Swan Hill was a different place with goods coming and going to South Australia and up the Darling River on the paddle steamers and overland traffic of goods to and from the major centre of gold mining at Bendigo and Mt Alexander. To commemorate the importance of the river trade both Captains Cadell and Randell are listed as men of influence in the town on the Explorers Obelisk in McCallum Street. Before the railway reached Swan Hill in 1890 there were 222 registered paddle steamers on the River Murray in Victoria.
The first survey of Swan Hill was undertaken in 1851 by Surveyor Pritchard and the streets were marked out. But the town was tiny and had few stone or brick buildings before 1858. The government appointed a doctor for Swan Hill in 1857. The first brick general store was built in 1858. The first butcher shop opened in 1858. There were few buildings in the early town except for two hotels, the general store, the pine log courthouse and a few houses. In 1860 the population of Swan Hill was 142. The first bakery opened in 1860. The first church was a weatherboard Anglican erected in 1865. As late as 1876 Swan Hill only less than 200 residents. Burke and Wills on their famous and ill-fated expedition to the Gulf of Carpentaria camped on the river banks at Swan Hill for several weeks. It was not a great town at that time. The first school in Swan Hill opened in 1862 with 21 students but closed for lack of funds several months later. A small private school opened and the state school did not open until 1871! The government used other premises until 1874 when they erected a wooden classroom. The first brick building was built in 1876 and is now part of the Catholic School. The first Methodist church services were held in Swan Hill in 1881 and the first weatherboard church was erected in 1886. A new brick Methodist church was built in 1918. Presbyterian Church services began in Swan Hill in 1871 at Murray Downs homestead. Mrs Suetonius Officer laid the foundation stone of the Presbyterian Church in 1872 with it opening in in that same year. This church was moved to a new site in 1910 and some materials were used in building a new church which opened in 1913. This Presbyterian Church was again moved and rebuilt in 1944 in Curlewis Street.
The 1880s saw great growth and change in Swan Hill. The population jumped from 250 people in 1880 to 820 people by 1887. Two new banks opened in this period, with the National Bank opening in 1888. The first brick water tower was erected in 1885 to provide reticulated town water. At the end of the decade the railway reached Swan Hill and the railway station was built followed by many residences in the 1890s. The flour mill was built in this decade too and the first steel bridge across the Murray opened in 1896. The 1890s was also the decade in which irrigation pumps were installed along the River Murray for irrigated crops and land use. This increased the rural population surrounding the town and then after World War One soldier settler blocks were established near Swan Hill at Woorinen with vines and fruit trees and near Tyntynder with dairying. Vines and dairying became major rural industries. So in many respects Swan Hill is a 20th century town. A second water tower, the butter factory and many other industrial structures all were built in the 20th century. Today Swan Hill has around 10,000 residents and it is known for the Swan Hill Pioneer Settlement which is a recreation of the town and district in the 19th and early 20th century. In the evening they hold a spectacular Heartbeat of the Murray Laser Show.
Church of St George the Martyr, Dean Prior, Devon was first recorded by the Bishop in 1186 as part of the possession of the Priory of Plympton. The first known priest, Gervase of Crediton, was ordained in 1261. Of his church, however, only the late 13c / early 14c west Tower and font remain.
The remainder was rebuilt in 15c on the site of the Norman church, followed by 17c alterations and heavily restored in late 19c when the south porch was built.
The two stage tower has a central polygonal stair-turret on the south side, with bell openings and an embattled parapet.
The 12c red sandstone Norman font is intricately carved with frieze crosses, Saltire and two elongated dragons. The font cover, much restored, dates from 17c . www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/pRT0h47m28
The poet Robert Herrick 1591 - 1674 was vicar here from 1629-1647 when he was evicted during the Cromwellian period, returning after the Restoration of the monarchy in 1662 to the end of his life. In those days the parish population was about 400 people - now the population has reduced to approx 160.
Robert Herrick composed the epitaph to his patron Sir Edward Giles 1637, lord of the manor, and his wife Mary Northcote who kneel with their son on the south nave wall. www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/7hxf22E34r
The great yew tree in the churchyard was planted in 1780.
The lych gate was built last century www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/28v4i8082n and replaced the church house and almshouses.
The village surrounding the church, once included a school, and many cottages, these were all pulled down to build the new A38 Devon Expressway, between Exeter and Plymouth. . leaving the church lying directly to the left of the main road, flic.kr/p/2q4KEhR
The interior has plastered walls. The four bay north and south arcades with low monolithic granite octagonal piers, have crude uncarved octagonal capitals and double-chamfered two-centred arches. The arch-braced nave and aisle roofs appear to be 19c www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/E1u57FT4Co The late 19c / early 20c furnishings include:- painted wooden reredos and wainscoting in chancel, www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/8aVTN26byc carved choir stall ends and octagonal pulpit.
Herrick is buried in an unmarked grave in the churchyard but is now remembered with a wall memorial and glass in the east chancel window
Janice Dennis www.findagrave.com/cemetery/2368069/st-george-the-martyr-...
Looking out from the tower of the Grade I Listed Bath Abbey over the city, in Bath, Somerset.
In 675 Osric, King of the Hwicce, granted the Abbess Berta 100 hides near Bath for the establishment of a convent. This religious house became a monastery under the patronage of the Bishop of Worcester. King Offa of Mercia successfully wrested "that most famous monastery at Bath" from the bishop in 781. William of Malmesbury tells that Offa rebuilt the monastic church, which may have occupied the site of an earlier pagan temple.
Bath was ravaged in the power struggle between the sons of William the Conqueror following his death in 1087. The victor, William II Rufus, granted the city to a royal physician, John of Tours, who became Bishop of Wells and Abbot of Bath. Shortly after his consecration John bought Bath Abbey's grounds from the king, as well as the city of Bath itself.
When this was effected in 1090, John became the first Bishop of Bath, and St Peter's was raised to cathedral status. As the roles of bishop and abbot had been combined, the monastery became a priory, run by its prior. With the elevation of the abbey to cathedral status, it was felt that a larger, more up-to-date building was required. John of Tours planned a new cathedral on a grand scale, dedicated to Saint Peter and Saint Paul, but only the ambulatory was complete when he died in December 1122.
The half-finished cathedral was devastated by fire in 1137, but work continued under Godfrey, the new bishop, until about 1156; the completed building was approximately 330 feet (101 m) long. It was consecrated while Robert of Bath was bishop. The specific date is not known however it was between 1148 and 1161.
In 1197, Reginald Fitz Jocelin's successor, Savaric FitzGeldewin, with the approval of Pope Celestine III, officially moved his seat to Glastonbury Abbey, but the monks there would not accept their new Bishop of Glastonbury and the title of Bishop of Bath and Glastonbury was used until the Glastonbury claim was abandoned in 1219. Savaric's successor, Jocelin of Wells, again moved the bishop's seat to Bath Abbey, with the title Bishop of Bath.
Joint cathedral status was awarded by Pope Innocent IV to Bath and Wells in 1245. Roger of Salisbury was appointed the first Bishop of Bath and Wells, having been Bishop of Bath for a year previously. Bath Cathedral gradually fell into disrepair. When Oliver King, Bishop of Bath and Wells 1495–1503, visited Bath in 1499 he was shocked to find this famous church in ruins. King took a year to consider what action to take, before writing to the Prior of Bath in October 1500 to explain that a large amount of the priory income would be dedicated to rebuilding the cathedral.
Robert and William Vertue, the king's masons were commissioned, promising to build the finest vault in England. The new design incorporated the surviving Norman crossing wall and arches.
Prior Holloway surrendered Bath Priory to the crown in January 1539. It was sold to Humphry Colles of Taunton. The church was stripped of lead, iron and glass and left to decay. Colles sold it to Matthew Colthurst of Wardour Castle in 1543. His son Edmund Colthurst gave the roofless remains of the building to the corporation of Bath in 1572. The corporation had difficulty finding private funds for its restoration.
In 1574, Queen Elizabeth I promoted the restoration of the church, to serve as the grand parish church of Bath. She ordered that a national fund should be set up to finance the work, and in 1583 decreed that it should become the parish church of Bath. James Montague, the Bishop of Bath and Wells from 1608–1616, paid £1,000 for a new nave roof of timber lath construction; according to the inscription on his tomb, this was prompted after seeking shelter in the roofless nave during a thunderstorm.
In a future post apocalyptic world not very far from now, justice has a new name The Druidess Of Midian!
A bit of fun shoot at Coalhouse Fort, Tilbury, Essex, with C-Imagery.
Model: The Druidess Of Midian
Photography © C-Imagery
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