History Revisited - darkening clouds over Armidale's Museum

PAINTINGS WITHDRAWN: In 1939 the National Gallery of NSW withdraws paintings from the Armidale Museum due to Gallery budget cuts

When David Drummond officially opened the new Armidale Museum on Saturday 16 December 1933 as the first municipally operated museum in NSW, the future seemed secure after all those years of effort, the future seemed secure. It wasn’t to be as easy as that.

In July the following year, a meeting convened by Mayor O’Connor established a number of sub committees to undertake the organisation of various sections of the museum. Honorary Curator A H Perrott mentioned the need for more space to house the growing collection. Drummond warned that if the museum was to develop in the right direction it “must not be allowed to become a mausoleum or dumping ground for curios.”

The collection continued to grow. The trustees of the Booloominbah estate presented the trustees with the very fine collection of Island trophies formerly housed in Booloominbah. Geoffrey Forster donated the saddle said have been used by Thunderbolt.

William Dixson after whom the University Library is named donated the original petition to the Governor praying that Armidale should be proclaimed a municipality. The Reverend J A R Perkins donated a more than 300 year old bible.

Yet in the middle of all this, there seems to have been a decline in enthusiasm. There were also setbacks. In April 1939, the director of the National Art Gallery of NSW advised Council that the paintings on loan to the art gallery side of the museum. were to be withdrawn as a consequence of budget cutbacks.

In January 1942 the museum was closed for the duration of the war, becoming the office of the Chief Warden. “Stoutly timbered and sandbagged reinforcements”, stretchers, medical supplies and telephoned jostled with the museum collection. At end July 1944 when workmen began clearing war paraphernalia, the collection was covered by thick dust.

I shuddered a little when I read this story. It wasn’t just the defeat of the previous efforts to create an Armidale museum, but the apparent mistreatment of a collection that had become quite valuable in both historical and monetary terms.

In 1945 and 1946, the premises were temporarily reopened to house two visiting exhibitions. Then in 1948, part of the museum space became the office for the New England County Council county clerk. The following year Council allocated space to the Postmaster General’s Department for a temporary office for a district radio inspector.

The allocation of museum space to offices was a bridge too far. In July 1950, the Sydney Sun published an article on neglected country museums, condemning Council for building offices in the museum.

A bit over two years later in September 1952, Harry Court who had played such an active role in the previous museum movement, protested about the mistreatment of the donated collections.

Council decided to re-open the museum. However, there was now a new museum movement in town that would lead to a change in direction.

I will complete the story of the Armidale museum in my next column. 

Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express Extra on 9 March 2016. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because they are not on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013, here for 2014, here for 2015, here for 2016.

History Revisited - Armidale museum fight finally won, if for the moment

DECEMBER 1933: Local member and Education Minister David Drummond opens the Armidale museum, the first municipally operated museum in NSW

Starting in December 1890, three previous attempts to establish an Armidale museum had all failed. Now in November 1929, the Armidale Express reported that Alderman D W Oliver had instigated new moves “to establish a museum in Armidale”.

The trigger appears to have been the offer of the gem and minerals collection belong to Albert Pike. Now an elderly man living in Mittagong, Mr Pike was a well known local prospector and one of the pioneers of the Copeton diamond field.

This was a considerable collection, one that would be later valued at £5,000. Following a detailed evaluation by W E Clark, science master at Armidale High School, the Armidale Council announced in June 1931 that it had decided to accept Mr Pike’s offer of the collection in return for “suitable living quarters and a small retainer.”

David Drummond as local MP and also Minister for Public Instruction offered one guinea as a donation and suggested that the collection could be housed in the Teachers’ College until accommodation could be provided. Drummond had already been looking for specimens that might be included in a museum at the Teachers’ College that would be reflective of the North.

The Armidale Express considered that the museum would be better in a more central position and also not confined to geological specimens. The paper launched an appeal for £50 to help house the exhibits, to provide a living room and furniture for Mr Pike and to pay him 10s a week in wages as curator and attendant.

On 5 September 1931, Alfred Pike arrived in Armidale by train. On Saturday 26 September, the museum opened in temporary premises to display both the Pike Collection and other exhibits lent by local businessman Harry Court.

The new museum had considerable support, but faced problems of premises, content and governance.

Its location in temporary premises proved difficult. Initially Council had hoped to fund a building for the museum and also art gallery using Unemployment Relief Council funds. When this failed, Council looked at other options.

Finally, in March 1933 Council received advice of a Government loan of £600 for construction of a museum and gallery on Council land to the Government Architect’s plans and specifications. Construction began immediately on a reasonably substantial brick building next to the Fire Station in Rusden Street.

Meanwhile, the museum’s protagonists worked to increase the collection. Now back in office as Minister for Education, Drummond persuaded Sydney jeweller Percy Marks to donate another collection of gemstones, while fifty samples of Australian commercial timbers were obtained from the Technological Museum in Sydney.

In the midst of work, Albert Pike died in May 1933, not living to see the final result.

On Saturday 16 December 1933, Drummond was able to officially open the Armidale museum. Armidale now had a functioning museum and art gallery, the first municipally operated museum in NSW, but there were difficulties ahead.

Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express Extra on 2 March 2016. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because they are not on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013, here for 2014, here for 2015, here for 2016.

History Revisited - Armidale's museum fight

Attempts to create an Armidale Museum have a long and sometimes chequered history.

The first move dates to 1890.

In December of that year, Armidale City Council requested the Minister of Public Instruction to establish technological classes and a museum in Armidale. In January 1891, the Mayor called a public meeting to discuss technical classes.

In November, the Under Secretary of the NSW Mines Department contacted Council in connection with the establishment of a School of Mines, asking if Council would provide a room should a collection of minerals be provided for exhibition. Council agreed and the collection was duly sent to Armidale.

These initial moves took place at a time of continuing fascination with science and technology, with technical education seen as a weapon of economic development. While Armidale clearly shared this interest, no further action appears to have been taken.

Towards the end of 1909 public interest resurfaced, with a sub-committee formed to receive specimens for a Technological Museum covering natural history, geology, mining and agriculture. On 16 February 1910, a representative public meeting was convened to further consider the museum question.

Money was again a key issue. With the School of Arts unable to fund a permanent building, the meeting concluded that the proper place for a museum would be in a technical school building. The meeting therefore resolved to ask the Mayor to inaugurate a deputation, through the State member, to wait upon the Premier seeking a special grant for the erection of a building for technical classes and a museum. Again, the museum proposal seems then to have lapsed.

There is now another long gap in our story. It is 1923 before the museum question resurfaces, and then it takes a different form. Whereas the previous discussions had focused on a technological museum, now the trigger was the possible purchase of a South Sea Island curio collection owned by P T W Black. This, A H Perrott of Chevy Chase hoped in September 1923, “would be for the foundation of a museum for New England.”

The use of the word New England suggests that the museum is now being seen in a broader context. At the same time, the shift from a technological museum to one centred on a South Sea Island’s collection raised the issue of purpose, a key question so far as museums are concerned. This issue would ultimately take the museum in new directions.

For the present, a committee was formed including Mayor Morgan Stephens to consider the proposal. The Mayor was forced to advise the committee that it was not possible to purchase the collection.

The museum proposal again lapsed, surfacing next in 1929. This time the result was the creation of NSW’s first municipally operated museum. I will continue the story in my next column.

Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express Extra on 24 February 2016. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because they are not on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013, here for 2014, here for 2015, here for 2016.

History Revisited - Resting Place of Australia's first world champ

AN EARLY FAVOURITE: Rowing was extremely popular in Australia's early days. Edward Trickett was an avid rower and Australia's first world champion. 

Uralla residents will know the old Trickett’s store with its impressive Victorian Italianate decorative parapet. Local business man C.E. Solomons built the corner portion with its parapet. In 1920, the building was purchased by local retailer Fred Trickett and extended further along Bridge Street to create Uralla’s main emporium. .

Four years before, in November 1916, Fred’s father Edward (Ned, “The Slab”) Trickett had been visiting Uralla to see his son. In addition to the general store, Fred was mining gold. His father was helping Fred in the mine when the shaft walls collapsed, severely injuring Edward.

On 28 November 1916, Edward died at his son’s home. The death was a major story, for Edward Trickett had been Australia’s first sporting world champion.

Edward Trickett was born on 12 September 1851 at Greenwich on Sydney’s Lane Cove River, son of boot maker and former convict George Trickett and his wife Mary. He grew into a tall (6 ft 4 ins or193 cm) well built man who worked initially as a quarryman.

Rowing had long been a popular sport in the colony.. By 1837 when the first Anniversary Regatta was held in Sydney,. both rowing and sailing were well established sports.

Trickett was ten when took part in his first race, finishing second in the under 16 maiden skulls at the Anniversary Day Regatta. At fourteen, he won the 12-foot dinghy title. He went on to defeat most of the State's professional scullers to become Australian Professional Sculling Champion.

In 1876, Sydney innkeeper and former sculler James Punch took Trickett to England to challenge for the world championship. On 27 June 1876 Trickett defeated reigning Champion James H. Sadler on the Thames’ Putney-Mortlake course, becoming the first Australian to win a world championship in any sport. On his return to Australia, 25,000 people gathered to give him a hero’s welcome.

Trickett became licensee of Trickett's Hotel and then proprietor of the International Hotel, both in Sydney. He continued competitive sculling. However, a rolling beer keg crushed one hand, leading to the loss of fingers. This affected his stroke.

In June 1880 Trickett went to England to defend his world title against Canadian Ned Hanlan, but on 15 November was defeated on the Thames course. In May 1882, he tried again against Hanlan, this time suffering a humiliating defeat

In May1884, Trickett moved to Rockhampton as a publican but was forced to return to Sydney in dire straits following losses in a mining venture. .Now teetotal and a strong advocate for the Salvation Army, his Church connections helped him obtain a position with the customs service.

Trickett retired from the service on 11 September 1916, just six weeks before his death.

Trickett was an immensely popular man, a sporting celebrity. In all, he won over 150 trophies, feats celebrated in ballad and verse and on cigarette cards.

In 1918, public subscriptions funded a memorial to him in Uralla. He is buried in the Uralla cemetery. Uralla's McCrossin's Mill Museum has a display on Edward Trickett including the memorial.. 

Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express Extra on 17 February 2016. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because they are not on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013, here for 2014, here for 2015, here for 2016.

History Revisited - Armidale aspired to become 'Cambridge of Australia'

"HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY": Jim Belshaw says that the Creeklands' area contributes to the harmony of Armidale

The opening of the Malpas dam in 1968 was important to the greening of Armidale because it removed water constraints. However, other forces were at play as well.

By 1963, Armidale was in the midst of a building boom that would continue for almost twenty years. By 1974, NSW Government population projections suggested that Armidale’s population would pass that of Tamworth, reaching 40,000 people by the year 2000. Few realised just how vulnerable Armidale had become to downturn because of its now overwhelming dependence on a single industry.

In October 1959, the Hon Lionel Brett, a representative of the British Council and a leading town planner, commented during a visit to that “Armidale appeared as a city which could be greatly improved”. Earlier, in August of that year, J H Shaw from the University of NSW had said that with proper planning, Armidale could become the Cambridge of Australia.

These two ideas of civic improvement and of Armidale as a unique education centre were conjoined and could conflict. Civic improvement included modernization and development, while life style was central to the university city concept. 

In retrospect, the Arboretum debate in the first part of the sixties was something of a turning point. Worried about the rate base relative to servicing costs, Council was split between the subdivision of the open space around the lookout or the open space on South Hill that was the site of the proposed Arboretum. 

A resumed proposal to rezone the Arboretum land for residential purposes again led to protests from a variety of civic groups. For the first time, aldermen found themselves greeted by demonstrators with placards. It was a friendly affair, and in the end the land was maintained for public purposes. The Arboretum itself would not officially open until 1988, but the practical effect was to save open space in the north and south of the city.

In 1966 as part of the continuing interest in beautification, recreation and civic improvement, a recreation and playing fields advisory committee was formed following a public meeting.

There was rapid progress. In Armidale in 1968, there were twelve hectares of recreational land. Ten years later there were 26 hectares, with a further 7 hectares nearing completion plus another 8 hectares allocated for equestrian clubs. A further 59 hectares had been allocated for future open space.

The Creeklands were now emerging as a central unified east-west meander, adding to the harmony of the central city in its valley.

Growth in pupil numbers meant expansion in schools as well as in student numbers, leading to new schools and not always appealing new building. Visually, the sympathetic extensions at TAS were especially important in helping anchor Brown Street, while also starting to create a new eastern visual strip from the Police Paddock to the Creeklands.

The transformation period that we are talking about (1963-83) also saw the beginning of the museum precinct in Kentucky Street with the opening of NERAM in 1983, as well as the revitalisation of Beardy Street.

One can argue about Beardy Street, but that’s a different story. 

Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express Extra on 10 February 2016. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because they are not on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013, here for 2014, here for 2015, here for 2016.

History Revisited - Armidale's blooming colour palette

ADDING TO THE GREENERY: Jim Belshaw discusses the colours usually associated with the city and how they have evolved over time

In 1963, the Armidale palette was heavily white, green and red. White for the weatherboard houses, red and green for the galvanized iron roofs, patches of green for the parks and established gardens. There were other colours, but from the air white, red and green seemed to dominate.

Twenty years later, the colours had greatly changed, become more varied. Part of this was due to the new “heritage” paints. I have put heritage in inverted commas because, at least so far as Armidale was concerned, they were not really heritage at all. But they were attractive, transforming apparently ugly ducking weatherboard into visually appealing houses.

Of more importance was the spread of greenery with its pronounced splashes of autumn and spring colour. Armidale now seemed to nestle among its trees and parks, creating both visual unity and variation. It all seemed to happen very quickly.

The reality was a little different, for the apparently sudden transformation had deep roots.

Armidale had always had great civic pride. Building on earlier work by groups such as the Armidale Horticultural Society which had been involved (among other things) in attempts to create an arboretum in East Armidale to help beautify the city, an Armidale Improvement and Beautification Committee was formed in the 1940s. Between 1948 and 1964, 1500 trees were planted in Armidale streets on the recommendation of the committee. The plantings were a community undertaking with residents planting trees provided by Council.

The Committee had a clear long term objective. Margaret Waters whose father Alwyn Jones was instrumental in developing the project, defined the group’s objectives in this way: “They wanted to create summer shade and autumn colour, that prior to the plantings was non existent in Armidale.”

Later, this approach would be challenged by the native is best school. However, the plan made sense in visual terms, taking Armidale’s varying seasons into account.

The campaign struggled to a degree because householders did not always look after the trees, more because Armidale’s limited water supply made watering difficult during drought. Trees died and then had to be replanted. 

Armidale’s limited water supply had long been a problem. As early as the 1920s, there had been proposals to build a dam at Malpas to meet the city’s water needs. By the 1950s, the city’s growth made a new water supply critical, with drought periods bringing major water restrictions.

An intense battle followed. There were those who opposed a new water supply on the grounds of cost to ratepayers. Local landowners among others objected, arguing that the Malpas site was unsuitable,. that the water would be undrinkable, that the dam would quickly silt up. A strong group led by local engineer Zihni Buzo argued that the alternative Styx River site was far better.

The argument raged back and forth. Finally, a decision was made to build a dam at Malpas.

The new dam opened in 1968. Whatever the arguments for and against the dam, it meant that Armidale had a secure water supply. Now water was readily available to support the beautification of Armidale.

Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express Extra on 3 February 2016. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because they are not on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013, here for 2014, here for 2015, here for 2016.

History Revisited - the changing face of Armidale architecture

PRESERVATION: The practical effect of these various changes was the preservation of a remarkably high proportion of the varied  housing stock within the old city boundaries and especially the older houses. 

In part one of my story of Armidale’s transformation, I said that the city began with good bones, a creek and two hills.

The demolition of the old gaol and the construction of the Armidale Teachers’ College provided a building on one hill that was large enough to be monumental but did not dominate the town. This was potentially matched by the parklands on North Hill, although their development was slow and somewhat patchy.

The area now known as the Creeklands began as private land along the creek, but was also used for recreational purposes such as the first golf club, sometimes creating conflict. Over time, the land transferred to public ownership.

The potential use of the Creeklands as public space was always there. However, the Creeklands as we know them today did not exist in 1963.

Following the end of the Second World War, the Australian population grew rapidly. There were shortages of building materials, while governments struggled to provide services.

Armidale shared the shortages, but initially lagged the population growth. The great Wool Boom that began in 1947 increased rural incomes and consequently town business. However, limited government resources initially limited the growth of the city’s two tertiary colleges.

By the early 1950s, growth was underway. School numbers were increasing, as were student and staff numbers at both the Teachers’ College and University College. Building and construction were also growing.

This growth had a number of features that would be important to Armidale’s subsequent transformation.

Both the Teachers’ College and University College were residential. Pending the establishment and growth of the on-campus college system, students were placed in town houses. This protected some of the old larger homes that might otherwise have been demolished.

The residential requirement had another effect too. In the 1920s during an earlier period of rapid Sydney expansion, the member for Amidale David Drummond quipped that if God had invented the country and man the city, then the Devil had invented the suburbs and built flats.

There was some truth in that. Australian architecture in the 1950s was mediocre. In Sydney, the spreading flats were quite ugly. The requirement that students live on campus initially limited flat construction in Armidale.

As residential requirements were relaxed at the University, flats did begin to appear to house students and single staff, as well as other singles or couples drawn to Armidale by its growth. However, many students in particular went into smaller investor owned rented weatherboard homes in the main city area, effectively preserving them.

For their part. the new staff coming to Armidale after the War began living in rental accommodation before buying or building. Given the size of the city, there was not a lot of choice, nor were housing expectations as high as they are today. Some purchased existing cottages and later extended them, others rented the older, larger homes now being released by the University, still others built new homes on vacant land within the city or, more frequently, outside the city boundaries.

The practical effect of these various changes was the preservation of a remarkably high proportion of the varied if somewhat polyglot housing stock within the old city boundaries. This was central to the transformation now underway. 

Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express Extra on 27 January 2016. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because they are not on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013, here for 2014, here for 2015, here for 2016.

History Revisited - Tale of a blossoming city

TRANSFORMATION: After once being described as unprepossessing, Jim Belshaw says Armidale is now beautiful

Today Armidale is, rightly, seen as a beautiful city. Yet it’s not always been seen in that way.

Writing in 1963, a geographer at the University described Armidale’s aspect as unprepossessing. With rare exceptions, it was an urban hodge-podge, lacking buildings that were distinguished, elegant or stately. Sometimes its vistas were enhanced by colour changes in its surrounding rural landscapes and in the blossoms and foliage of exotic trees planted a thin profusion in parts of the town. At best this relief was temporary, confined to only a few weeks in Autumn and Spring.

If you lived in the city at the time you could see his viewpoint, although many locals bristled at his words.

The city had grown in fits and starts. Brick homes sat next to sometimes rundown wood cottages. Recurrent droughts and associated water restrictions were common..

Constantly short of money because of its limited rate base, the Council had been reluctant to spend on civic improvements. Indeed, there were moves to try to subdivide open space including Drummond Park and the proposed arboretum to increase population and rates.. Some roads were still un-tarred, although the position here was improving.

Twenty years later, the city was transformed. The apparently ugly duckling had become a swan. There would be losses in that transformation, but by happen stance, sheer luck and some good decisions, the result was a generally harmonious whole creating a unique character.

Armidale began with good bones, a creek and two hills. The visual possibilities of this landscape were always there. It just took time to realise.

The initial town straggled. In 1848, a grid pattern was imposed on this by surveyor John James Galloway. It was meant to run north-south, east west, but Galloway was forced to shift this slightly to accommodate existing buildings. Still, order had arrived.

The area covered by the grid pattern that would become the municipality was limited in size. A bit over 3.2 square miles, 2,060 acres, on the old measurement. And so it remained until, I think, 1961 when the city boundaries were finally extended.

As the city grew in the 1950s it extended into the adjoining Dumaresq Shire. There, freed from restrictions, new road and settlement patterns emerged. You can see this clearly today on the map.

Within the traditional city boundaries, a distinct pattern emerged with different types of architecture linked to time. location and money. Time because the architecture reflected the prevailing fashions. Location and money because that determined where you could afford to live, how much you could afford to spend on your dwelling.

Larger dwellings emerged near the main street and then further up South Hill. Generally on large blocks, these faced north, looking down the valley. Victorian Armidale, what I call the old city, had been born.

The survival of these dwellings would become critical in the transformation of Armidale. However, that is only part of the story of the birth of the Armidale swan. That story I will continue in my next column. 

Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express Extra on 20 January 2016. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because they are not on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013, here for 2014, here for 2015, here for 2016.

History Revisited - how Tamworth's paper became a leader

CHANGING TIMES: Jim Belshaw's column this week focuses the history of the Tamworth newspaper the Northern Daily Leader

I hope that you had a happy Christmas. May 2016 bring peace and happiness.

My last column summarized the life and career of Ernest Christian Sommerlad. This column continues the story of the Northern pressmen, they were nearly all men, who had such an influence on New England life over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Albert Edward Joseph was born at Gympie in Queensland on 9 November 1873. the third son of Henry and Rebecca Joseph. Following the death of both his parents, the twelve year old Albert was sent to Tamworth to live with his Uncle Solomon, the publisher of the bi-weekly Tamworth News.

While attending the  Tamworth Grammar School, Joseph decided to become a surveyor and joined the Survey Branch of the Land’s Department.. Committed to Tamworth and the North, he managed to stay working at the Tamworth Local Land Board Office for twenty years by the simple expedient of refusing every promotion!

Upon his Uncle’s death, control of the Tamworth News had passed to G A Codrington. Joseph may have been was working as a surveyor, but he retained his interest in newspapers. In 1908, he put together a deal that allowed him to buy the rival Tamworth Observer with effect from 1 January 1909.

Within two years, Joseph floated the Tamworth Newspaper Coy Ltd. This purchased both the News and Observer, with Joseph becoming Managing Director of the new company. In 1920, the Tamworth Daily Observer was renamed the Northern Daily Leader.

Writing later, Albert Joseph said: "There is substance in the; claim that the paper that can be delivered at the breakfast table will dominate the thought's of those amongst whom it circulates. At least it will tend to develop a distinctive community of opinions and ideals. and thus to become a focus of political and social thought in the life of the region.”

With these words as guidance, Victor Thompson as editor, Joseph as business leader, the Observer/Northern Daily Leader aggressively extended its reach following the railway lines. Within a few years, the paper became the dominant daily over a territory extending from Tenterfield on the border to Moree in the west, Murrrurundi in the south. As late as 1960, the Leader was outselling the Sydney Morning Herald in Armidale.

The tone of the paper was unapologetically Northern, campaigning on causes from self government to the university movement. It was also prepared to spend on things that could not be immediately justified in circulation terms, including literary pages. This made the paper a driving force, a focus for Northern activism and a clearing house for the ideas and enthusiasms of the North. .

Beyond the paper, Joseph played a key role in the formation of the Associated Northern Dailies, in the Country Press Association and in a variety of community activities. He was a foundation member of the Advisory Council created to guide the newly created New England University College.

By the time of his death in 1947, Joseph was seen as a key Northern figure whose life was marked not just by his professional career nor by his community activities, but by his kindness and personal contribution to so many.

“Of Joseph it can truly be said”, Profesor A E Bland later said, “that a man s virtue is measured, not by his extraordinary efforts, but by his everyday conduct.”

Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express Extra on 13 January 2016. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because they are not on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013, here for 2014, here for 2015, here for 2016.

Ancient stone artifacts discovered on Sulawesi

Interesting piece by Michael Greshko (Stone Tools Point to Mysterious Neighbor of Flores ‘Hobbit’) in National Geographic reporting on the latest archaeological work on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi.

Stone tools found there appear to predate the arrival of modern humans to the area by more than 60,000 years

The perplexing artifacts, announced on Wednesday in Nature, are most likely between 118,000 and 194,000 years old, though some may be even older. The keen-edged flakes of stone were excavated from an ancient river floodplain in southwest Sulawesi, near the present-day village of Talepu. Some even bear telltale signs of being hammered into shape.But today’s best evidence indicates that modern Homo sapiens didn’t arrive on neighboring islands until about 50,000 years ago, well after the mysterious toolmakers left their wares behind. The find further indicates that some earlier form of human was more successful at traversing the south Pacific’s island networks than previously believed.

................ 

Gerrit van den Bergh of the University of Wollongong in Australia, the study’s lead author, says that the tools likely were made by Homo erectus, an ancient hominin that lived on nearby islands beginning at least 1.5 million years ago. It’s also possible that the toolmakers are yet-undiscovered relatives of Homo floresiensis, a “hobbit” hominin found on the island of Flores, just south of Sulawesi, between 18,000 and 95,000 years ago, if not earlier.

This discovery is the latest of many that has been dramatically transforming our understanding of the more distant human past. In time, these discoveries are likely to affect our interpretation of Aboriginal prehistory.

Recent discoveries on Barrow Island now off the West Australian coast appear to have pushed the confirmed date for Aboriginal occupation of Australia to between 50,000 and 53,000 years ago. The issue then becomes how the Aborigines fitted into a pattern of human dispersal that was far more complex than that realised even a decade ago.

Postscript

I wrote a slightly longer muse piece on my personal blog. The Sulawesi discoveries: where does Australian prehistory fit? John Hawks had a useful perspective piece, Somebody was on Sulawesi before 118,000 years ago, while University of New England's Dr Mark Moore who analysed the stone tools recovered from the excavation, reports that the tools were finely crafted with a high degree of skill involved.