Short Stories of the Blackmores, Suttors, Kinlesides, Watsons, Farrs, Gordons, Blacks and others.
This south western Litchfield Shire locality adjacent to the Blackmore River takes its name from the River which was named by G W Goyder during the 1869 Survey of Port Darwin and Environs after Edwin G Blackmore who was the Clerk of the SA Legislative Council and Clerk of the Federal Parliament. Blackmore served in … Continue reading Blackmore River, Litchfield, NT
Pozieres: The Anzac Story In 1916, one million men fought in the first battle of the Somme. Victory hinged on their ability to capture a small village called Pozières. After five attempts to seize it, the British called in the Anzacs to complete this seemingly impossible task. Just after midnight on the 22nd/23rd July 1916, … Continue reading Lewis Gordon Blackmore – Gallipoli and Pozieres
From the Reminiscences of Robert McGregor "Greg" Watson of "Gregory Downs" A man called Tom Coffey shipped in some stores to Burketown by boat to start another pub. The stores were accompanied by his wife whilst Tom came overland with the horses from Normanton. When Coffey arrived, some months later, he found a most unfavourable … Continue reading The Coffey Affair in Burketown
New Pioneers in a New Frontier - The Brigalow In 1976 I moved to Moura, Central Queensland to work with local Stock & Station Agent, Lloyd Taylor & Co. Not many years before in the 1960’s a whole new frontier was opened up to new settlers with the Brigalow Development Scheme. If you were lucky … Continue reading Brigalow Settler, Moura
This song of John Williamson brings back memories of the Mt Isa based pilots for the North Australian Pastoral Company (NAPCo) during the peak of the BTEC Scheme in the 1970's. Mt Isa at Sundown In 1973 the Federal Labor Government had cut existing subsidies on far-western routes for mail services and air freight. The … Continue reading Why They Called Him “Sundown”
The Blackmores and Gairdners and Gordons go back to the 1500's and then some of the Gordons back to John 1st Lord Drummond in the 1400's and much more definitely to John 1st Lord Drummond , whose grand daughter Lady Margaret Stuart was the daughter of James IV Scotland and Lady Margaret Drummond. Lady Margaret … Continue reading The Gordons of Beldorney Castle, Scotland
A review of the book by Lew Blackmore on building the quarter scale model of the Bentley BR2 as was fitted to the Sopwith Snipe aircraft. “In 1982, Australian Lew Blackmore entered his fully functional, one quarter scale model of the Bentley BR2 rotary engine in the British Model Engineer Exhibition, winning the Duke of … Continue reading Lew Blackmore & the Bentley BR2 Rotary Aero Engine
In 1882 the Watson’s moved the goods out of their store at Burketown to Gregory Downs to the present site of the Hotel and started a pub and store. This was the spot that they had at first settled and built on when they arrived on the Gregory River but they found that travellers became … Continue reading The Gregory Hotel
One of the few flowing rivers in Australia, the Gregory River rises from underground limestone springs close to the Northern Territory border, 50 kilometres east of Camooweal and eventually joins the Nicholson River to flow into the Gulf of Carpentaria near Burketown. With a catchment area of some 12,690 square kilometres the mean flow rate … Continue reading The Gregory River
In 1973 and I obtained my Private Pilot’s Licence at the Rockhampton Aero Club and then in May 1973 purchased at a 1957 model, straight tail, Cessna 172 VH-RDP from George Campbell at Mudgee in NSW, for $4,300. George Cambell was a renowned ex WW2 flight instructor and had also given flying lessons to my … Continue reading VH-RDP, 1957 Cessna straight tail 172
Struth it's Blackmores 