Burke & Wills & Camels

I recently set up a display to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Burke & Wills Victorian Exploring Expedition, probably the best known expedition in Australian history. Their story has been told in books, films, song, folklore, melodrama, and re-enactments.

On 20th August 1860, in an attempt to be the first party to cross the continent, Burke & Wills set out from Melbourne in a large well equipped expedition. While successfully reaching the Gulf of Carpentaria, Burke, Wills and Gray all died on the return journey.

The image of Burke and Wills perishing near the Dig Tree beside the Cooper Creek, is central to the Australian narrative (and who thought it would be linked to the Federal Election).

The Royal Society of Victoria organised the Expedition, and this year have organised a range of commemorative programs and activities to celebrate the 150th.

The Wimmera’s link to this famous expedition is that some of the remaining camels and camels used on the Relief Expeditions were retired to the Longerenong pastoral run, Charles Wilson was a member of the Royal Society, and offered to have the camels on his property in a drier climate rather than suffering in Melbourne’s damp conditions.

No humans allowed

The film District 9 plunges us into a world where the aliens have landed... only to be exiled to a slum on the fringes of Johannesburg. Now, one lone human discovers the mysterious secret of the extraterrestrial weapon technology. Hunted and hounded through the bizarre back alleys of an alien shantytown, he will discover what it means to be the ultimate outsider on your own planet.


Set in 2010, a weapons research corporation - Multi-National United is contracted to forcibly evict the alien population, placing Wikus van der Merwe (Sharlto Copley) in charge of the operation. Told as snippets of interview footage (mock-umentary style), the story which led to the operation is told - in 1982, a massive spaceship appeared over Johannesburg and hovered there. When entry was forcibly gained it was found to contain a bedraggled alien population, nicknamed 'The Prawns', who were promptly segregrated in a compound outside the city. Now 28 years later, the refugee camp where the aliens were located has deteriorated into a militarised slum ghetto named District 9, where they are confined and exploited in squalor.

This film takes the usual alien invasion theme and turns it on its head and makes it more believeable/realistic. Directed by Neill Blomkamp & produced by Peter Jackson, it couldn't have been made without the CGI technology when it comes to the the fast-paced action scenes. Sharlto Copley does a great job in the lead role.

"Wash me"

I was going to take the car to the car-wash later, but now I might not.

It’s easy to let your car go a while without having it washed, and some artists make it even easier, by creating beautiful works of art using only a brush and the dust coating your neglected vehicle. Some of this artwork is done on the fly by inspired art students, whereas some artists have become well known for their prowess with the dust medium.

More photos at the WebUrbanist site

Abandoned underground

This is one of my DVDs, Cities of the underworld peels away the layers of time to expose the incredible pasts lurking beneath cities such as Paris, New York, Rome and Shanghai. From long-submerged networks that once served crucial functions, eerie catacombs, ancient aqueducts to clandestine hideouts and underground societies. These episodes explore secret chambers and forbidden passages beneath city streets, unlocking mysteries of the past and discovering forgotten relics.
With each step below street level you travel back decades, even centuries, into the fascinating past of the world's great cities.
This History Channel series examines these mysterious realms, from the technological feats of their construction and the myths and lore that have cloaked these subterranean marvels for centuries. The first series set has 13 episodes on four discs (running for over 600 minutes): Scotland's Sin City, Hitler's Underground Lair, Rome's Hidden Empire, Catacombs of Death, City of Caves, New York, London's Lost Cities, Beneath Vesuvius, Freemason Underground, Dracula's Underground, Secret Pagan Underground, Underground Bootleggers, and Rome: the Rise.
Using computer animation to describe the layouts often superimposed on the current buildings assists the narration and gives you a vision of what it did look like.
Presenter Eric Geller is a bit over enthusiastic, and the bratwurst sausage episode was a bit crass, Don Wildman is better.

It mentions a few of the urban explorers who investigate the underworld - the Berliner Undergrounders, "Cataphiles" illegally tour the Paris catacombs (the series of underground tunnels that were formerly a network of stone mines).
The DVDs also helped place books I’d read – Vlad’s castle and chapel in The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova, Hitler’s architectural dream in Fatherland by Robert Harris, and the Vesuvius eruption in Pompeii by Robert Harris. Oh, and of course, Dan Brown’s Lost Symbol. Even though these books are all fiction, what they are describing is based on fact.

Left in Antarctica

Antarctica – this huge, frozen continent is bitterly cold, inhospitable as Mars and as far from civilization as any place on the planet. Just getting there has been a struggle; staying there has been near impossible. bear mute testimony to mankind’s perseverance in mastering what is literally the last place on Earth. Here are some tangible relics of our presence.


Shackleton’s Hut, UK, Abandoned 1909
Sir Ernest Shackleton participated in a number of Antarctic exploration expeditions in the first two decades of the 20th century, including the 1907-09 ‘Nimrod’ Expedition. Arriving at McMurdo Sound, Shackleton selected a landing site about 20 miles away from Hut Point (established by rival explorer Robert Falcon Scott during the 1901-04 Discovery Expedition).

Though Shackleton pushed to within 97 miles of the South Pole, setting a record, he and his party were forced to turn back. When the expedition departed Antarctica in March of 1909, he left the fully stocked, pre-fab hut behind – where it still stands, not much the worse for wear, to this day

Video tour of Shackleton’s hut at Cape Royds

Scott’s Hut, UK, Abandoned 1913

The heroic yet ultimately doomed Terra Nova Expedition led by Robert Falcon Scott in 1911 was based at Hut Point, the original base set up by Scott when he first arrived in Antarctica. Though Scott and his 4 companions reached the South Pole on January 17th, 1912, to their great disappointment they found that Roald Amundsen of Norway had beat them by nearly a full month.

As history records, Scott and his team (Wilson, Oates, Bowers and Evans) did not survive the return from the Pole but their hut on Ross Island remains, preserved by frigid cold and low humidity.

Mawson Station, Australia, 1914

The 1911-14 Australian Antarctic Expedition (AAE) led by Sir Douglas Mawson set a number ofscientific goals including making the first flight over Antarctic territory. Unfortunately Mawson’s flying plans were scuttled when the Vickers Monoplane suffered damage to its wings in transit and was used, wingless, as an air tractor.

Mawson Station was abandoned in 1914 though Mawson returned for short visits in 1929 and 1931. Remains of the Vickers aircraft’s metal frame were discovered on January 2nd, 2010, by a team from the Mawson’s Huts Foundation. The original huts at Mawson’s base at Cape Denison can be seen below, nearly subsumed by decades of snow and ice.

Leningradskaya Base, Soviet Union, Abandoned 1991

The Soviet research station “Leningradskaya” located in Oates Land, was set up in 1971 and abandoned in 1991 in the wake of the fall of communism and the accompanying fiscal crisis that beset the country. The remnants of the station sits at the edge of 100-ft high stone cliff looking out to the desolate Oates Coast of Antarctica.

More abandoned bases at WebUrbanist.