Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
More than 16 months after leaving Abu Dhabi, the experimental solar-powered monoplane Solar Impulse 2 completed its first-of-a-kind circumnavigation of Earth by returning to the capital city of the United Arab Emirates. The innovative aircraft had been one of two built as part of a privately financed aviation project in Switzerland. The Swiss citizens leading this... Continue Reading →
In New Zealand, Bean Rock Lighthouse in Auckland’s Waitematā Harbour made its debut when keeper Hugh Brown lit a kerosene lamp in the new structure. (Brown served as the lighthouse’s keeper until retiring in 1890.) Bean Rock Lighthouse had been built in response to ever-increasing maritime traffic in this area of New Zealand; one of... Continue Reading →
After several years of being a popular fixture of the local transportation scene, a ginger-and-brown dog named Paddy passed away in New Zealand’s capital city of Wellington. “Friend of Sailors and Taxi Drivers,” proclaimed one of the headlines announcing his death in the next day’s edition of the Christchurch-based Press newspaper. Widely known as Paddy... Continue Reading →
The full-rigged sailing ship Netherby, with 413 passengers and 49 crew members on board, ran aground and sank off an island coast in turbulent Australian waters. The shipwreck resulted in ambitious rescue efforts involving several means of transportation. Netherby, a 944-ton vessel of the Black Ball Line, had been built in the British city of... Continue Reading →
The Story Bridge in the state of Queensland in northeastern Australia made its public debut. The 2,549-foot-long structure, spanning the Brisbane River and connecting the northern suburbs of Brisbane with the city’s southern suburbs, is the longest cantilever bridge in Australia. At the time of its grand opening, the Story Bridge – measuring 79 feet... Continue Reading →
On a Sunday evening in South Australia, a new lighthouse made its formal debut at Cape du Couedic on Kangaroo Island. It had taken approximately three years to build the 82-foot-tall Cape du Couedic Lighthouse. G.G. Duthie was named the head keeper for the new lighthouse, with G.E. Luckett and G. Marmant appointed to assist... Continue Reading →
Anders Svedlund became the first person to cross the Indian Ocean in a rowing boat when he arrived at a beach near the city of Diego-Suarez (now Antsiranana) in northern Madagascar. Svedlund, who had been born in Sweden but ultimately moved to New Zealand, completed his pioneering journey 64 days after setting off from Western... Continue Reading →
Australia’s Tarrawingee Tramway made its formal debut. The Tarrawingee Tramway covered approximately 40 miles between the city of Broken Hill and the town of Tarrawingee in the far western region of the colony (now state) of New South Wales. The primary reason for building the tramway was to facilitate the shipment of high-grade limestone mined at... Continue Reading →
On Australia’s east coast, a foundation stone was laid for a new bridge that would be built across the Georges River in the vicinity of southern Sydney. The bridge, which had been long requested by area residents, was planned as a link between Sydney’s suburbs of Blakehurst and Sylvania. Approximately 2,000 people were on hand... Continue Reading →
Aviation pioneer John Robertson Duigan was born in the town of Terang in the colony (now state) of Victoria in southeast Australia. In 1902, he went to England and enrolled in the City and Guilds of London Technical College in Finsbury. Duigan earned a certificate in electrical engineering from the college in 1904, and the... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 