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Father Of The Australian Wheat Industry - Blog Part 14

So I guess we have all heard of the expression, "riding on the sheep's back", when it comes to describing Australia's economy and prosperity. Wool and gold have always been seen as the 2 main income earners for our nation but there is another and its significance cannot be understated. It is of course wheat. More foods are made with wheat the world over than with any other cereal grain. A family of four could live ten years off the bread produced by one acre of wheat. Australia's first wheat was grown at the Botanic Gardens in Sydney. The first farmer of wheat was a convict by the name of James Ruse. Soon others started growing wheat too. Wheat was first shipped to England in 1883. From pasta to bread to biscuits to everything else made with flour, wheat is it and there was one person in Australia whose contribution to the development of wheat growing earned him his place on the Two Dollars banknote.

William James Farrer was born in England in 1845 and was a notable agronomist and plant breeder. He emigrated to Australia in 1870 due to his health as he suffered from tuberculosis and the drier climate was far more agreeable to his well being.  He was a studious man and acted as a regional tutor around New South Wales. He later turned his hand to surveying and after qualifying he worked for the Department of Lands in the wheat growing districts for 11 years.  At one point he tried to begin a vineyard but it failed due to the poor soils where it was located so he turned his attentions towards bettering the cultivation of wheat. The one goal that he had set himself was to produce a better loaf of bread than that which was available at the time.

After some initial trials he recognised that wheat leaf rust disease was affecting both the yield and the quality of the crops and applying his scientific knowledge to the task he started to develop hybrids using cross pollination to develop a rust immune strain.  These experiments continued for over 20 years and all his work was careful recorded in notebooks . Along the way he created strains with names such as "Professor Blount's Hybrid No.38, Gypsum", Purple Straw, Etawah and Canadian Fife.Developing a rust resistant, high yielding strain was the his main aim and in 1900 he was rewarded for all the years of hard work with the success of a strain that was to be called, "The Federation Strain".   It was released for general use around the country in 1903  and this in turn saw a 3 fold increase in crop yields over the next 20 years. It also guaranteed Australia's future as a major wheat exporter.
 
Sadly Farrer himself never got to see the fruits of his labors as he died from a massive heart attack in 1906 but his legacy lived on. The Farrer Memorial Trust which provides scholarships for agricultural studies was established in his memory in 1911. The trust also began awarding medals for contributions to agricultural sciences in 1936 and the very first recipient of this was the then Prime Minister of Australia, Joseph Lyons.

Today, wheat is Australia's most important grain crop. Over the five year period to 1995, wheat exports averaged about $2.3 billion. By world standards, Australia is a relatively small producer of wheat, accounting for only 3% of annual world production. However, about 80% of our wheat is exported. This means that Australia contributes between and 8 and 15% of world trade, making it the fourth largest exporter after the United States, Canada and the European Union.

We have a great deal to thank James Farrer for and this goes all the way to that slice of toast for your Vegemite in the morning.

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A Man Called Smithy  - Blog Part 13

I have decided to cover in this months blog a gentleman who's vision and determination changed the face of our nation and he became one of Australia's best loved and best known cultural heroes. A man who seemingly knew no fear and conquered some of the toughest and most dangerous aviation routes that had yet to be achieved in his time. In the modern era of aviation it is an everyday event to fly across the Pacific and the Tasman but in his time it was a massive achievement given the state of the aeronautical industry of the day and the instrumentation then available.

Sir Charles Edward Kingsford Smith is better known in Australian colloquial terms simply as "Smithy".   True to the nature of Australians shortening peoples names down to the bear essentials. He was born on the 9th of February 1897 which was just a few weeks after the birth of Sir William Samuel Stephenson a Canadian soldier who in W.W.II had the codename, Intrepid. He was the  inspiration for James Bond.  Smithy was the youngest of seven children born to William Charles Smith, a bank manager, and Catherine Mary Kingsford. The family lived abroad in Vancouver from 1903 until 1906 when they returned to Australia. Perhaps it was the overseas travel at such the young age of 16 that inspired Smithy to conquer the world in the manner he did. In a fascinating turn of events Smithy was swimming at Bondi Beach just after New Years Day in 1907 when he got into serious difficulties and was rescued by a group of people who just a few weeks later would form the first official surf life saving group in Australia at Bondi beach.

Smithy's education comprised of two schools in Sydney the first being St. Andrews Cathedral School and the second, Sydney Technical College where he studied electrical engineering.  On the completion of this he managed to gain an engineering apprenticeship with C.S.R. (Colonial Sugar Refining Company).

At the outbreak of World War One he, like many other young men of his day, enlisted for the armed services and was sent to Gallipoli where he served as a motorcycle dispatch rider and then later transferring to the Royal Flying Corp where in 1917 he earned his wings and as they say, the rest is history.  He saw considerable action until his aircraft was shot down resulting in a serious injury to his foot requiring partial amputation. After a period of convalescence and revivification he was promoted to the rank of Captain and became a flight instructor. By this time the war was practically over and when the armed forces began demobilising he and a friend one Cyril Maddocks from Tasmania began a flight joy ride company operating around England.  A short period followed this which saw him barnstorming in the United States until his return to Australian shores in 1921. The practice of barnstorming proved popular also in Australia and was a good earner for him both monetarily and reputation wise. Some of his flights included occasional mail runs and he eventually applied for his commercial pilots licence in mid 1921. Shortly after he was hand picked by Norman Brearley to become a pilot for his newly formed West Australian Airways and by doing so became one of Australia's first airline pilots.

Smithy was now in a position to start to formulate plans for bigger and more adventurous projects. He began searching for an appropriate aircraft to undertake his first major planned expedition which was to cross the Pacific, traversing from California to Queensland.  He found the aircraft he was looking for in a Fokker F.VII/3m which was previously owned by a polar explorer named Sir Hubert Wilkins and purchased it.  The aircraft was named Southern Cross.

By 1928 He had selected a crew of  3 others to assist on the long journey and these people were Charles Ulm as co-pilot and as radio operator, navigator and engineer, Captain Harry Lyon and James Warner who were both Americans.  The flight was staged in 3 sections beginning on 28th May with the first leg of 2,400 miles from Oakland California to Hawaii, completed in 27 hours and 25 minutes. The second and longest leg was from there to Suva in Fiji, a distance of 3,100 miles, completed in 34 hours and 30 minutes despite encountering a severe electrical storm. From Fiji the last leg to Brisbane was completed in 20 hours. All in all they flew almost 7,400 miles and wrote themselves in the history books in doing so.  A crowd of 25,000 were waiting for them at Eagle Farm airport in Brisbane when they landed to a heroes welcome.

Inspired by the success of the flight Smithy and Charles Ulm took off in August of the same year to make the first non-stop flight across Australia from Melbourne to Perth. At the end of this flight they registered themselves as "Australian National Airways". The next undertaking was an attempt at a Trans Tasman crossing as they hoped that by doing so they would secure a mail contract from the Australian Government. Only one attempt had been made previously at flying this route and the aviators of that attempt, John Moncrieff and George Hood, vanished without trace. They departed Richmond, New South wales on 10th September and made amazing time despite storms and poor weather conditions to land near Cook Strait some 14 hours later to a tumultuous welcome by an estimated 30,000 people.The return to Sydney was also hampered with atrocious weather and the flight took 9 hours longer than the outbound leg at 23 hours. When they landed they were virtually running on fumes with only 10 minutes flying time left.

Many other record breaking flights followed including solo runs between Australia and England and also the first eastward flight from Australia to America across the Pacific Ocean. He was married in 1930 to Mary Powell and together they had a son, Charles. His final flight was in a Lockheed Altair named Lady Southern Cross en route between India and Singapore during an attempt to break the England to Australia speed record. Smithy and co-pilot Tommy Pethybridge disappeared over the Andaman Sea in the early morning of the 8th November 1935. Wreckage found by fisherman some 18 months later was eventually confirmed by Boeing to be a part of the undercarriage from his aircraft. It is believed that the aircraft lies some 3 kms off the shore of southern Burma.

Smithy had been made a Knight of the Realm in 1932 and was also an honorary Air Commodore of the Royal Australian Airforce.  Sydney airport, streets, electoral divisions and schools have been named in honour of him and his aircraft, even Qantas and KLM have given aircraft his name.

His place on our 20 dollars banknote is well deserved and his face serves as a reminder of gallantry, bravery and intrepidity.

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The Father Of Federation - Henry Parkes  - Blog Part 12
 

So here in this next profile of people whose faces appear on our Australian banknotes and he is a pretty interesting man indeed. He is better known as ,"The Father of Federation" and his name is Sir Henry Parkes.  He is commemorated on our Five Dollar polymer note and in keeping with his Father Christmas type looks he truly gave our country one of its greatest gifts, political stability through Federation of our disparate States.  This in turn enabled Australia to become one nation and to move forward in to the 20th century as a unified entity.

He was born in Warwickshire , England in 1815, the youngest of seven children. He had an informal education and served an apprenticeship as a bone and ivory turner. At the age of 21 he married a local butchers daughter Clarinda. He also attended Thomas Attwood's Political Union at the age of 17 which gave him a deep seated interest in things political.  at the age of 23 after the business were he was working failed he travelled to London in the hope of better prospects but this to was doomed to failure and after the pawning of most of his trade and personal belongings, he and Clarissa applied to become bounty migrants in New South Wales.  They departed Gravesend on the Strathfieldsaye in March of 1839, Australia bound.  Their first child was born 2 days short of landfall.

Parkes worked in a variety of jobs until he managed to save enough money to buy back the tools of his trade.  Having located suitable premises in Hunter Street Sydney he set out as a trader in turned ivory goods and an importer of fancy goods from abroad. The business did so well at first that he even managed to expand his small empire to include 2 other stores in Geelong and Maitland.  Life was never going to be easy for him and by 1850 these two additional stores had failed financially and he was left to tend his Sydney based business. He was however in serious financial difficulties at this point.

His interests in politics and his acquired talents as a writer, despite the lack of formal education, found him mixing with most of the colony's radical patriots. Issues of land reform and franchise extensions abounded. He joined a group known as the Constitutional Association where he would make the first of a great many public speeches.  He advocated a course for the people of Australia which would see them, "growing in enlightenment" and this in itself would avoid the excesses of Paris and Frankfurt. He railed against the conservative aristocrats of the day and this in turn led him towards the liberal movement which in itself would act as a foil against the old colonial conservatives.

Having been a writer for various publication throughout the colonies he eventually found enough support for his ideas to leave his small business and set up the Empire newspaper as both editor and owner. It was to be the printed word for the radical and liberal thinking minds of the day.  The paper also afforded him a steady income and this allowed him to spend more time actively building the organisational structure of the Constitution Committee.  Through this medium he set about seeking a place in the Legislative Council. His first attempt at getting voted onto the council failed but he did manage to secure a local seat and this in turn was his spring board for being accepted into the Chamber of Commerce. The inner most echelons of the Liberal party had given him the nod and Parkes was on his way to great things.

A new Constitution was put in place in 1856 and at the first Legislative Assembly formed under its auspices, the Liberals carried all four seats in the Sydney City constituency and Parkes had one of them. This was short lived joy for Parkes as the Empire newspaper had run into severe financial difficulties and Parkes was forced not only to shut the paper down but to stand down from his place in the Assembly due to insolvency. The next few years saw him struggling onwards with the support of family and friends until in mid 1859 he finally regained a seat representing East Sydney.

In 1857 he accepted a salaried position as a government lecturer on emigration in England for 1000 pounds a year. Leaving his wife and children in poverty on their rented farm he sailed off, not to return until 6 years later in 1863 by which time he was looking to renew his original business in such a way as to provide for his family for the rest of their lives. This to was a short lived dream as by 1870 he was bankrupt again and although he had managed to get back into local politics and hold the seat of Kiama he was forced to relinquish it due to the bankruptcy.  He consistently continued to campaign for change whether in or out of the Legislature.The Parkes 1866 Public Schools Act was a good example of this and was his first contribution to education reform.

He survived the next few years with the help of loans from friends and working as a journalist. In 1872 he ran for the seat of Mudgee. In the general elections he managed to assist in ousting the Martin-Robertson coalition ministry and after some extremely difficult negotiations he was announced for the first time as Premier. His enthusiasm and large surplus budget saw him vigorously expanding a public works program and also negotiating an open trade policy between Victoria and New South Wales on the border. In 1878 the opposition leader Robertson resigned and a collection of his most avid supporters asked Parkes to become their leader. Parkes appointed the resigned Robertson to the Upper House as Vice President of the Executive Council.  Extraordinary events in extraordinary times.  He instigated the Licensing Act and the Public Instruction Act which basically gave equal opportunities for education.

In 1881 Parkes travelled abroad where he was hailed as the most influential person in Australian politics.  he spent 6 weeks in America where despite the fact he did little to change their way of thinking or policy he was very well treated and highly respected.  His travels also took him to England, Belgium and Germany where he met heads of state, royalty, politicians, guild halls and companies. All the while expounding the virtues of Australia and selling our country as one of prosperity, change and  a good trading partner.  He was honoured on his return with civic banquets in both Melbourne and Sydney.

In 1887 Parkes formed his fourth ministry and won a hands down victory.  His new ministry was in the main dedicated to the goals of free trade between states. His long suffering wife Clarida died in 1888 and he remarried again the following year which invoked a great deal of public censure. His main goals continued to be free trade but he was also starting to gain steam in a campaign that eventually resulted in the Federation Conference and the Australasian Federal Convention of 1890-91.  In 1889 he announced that he was ready to go forward to promote true Federation.  It was at this point that he delivered his most famous speech at Tenterfield in New South Wales. In this speech he called for a federal convention to bring about 'a great national Government for all Australia'.  Parkes by then had been appointed K.C.M.G. in 1877 and later G.C.M.G. in 1888.

In the 1895 elections he tried unsuccessfully to get the Federal Party off the ground as it was seen to be a fad at the time. He tried to no avail to win several other seats and when this failed he found that his political career was at an end.   He was at this time suffering quite poor health as the result of a traffic accident in 1890 and his second wife had died of cancer during the elections campaign for King. Even in retirement he continued to rally for Federation on many fronts. He remarried again in the same year and then in the following year on 27 April 1896 died suddenly at his home Kenilworth, Annandale of heart failure after a bout of pneumonia. He was 81 years of age. He was survived by his third wife and by five daughters and a son of the twelve children of his first marriage,and by four sons and a daughter from the second.

His legacy was immense and issues of Federation aside he was the author of no fewer than half a dozen books of poetry and prose. The endless time spent working on constitutional proprieties, educational reform and racial equality deemed him to be a person worthy of huge respect. His face on the Five Dollar banknote does not seem so much in the light of his achievements. None the less there are not so many places available on our currency and his is one that is well earned.

The township of Parkes in New South Wales was founded in 1853 as the settlement of Currajong due to the large number of kurrajong trees in the area. In 1873 it was renamed Parkes after Henry Parkes for his instrumental role in making Australia becoming a unified nation.

From Wikipedia:

His literary works:

Parkes's literary work includes six volumes of verse, Stolen Moments (1842), Murmurs of the Stream (1857), Studies in Rhyme (1870), The Beauteous Terrorist and Other Poems (1885), Fragmentary Thoughts (1889), Sonnets and Other Verses (1895). It has been the general practice to laugh at Parkes's poetic efforts, and it is true that his work could sometimes be almost unbelievably bad. Yet though he had no real claims to be a poet he wrote some weak, sincere verse which has occasionally been included in Australian anthologies. His prose work includes Australian Views of England (1869), and his autobiographical Fifty Years in the Making of Australian History (1892), extremely interesting in places but necessarily giving a partial view of his own work. A collection of his Speeches on Various Occasions, delivered between 1848 and 1874, was published in 1876, and another collection dealing mostly with federation appeared in 1890 under the title of The Federal Government of Australasia. In 1896, shortly after his death, An Emigrant's Home Letters, a small collection of Parkes's letters to his family in England between 1838 and 1843, was published at Sydney, edited by his daughter, Annie T. Parkes.

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 The Father Of Blitzkrieg - John Monash  - Blog Part 11

blitz·krieg  (blĭts'krēg')

n. A swift, sudden military offensive, usually by combined air and mobile land forces. war conducted with great speed and force; specifically : a violent surprise offensive by massed air forces and mechanized ground forces in close coordination.
German : Blitz , lightning  (from Middle High German blitze , from bliczen , to flash , from Old High German blekkazzen; see  in Indo-European roots + Krieg , war  (from Middle High German kriec , from Old High German krēg , stubbornness .

The man on our One Hundred Dollar note not only has a very fine handlebar moustache he is also one of Australia’s greatest military and humanitarian figureheads.  His name is General Sir John Monash and the story of his life is certainly worth recounting on these pages. He is truly an icon of Australia and his position on the largest currency note of Australia is well deserved as he was literally a giant of a man.

John Monash was born in Melbourne in 1865. His parents were migrants with German Polish Jewish origins.   They had migrated to Australia just two years prior to his birth. As his well educated parents were fluent in German, John also learnt from them and was wholly  fluent in German both written and spoken.  This would prove to be a huge advantage in the many theatres of war he would later find himself

His father ran a small general store in the Riverina township of Jerilderie.  Monash was recounted as saying that he actually met Ned Kelly when Kelly’s gang raided  the store one day in 1879.  Two legends of Australia meet and both are destined to become famous or in the case of Kelly, infamous. Kelly would be hung for his bush ranging activities the following year at the Old Melbourne Gaol .

Teachers and family noted that the young Monash had a very good intellect and his family was advised that they should return to the city so that John could foster his true abilities.  They moved to Melbourne shortly after. He attended Scotch College where he completed his secondary schooling before going on to Melbourne University where attained a degree in Civil Engineering.  A short time later in 1887 he made his first step toward a military career by joining the Australian Citizen Force.

On the outbreak of the First World War he was chosen to command the 3rd Division of the Australian Imperial Force and was then promptly dispatched in  1914 to Gallipoli where he noted with dismay the needless death of thousands of good men due to poor military planning a general lack of concern by military commanders for their front line troops. He was very much a humanist where his troops were concerned, he had a dislike of military traditions and he had an uncanny ability to read a battlefield that most of his European contemporaries lacked.  He had become already well known for his outspoken views on putting human life ahead of that of military machinery. Other commanders were prepared to sacrifice men in order to preserve the equipment but not Monash. An ability to make single handed decisions and to plan effectively became his hallmarks.  The Gallipoli campaign saw him promoted to the rank of Brigadier General. At the completion of the disastrous battle against the Ottoman army he was posted to the Western Front where he served in multiple actions and developed the offensive known as Blitzkrieg (Lightening attack).  The “Blitzkrieg” template was so effective that Hitler adopted similar ruthless planning for his own offensives in World War Two.

Monash planned the highly successful Battle of Le Hamel where he led his troops with great courage and skill.  He flew in the face of military and strategic convention by putting heavy equipment at the front of the battle with the troops where it risked falling into enemy hands. He underpinned this with the use of aerial drops for resupply and advancing artillery in the rear.

The battle took place on July 4th 1918 and with Australian and American troops leading the charge under his command. It was a decisive victory for within 93 minutes they had killed more than 2,000 enemy troops and a managed to capture a further 1600. All together the Australians lost 1,300 men and the Americans 176 but the stalemate that had been in place for the previous 4 years and had kept the front from advancing had been broken. Troops recounted that one of the truly remarkable things about this battle was not the way it was conducted but the fact that during the midst of the battle, Monash had arranged delivery of hot meals to those men serving on the front line. A world first in any theatre of war.

One of the most historic moments of his military career was to follow when George V knighted him in the field after the capture of Mont St. Quentin and Peronne.  He was the first person to be made a Knight of the Realm by a British Monarch, in the field,  for over 200 years.  Monash was so brilliant as a militarist that he has been listed in the lofty company of Napoleon, Erwin Rommel and Tomoyuki Yamashita as one of the finest military planners in history.

Significant quotes by other relating to Monash were:

Georges Clemenceau -  French Prime Minister -

 "When the Australians came to France, the French people expected a great deal of you. We knew you would fight a real fight, but we did not know that from the beginning you would astonish the whole continent."

British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery -

"I would name Sir John Monash as the best general on the western front in Europe".

Some of Monash’s most famous quotes were:

“Feed the troops on victory”

“No man is a hero in his own country”

" It was all over on ninety-three minutes - the perfection of teamwork"

He returned to Australia on Boxing Day in 1919 to a hero’s welcome. His first position back home was to be in charge of troop repatriation where he further endeared himself to his men and the larger community. Other posts that he held where Head of the State Electricity Commission of Victoria, Chancellor of Melbourne University and President of the Rotary Club.  The observation of ANZAC Day as an annual event was one thing of which he was a principal organiser.

He died on the 8th of  October 1931 at which time his full title was General Sir John Monash GCMB, KCB, VD.  He was buried with a full state funeral attended by more than 250,000 people at Brighton cemetery.

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Pre-Decimal Currency in Australia - Blog Part 10

Did you ever wonder why at school they taught us the 1-12x tables? I often used to wonder about this as I thought that 1-10x tables were enough or if you were going to learn up to the 12x table then why not 13 of higher as well.  I believe that I know now the answer to this rationale. It lies in the fact that the old pre-decimal currency that Australia used was based around a system of 12 on the lower denominations of coins.  Just how did the old Pounds, Shillings and Pence work is a question that I have heard many times?  It was in fact quite a complicated system so I guess we are lucky to be now using decimal currency. I will attempt to answer it here. ‘Attempt’,  being the operative word.

Firstly, a little history on the origins of money usage of the pre-decimal currency in emerging Australia.

Australian colonisation first began in 1788 with the arrival of the First Fleet made up of 11 ships, 1487 people of which 759 were the first group of convicts to be transported down under. Originally it was thought that the colony could survive on payments made by way of kind for food and supplies in return for labour. The initial period however turned out to be greatly more difficult due to the harsh climate and crop failures. Eventually traders began to bring supplies from other places but the people of the newly founded colonies had no money that was recognised with which to purchase the goods.

On the request of Governor Phillip the British government sent a ship to the colonies with what is believed to be 4500 Spanish dollar coins that he could distribute for use as a currency base. Unfortunately the number of coins sent was insufficient to meet the trading needs of the people and so the widely used practice of cutting the available coins into smaller pieces was adopted. The coins were cut firstly into 4 sections and then some of those quarters were again cut in half to produce approximate eighths.  Hence we have the term from the days of the pirates and the Spanish Main, “Pieces of Eight”.   THE Spanish had long since been active in the Americas and hence the one eighth sections were known there as “bits” and 2 bits made a “quarter”. These terms are still used in America today although they now refer to American dollars with the quarter equal to 25 cents.  The coins were also cut into thirds with a one third piece being worth six pence and a two thirds piece being worth one shilling.   This method of dissecting the coins worked well initially but eventually the coinage or segments of it ran out.  Due to trading with ships from overseas for supplies the colonies were infiltrated slowly with foreign coinage. The additional coinage was welcomed and each type  was allocated an approximate  British pounds sterling value.  The downside of having so many varied coins and values, depending on which country the coin was from and its denomination, led in turn to a great deal of confusion and imbalance in the financial system.

After Governor Lachlan Macquarie took up the reins he was sent a shipment from England in 1812 of some additional 40000 additional Spanish dollars. His mandate was to ensure that the coins remained in Australia.  Necessity being the mother of invention, Macquarie employed the skills of a local silversmith by the name of William Henshall to rework the coins and make them uniquely Australian. Henshall did this by punching out the centre of each coin which resulted in a small centre piece and the residual coin with a hole in the middle. The coin became known as a “Holey Dollar” and the centre piece was called  “a dump”.  Both piece were stamped with their respective value, the Holey Dollar being worth 5 shillings and the Dump being worth one shilling and sixpence.

From this point on things really started to get organised and eventually the full British monetary system of Pounds, Shillings and Pence was introduced with all the respective coins and bank notes.  Now we come to the fun bit. How did it all fit together?

The monetary system of pounds, shillings and pence was abbreviated to a simplified L.s.d..

LSD (£sd) - pounds, shillings and pence - is an abbreviation of the Latin words libra, solidus and denarius.

L - was for Libra which is a one pound weight in Latin and also Latin for Scales
s. - is the abbreviation for Shilling in English from the Latin Solidus
d. - from the French denier and, from the Latin denarius (the solidus and denarius were Roman coins) denarius or denarii, a Roman coin which here represents Pence.

There were 12 pence to one shilling and 12 Farthings in a Six pence and this is one reason why the 12 x table was so important. This and additionally the fact that there were 12 inches in a foot and a square foot was 12 x 12 or 144 sq inches. 12 to the dozen is another example.

• The lowest denomination was the farthing.  (Most amounts had to be reduced to this to do division and multiplication.)
• Two Farthings made One Half Penny (the phonetic for this was hape-nee)
• Two One Half Pennies made One Penny or 1d
• 12 x One Penny made a shilling or 1s or 1/ it was also referred to as a “Bob”, hence the scouts with their “Bob A Job Week”
• 2 x Pennies made Tuppence but this was a term and not a physical coin.
• 3 x Pennies made Three Pence – 3d - (the phonetic for this was Thrip-pence)
• 1 x Groat was worth four pennies or a third of a shilling.
• 2 x Three pence coins made Six pence – 6d or the slang term Zac
• 2 x Six Pence coins made One Shilling.
• 5 x One Shilling was One Crown and there were 4 crowns to One pound
• 10 x One Shilling was worth a Ten Shillings banknote or 120 Pence
• 1 x Half Sovereign was worth half a Pound, ten Shillings or 120 Pence.
• 1 x Sovereign was worth twice that much or One Pound.

From 1817 onwards Half Sovereigns and Sovereigns were made form 22 carat gold from Guinea and as a result their real worth was the current gold price.

20 x One Shilling was One Pound and hence 2 x 10 Shilling banknotes also equalled a One Pound banknote. There were 240 Pence in a Pound. (10 x 12 x 2 tables wise)

Five Pounds, Ten Pounds, Twenty Pounds, 50 Pounds and 100 Pounds are self explanatory.

Then just to add the cherry on top of all this when the head is already spinning we had Guineas.

One Guinea equalled One Pound and One Shilling. Five Guineas therefore equalled Five Pounds and five Shillings.

If you look back on the historical documents of the day you can see that a lot of professionals such as accountants and solicitors chose to do their billing in Guineas. It made the bill look smaller than it actually was.  Hotels used it as it looked a lot more up market. In a way it was similar to the modern marketing ploy of using $1.99 instead of $2.00.

4 Pounds 8 Shillings and Six and half Pence was written:  £4/8/6½

As a fun exercise try and add these 2 amounts together

£4/8/6½  + £1/4/8  = 

Hopefully you get

£6/3/2½ - Six pounds, three shillings and 2 and a half pence.

Please do not ask me to do division using this system as I really don’t think my mind could cope with it. Let us all be ever so grateful that on the 14th of February 1966 we left it all behind for decimalisation. This day was affectionately called “D-Day”, nothing to do with the one from the Second World War but “Decimal Day”.

There were four note denominations released in the first issue of decimal currency notes. The old ten-shilling note was converted to a one-dollar note and the pound to a two-dollar note. Then came the five-dollar note and a ten dollar note to replace the five pound and ten pound notes. The new paper money was extremely colourful by comparison to the dull green blue and brown reds of the Pounds. Each of the new currency notes were a little larger in size the higher the value of the note.

The following table shows the conversion of common denominations of coins of the £sd system.

Common name       Amount     New £p                     New $c
Halfpenny                1⁄2d.      5⁄24p ≈ 0.208p          5⁄12c ≈ 0.417c
Penny                      1d.         5⁄12p ≈ 0.417p          5⁄6c ≈ 0.833c
Threepence             3d.         11⁄4p                         21⁄2c
Sixpence                  6d.         21⁄2p                         5¢
Shilling                     1/-          5p                             10¢
Florin                        2/-         10p                            20¢
Half crown                2/6        121⁄2p                       25¢
Crown                      5/-          25p                           50¢
Half sovereign         10/-        50p                            $1
Sovereign                 £1          £1                             $2

*Taken from Wikipedia for educational purposes.

All in all the system was awkward and extremely difficult to work with by comparison to decimal currency. For those of us who grew up and saw the use of both systems there is no doubt what we would rather be using.  They are still enjoyable coins and notes to collect, not only for the design aspect but also for their historical collectability. 

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Australian Banknote Investments  - Blog Part 9

Like so many people who are completely fascinated by the collecting of Australian banknotes and coins, I find that I am often on the end of a very sharp learning curve. There are so many variants and varieties within the field of numismatics that one is constantly learning and reappraising everything that you know. It is now more than 25 years since the one dollar note was replaced by the one dollar coin and over 44 years since the inception of decimal currency. The advent of polymer notes has assisted in making the old paper notes a highly collectible commodity now that they have been withdrawn from circulation.

The original first prefix one dollar notes with the “AAA” prefix can now command up to $1600.

This one here was graded as EF+ when it was purchased and has an approximate value of around $1250.

The first prefix $2 note with “FAA”, of which only 1 million were printed can reach over $3,000 as can good examples of the first prefix $5 notes bearing the prefix “NAA” . Ebay continues to be a reasonable source of older notes but to be guaranteed absolute precision in the grading of the notes you purchase then acquiring them from a recognised member of the Australasian Numismatic Dealer’s Association (ANDA) which is the professional body representing individuals and businesses that deal in rare coins & banknotes throughout Australasia, gives you the upper edge. Notes which have a high number of 0's at the beginning of the serial number are also recognied to be worth more as they are closer to the start of the print run.  So a very low serial such as 000025 would be worth somewhat more than a note with 450025. The special and unique number of 1000000 is also highly prized as only one occurs in each print run exceeding a million notes. A very rare Coombs Randall $5 bearing the serial NAF1000000 sold recently for $37,500. The kind of banknote we all hope Grandma has tucked away somewhere for a rainy day that will one day be handed down to us.

Star notes or star replacement notes as they are called are a great collectible in any condition. Lower grades can recognise prices in the 100’s where better condition notes from say the Coombs Randall era will see valuations over $25,000. Specimen notes are another highly prized collectible but are a great deal harder to procure. John Petit a Sydney based dealer was reputed to have sold a $100 Type 4 Specimen recently for over $45,000. It really starts one to thinking about the benefits of note collecting over those of a regular superannuation fund.

Undoubtedly the Coombs / Randall notes of 1966, in any denomination are the ones to be on the lookout for given their low print runs. The last prefix 1966 XBS $20 dollar note only realised 200,000 in total and as such is listed at around $5,500 currently.

Overall Australian investment banknotes continue hold a strong investment potential and have been recognised in more recent times as a better investment than fine wine, property and taxi plates. Personally I find the entire spectrum of variance in numismatics, especially those associated with Australian coins and banknotes to be a wonderful hobby and more over a great way to personally mange my own retirement fund.

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Racing Roos  - Blog Part 8

Racing Roos was a past time that used to take place in Australia whilst the one dollar banknote was still in circulation. The game of “Racing Roos”, generally occurred at pubs and parties.

All the original one dollar decimal banknotes featured a metal thread running through the note from top to bottom as a security feature. Placement of the thread varied on different print runs hence some would be in the middle, some a bit to the left of centre and some a bit to the right. Some notes even had what was refered to as a side thread which was about one quarter of the way in from the left hand edge.

When the one dollar note was held up to the light on the side featuring the aboriginal drawings the central kangaroo facing to the right was either over the line of the thread or behind it. Hence like anything in Australia which has a recognisable variable it was seen as a chance to gamble.

In the example below I have marked the ridge in the note created by the metal thread with black arrows. In this case it passes just forward of the eye of the kangaroo. His nose is just over the line.  When held up to the light it shows as a distinct black line and judging the winner is easy.

In the following example the line marked by the arrows passes through the kangaroo’s shoulder and as he is far further across the line than the first example and therefore the winning kangaroo.

In Australian pubs it was quite common to sit at bar, purchase your first beer and leave the change on the bar mat in front of you. When your glass required refilling the bartender would simply pour you another and take the required amount from the money sitting in front of you. A great system as it meant that you rarely had to catch the bartenders eye to order nor break your conversation in order to pay. If you chanced to be sitting there with a one dollar note in front of you, your mates or even a stranger could call out , “Race Ya Roo”, to which you could either say yes or no without fear of recourse should you decline. If you accepted, then both parties to the game would grab their respective one dollar notes, hold them up to the light and who ever had the note with the kangaroo that was further across the line would win. This could entail several things. Sometimes the loser would buy the winner a beer, sometimes he would forfeit his note to the winner or sometimes the game was used to resolve other matters such as who would drive home after the pub.

                                              

The Australia Ten Dollar bank note gives Queen Elizabeth II a brand new hat much to the horror of her royaly appointed milliner.

                                              

Maybe a car or a house is more your thing or this fashionable Australia Fifty Dollarbank note high heel shoe.

                                                  

 Have some fun with your money and make other peoples gifts that little bit more unique 

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 The Face On The Twenty Dollar Note -  Blog Part 6

This post is the first in a series where I hope to heighten peoples awareness as to who the people are that grace the front and back of the banknotes in Australia.The twenty dollar polymer bank note from Australia has a pair of fascinating people depicted on it.From an historical point of view this lady pictured under is just an absolute trojan from the school of hard knocks and sheer determination.Her name is Mary Reiby and this is her story. 

She was born in Bury, Lancashire, England in 1777 as Mary Haydock.  Shortly after the death of her parents she was taken in by her Grandmother who reared her. Later she was was sent in to service as a house servant and at the tender age of 13 she decided to run away.  She stole a horse and dressed herself as a boy in order to avoid awkward questions.  She was however arrested and sent for trial on charges of horse stealing and impersonating a man. The second charge becoming apparent only during her trial when she was forced to give her real identity. The court found her guilty and sentenced her to, "Transportation To Australia".   She travelled to Australia aboard the convict ship Royal Admiral and landed at New South Wales in October 1792 and was assigned as a nursemaid in the household of Major Francis Grose. The whole episode which resulted in her conviction as a felon at the age of 13 and transportation to New South Wales was probably no more than a high-spirited escapade attributable to lack of parental control.

Early pieces of her notes and letters have been archived and although she only displayed a rudimentary command of the written English given the degree of colloquialisms she used, her hand was strong and amazingly she even seemed, within her letters, to be completely unclear as to the real terms of her punishment.  These early documents however did not pressage the women that she would ultimately become.

In September 1794 after 2 years in the colony she married a young Irishman Thomas Reiby in the service of the East India Co., whom she had met in the transport and who had returned to Sydney in the Britannia that year.Thomas appears to have been the first free settler outside the military ring to trade.

The first years of his married life were apparently spent on the Hawkesbury River, where he acquired several farms on the Hawkesbury River, and traded in coal, cedar, furs and skins was engaged in the grain-carrying business. Later he established himself near the waterside in what is now Macquarie Place on a further land grant and turned his former association with the East India Co. to advantage by importing general merchandise. He named his trading establishment Entally House, after a suburb in Calcutta. In 1803, Thomas Reiby advertised cedar beams for sale in the Sydney Gazette. He traded his goods along the Hawkesbury and Hunter rivers, bringing raw materials and produce to Sydney. Mary meanwhile operated a bakery. By 1803 he also owned three small boats, James, Edwin and Raven, and traded to the Hunter and Hawkesbury Rivers in coals, cedar and wheat. In 1804, now prosperous, the family moved to Sydney. He later entered into partnership with one Edward Wills and was engaged in sealing in Bass Strait in 1805. In 1807 they bought the schooner called Mercury for trade with the Pacific Islands and, from 1809, to China and India.

The scope of his business activity was indicated when in 1801 he became indebted to Robert Campbell senior for the sum of £160 10s., and in October 1803 he mortgaged to Campbell three Hawkesbury farms totalling 260 acres (105 ha), their buildings, crops, livestock, and boats, along with certain other property and buildings in Sydney, for a further credit advance of £150 to enable him to carry on his business.

Late in 1809, he set sail for India. There, he fell victim to sunstroke, from which he never fully recovered, dying in Sydney on April 5, 1811. Mary took over the business.

Mary then assumed sole responsibility for the care of her seven children and the control of the numerous business enterprises they had built. Having been responsible her husband's affairs during the previous 15 years of his frequent absences from Sydney she was well equiped to take on the task.

Now a woman of considerable wealth, Mary Reibey continued to expand her business interests. In 1812 she opened a new warehouse in George Street and in 1817 extended her shipping operations with the purchase of further vessels. By 1828, when she gradually retired from active involvement in commerce, she had acquired extensive property holdings in the city.

In the emancipist society of New South Wales, she gained respect for her charitable works and her interest in the church and education. She was appointed one of the Governors of the Free Grammar School in 1825.

On her retirement, she built a house at Newtown, Sydney, where she lived until her death on 30 May 1855.  Five of her seven children had predeceased her.

An enterprising and determined person of strong personality, during her lifetime Mary Reibey earned a reputation as an astute and successful business woman in the colony of New South Wales

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David Unaipon - The Man On The Fifty Dollar Note - Blog 5

Now here is one of modern Australia’s greatest Aboriginal people who apart from being recognisable as the man on our polymer fifty dollar banknote, was also a preacher and inventor.

David Unaipons story is one of a lifelong devotion to crusading for the welfare and causes of the Aboriginal people, as a preacher of his own faith and also his great foresight as a man moving into the modern era of technical developments. Organ playing, boot making and book keeping were other skills that he excelled at.

He was a prolific writer and his writing preceded other Aboriginal writers by some 30 years. He was Australias first indigenous author. One book, “Myths and Legends of the Australian Aboriginal” which is still in the manuscripts section of the Mitchell Library contains his versions of Aboriginal myths. The book show strong influences of the classics as well as his undertaking of studies into Egyptology.

In recent news it is alleged that his nephew instigated a series of court battles with Reserve Bank Australia over the right to use his image on the $50 dollar note. The 30 million dollar claim was however overturned by the courts as RBA claimed that the rights were given to them by his surviving daughter although her claim to this title were never properly established.

Altogether a fascinating Australian and a great ambassador of the Australian Aboriginal people.

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Penguin Pennies - Blog 4

Firstly, I must make it clear that these are not Australian Antarctic territorial banknotes but as Australia has such a large interest in Antarctica and it is our largest and nearest geographical neighbour to the south, I have included some information on them here. A great many of them circulate on Ebay Australia and so I have decided to look into their origins a bit.

All notes have the same measurements of 182 x 93 mm and have been issued in denominations of $1, $2, $5, $10, $20, $50 & $100. On occasion collector packs have been available as well as Specimen notes.One of the most intriguing relases was the 1999 Two Dollar note depicting 2 penguins, a mother and baby, which stand in the foreground of one of Antarctica's most well known landmarks, Mt. Erebus. On the 28th of November 1979 Air New Zealnd flight 901 crashed into the slopes of Mt. Erebus killing everyone on board, more than 200 people. This note was issued with date 28th Novenmber 2009 as a commemorative issue and is prized by collectors for that reason.
You can see the full range of banknotes that have been released so far by visiting Bank Of Antarctica.

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The Mighty Polymer Banknotes - Blog 3

Due to the increasing sophistication of techniques used by banknote counterfeiters the original banknote which for hundreds of years has been made from paper using rags as a base needed to be improved upon. The challenge to find a better, more secure medium was taken up by the C.S.I.R.O. in Australia and Note Printing Australia which is a subsidiary of the Reserve Bank of Australia. In large this was brought about by the advent of the colour photocopier which really created a wave of counterfeiting.

So here is a little story about one of my favourite Australian characters and legends. A.B. “Banjo” Patterson. Buddy, cobber, mate a few words that I would apply, as his writings and sentiments have long held a place of special meaning in my life. He is the quintessential Australian poet and novelist and widely regarded as one of the finest of his time.

He was born on 17th February 1864 as Andrew Barton Paterson and many people have wondered where the “Banjo” in his name came from as he almost certainly never played one. Story has it that in 1885 when he first started submitting his poetry to The Bulletin in Sydney for publication, he did so under the pseudonym, “The Banjo”, which was also the name of his favourite horse, a racehorse owned by his family. A name that would stick with him for all eternity.

His early education was from the station governess at Narambla Station and at the small country school in Binnalong. Later he was schooled in Sydney at Gladesville. No matter the quality or the sources of education he was exposed to his ability as a writer blossomed and carried him onward throughout his life as correspondent, journalist and author. Banjo was a bit of a knocker as well. He clearly didn’t mind taking a crack at the then social structure of Australian society when he penned, “A Bushman’s Song”, wherein he lent his support to the drovers and shearers of the day over the squatters and absentee landlords. Australia’s first radical?

His writings were to be held in highest regard for their time along side of other Australian literary greats such as Adam Lindsay Gordon (this guy was a true larrikin renown for recklessness and daring) and Henry Lawson. Poems such as “Waltzing Matilda” (once considered as a national anthem), “The Man From Snowy River” , “Clancy Of The Overflow” and “The Road To Gundagai” are among his best known. “The Man From Snowy River” was in immortalised in the 1982 film by George Miller and stared the international star Kirk Douglas alongside other Australian greats such as Jack Thompson, Tony Bonner, Gus Mercurio and Sigrid Thornton.

He was in truth a city bloke who worked as a solicitor in Sydney and his accounts of the life in the bush were highly romanticised as opposed to those of Henry Lawson who gave a much grimmer account of early Australian outback hardships. He left his studies in law to take up the pen as a journalist and war correspondent were he succeeded admirably covering both the Boer War and the Chinese Boxer Rebellion. In 1914 he left for the Great War in the hope of working as a war correspondent out of England. He was refused and took up the post of ambulance driver. On his return to Australia he enlisted in the A.I.F. (Australian Infantry Forces) and was granted a Lieutenants commission. From there he spent the remaining war years in the Middle East rising to the rank of Major. The depiction of him on the Ten Dollars banknote is from the period shortly after his return from the Boer War. He was not your average Joe by any streak of the imagination as his spare time interests including pearl diving and crocodile hunting. Just your everyday Aussie bloke I hear you say.

He was honoured when his image was selected to become the face of the Ten Dollars Polymer banknote taking over from Henry Lawson who had this honour on the Ten Dollars Paper banknote. As a part of the security features on the ten dollars polymer banknote the words from, “The Man From Snowy River” are printed in microprint with the words ‘TEN DOLLARS’ printed between each stanza.

The microprinting can be seen behind his head and hat.  Not very clear here as you really require some serious magnification to see it properly.  More than a small headache for counterfieters.

The best known first verse from the poem is:

There was movement at the station, for the word had passed around

That the colt from Old Regret had got away

And had joined the wild bush horses --- he was worth a thousand pound,

So all the cracks had gathered to the fray.

All the tried and noted riders from the stations near and far

Had mustered at the homestead overnight,

For the bushmen love hard riding where the wild bush horses are,

And the stock-horse snuffs the battle with delight.

His book “The Man From Snowy River and Other Verses” has consistently outsold all other books of Australian poetry for the last 100 years. In itself an awesome achievement. In 1981 he was additionally honoured on a postage stamp. He died an Australian legend and statesman just short of his 77th birthday on 5th February 1941.

Interestingly as an aside, Dame Mary Gilmore who appears on the other side of the note was at one time courted by the larrikin poet Adam Lindsay Gordon but after a lengthy period of pursuing this well connected socially acceptable woman, his love remained unrequited and he eventually married another. As a politician he no doubt saw that an alliance with Mary Gilmore was highly advantageous to his career. Gordon himself would commit suicide at the early age of 37.

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There is nothing Australians seem to like more than to shorten words or phrases to something more instantly recognisable within the local dialect. Colloquialisms abound in the land down under and some of them are very humorous indeed. This abbreviation of terms applies to most things which unremarkably includes the currency of the land.

A great deal of the currency nicknames have come across from the United Kingdom when Australians used the coin of the realm. True to Aussie form however we have come up with our own fair share of colloquial tags. Australia has always benefited from the rich diversity of its people who have brought with them their own language and sayings. It is undoubtedly a very colourful country especially from the point of view of its vocabulary.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Ten Dollars - $10 - Blue Swimmer, Blue Heeler (name of a cattle dog), Tenner, Pav (this derived from Pavarotti from the Three Tenors- hint: tenners), a Banjo (from the picture of A.B. “Banjo” Paterson thereon and Ayrton Senna (rhyming slang for tenner)