Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race

Boxing Day in Australia marks the start of the annual Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race. The race which has been run for 64 years, is considered to be one of the world’s most prestigious and challenging yachting events.

Starting in Sydney Harbour, the course runs for 628 nautical miles along the east coast of Australia, across Bass Strait and up Tasmania’s Derwent River to the finish line. Not without its dangers, many Australians still remember the terrible storms that battered the 1998 race fleet, sinking five boats and claiming six lives.

This year, the yacht SWD (Sailors with disABILITIES) will line up again to tackle the race. The crew of seven have a variety of disabilities but this did not stop them winning their race division last year. Good luck SWD. We hope you manage to equal (if not better) your achievement last year.

Merry Christmas

From the entire team here at fiveoclockwave.com, we would like to wish all our readers a very Merry Christmas and a happy and safe holiday.

We would also like to share with you a particularly Australian Christmas song. In 1961 Rolf Harris released Six White Boomers which we thought you might enjoying listening to on Christmas Day.

Merry Christmas

The Emu War

Not all events in Australia's past are glamorous or awe inspiring. The Emu War that occurred in Western Australia's Campion district in 1932 is one such incident that we feel sure the majority of our readers would have preferred never happened.

Emus are large flightless birds. They are a national symbol and appear prominently on the Australian Coat of Arms along side the kangaroo.

In 1932, following concerns by local farmers about the destruction created by emu's on their crops and water supplies, the Australian army was called in to eradicate a population of approximately 20,000 birds. Under the leadership of Major Meredith, soldiers with two Lewis machine guns and 10,000 rounds of ammunition went to battle against their foe. The soldiers quickly discovered that the emus were more than a match for them, quickly scattering whenever they came under fire. After several days, with only 100 of the emus killed, Major Meredith stated, "If we had a military division with the bullet-carrying capacity of these birds it would face any army in the world. They could face machine guns with the invulnerability of tanks. They are like Zulus....".

Less than a week later, Australia's Defence Minister, George Pearce, ordered the army's withdrawal and with that they withdrew, defeated.

First Day of Summer

In Australia (southern hemisphere), 1st December marks the official "first day of summer".   A time when Christmas is on our minds with Christmas parties, plans for summer holidays and time with family and friends.

Controversial Opera House Architect Dies

Joern Utzon - the architect of the Sydney Opera House - has died in Copenhagen at the age of 90, following a heart attack.

In 1957, Utzon won a competition for the design of Australia's best known landmark. The design was so ambitious and challenging that at the time no one new whether it could actually be built. This eventually led to a falling out between Utzon and the NSW government resulting in Utzon's resignation from the project on 28 February 1966. Despite this event, the building was completed in 1973, though not to Utzon's original specifications. On 28 June, 2007, the Sydney Opera House was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Launch of Australia's 1st Satellite

41 years ago today, Australia's first satellite was launched from the Woomera rocket range in South Australia. Incidentally, Woomera is an aboriginal invention that assists with the throwing of spears. WRESAT was a project fully designed and constructed by the Weapons Research Establishment and launched within 11 months of its initiation. The satellite which weighed over 50Kg and was 2m in length carried scientific instruments for upper atmospheric research. The launch vehicle consisted of three stages with the first stage being a Redstone rocket - a direct descendent of the German V-2.

You can watch a video from the National Film & Sound Archive of the WRESAT launch.

Following launch the first stage of the rocket fell back to earth in the Simpson Desert. The remnants of this stage were recovered by volunteers in April 1990. It is believe the second stage would have come down somewhere in the Gulf of Carpentaria.

WRESAT successfully entered an elliptical polar orbit and continued to operate for two weeks. As the satellite's closest approach to earth was a mere 198 km, its orbit degraded rapidly, re-entering the atmosphere on 10 January 1968 and burning up.

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The Dog On The Tuckerbox

76 years ago today (28th November, 1932) The Dog On The Tuckerbox Monument was unveiled by Prime Minister Joseph Lyons. Located at Snake Gully 5 miles (8.5kms) north of Gundagai NSW along the Hume Hwy. The monument is a tribute to our pioneers. The legend of the Dog On The Tuckerbox was inspired by two early Australian poems and the popular 1937 song by Jack O'Hagan.View Larger Map