Cairns Post (Qld. : 1909 - 1954), Monday 6 March 1950, page 4


Australian cartoonist. Alex. Gurney, -«bose work bas gained international reputation, possesses what is probably the most travel-led and historic drawing board in the Commonwealth. Originally, it was the panel of a cedar door in the now demolished "Old Bell" Hotel,. Hobart The door, which marked the entrance to a room in which Marcus Clarke wrote "For the Term, of His Natural Life," was bought at an auction sale, the panel drawing board being presented later to the then embryo artist Mr. Gurney has been in many parts of Australia, and: the thousands of . drawing-pin holes tell a story of their own.

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Bunyip! Victoria, is named.after

the fabulous creature-dreaded by the natives and' said by them to rise at night from the depths of lagoons and waterholes and utter strange cries. The natives believed that the bunyip would engulf soli-tary fishermen, -canoe and all, in its vast jaws and then sink like a stone to its undiscoverableden. An early Australian writer men-tioned six aborigines who pre-ferred death by bushfire to taking shelter in a waterhole said to be the home of a bunyip.

. When John Batman first . aaw the site of. Melbourne ,he:was charmed by the. vistas and after-wards wrote: "This, will be the place for a village." .To ; mark the locality from which he first viewed the surrounding country, a tablet has been placed in the footpath at the. corner, of William and Flinders streets. So accus-tomed to its presence have city people become that it is generally walked upon unobserved. Never-theless, it-compels attention on certain days, especially after rain, when the brass lettering is prom-inent '

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One of the most remarkable bridges in Australia spans the Nepean River, N.S.W., on the western road. It was originally built for Russia, but owing, to the outbreak of the Crimean War in 1854, the makers sent the bridge to this country. No wonder its architecture puzzles people. The solid steel walls of the bridge were built to keep out the bitter winds of the great- Russian steppes.

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The original name of Mel-bourne was Bearbrass. Until 1836 it bore the name of Glenelg. The "Queen City of the South" is the only capital city in the world io have boasted a hotel before it even had a house. The first pub-lican's licence in Melbourne - was issued on October 31, 1835, but

Melbourne's first house was " not erected until the following -month.

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At the old convict settlement ol Fort Arthur, Tasmania, a ledger has been carefully preserved con-taining, a list of names of various convicts, their particulars add convictions. - Here are ' some of the entries:

No. 141. Thomas Lengden. Age 19. Crime-Stealing lead. Sen-tence 7 years.

No. 142. Ellis Love. Age 22. Crime-Stealing a spade. Sen-tence 10 years.

No. 143. John. Luff, married, ï children. Age 45. Crime-Steslinj a cow. Sentence=10-years-. -

'No. 144. James Lynch. Age 9, Crime-^Stealing 3 boxes of toys. Sentence 7 years. - .

. What bathos-in that last entry! A nine-year-old boy sentenced tc transportation for seven years. Il is not difficult to visualise thc repressed desire of the youngster for toys. He probably nevei knew what it was to own a toj and could not resist the tempta-

tion.