Head Hunters weapon. 1934.

This offering in the Adelaide museum from 1934 looks like an effective weapon doesn’t it? Those Papua New Guinean head hunters certainly knew how to keep their potential trophies from getting damaged before they had a chance to shrink them!

Chronicle 23 Aug 1934 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article91069573

Head Hunters Weapon for Surprise Attack.

Noose around the head, tight around the neck and a quick jab in the back of the neck. Not really a nice way to go.

Having caught animals with a catching pole before though, I have to say it is not as simple as it looks.

I can’t imagine it being too easy to get this spiked version over the head you covet without doing it some kind of damage.

I wonder if this is an actual weapon or just an interesting artifact?

A search for headhunters weapons mostly returned images of heavy clubs. After all if you’re going to shrink them you don’t need the skull to remain intact do you.

As a child I remember being taken to the Melbourne Museum to see an exhibition of historical medicine and witchcraftery. Ok, that isn’t what it was called but you know what I mean.

One of the exhibits that day was a darkened operating theatre set-up complete with tools for hacking off limbs, a table designed to drain blood, a screaming soundtrack and, of course, rivers of fake blood.

I still remember that excursion happily and fondly remember that day being where I saw my very first real-life shrunken heads.

Ahhhh…. Memories… 😉

A quiet hero, ‘Bull’ Allen.

Look around at your peaceful day today. As I am writing this I am sitting on the couch right next to the front window looking out at the bright blue sky and cloud topped mountains across the valley. My biggest problem right now is the dishes waiting to be washed. There are places in the world where all is not peace and quiet, but I bet if you have the time to sit back and read this you are not in one of them.

Now zoom back in time to 70 years and a few days ago to the 30th July 1943, and plonk yourself on Mount Tambu in Papua New Guinea. It is hot and muddy, there are disease-carrying bugs trying to eat you and there are a lot of people out there who want to kill you.

It is World War II and, if you are an Aussie on that mountain that day, things could be worse as you aren’t supposed to be fighting. I don’t expect that the Diggers were just sitting back happily watching the Americans fighting though, and one solider in particular certainly didn’t.

Northern Star 28 Aug 1943 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article96432417

Leslie ‘Bull’ Allen* was one of the Australian stretcher bearers there that day, and when the American medics were killed helping one of their wounded he went out into the fray to bring back whoever he could.

One at a time he slung the wounded over his shoulder and carried them back to safety through sniper, machine gun and mortar fire.

Soldiers were watching the snipers aiming at him on each trip and taking bets as to whether he would return.

By the time he was too exhausted to continue he had carried at least 12 American soldiers to safety and his clothes and hat were holed by bullets that had somehow managed to miss his body.

The United States awarded him the Silver Star, their highest award for a non-American, and he was sent many letters of congratulation, including one from Eleanor Roosevelt, who he remained in contact with.

Bull Allen has both a canteen at Puckapunyal and the Bull Allen bar at the Ballarat RSL** named after him, but strangely was never awarded the Victoria Cross, Australia’s highest award for acts of bravery in wartime. Historians are now calling for his amazing bravery to be recognized (ABC News) and rightly so.

This wonderful short film tells his story with photos, war footage and the help of his family.

* An excellent biography link. He did quartz crushing demonstrations at Sovereign Hill! Now there are a few of you who are thinking “Wow, I might have met him!” aren’t there? I’m thinking the same thing. 😀

** RSL= Returned and Services League, the local RSL is an Aussie institution and where everyone repairs to after their respective Dawn Services on ANZAC Day for a drink and a game of two-up.

A Foggy Day. 1924.

We are in the midst of winter here now, it is getting quite cold in our little valley, and yesterday was the first day it didn’t rain for what seems like weeks.

Fortunately, the weather has taken a small turn for the better and even though this morning you could barely see the other side of the road for the fog the sun managed to break through by 11, I even managed to get some washing on the line. Woo Hoo!

Foggy mornings are my favourite kind of morning, especially when we are camping (and I am wrapped up in a  warm jacket with bacon and eggs sizzling away over the fire of course!)

I doubt the man in the picture below who was driving this cart in front of Flinders Street Station on a misty 1924 morning had the same appreciation for them that I do though!

Flinders Street Station, 2012.

I wonder if the Argus photographer had to wait for a while for the traffic to clear before snapping this moody picture, can you imagine the Flinders Street of today being so quiet? –>

According to a City of Melbourne website it is ‘the busiest suburban railway station in the southern hemisphere, with over 1500 trains and 110,000 commuters passing through each day. Its 708 metre main platform is the fourth longest railway platform in the world.’

Interesting figures, although I wouldn’t have thought Flinders Street Station could ever be described as suburban, surely you couldn’t get much closer to the city than this!

The Argus 11 June 1924 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4327687

Choosing slavery. 1912.

When I am searching for articles in Trove I often come across items that are terribly sad or horribly inappropriate. These papers go back to the early 1800’s so they can encompass the entire raft of human prejudices and discriminations, or report on things that are so politically incorrect that they are really not postable.

An example of one of those terribly sad things is this 1912 picture from Nanking, China, below.

What sort of horribly impoverished conditions did this woman and her family live under, when selling herself and three children (there is a baby in the basket) into slavery was preferred rather than going on as they were?

There is no male in this picture, no husband or father. What could have happened to him? Is the absence of a male head of the house the reason for their straightened circumstances?

Seeing images like this should make us all realize that when things seem a little hard in our First World lives we need to remember that slavery and human trafficking still exists today, and that for the majority of human history life for the average person was far, far more difficult.

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This picture and subject have prompted me to share my very favourite podcast series, Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History. The particular podcast episode I was thinking of is called Addicted to Bondage and is about the history and ethics of slavery throughout history.

His interpretation of history is extremely thought-provoking, and the quality of the podcast production, with subtle sound effects and music, makes them completely immersive.

If you are a podcast lover you probably already know about this amazing series. If you aren’t, you should download some of them right now!! They are free and easily found on iTunes. You don’t even need an ipod, you just need to have the iTunes program downloaded to your computer and you can listen from there.

Globe 11 Sep 1912 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article98405527

Everest conquered!

On this day in 1953 Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first people to climb to the summit of Mount Everest.

What an achievement it was at the time. Many had tried the same feat and all, until then, had failed; some losing their lives in the attempt.

Once at the top they only got to spend fifteen minutes at the summit as they were low on oxygen. Hillary took some photos and Norgay buried some Buddhist offerings before making the careful climb down.

I wonder if Norgay and Hillary suspected at the time that their names would be inextricably linked with the mountain from then on?

Advocate 30 June 1953 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article69478725

The racehorse of the desert. 1934.

What do you think of when you hear that title, the racehorse of the desert?

When I read it I immediately thought of a camel. Quite fast when they want to be and appropriately adapted for running in sand. We have quite a few wild camels here in Australia, in fact, we have the largest wild population of them in the world. Considering that they are an introduced species that is quite an achievement.

Anyway, I would never have connected that particular title to this vision of a gigantic lizard, would you?

It is a pity there isn’t anything in the top photo to use as a scale but I think we will all agree, that is a lizard that would have been left to go his own way, unmolested by pretty much everything. If you would like to see a similar photo here is one from 1935 I posted a while ago of a 6ft long Bungarra with a wary dog for scale although I get the feeling todays Goanna is even bigger….*

Western Mail 25 Dec 1934 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article38390784

After the wonderful clarity of the photos of an 1934 outback christmas I used in my post yesterday I went back to that particular paper to see if they had any other gems and these guys were on the very next page. Fortunately this time there was a note as to who took the picture and we can thank Mrs. E. Lambert and E. Tindale for these pictures.

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*Here is a link to an earlier post with a youtube clip of a far more recent encounter with a goanna, this time the goanna is helpfully perched on a backyard bbq for scale. They are smaller these days, but still impressive. 😀