Craig Hill Media and Consulting
Sydney
On this day (Australia): In 1934, the ANZAC War Memorial in Sydney was opened
On 24 November 1934, the ANZAC War Memorial in Sydney was opened. The Anzac Memorial is a heritage-listed war memorial, museum and monument located in Hyde Park South near Liverpool Street in the CBD of Sydney, Australia. It is also known as Anzac War Memorial, War Memorial Hyde Park and Hyde Park Memorial. The Art Deco monument was designed by C. Bruce Dellit, with the exterior adorned with monumental figural reliefs … Continue reading
On this day (Australia): In 1935, Luna Park in Sydney was officially opened
On 4 October 1935, Luna Park in Sydney was officially opened. The famous face pictured above is the entrance to Luna Park, Sydney’s most famous amusement park and mainstay since the 1930s, albeit with a history of closures, overhalls, protests, brawls and terrible tragedy along the way. Prior to European settlement of Australia and well … Continue reading
On this day (Australia): In 1990, opera singer Dame Joan Sutherland announced her retirement
On 2 October 1990, opera singer Dame Joan Sutherland announced her retirement. She was an Australian dramatic coloratura soprano known for her contribution to the renaissance of the bel canto repertoire from the late 1950s through to the 1980s. She possessed a voice combining extraordinary agility, accurate intonation, “supremely” pinpoint staccatos, a trill and a tremendous upper register, although music critics often complained … Continue reading
On this day (Australia): In 2000, French athlete Marie-José Pérec fled the Sydney Olympic village claiming threats and insults
On 21 September 2000, French athlete Marie-José Pérec fled the Olympic village without competing in the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. Pérec claimed that she had been threatened and insulted several times since arriving in Australia and that the Australian press, who were supporting Australian athlete Cathy Freeman, had been trying to sabotage her chances of … Continue reading
On This Day In Australia: In 1992, the Sydney Harbour Tunnel officially opened
On 30 August 1992, the Sydney Harbour Tunnel officially opened. The Sydney Harbour Tunnel is a twin-tube road tunnel in Sydney, Australia. The tunnel was completed and opened to traffic to provide a second vehicular crossing of Sydney Harbour to alleviate congestion on the Sydney Harbour Bridge. It is one of two tunnels under the harbour, the other being a … Continue reading
On This Day In Australia: In 1930, the two spans of the Sydney Harbour Bridge were joined
On 22 August 1930, the two spans of the Sydney Harbour Bridge were joined, making the bridge self-supporting and allowing the cables to be removed. With the span complete, vertical hangers were attached to the arch and from these the bridge deck could be built. The deck was completed in June 1931. The road, rail, water, … Continue reading
December 31, 1790 – Enough barley is harvested in the penal colony of New South Wales to alleviate impending starvation
The First Fleet, containing the officers and convicts who would first settle Australia, arrived in Botany Bay on 18 January 1788. The colony’s Governor, Captain Arthur Phillip, immediately determined that there was insufficient fresh water, an absence of usable timber, poor quality soil and no safe harbour at Botany Bay. Thus the fleet was moved … Continue reading
December 15, 2014 – Sydney, Australia, is gripped by a siege that lasts almost 17 hours and leaves three dead
Martin Place in the Sydney CBD is a popular plaza for both workers and visitors. It incorporates a range of commercial and retail businesses, as well as an amphitheatre utilised for corporate and community events, and is usually a bustling thoroughfare. On the morning of 15 December 2014, this peaceful and previously safe venue became … Continue reading
Australian government fails to honour promised crime prevention program grants
The Australian Coalition government has backed away from distributing millions of dollars in grants promised to dozens of charities, community groups and local councils under Labor’s national crime prevention program. In some cases, small charities say their existence is under threat because they have spent money based on draft funding agreements that will no longer … Continue reading
Sex-for-secrets spy scandal prompts Australian navy inquiry
A company that services US warships when they visit Australian ports has been accused of providing prostitutes to an American naval commander in return for secret intelligence on US naval movements to extort money from the US Seventh Fleet. The Royal Australian Navy is investigating whether the alleged bribery and prostitution scam has had an … Continue reading
Australia cuts defence force anti-terrorist unit
The anti-terrorism protection force at some of Australia’s key military bases is to be slashed, as the Defence Department struggles to find budget savings. Australian Protective Service officers will be taken off guard duty at Victoria Barracks in Melbourne, Sydney’s Holsworthy Barracks, the navy’s Garden Island base and the army’s officer training college at Duntroon … Continue reading
Australian Aboriginal school kids treated like rubbish
Walgett Community High and Moree East Public are the schools that bureaucracies forgot, in physically deplorable condition and battling the pathogen of low expectations from all quarters. By NSW Education Minister Adrian Piccoli’s own admission, the schools have been failed from the top by hulking institutions run from Sydney that swept them out of sight, … Continue reading
Australia: New rules target bad teachers
Underperforming teachers could be identified and sacked with greater ease under new teacher quality reform measures NSW Education Minister Adrian Piccoli described as more in line with a ”private sector” approach. The NSW government will also introduce paid teaching cadetships for high-achieving students and will give new teachers additional time out of the classroom to … Continue reading
Australian Prime Minister accuses Rupert Murdoch of anti-government campaign
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has taken a dig at media mogul Rupert Murdoch, questioning whether commercial interests are behind his opposition to Labor’s National Broadband Network policy. The News Corporation executive chairman used Twitter to say that he liked the “ideal of the NBN”, but questioned how the multi-billion dollar policy would be paid for. … Continue reading
Australian Aboriginals blast indigenous job scheme as “token gesture”
Aboriginal elder Dennis Foley has blasted the federal government’s Indigenous Economic Development Strategy, claiming that employing indigenous people in the public sector is not indigenous economic development. The University of Newcastle professor told a national small business forum in Sydney Aboriginal entrepreneurs were the biggest employers of Aborigines and that government needed to move beyond … Continue reading
Six Australian students suspected of murder in Peru
Federal Attorney General Mark Dreyfus says he has met with some of the six Australian students wanted overseas in relation to the death of a hotel doorman in Peru. The three young Sydney men and two men and woman from Melbourne have launched a social media campaign to clear their names after being nominated as … Continue reading
Violent asylum seekers released onto Australian streets
Asylum seekers involved in violent attacks while in immigration detention are being released into the community, including one man who assaulted staff and was involved in more than 250 incidents. The violent detainees are released before security checks into their background are completed, according to an insider with intimate knowledge of the detention system. The … Continue reading
Foreign workers in Australia are being rorted
If Julia Gillard and her government are serious about stopping the rorts arising from Australia’s migrant worker scheme, then something will be done about the cleaning workers who have not only just lost their jobs but their entitlements too. The sad truth is that when a business goes bust Australian workers have their leave, unpaid … Continue reading
Public service chief says little achieved for Aboriginal Australians
Former head of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet Peter Shergold has lamented how little he achieved for indigenous Australians in his two decades as a senior public servant. Dr Shergold’s mea culpa comes in a foreword he wrote for a collection of essays, “In black and white: Australians all at the crossroads,” … Continue reading
Australia must improve performance on indigenous education
Federal School Education Minister Peter Garrett will today demand that the states and territories dramatically lift their game on indigenous education, warning that they are not on track to meet their Closing the Gap targets. Mr Garrett will use the education ministers’ meeting in Sydney to call on states and territories to improve their performance … Continue reading
Australian Muslims fighting in Syria now pose a threat on the streets of Sydney
The rising risk posed by Australians returning from the battlegrounds of Syria has forced NSW police to increase their operational intelligence-gathering and community engagement programs to counter the threat. The chief of the NSW Police Counter Terrorism Command, assistant commissioner Peter Dein, said yesterday authorities were disturbed about a “large number” of individuals suspected of … Continue reading
Australia: Fourth Muslim school has government funding frozen
A fourth Sydney Muslim school has had its funding frozen by the NSW government, amid allegations in a court case of financial mismanagement and a claim by the school’s chairman that he was threatened with a gun and subjected to a death threat by a relative of the principal. Rissalah College in Lakemba, in Sydney’s … Continue reading
Australian Immigration Department criticises government policy as “harsh”
The head of the Immigration Department has sharply criticised the Gillard government‘s decision to increase federal court fees since 2010, arguing the policy has had “harsh” and “unintended” consequences on refugee clients. It is highly unusual for one of the government’s own departments to criticise policy in such a strident way, but in a letter … Continue reading
Australia’s population could soar to 40 million by 2050 because of temporary entry migrants
Julia Gillard is steering the nation’s population on a course to more than 40 million by 2050, despite warning just three years ago against “hurtling towards a big Australia“. New figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics today show net overseas migration jumped by almost a third, to 228,000, in the 12 months to … Continue reading
Former Prime Minister praises contributions of immigrants to Australia
As Julia Gillard talks tough on foreign workers, Kevin Rudd has praised the contribution of successive generations of migrants to building the nation. Speaking to an infrastructure conference in Melbourne today, Mr Rudd said Australia would not have become the world’s 12th largest economy if not for the contribution of migrants. “Our natural birth rate … Continue reading
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