Sunday, July 31, 2022

QUOTE FOR THE DAY

 


SYDNEY SUBURBS: DACEYVILLE

 -----oOo-----


DACEYVILLE

-----oOo-----

Location:

Daceyville is a suburb in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney, located 7 km south of the Sydney central business district and is now part of Bayside Council (formerly the City of Botany Bay). It is a residential suburb surrounded by the suburbs of Pagewood and Kingsford.

Cook Avenue cottages, Daceyville

-----oOo-----

Name origin:

Daceyville was proposed by and named after John Rowland Dacey (1854–1912), a state parliamentarian for the area from 1895 to 1912, who urged the creation of a garden suburb modelled on the garden city of Letchworth in Hertfordshire, England. The plan was executed after his death with a plan to provide low-cost housing for working-class people. Rowland Park in Daceyville is also named after him.

John Rowland Dacey

A bird's-eye view of Dacey Garden Suburb (1918)

-----oOo-----

About:

The design of Daceyville was intended to improve both the health and moral standing of residents. Laneways had been associated with rat-borne diseases, so they were not part of the design. All residents had enough land to grow their own food, no front or back fences were permitted to facilitate natural surveillance by neighbours, and homes opened at the rear onto small parks where it was expected that children would play.

Sir John Sulman (1849–1934) planned the estate on crown land that had been reserved as a water conservation site. Daceyville was listed on the Register of the National Estate in 1991.

In 1974, the New South Wales State Government proposed demolition of Daceyville's houses to make way for walk-up apartments and high rise housing. The development was also linked to a planned extension to the heavy rail line that was proposed to join Bondi Junction and Daceyville. Residents created the Daceyville Preservation Society to oppose the redevelopment, and garnered the support of the Builders Labourers Federation who were famous for their "Green Bans". Ultimately, the Daceyville Garden Suburb Heritage Conservation Area was created, and the NSW government abandoned their plans to develop enormous Waterloo-style public housing towers in Daceyville.

In the 1980s the NSW Department of Housing embarked on a renewal project in Daceyville, which resulted in a relatively modest densification of the suburb. Numerous two-storey apartment buildings were constructed as part of the renewal, in a sympathetic architectural style to the rest of Daceyville. These new apartment buildings were mostly constructed in vacant land which had previously been rear gardens and rear parks of other homes. This land repurposing by the NSW Department of Housing has resulted in some areas of Daceyville now having three rows of houses squeezed in-between two roads, for example between Astrolabe Road and Boussole Road, and has undermined some of the original design goals of the Dacey Garden Suburb plan.

Public housing in General Bridges Crescent

In 2021, the NSW government partnered with Ray White Kingsford to begin auctioning properties in Daceyville, transferring them to private ownership after having previously been used as public housing for over 100 years.

Astrolabe Park, Astrolabe Road and Boussole Road were named after the two ships commanded by La Perouse, the French explorer who arrived at Botany Bay just days after the First Fleet in 1788. Many other streets in Daceyville are also named after the First Fleet, such as Cook Avenue, Endeavour Road, Solander Road, and Banks Avenue.

After World War I, Daceyville was used to provide housing for returning war veterans. Some streets in Daceyville were named after Australian and British war figures, such as Haig Park and Haig Avenue being named after Douglas Haig, the British Commander-in-Chief. Other examples include Major General Bridges Crescent, named after William Bridges, and Captain Jacka Crescent, named after Albert Jacka.

Burke Crescent and Wills Crescent were named after the explorers of the Burke and Wills expedition, which had attempted to cross the Australian continent. In the 1960s, Burke Crescent, originally named after explorer Robert Burke, was renamed to Colenso Crescent to honour four brothers who fought in World War II, two of which being killed during the war.

According to the 2016 census, there were 1,209 residents in Daceyville.

Compared to the working-class families who originally called Daceyville home, the suburb's current population is considerably older. According to the 2006 census, 37.3 per cent of its population is over 60. The majority of homes are still under the jurisdiction of Housing NSW; however, approximately 23 are in private hands, due to an offer the Commission made to tenants in 1965. A few of these residences belong to families who have continually occupied their homes since the 1920s, while many newer residents came after the suburb's redevelopment. Some feel they have 'won the Lotto' when they are placed in Daceyville, while others have their complaints.

Though Daceyville could have become a series of 1970s high-rises, not unlike Waterloo, it is now protected by a strict Development Control Plan. As a historical precinct, the suburb is a perfect illustration of Sydney's changing attitudes to town planning, public housing and heritage.

-----oOo-----

Gallery:


















Saturday, July 30, 2022

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

 


5 X 5: AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTERS, PART 1

 -----oOo-----

5 Facts About 5 Australian Prime Ministers

-----oOo-----

Edmund Barton (1849 – 1920)

__________

Barton was the first prime minister of Australia from 1901 to 1903, holding office as the leader of the Protectionist Party. He resigned to become a founding member of the High Court of Australia, where he served until his death in 1929.
__________

He was born in Glebe, Sydney, New South Wales, the eleventh of twelve children, three of whom died in childhood.
__________

Barton was appointed prime minister on 1 January 1901, the day on which the new federal constitution came into effect. He and various other dignitaries were driven through the streets of Sydney in a procession watched by thousands of onlookers, beginning in The Domain and ending at Centennial Park. A swearing-in ceremony for the new government was held at the purpose-built Federation Pavilion.


The Federation Pavilion at Centennial Park, Sydney, during the swearing-in ceremony on 1 January 1901.


The shell of the rotunda of the Federation Pavilion was moved by Concord Council to Cabarita Park in 1903 though it is now stripped of all its original ornamentation.
__________


Barton in judicial regalia

Barton resigned as prime minister to become one of the founding justices of the High Court of Australia. There were several factors at play in his decision to retire from politics. Some within his own party thought that he lacked the energy and commitment to continue as the leader of the government. Barton had also suffered from bouts of ill health, including a fainting spell in his office earlier in the year. He was advised by his doctor to quit active politics. Finally, he had a history of financial difficulties and appreciated the security that a lifetime appointment would bring.
__________

The Bulletin called him “Toby Tosspot” due to his interest ion having good wine and long dinners.

-----oOo-----


Robert Menzies (1894 - 1978):
__________

Sir Robert Gordon Menzies was Australia’s 12th prime minister, in office from 1939 to 1941 as head of the United Australia Party and again from 1949 to 1966 as head of the Liberal Party. He is Australia's longest-serving prime minister, serving over 18 years in total.
__________

On 3 September 1939 Britain and France declared war on Germany due to its invasion of Poland on 1 September, leading to the start of World War II. Menzies responded immediately by also declaring Australia to be at war in support of Britain, and delivered a radio broadcast to the nation on that same day. It began:
“Fellow Australians. It is my melancholy duty to inform you officially that in consequence of a persistence by Germany in her invasion of Poland, Great Britain has declared war upon her and that, as a result, Australia is also at war.”
Menzies at the age of 44 found himself a wartime leader of a small nation of 7 million people.
__________

After losing the UAP leadership and 1943 election, Menzies concluded that the UAP was at the end of its useful life. Menzies called a conference of anti-Labor parties and, in 1944, these fourteen parties, with the UAP as the nucleus, merged as one new non-Labor party—the Liberal Party of Australia. In 1949 Menzies and the Liberal Party won government.
__________

Menzies officially resigned as leader of the Liberal Party on 26th January 1966 after serving 32 years in Parliament. His farewell press conference was the first political press conference telecast live in Australia. He left office at the age of 71 years, 1 month and 6 days, making him the oldest person ever to be prime minister.
__________

Robert Menzies was often referred to as ‘Pig Iron Bob’, deriving from a 1938 Lyons government decision to sell scrap iron, or ‘pig iron’, to Japan. At the time, Japan was seen as a potential military threat, and dockworkers refused to load the iron on grounds it could be made into weaponry and used to attack Australia. A lockout and strike dragged on for weeks, the description ‘Pig Iron Bob’ being levelled at Menzies for his role in the dispute as Attorney-General.

His second nickname, ‘Ming’, derives from the Scottish pronunciation of Menzies. Menzies was proud of his Scottish heritage, and preferred his surname to be pronounced in the traditional Scottish manner rather than as it is spelled. This gave rise to his nickname “Ming”, which was later expanded to “Ming the Merciless” after the comic strip character.


The Measure of the Years (1970) by Sir Robert Menzies is a series of essays on various topics by Menzies, Australia’s longest serving Prime Minister.

 -----oOo-----

Friday, July 29, 2022

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

 


FUNNY FRIDAY

 -------😊-------


Enjoy the weekend, folks, think of Friday as the entree . . .


Caution:
Risque content ahead.

-------☹😊☹-------

SOME HUMOUR:

-----oOo-----

In these hard times, I wanted to give some hope to people who visit family members in comas at the hospital...

...so I put a half eaten sandwich in each of the comatose patients' hands.

-----oOo-----

The church in my town fell on hard times recently...

There wasn't enough money coming in to even keep the lights on. So, with the approval of the priests, the friars began selling flowers from the Church's magnificent garden. They were a hit, and soon the flower money was rolling in in droves. A few days after they start, however, Tony, the local florist comes to the church in a huff.

"Please," he begs of the friars, "you must stop selling flowers! Everyone wants to buy flowers from the men of God, so nobody comes to my business! I'll be ruined if you keep this up."

"We're sorry," the friars tell him, "but the doors of God's temple must remain open, and for that we need money." Tony leaves the church, even more upset.

He goes to his neighbours asking if they'll help him boycott, but they're all too afraid to speak out.

He consults a lawyer, seeing if he can solve this legally, but the lawyer won't dare try and sue the church. He even goes to the Governor, but he gets told the Church isn't doing anything wrong.

The weeks roll by and the Friars grow more successful as Tony gets closer to broke.

Finally, in desperation, he hires the meanest, baddest, most nasty man in town, Hue, and sends him after the Friars.

Hue scares all the Friars, smashes all their tables, rips up the garden beds, and even pisses all over the remaining flowers. The next day, the Friars are no longer selling flowers and Tony is back in business.

In the end, it seems the saying is true: Hue and only Hue can prevent florist friars.

-----oOo-----

In the 1900s an English town had fallen on really hard times.

For decades its primary industry had been its textile mills, but now the mills were all closed and unemployment was at an all-time high.

Desperate, the town's mayor looked frantically around for other industries to bring to his town. He found that there was a man in Germany who was looking for someone to take over his thriving hunting dog breeding business. The man had made a fortune raising the animals and was not willing to unload it for a fraction of its value, so that he could retire.

The mayor used his influence to have the mills converted to kennels and all of the dogs transported to his town. Employment skyrocketed and the town prospered. Everyone was happy, even though, sometimes - especially on the nights with a full moon - the animals got a little noisy, keeping some residents awake.

But, even these unfortunate few learned to sigh and say, "The mills are alive with the hounds of Munich".

(Okay, okay, I was leaving anyway).

-----oOo-----

Having a trans parent is really difficult for kids.

It feels like they are never there.

-------☹😊☹-------


John was livid that his Tickle-me Elmo puppet assembly line was severely backed up.

He picked up the latest Tickle-me Elmo puppet and noticed two fuzzy balls sewed between its legs.

John followed the assembly line to the source of the problem and he saw his new employee, Sarah, surrounded by chaos. She had a big box of fuzzy balls on her left and a sewing machine on her right and she's feverishly sewing two balls between each Elmo's legs but the assembly line is way too fast and dozens of Elmo's are piling up in front of her.

John walks over to her, shakes his head and says, "What are you doing? All you have to do is give each Elmo two test tickles."

-------☹😊☹-------


LAW & LAWYERS:

There once was a man named Mr. Evans who pursued a law degree, even though his passion was music. All through law school, he yearned to drop out and play in a cover band, singing Beatles songs all night to a crowd of fans. Eventually, though the man became a lawyer instead.

Through the years, he became a highly esteemed practitioner of law. He rose in his practice of jurisprudence until one day he even became a county judge. He came home and told his wife that he still wasn’t satisfied. Despite everything, singing the Beatles was still his dream. She told her next door neighbour, Megan, who told her husband, Tom.

Tom said, “We’ve known Judge Evans his whole life. He’s getting to retiring age. It’d be a shame if he never got to realise his true dream.” Megan agreed, and after talking with Mrs. Evans, they conspired to make the judge’s dream come true. For Meg and Tom’s 30th anniversary party, they’d ask Judge Evans to play music.

Judge Evans showed up to Meg and Tom’s house. He was sheepish, but agreed to sing “Hey Jude.” To Tom’s surprise, he sounded just like John Lennon! They gave him the gig without a second thought.

Elated, Mr. Evans called up a few of his buddies down at the country club and found a drummer, a bass player, and a guitarist. They wore bell bottoms and headbands, even looking the part!

The group showed up to the party and started singing “Yellow Submarine.” To Meg and Tom’s horror, the guitar was out of tune, the drummer was off-beat, and Mr. Evans’ accompanying vocalists were atrocious.

Tom turned to Meg and said, “I guess we should’ve listened to the age old adage.”

“Oh?” Meg asked.

“Never book a Judge by his cover.”

(I snuck back in).

-------☹😊☹-------


LIMERICK OF THE WEEK:

A delighted, incredulous bride
Remarked to her groom at her side:
"I never could quite
Believe till tonight
That our anatomies would coincide."

-------☹😊☹-------

GALLERY:



-------☹😊☹-------


CORN CORNER:

A teacher is marking the attendance roll and comes across the name “Hijkm”.

She says “I’m sorry, I’m not sure how to pronounce this name,” then spells it out.

A girl raises her hand and says “That’s me, it’s pronounced ‘Noelle’ “.

-----oOo-----

Why did the Mormon cross the road?

To get to the other bride.

-----oOo-----

Why do Italian women love me?

I'm firm when I need to be, but I can also be soft and tender.

The name's Dente.

Al Dente.

-----oOo-----

Sean Connery had fallen on hard times. His work had completely dried up.

One day out of the blue his agent rang and said "Sean, I've got a job for you. It starts tomorrow, you've got to get there early, for 10'ish."

Sean frowned, "For 10'ish? But I haven’t even got a racquet!"

-------😊-------

Wednesday, July 27, 2022

QUOTE FOR THE DAY

 


SHORT WEEK

-----oOo-----

After yesterday’s brief item following lengthy items on the weekend, I have decided that the rest of the week will be Short Week, brief but interesting items.

-----oOo-----

The heights by great men reached and kept 
Were not attained by sudden flight,
But they, while their companions slept,
Were toiling upward in the night.

- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

-----oOo-----

The stanza is from a poem The Ladder of St Augustin, a largely unreadable poem that expands the Eastern philosophy that that each individual has in his /her consciousness a ladder to the celestial or immortal perception of life.

-----oOo-----


Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807 – 1882) was an American poet and educator. His original works include Paul Revere's Ride, The Song of Hiawatha, and Evangeline. He was the first American to completely translate Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy. Although he became the most popular American poet of his day and had success overseas, he has been criticized for imitating European styles and writing poetry that was too sentimental.

-----oOo-----