Top 5 posts for 2018 on Listening to the Past
The top five posts for 2018 are revealed. Read More …
Category: Arid lands
From rocket launches to the Australian Space Agency: South Australia’s long history of space activities
With the announcement in December 2018 that Adelaide will be home to the new Australian Space Agency, it is timely to reflect on South Australia’s more than 70 year involvement in space activities. Memories of Woomera In 1947, the Australian Read More …
Big uncluttered skies: remembering a childhood pastime of looking at the stars
Sue Gibbs and Peter Zajicek spent their childhoods in Woomera, 450 km north of Adelaide, in the 1960s and 1970s. The isolation of Woomera made it an ideal place to look at the stars, free from the light pollution of Read More …
A changeable landscape: recollections of Woomera
Woomera is a dry place – most of the time. Sometimes however it is inundated with rain, and then the landscape changes dramatically. Plants that have laid dormant come to life, and seeds from ephemeral plants germinate and grow. I Read More …
From wax cylinders to SD cards: the extraordinary range of audio technology encountered by an audio engineer
I recently went behind the scenes at the State Library of South Australia to interview audio engineer, Peter Kolomitsev, about his job. It quickly became apparent that in helping to preserve the state’s audio heritage, he encounters a diverse range Read More …
Changing places: from the garden of England to the Australian desert
What is it like to grow up in the rolling green hills of the Kent countryside in England, only to spend several years as an adult working in the Australian desert? It is hard to imagine two settings more different Read More …
Vegetable gardening in the desert
Keen gardeners always seem to find a way to grow a garden, regardless of the environment. Attempting to grow a lush vegetable garden in the hot, dry environment at Woomera may seem ambitious, until you realise that there are many Read More …
Outback barbecues and the hazard of recycling metal plates
Barbecues were some of the most frequent social events in Woomera. Often they were held in backyards. Terry Clark, who lived in Woomera in the 1960s and 70s, recalled in an oral history interview one particular barbecue that had an Read More …
Memories of summer 2: keeping the milk cool
Continuing the theme of my previous post with memories of summer, I’ve selected this time some excerpts from oral history interviews focussing on milk in summer – keeping it cool (or not) and drinking it. Pat Connor was a dairy Read More …
Mournful crows, burning legs on metal slides, and other memories of summer
As those of us in Australia head into the hottest part of the year, it seems an ideal time to hear stories about the extreme heat in places such as Woomera, located in desert country in the north of South Read More …