© 2018 Greg & Sylvia RAY
Read more about the article Uncle Jack Allsopp’s walk-on part at the Battle of Passchendaele.
At the grave of Jack Allsopp in France, 2015.

Uncle Jack Allsopp’s walk-on part at the Battle of Passchendaele.

Passchendaele was a word I grew up with because that was where my grandmother's favourite brother died. My grandmother's been gone from this world herself now for more than 50 years, but I can see her plainly in my mind's eye, sitting in her rocking chair in her little fibro housing commission cottage at Glendale, Newcastle, NSW. She didn't talk much to adults about Uncle Jack; maybe because she got more than a bit misty when she thought about him. But she told me, when I was a child at her knee, and she let me…

Continue ReadingUncle Jack Allsopp’s walk-on part at the Battle of Passchendaele.

Bats, viruses, immunity and Covid-19

Three things in particular I have found striking, amongst the avalanche of information circulating about Covid-19 - the "novel coronavirus" now infesting humanity. One: whenever any group does random testing of groups of people, a surprising proportion proves to be infected with the virus but has no symptoms whatever. Two: the worst of the illness caused by the virus is actually wrought by the immune system of the host victim. Three: bats are apparently the reservoir for large numbers of viruses - and are said to be the source of this one - but tend not…

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Read more about the article Rail smashes: Murrurundi 1908 and Murulla 1926
Train smash at Murulla, NSW, September 13, 1926

Rail smashes: Murrurundi 1908 and Murulla 1926

Murrurundi: Good Friday 1908 It was Good Friday, April 17, 1908. At about 3.35am the Glen Innes train was just about to leave Murrurundi station, in the Upper Hunter Valley, when it was hit head-on by the Brisbane Mail train, travelling south. Ultimately, signalling staff at the small country station were held responsible for accidentally misleading the drivers of the trains into believing the tracks were clear. At the scene of the accident at Murrurundi, April 17, 1908. The impact of the smash was tremendous, and it was incredible that nobody was killed. Injuries amounted to…

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