© 2018 Greg & Sylvia RAY

Author: Greg Ray

This author has written 481 articles
Read more about the article Rushing headlong out of Eden
Original artwork by Peter Lewis. My collection.

Rushing headlong out of Eden

OF the many ancient myths and legends I have read and been told over my lifetime, the story of the Garden of Eden is perhaps the one I find most compelling. As I child it was one of many Old Testament stories I was told in Sunday school, and it always felt troublesome, as though it was a story that needed to be revisited, re-examined and studied for some extra clues as to what went wrong at the very beginning of the human race. The story as told in Sunday school was quite simple, on the…

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Read more about the article The first Australia Day, July 30, 1915

The first Australia Day, July 30, 1915

At the time of The Great War, the modern conception of Australia Day did not exist. Australia as a nation had only been born in 1901, and even after that a very large proportion of the people who lived in Australia considered themselves to be British, first and foremost. January 26 was celebrated in NSW as "Foundation Day", and the other former colonies had days of commemoration for their own colonial beginnings. During the war, the idea of a national “Australia Day” was introduced as part of a wider fundraising effort where money was raised by…

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Read more about the article Donald Friedman, overland cyclist and bad soldier
One of Donald Friedman's postcards. As a soldier he was a great cyclist.

Donald Friedman, overland cyclist and bad soldier

He enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force twice during The Great War, under different names, and was drummed out both times, actually earning a seven-year sentence for desertion. Postwar he turned to "overland cycling", chasing money to exploit a gold deposit he claimed he'd found near Darwin. He was found dead on a lonely outback road in 1938. The postcard proclaims the cyclist pictured to be Donald Friedman, an "original Anzac" and a member of the 9th Battalion. This transcontinental traveller funded his journeying through the sale of such cards, and by appealing, in newspaper interviews,…

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