Star trails over Linda Rock, Blue Mountains, N.S.W.

Last night during Earth Hour, Ted Dobosz, a good friend, took this lovely image of star trails circling the south celestial pole. In an email to his various astronomical-minded friends, Ted remarked that he took images of the Sydney sky glow during and after Earth Hour (local time: 8:30-9:30 pm) and found that there was no noticeable reduction in Sydney's light pollution. In asking for Ted's permission to use this image to liven up my blog, he supplied some additional information: "Hi Pete, ... It was taken from the rock looking south. It was taken with a Canon 40D at 400ASA for 30 mins at F4.5. The lens was a Tamron 17-55mm and it was taken at 17mm. ... Conditions last night ordinary with a brown haze and 30% reduction on brightness of all objects. ... Ted."

The rock is Linda Rock in the Blue Mountains to the west of Sydney, Australia; Sydney is about 100 kms (62 miles) distant. In the image the star trails have obvious colour, and the two pieces of 'fog' at two and five o'clock are the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, satellite galaxies of the Milky Way.

If you enlarge the image the star colours show more clearly, as does the pale blue of the LMC; the colours are real and indicate the temperature of the star making the trail (red through orange 3-5,000 deg C.; white: 8-11,000; blue: 16-50,000). For the LMC the pale blue indicates that the majority of its stars are young and have temperatures above 16,000 degrees centigrade. As a comparison our sun is yellow indicating that the disk we see has a temperature of 5,900 degrees centigrade. The yellow glow at the bottom left (south-east) is from the Sydney metropolitan area, the fainter glow at bottom (south) originates in the suburbs making up the Campbelltown area.

Unlike the north celestial pole there is no bright pole star. To see an untrailed image at similar scale look at this August 2006 image from Astronomy Picture of the Day.

Image (used with permission): © Ted Doboz, 2009.

Photographs of the Department of Immigration Reception and Training Centre, Bathurst in the National Archives of Australia (Part 2)

A continuation of my earlier post of the camp and its residents in 1950 and 1951. In the first post you will find the images I have labeled as 1-6. A brief discussion is found in the first post.

Image 7: Portrait in progress, 1951 (NAA A12111, 1/1951/22/33; barcode: 7427682)

Image 8: Paintings & art work (NAA A12111, 1/1951/22/25; barcode: 7427674)

Image 9: Crèche storytelling with Aboriginal mural, 1951 (NAA A12111, 1/1951/22/27; barcode: 7427676)

Image 10: Ukraine woman displays clothing at New Australian's Handicrafts exhibition at Bathurst - CU1247-5, 1950 (NAA A8139, Volume 8, CU1247-5; barcode: 8286606)

Image 11: New Australians stage Tosca at Bathurst migrant centre - CU1250-1, 1950 (NAA A8139, Volume 8, CU1250-1; barcode: 8286616)

Image 12: Bathurst Camp Post Office, 1951 (NAA C4076, C4076/1, HN6013 part B; Barcode: 3037290)

Image 13: Bathurst Camp Post Office, 1951 (NAA C4076, C4076/1, HN6013 part A; barcode: 3037289)

For details of NAA series A12111 (see, part 1 of this post). The originals photographs for images 10 and 11 are from NAA series A8139, Photograph albums of prints in 'L' series and 'CU' series [produced by the Australian News and Information Bureau, Canberra]. The originals for images 12 and 13 are in NAA series C4076, Photographic negatives, single number series with HN (Historical, New South Wales) prefix [produced by the Postmaster-General's Department, State Administration, New South Wales].

Images: © Commonwealth of Australia, 1950 and 1951.

Photographs of the Department of Immigration Reception and Training Centre, Bathurst in the National Archives of Australia (Part 1)

Constant Reader, I am attempting, as I have said several times, to locate evidence of my dad through the trail of records; to that end I have been interrogating the records database at the National Archives of Australia (NAA). I am looking for any and all records of the Department of Immigration Reception and Training Centre, Bathurst and I have found a series of photographs (part of NAA series A8139, A12111 & C4076) of the camp and its residents from 1950 and 1951.

The photographs, which are quite formal, were most likely taken for publicity purposes and give some indication of the spartan nature of the place (the site and all the buildings were ex-Army and so were light on creature comforts) and of the life there for the "New Australians" as they were often called at the time. Its also useful to remember that a person's stay here was always intended to be short - long enough to learn basic Australian English, some basic skills, and to acclimatise to the new country and its people.

Image 1: Children at gate, 1951 (NAA A12111, 1/1951/22/26; barcode: 7427675).

Image 2: Family room, 1951 (NAA A12111, 1/1951/22/29; barcode: 7427678).

Image 3: English class, 1951 (NAA A12111, 1/1951/22/34; barcode: 7427683)

Image 4: Carpenters at work, 1951 (NAA A12111, 1/1951/22/32; barcode: 7427681)

Image 5: Children at play in front of Centre, 1951 (NAA A12111, 1/1951/22/31; barcode: 7427680)

Image 6: Family walk, accommodation in back, 1951 (NAA A12111, 1/1951/22/30; barcode: 7427679)

These image and associated information are viewable through the NAA database,see the link at the top of this post. The image captions are taken from the NAA record for the photograph. The originals are part of NAA series A12111, Immigration Photographic Archive 1946 - Today.

Images: © Commonwealth of Australia, 1950 and 1951.

The remains of the Department of Immigration Reception and Training Centre, Bathurst

This afternoon I drove out to the the site of the Department of Immigration Reception and Training Centre, Bathurst. This was my father's first place of residence in Australia in late 1949 and for some of 1950. The Australian army also had a camp at the same location from 1940 to 1947. The migrant camp as I mentioned in an earlier post is long gone (it closed in 1952) and the place is now occupied by the Bathurst Sheep and Cattle Drome (i.e. aerodrome) and other than a memorial by the entry road there was nothing above ground I could see. The above photo shows a general view of the Drome from the entry road (click on the image to enlarge).

The site is surrounded by farming land in all directions, with the town of Bathurst 8 kms to the north west, and in that regard the basic look is not much different from the time the camps (Immigration and Army) were here.

In a future post I will have more to say, once I finish, my reading and current research, that is!

Above, a relic, possibly a wool dray (used to transport bales of raw wool until the 1930's) with an iron/steel plow? dumped on top.

Kate Bush's Aerial (2005)

I have been an on again, off again fan of the music of Kate Bush since the mid 1980's. I have always loved her original and often quirky lyrics. Aerial has become a much played favourite, although I do ration myself so as to not loose my taste for it, and also not drive family and friends crazy. It's that old saying: everything in moderation.

Back to Kate and Aerial (and Constant Reader, I am quite deliberately not looking at any reviews of it so I can write honestly of my impressions), I think it does what I think all music should do, that is, Kate's music transports you; it raises positive emotions in you; the lyrics and the music paint pictures in your mind. So please give me license, for here I am operating at the level of my emotions and not acting as a very amateur music critic. In Aerial, Kate Bush, turns the commonplace: housekeeping into music (Mrs. Bartolozzi); Pi (the mathematical ratio) into music, however, I am sure most mathematicians would say emphatically that maths is music; she sings of passion (Joanni and An architect's dream); of love for her son (Bertie); and of nature, and of the passage of time (Sunset and Aerial).

Now go and listen to it! If you don't want to take my word and need a professional review go to allMusic, look up Kate Bush or Aerial, read the review (which I have just read to conclude this post) and listen. Her official website is to be found here: http://www.katebush.com/

Details: Bush, Kate Aerial. [London] : EMI, 2005 (2 CDs, runtime: 80 minutes); released in Australia as EMI 0946 3 43960 2 8

The UNHCR Archives and Records Section responds

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has responded to my latest email regarding the location, and access to the records of United Nations International Refugee Organisation (IRO). In the latest attempt I directed my inquiry to the Archives section of the UNHCR, rather than to the organisation in general, and the Archives section replied within 12 hours! The answer:

Dear Peter N ...,

The records of the International Refugee Organization (IRO) were placed in the Archives Nationales de France in Paris when the agency closed in 1951 (Fonds AJ 43). More information may be found by addressing a request to the Archives Nationales, 60 rue des Francs-Bourgeois, 75141 Paris, FRANCE http://www.archivesnationales.culture.gouv.fr/chan/

Kind regards

Montserrat Canela,

Senior Archivist

UNHCR Records and Archives Section

94, rue de Montbrilland

1202 Geneva, Switzerland"

The answer shows that logic does not always apply when dealing with organisations, I had the thought that my previous emails would be sent on to the appropriate officer in UNHCR; I was wrong. My general inquiries to the UNHCR resulted in no replies, whereas, my question sent specifically to their archives people merited an answer; fit your question to a particular part of the target organisation and you are more likely to get an answer! The other piece of logic that did not work was the idea that the UNHCR would inherit and retain the files of its predecessor organisation, the IRO.

Now for a short (Internet) trip to Paris.

Lost in the records labyrinth

For the last two weeks, during the spare hour here and there I have been continuing my search for my dad by following the paper trail. Being a librarian and priding myself on my search and re-search skills I had thought that the road would be tough but that I would find some breadcrumbs of information. Well Constant Reader, pride goeth before a fall; other than my initial finds l have located nothing new. Two paths have been followed, the National Archives of Australia and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and I have found many records at the NAA and have had nothing from the UNHCR (in fact the UNHCR does not reply to my emails even to tell me that they can't help me).

At the NAA there is a bewildering number of records of current and former Commonwealth agencies that could have or would have assisted my father, at last count I found four major bodies (e.g Department of Immigration, Central Office) and fifteen minor bodies on the virtual paths, tracks and secondary roads as represented by the NAA database. In truth I don't what I am doing and don't know enough about how a displaced person like my father progressed through the system, or anything about the agencies or their records. He may well appear in the records, however, it is likely as a name within a record and not as the subject of the record, in this manner he appears in the nominal roll of the ship Goya (see Voyage of the Goya, September-October, 1949 in this blog). As such he will not appear in the record indexes. Knowing the administrative process would help as it would lead me to some of the right doors to knock on (in a virtual sense).

The local public library, in its local history collection has some general information about the Department of Immigration Reception and Training Centre, Bathurst which will help me visualise the place my father lived in when I visit the site. The file told me that other than a memorial not much is left. My fear is that not much is left of my father in the records of the various government agencies (national and international) and he may be impossible to track. Dear Constant Reader you are no doubt thinking I should have talked to him while he was with us, but he often didn't want to talk about the past or simply said he did not remember, and I didn't want to press or pester him, and that, I suspect is a common problem in researching family history. And there is my mother, as a source of information about my father. None the less I will solider on, hopeful that if I keep at this I will eventually find information about him.


Images: Dad by the sea in Italy, and with a group (fellow displaced persons/immigrants?), dated 23/26 June, 1949.