worldsciencefestival

Quite possibly from 1924 and certainly by mid-1925, Dudley Eglinton had lost his eyesight and could no longer observe. He still wrote articles which were published and indeed his final article ‘The Southern Cross’ for the Queensland Agricultural Journal was published in December 1936. He managed this by dictating to his third wife Anna Catherine Sophie Cordes Eglinton (born 1860 but one source states 1880). But Anna was not a mere helper. She was very competent, and as later described, considerably ameliorated the shortcomings brought about by his blindness. John Henry Nicholson and his wife Anna Cordes Anna Cordes and John Henry Nicholson – State Library of Queensland. (wrongly ascribed as 1890… but must be after 1905 when married.) Dudley Eglington had married Anna on 4th August 1926 when he was already blind. She was the widow of John Henry Nicholson – schoolmaster, poet and author of ‘Halek’ and other works (1838 -1923). Nicholson’s first wife had died in 1901. Anna had married him in 1905 but after three months suffering from ‘melancholia’, Nicholson had spent much of his remaining time at the Goodna Mental Hospital7. Anna had a German background, was intellectually accomplished, and perhaps she enjoyed the mental stimulation even though living in a position of a carer for old men. She survived Eglinton by 11 years, dying in 1948, and together with Eglinton and his family members is buried in Toowong Cemetery, Brisbane. In his final decade, his wife attended to his secretarial work and he would dictate correspondence, articles and papers. From at least one article that appeared under both their names, she appears to have collaborated with him. You may well visualise an intelligent articulate person able to perform the research, collaborating with a person with the experience and background knowledge, but whose blindness severely limited him. His wife attended for him and presented a paper to the first official meeting of the newly formed Astronomical Society of Queensland on 3rd October 1927. An interesting snippet is that Mrs Eglinton (Anna) was in receipt of a literary pension from the Government – undoubtedly as the widow of J. H. Nicholson. This amounted to £52 in 1932/33. It only appeared in a listing in the newspaper9 because there was a controversy about a political inclusion of three persons in the grant including the Prime Minister’s chauffeur and a typist. Another recipient was Mrs G. Essex-Evans (widow of the poet). She was a sister of Dudley Eglinton and received an identical amount of £52. Source: www.aaq.org.au/dudley-eglinton/

"Dr Kelvin Kong and Dr Mark Wenitong are two prominent leaders in Indigenous health, but they say they faced several obstacles throughout their journey of studying western medicine while keeping true to their culture." Source: www.sbs.com.au/topics/voices/culture/article/2016/10/21/m...

The Japanese occupied Nauru for three years (26th August 1942 - 13 September 1945). Nauru is a Pacific Island which was under Australian administration. The population of Nauru was decimated by several diseases against which they had no immune defences. The Island was mined for phosphate and was a valuable source of income for Australia. Nauru is still in the process of recovering from the decimation of the Island by mining from Colonial powers as well as by the Japanese Occupied Force. (source Wikipedia)

In the mid 1920’s Alfred Traeger invented the pedal-powered radio, revolutionising communication in the outback. The invention was integral to the founding of the Royal Flying Doctor Service, allowing the Service to make contact with the people who needed their help and vice versa. In 1928 Traeger developed the pedal-powered radio. A floor mounted generator, driven with bicycle pedals, powering a radio transceiver which could send morse code. The following year, a base station was established at Cloncurry, Queensland and the first pedal wireless was installed at Augustus Downs Station, 150 miles out of town. The first transmission was made on the 19th June, 1929 by Gertrude Rothery, the manager's wife, to Traeger’s assistant Harry Kinzbrunner at Cloncurry. Over the next 8 years Treager continued to manufacture and improve the pedal sets, installing them at homesteads, hospitals, missions and the bases of the Aerial Medical Service, which later became the RFDS. Source; www.flyingdoctor.org.au/qld/news/how-alfred-traeger-gave-...