Australian Trivia Only

[supersparky]

I have a vague recollection that some of our members were actually part of the team at ( I think ) Honeysuckle Creek, near Canberra.

[Macca]

Parkes is correct but what part did they play after an announcement from the Spacecraft which said what?

[supersparky]

I'm gunna have to watch the Dish again to answer that one.

[T1 Terry]

I'm gunna have to watch the Dish again to answer that one.

The Dish was Apollo 11 I think, Apollo 13 was the near disaster moon mission where an oxygen tank exploded when stirred and they had to modify the lunar lander to cater for 3 astronauts instead of the 2 it was designed for as it would not be used in a moon landing and they had to eject the command module.
There was a movie called Apollo13 where an astronaut was replaced at the last minute and the replacement turned out to be the one who saved the 3 of them when he made the calculations in his head showing the re-entry angle NASA calculated was wrong. No idea if any of that was factual or a dramatization that Hollywood likes to do.
My guess is Australia was the contact point where the NASA calculations were questioned by the command module pilot

T1 Terry

[Macca]

Parkes tracked the stricken spacecraft after they heard "Houston we have a problem". Post a question someone.

[Greynomad]

A publican named James Bentley played an incidental but pivotal role in Australian history.
What did he do? And what was the result?

[Macca]

Probably involved in troubles with his hotel at Eureka and the gold miners?

[Greynomad]

You’re on the right track...
Details please, Macca

[Macca]

That would need Mr Google? above was a pure guess.

[Greynomad]

OK, I'll give you what I found.

In 1854 an 'amiable Scot' named James Scobie, who was a bit of a drunkard, decided he needed a little more 'social lubrication' to get him back to his tent on the Ballarat gold diggings.
As it was after hours, he pounded on the door of Bentley's Eureka Hotel. (It was not a locality, just a pub which gave the rebellion its name)
Bentley was apparently a hothead. He opened the door and struck the inebriated Scobie with a 'heavy object', killing him.
A few months later he was found not guilty of murder, a verdict which the miners read as 'the gentry sticking together' and looking after each other.
It was the final straw for the diggers who had been harassed & jailed by police after burning their miner's licences in protest at the exhorbitant cost: 36 Pounds. (Today's equivalent: about $40,000, equates to roughly half a year's wages for a manual labourer)
The hotel was burned down, the diggers retreated to their stockade, and the rest — as the saying goes — is history.

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One advantage of being married to a retired teacher of Australian History: lots of reference material.
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Macca,
Your turn!