1.
Melbourne
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Melbourne is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in Australia and Oceania. The name Melbourne refers to an urban agglomeration spanning 9,900 km2, the metropolis is located on the large natural bay of Port Phillip and expands into the hinterlands towards the Dandenong and Macedon mountain ranges, Mornington Peninsula and Yarra Valley. It has a population of 4,641,636 as of 2016, and its inhabitants are called Melburnians. Founded by free settlers from the British Crown colony of Van Diemens Land on 30 August 1835, in what was then the colony of New South Wales, it was incorporated as a Crown settlement in 1837. It was named Melbourne by the Governor of New South Wales, Sir Richard Bourke, in honour of the British Prime Minister of the day, William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne. It was officially declared a city by Queen Victoria, to whom Lord Melbourne was close, in 1847, during the Victorian gold rush of the 1850s, it was transformed into one of the worlds largest and wealthiest cities. After the federation of Australia in 1901, it served as the interim seat of government until 1927. It is a financial centre in the Asia-Pacific region. It is recognised as a UNESCO City of Literature and a centre for street art, music. It was the host city of the 1956 Summer Olympics and the 2006 Commonwealth Games, the main passenger airport serving the metropolis and the state is Melbourne Airport, the second busiest in Australia. The Port of Melbourne is Australias busiest seaport for containerised and general cargo, Melbourne has an extensive transport network. The main metropolitan train terminus is Flinders Street Station, and the regional train. Melbourne is also home to Australias most extensive network and has the worlds largest urban tram network. Before the arrival of settlers, humans had occupied the area for an estimated 31,000 to 40,000 years. At the time of European settlement, it was inhabited by under 2000 hunter-gatherers from three indigenous tribes, the Wurundjeri, Boonwurrung and Wathaurong. The area was an important meeting place for the clans of the Kulin nation alliance and it would be 30 years before another settlement was attempted. Batman selected a site on the bank of the Yarra River. Batman then returned to Launceston in Tasmania, in early August 1835 a different group of settlers, including John Pascoe Fawkner, left Launceston on the ship Enterprize
2.
Victoria (Australia)
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Victoria is a state in southeast Australia. Victoria is Australias most densely populated state and its second-most populous state overall, most of its population is concentrated in the area surrounding Port Phillip Bay, which includes the metropolitan area of its state capital and largest city, Melbourne, Australias second-largest city. Prior to British European settlement, the area now constituting Victoria was inhabited by a number of Aboriginal peoples. With Great Britain having claimed the entire Australian continent east of the 135th meridian east in 1788, Victoria was included in the wider colony of New South Wales. The first settlement in the area occurred in 1803 at Sullivan Bay, and much of what is now Victoria was included in the Port Phillip District in 1836, Victoria was officially created as a separate colony in 1851, and achieved self-government in 1855. Politically, Victoria has 37 seats in the Australian House of Representatives and 12 seats in the Australian Senate, at state level, the Parliament of Victoria consists of the Legislative Assembly and the Legislative Council. Victoria is currently governed by the Labor Party, with Daniel Andrews the current Premier, the personal representative of the Queen of Australia in the state is the Governor of Victoria, currently Linda Dessau. Local government is concentrated in 79 municipal districts, including 33 cities, although a number of unincorporated areas still exist, Victorias total gross state product is ranked second in Australia, although Victoria is ranked fourth in terms of GSP per capita because of its limited mining activity. Culturally, Melbourne is home to a number of museums, art galleries and theatres and is described as the sporting capital of Australia. The Melbourne Cricket Ground is the largest stadium in Australia, and the host of the 1956 Summer Olympics, Victoria has eight public universities, with the oldest, the University of Melbourne, having been founded in 1853. Victoria, like Queensland, was named after Queen Victoria, who had been on the British throne for 14 years when the colony was established in 1851. The first British settlement in the later known as Victoria was established in October 1803 under Lieutenant-Governor David Collins at Sullivan Bay on Port Phillip. In the year 1826 Colonel Stewart, Captain S. Wright, fly and the brigs Dragon and Amity, took a number of convicts and a small force composed of detachments of the 3rd and 93rd regiments. Victorias next settlement was at Portland, on the south west coast of what is now Victoria, edward Henty settled Portland Bay in 1834. Melbourne was founded in 1835 by John Batman, who set up a base in Indented Head, from settlement the region around Melbourne was known as the Port Phillip District, a separately administered part of New South Wales. Shortly after the now known as Geelong was surveyed by Assistant Surveyor W. H. Smythe. And in 1838 Geelong was officially declared a town, despite earlier white settlements dating back to 1826, days later, still in 1851 gold was discovered near Ballarat, and subsequently at Bendigo. Later discoveries occurred at sites across Victoria
3.
Frankston, Victoria
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Frankston is an outer-suburb of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia, in the local government area of the City of Frankston. It is located 41 km south-east of the Melbourne city centre, due to its geographic location, it is often referred to as the gateway to the Mornington Peninsula. European settlement of Frankston began around the time as the foundation of Melbourne in 1835—initially as an unofficial fishing village serving the early Melbourne township. Prior to its settlement, the Frankston area was inhabited by the Mayone-bulluk clan from the Bunurong tribe of the Kulin nation. The official village of Frankston was established in 1854, with its first land sales taking place on 29 May and it has subsequently given its name to the broader Frankston local government area since 1893, and serves as both its activity and administrative centre. Situated on the shoreline of Port Phillip, Frankston has been a popular seaside destination of Melbourne since the 1880s. Frankston Beach is still one of the most frequented in Victoria and it is also home to one of the largest exhibitions of sand sculpting in the Southern Hemisphere. Localities in the include, Frankston Central Business District, Frankston East, Frankston Heights, Karingal, Long Island, Mount Erin. The independent suburb of Frankston South also shares the same postcode as Frankston, at the 2011 Australian census the suburb of Frankston had a population of 35,009. The demonym for someone from Frankston is a Frankstonian, the toponymic origins of Frankston are subject to conjecture, and of which there are four popular theories. One of the earliest of these theories is that it was named one of its early European settlers, Frank Liardet. The Liardets were prominent pioneers of early Melbourne and arrived aboard the William Metcalfe from England in 1839, Frank Liardet settled in the Frankston area in 1847, after taking out a 300-acre depasturing license for land that is now the Frankston locality of Karingal. During this time, Liardet built the first wooden house in the Frankston area—which would later part of his Ballam Park estate after the formal land sales of 1854. By the time Liardet had taken out his license for the Frankston area in 1847 an unofficial fishing village was also developing around its foreshore. As a consequence it is possible that the name of Frankston was further adapted from it when naming the village for its formal land sales in 1854. However, in a letter to the editor of The Argus newspaper a member of the Liardet family said that this was in fact not true, in the letter was excerpts of correspondence between the Liardet family and the Victorian state Department of Lands and Survey which refuted the theory. Instead, it puts forward the theory that Frankston was named after the Irish-born settler Charles Franks, Charles Franks arrived in Melbourne aboard the Champion from Van Diemens Land in 1836 and made a squatters claim to land on the western side of Port Phillip near Mount Cottrel. Another theory—that has become folklore—is that Frankston was named after a pub named Frank Stones Hotel, in 1929 the author Don Charlwood, a student of Frankston High School at the time, compiled a history of Frankston using both local records and oral sources supporting the theory
4.
Port Phillip
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Port Phillip, is a large bay in southern Victoria, Australia, it is the location of Melbourne. Geographically, the bay covers 1,930 square kilometres and the shore stretches roughly 264 km, although it is extremely shallow for its size, most of the bay is navigable. The deepest portion is only 24 metres, and half the region is shallower than 8 m, the volume of the water in the bay is around 25 cubic kilometres. Prior to British settlement the area around Port Phillip was divided between the territories of the Wathaurong, Wurundjeri and Boonwurrung Nations and its waters and coast are home to seals, whales, dolphins, corals, and many kinds of seabirds and migratory waders. The first British to enter the bay were the crews of HMS Lady Nelson, commanded by John Murray and, ten weeks later, HMS Investigator commanded by Matthew Flinders, in 1802. Subsequent expeditions into the bay took place in 1803 to establish the first settlement in Victoria, near Sorrento, but was abandoned in 1804. Thirty years later, settlers from Tasmania returned to establish Melbourne, now the capital city, at the mouth of the Yarra River in 1835. The Yarra and other tributaries flowed down what is now the middle of the bay, formed a lake in the reaches of the bay, dammed by The Heads. The Aboriginal people were in occupation of the area long before the bay was formed, having arrived at least 20,000 years ago and possibly 40,000 years ago. Large piles of semi-fossilised sea-shells known as middens, can still be seen in places around the shoreline and they made a good living from the abundant sea-life, which included penguins and seals. In the cold season they wore possum-skin cloaks and elaborate feathered head-dresses, a dry period combined with sand bar formation, may have dried the bay out as recently as between 800 BCE and 1000 CE. In 1800, Lieutenant James Grant RN was the first known explorer to pass through Bass Strait from west to east in HMS Lady Nelson. He was also the first to see, and crudely chart, Grant gave the name Governor Kings Bay to the body of water between Cape Otway and Wilsons Promontory, but did not venture in and discover Port Phillip. The first Britons to discover and enter Port Phillip, were the crew of the Lady Nelson, commanded by John Murray, Murray called the bay Port King after the Governor of New South Wales, Philip Gidley King. On 4 September 1805, King formally renamed it Port Phillip, about ten weeks after Murray, Matthew Flinders RN in HMS Investigator also found and entered the port, unaware Murray had been there. As a result of Murrays and Flinders reports, King sent Lieutenant Charles Robbins in HMS Cumberland to explore Port Phillip fully. One of his party, Charles Grimes, became the first European to walk round the bay. King decided to place a convict settlement at Port Phillip, mainly to stake a claim to southern Australia ahead of the French, on 10 October 1803 a convoy of two ships HMS Calcutta and Ocean led by Captain David Collins carrying 402 people entered Port Philip Bay
5.
Central business district
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A central business district is the commercial and business centre of a city. In larger cities, it is synonymous with the citys financial district. Both the CBD and the city centre or downtown may also coincide with the central activities district, a citys CBD is usually typified by a concentration of retail and office buildings. The CBD usually has a density higher than the surrounding districts of the city. The CBD is often also the city centre or downtown, Mexico City also has a historic city centre, the colonial-era Centro Histórico, along with two CBDs, the mid-late 20th century Paseo de la Reforma - Polanco, and the new Santa Fe. The shape and type of a CBD almost always reflect the citys history. Cities with maximum building height restrictions often have a historic section quite apart from the financial. It has been said that downtowns are therefore distinct from both CBDs and city centres. CBDs usually have very small resident populations, for example, the population of the City of London declined from over 200,000 in the year 1700 to less than 10,000 today. In some instances, however, CBD populations are increasing as younger professional, the Buenos Aires Central Business District, is the main commercial centre of Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina. The actual area was the point of first European settlement and its north-south axis runs from Monserrat in the south to Retiro railway station in the north. Its east-west axis runs from Buenos Aires Ecological Reserve and Puerto Madero, the district is the financial, commercial, and cultural hub of Argentina. Its port is one of the busiest in South America, navigable rivers by way of the Río de la Plata connect the port to northeast Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, and Paraguay. As a result, it serves as the hub for a vast area of the southeastern region of the South American continent. Tax collection related to the port has caused political problems in the past. The Buenos Aires Human Development Index is likewise high by international standards, the term is used to refer to the business and financial area of a state capital city such as the Sydney CBD, Melbourne CBD, Brisbane CBD, Perth CBD and Adelaide CBD. The city centres of some cities, such as Townsville, Bendigo. More recently, in cities the city centre, which may or may not be distinct from the CBD, is increasingly separately identified
6.
Dandenong Ranges
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The Dandenong Ranges are a set of low mountain ranges, rising to 633 metres at Mount Dandenong, approximately 35 km east of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The ranges consist mostly of rolling hills, steeply weathered valleys and gullies covered in temperate rainforest, predominantly of tall Mountain Ash trees. After European settlement in the region, the range was used as a source of timber for Melbourne. The ranges were popular with day-trippers from the 1870s onwards, much of the Dandenongs were protected by parklands as early as 1882 and by 1987 these parklands were amalgamated to form the Dandenong Ranges National Park, which was added to again in 1997. The range experiences light to moderate snow falls a few times most years, today, the Dandenongs are home to over 100,000 residents and the area is popular amongst visitors, many of which stay for the weekend at the various Bed & Breakfasts through the region. The popular Puffing Billy Railway, a steam railway, runs through the southern parts of the Dandenongs. The etymology of the Dandenongs is a complicated one, two names have been used to refer to the ranges, Corhanwarrabul and Dandenong, both derived from the Woiwurrung language of the Wurundjeri people. It is suspected that the name Dandenong was applied to the ranges because Dandenong Creek originates there, however and it is not known where the name Dandenong came from nor what it means, or even its correct spelling, other variations include, Tanjenong, Tangynon and Bangeong. In any case, both names relate at least to watercourses in general, and not to mountains or ranges, so as the name Dandenong may not actually apply to anything in the immediate area, the relevance of the name Corhanwarrabul becomes apparent. Carhanwarrabul was the name for one of the two main summits, perhaps both or perhaps the entire range. The name applied to the summits and was in continued use up until around 1900. At any rate, Corhanwarrabul remains the most relevant name for the ranges to date, the range is the remains of an extinct volcano last active 373 million years ago. It consists predominantly of Devonian dacite and rhyodacite, the topography consists of a series of ridges dissected by deeply cut streams. Rainfall is fairly uniform through the year, tending to peak between April and October with lower rainfall during the months of January and February, the mean annual rainfall is between 1000 and 1500 mm, increasing with elevation and from west to east. Due to the elevation, fog is common in winter months, as a result of its elevation snow typically falls one or two times a year at higher elevations, mostly between the months of June and October. A rare summer snow occurred on Christmas Day 2006, the local region has experienced substantial warming in recent decades and heavy snowfalls which were once common have become rare. The last significant snowfall to affect the Dandenongs Ranges was on August 10,2008, a Bureau of Meteorology weather station sits at an elevation of 513 m in the Ferny Creek Reserve in the southern part of the Dandenongs Ranges. This weather station replaced one that was located on the summit of Dunns Hill
7.
Saint Helena
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It is part of the British Overseas Territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha. Saint Helena measures about 16 by 8 kilometres and has a population of 4,534 and it was named after Saint Helena of Constantinople. The island, one of the most remote islands in the world, was uninhabited when discovered by the Portuguese in 1502 and it was an important stopover for ships sailing to Europe from Asia and South Africa for centuries. Napoleon was imprisoned there in exile by the British, as were Dinuzulu kaCetshwayo, between 1791 and 1833, Saint Helena became the site of a series of experiments in conservation, reforestation and attempts to boost rainfall artificially. This environmental intervention was closely linked to the conceptualisation of the processes of environmental change, Saint Helena is Britains second-oldest remaining overseas territory after Bermuda. The Portuguese found the island uninhabited, with an abundance of trees and they imported livestock, fruit trees and vegetables, and built a chapel and one or two houses. Englishman Sir Francis Drake probably located the island on the leg of his circumnavigation of the world. In developing their Far East trade, the Dutch also began to frequent the island, the Dutch Republic formally made claim to Saint Helena in 1633, although there is no evidence that they ever occupied, colonized, or fortified it. By 1651, the Dutch had mainly abandoned the island in favour of their colony at the Cape of Good Hope. In 1657, Oliver Cromwell granted the English East India Company a charter to govern Saint Helena and, the following year, the first governor Captain John Dutton arrived in 1659, making Saint Helena one of Britains oldest colonies outside North America and the Caribbean. A fort and houses were built, after the Restoration of the English monarchy in 1660, the East India Company received a royal charter giving it the sole right to fortify and colonise the island. The fort was renamed James Fort and the town Jamestown, in honour of the Duke of York, between January and May 1673, the Dutch East India Company forcibly took the island, before English reinforcements restored English East India Company control. The company experienced difficulty attracting new immigrants, and sentiments of unrest, a census in 1723 recorded 1,110 people, including 610 slaves. The island enjoyed a period of prosperity from about 1770. Captain James Cook visited the island in 1775 on the leg of his second circumnavigation of the world. St. James Church was erected in Jamestown in 1774, the site of this telescope is near Saint Mathews Church in Hutts Gate in the Longwood district. The 680-metre high hill there is named for him and is called Halleys Mount, throughout this period, Saint Helena was an important port of call of the East India Company. East Indiamen would stop there on the leg of their voyages to British India
8.
United States Marine Corps
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The U. S. Marine Corps is one of the four armed service branches in the U. S. Department of Defense and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the military officer in the U. S. Armed Forces, is a Marine Corps general, the Marine Corps has been a component of the U. S. Department of the Navy since 30 June 1834, working closely with naval forces for training, transportation, and logistics. The USMC operates posts on land and aboard sea-going amphibious warfare ships around the world, two battalions of Continental Marines were formed on 10 November 1775 in Philadelphia as a service branch of infantry troops capable of fighting for independence both at sea and on shore. The role of the Corps has since grown and evolved, expanding to aerial warfare and earning popular titles such as, Americas third air force, and, second land army. By the mid-20th century, the U. S. Marine Corps had become a major theorist of and its ability to rapidly respond on short notice to expeditionary crises gives it a strong role in the implementation and execution of American foreign policy. As of 2016, the USMC has around 182,000 active duty members and it is the smallest of the U. S. The USMC serves as an expeditionary force-in-readiness and this last clause, while seemingly redundant given the Presidents position as Commander-in-chief, is a codification of the expeditionary responsibilities of the Marine Corps. It derives from similar language in the Congressional acts For the Better Organization of the Marine Corps of 1834, in 1951, the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee called the clause one of the most important statutory – and traditional – functions of the Marine Corps. In addition to its duties, the Marine Corps conducts Visit, Board, Search, and Seizure operations, as well as missions in direct support of the White House. The Marine Band, dubbed the Presidents Own by Thomas Jefferson, Marines from Ceremonial Companies A & B, quartered in Marine Barracks, Washington, D. C. The Executive Flight Detachment also provides transport to Cabinet members. The relationship between the Department of State and the U. S. Marine Corps is nearly as old as the corps itself, for over 200 years, Marines have served at the request of various Secretaries of State. After World War II, an alert, disciplined force was needed to protect American embassies, consulates, in 1947, a proposal was made that the Department of War furnish Marine Corps personnel for Foreign Service guard duty under the provisions of the Foreign Service Act of 1946. A formal Memorandum of Agreement was signed between the Department of State and the Secretary of the Navy on December 15,1948, during the first year of the MSG program,36 detachments were deployed worldwide. Continental Marines manned raiding parties, both at sea and ashore, the Advanced Base Doctrine of the early 20th century codified their combat duties ashore, outlining the use of Marines in the seizure of bases and other duties on land to support naval campaigns. Throughout the late 19th and 20th centuries, Marine detachments served aboard Navy cruisers, battleships, Marine detachments served in their traditional duties as a ships landing force, manning the ships weapons and providing shipboard security. Marines would develop tactics and techniques of amphibious assault on defended coastlines in time for use in World War II, during World War II, Marines continued to serve on capital ships
9.
1st Marine Division (United States)
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The 1st Marine Division is a Marine infantry division of the United States Marine Corps headquartered at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California. It is the combat element of the I Marine Expeditionary Force. It is the oldest and largest active duty division in the United States Marine Corps and it is one of three active duty divisions in the Marine Corps today and is a multi-role, expeditionary ground combat force. It is nicknamed The Old Breed, the division is employed as the ground combat element of the I Marine Expeditionary Force or may provide task-organized forces for assault operations and such operations as may be directed. The 5th Marines were created in Vera Cruz, Mexico on 13 July 1914 and participated in 15 major engagements during World War I, including Belleau Wood, Chateau Thierry, and St. Mihiel. On 7 August 1917, 7th Marines were activated in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the 11th Marines was formed in January 1918 at Quantico, Va. as a light artillery regiment. The regiment went to France as a unit, providing a machine gun company. Decommissioned and reactivated twice between the wars, the regiment was re-formed in 1940 as a full-fledged artillery unit. The 1st Marine Division was activated aboard the USS Texas on 1 February 1941, the 1st Raider Battalion was on New Caledonia, and the 3rd Defense Battalion was in Pearl Harbor. All of the units, with the 11th Marines and 75mm howitzer armed 10th Marines battalion would rendezvous at Fiji. Also, because the Wellington dock workers were on strike at the time, other things not yet available to this first wave of Marine deployments were insect repellent and mosquito netting. On 31 July the entire Marine task force was placed under the command of Vice Admiral Frank J. Fletchers Task Force 61, the division as a whole would fight in the Guadalcanal Campaign until relieved at 1400 on 9 December 1942 by Alexander Patchs Americal Division. This operation won the Division its first of three World War II Presidential Unit Citations, the battle would cost the division 650 killed in action,1,278 wounded in action with a further 8,580 contracting malaria and 31 missing in action. Others were awarded for the battles of Peleliu and Okinawa, following the Guadalcanal Campaign, the divisions Marines were sent to Melbourne, Australia for rest and refit. It was during this time that the division took the traditional Australian folk song Waltzing Matilda as its battle hymn, to this day, 1st Division Marines still ship out to this song being played. The division would see action during Operation Cartwheel which was the codename for the campaigns in Eastern New Guinea. They came ashore at the Battle of Cape Gloucester on 26 December 1943 and fought on New Britain until March 1944 at such places as Suicide Creek, during the course of the battle the division had 310 killed and 1,083 wounded. Following the battle they were sent to Pavuvu in the Russell Islands for rest, the next battle for the 1st Marine Division would be the bloodiest yet at the Battle of Peleliu
10.
Guadalcanal Campaign
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It was the first major offensive by Allied forces against the Empire of Japan. The Allies also intended to use Guadalcanal and Tulagi as bases to support a campaign to capture or neutralize the major Japanese base at Rabaul on New Britain. Powerful American and Australian naval forces supported the landings, surprised by the Allied offensive, the Japanese made several attempts between August and November to retake Henderson Field. In December, the Japanese abandoned their efforts to retake Guadalcanal and evacuated their forces by 7 February 1943. The Guadalcanal campaign was a significant strategic combined arms Allied victory in the Pacific theater, along with the Battle of Midway, it has been called a turning point in the war against Japan. The Japanese had reached the peak of their conquests in the Pacific, on 7 December 1941, Japanese forces attacked the United States Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The attack crippled much of the U. S. battleship fleet and precipitated an open, to further those goals, Japanese forces captured the Philippines, Thailand, Malaya, Singapore, Burma, the Dutch East Indies, Wake Island, Gilbert Islands, New Britain and Guam. Joining the U. S. in the war against Japan were the rest of the Allied powers, several of whom, including the United Kingdom, Australia, coral Sea was a tactical stalemate, but a strategic Allied victory which became clear only much later. Up to this point, the Allies had been on the defensive in the Pacific, originally the objectives were the occupation of the Santa Cruz Islands, codenamed Huddle, Tulagi, codenamed Watchtower, and adjacent positions. Guadalcanal, eventually the focus of the operation, was not even mentioned in the early directive, the Imperial Japanese Navy had occupied Tulagi in May 1942 and had constructed a seaplane base nearby. By August 1942, the Japanese had about 900 naval troops on Tulagi and these bases would protect Japans major base at Rabaul, threaten Allied supply and communication lines and establish a staging area for a planned offensive against Fiji, New Caledonia and Samoa. The Japanese planned to deploy 45 fighters and 60 bombers to Guadalcanal, in the overall strategy for 1942 these aircraft could provide air cover for Japanese naval forces advancing farther into the South Pacific. The Allied plan to invade the southern Solomons was conceived by U. S. Admiral Ernest King, Commander in Chief, United States Fleet. He proposed the offensive to deny the use of the islands by the Japanese as bases to threaten the supply routes between the United States and Australia and to use them as starting points. With US President Franklin D. Roosevelts tacit consent, King also advocated the invasion of Guadalcanal, an early obstacle was a desire by both the Army and Roosevelt to initiate action in Europe. The directive held that the goal was the American reconquest of the Philippines. Joint Chiefs of Staff created the South Pacific theater, with Vice Admiral Robert L. Ghormley taking command on 19 June 1942, Admiral Chester Nimitz, based at Pearl Harbor, was designated as overall Allied commander in chief for Pacific forces. In preparation for the offensive in the Pacific in May 1942, other Allied land, naval and air force units were sent to establish or reinforce bases in Fiji, Samoa, New Hebrides and New Caledonia
11.
EastLink (Melbourne)
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EastLink is a tolled section of the M3 freeway linking a large area through the eastern and south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Australia. It is a part of Melbournes Metropolitan Ring Road project, EastLink is electronically tolled with no cash booths, using a system developed by SICE. The SICE Tolling System is similar to the system used on the CityLink tollway. EastLink was opened to traffic on Sunday 29 June 2008 and in conjunction with the opening, the final project cost was A$2.5 billion. Signs are at the entrances and on the direct to Ringwood, Dandenong, Frankston. The road was shown in the 1969 Melbourne Transportation Plan as the F35 Freeway. The freeway has been an issue, amid concerns over environmental damage. In October 1999 the Bracks Government announced that the freeway had been scrapped, instead the government promised to investigate a preferred route for the Rowville railway line and extend the 75 tram to Knox, of which neither have been fulfilled. However, in major policy about-face the Bracks Government announced in August 2000 that they would seek funding for the freeway. To obtain funding the freeway would need to be classified as a road of national importance and he alleged that the freeway would threaten migratory birds, plant species and wetlands and that the freeway was part of a larger plan to build a metropolitan ring road to Greensborough. In light of the case, state government bureaucrats removed references to the metropolitan ring road from a draft Metropolitan Strategy. In 2003, the Southern and Eastern Integrated Transport Authority was established by the Victorian Government, to manage, SEITA was responsible for managing the process of selecting a private sector bidder. In October 2004, SEITA awarded the contract for the design, construction, and operation of EastLink to ConnectEast, ConnectEast subsequently contracted Thiess John Holland, a group formed by the partnership of two major construction companies, to carry out the detailed design and construction of EastLink. ConnectEast, as owner of the road, is now responsible for its day-to-day management, on 24 March 2008 Tim Pallas announced that the twin tunnels would be named Melba and Mullum Mullum, in the inbound and outbound direction, respectively. On average 270,868 cars, trucks and motorbikes travelled on the every day until the tolling was introduced on 23 July. In the first week after the introduction of tolls, the number of daily trips fell to 133,722. This was in line with estimates of a 40 to 50 per cent decline, the average toll per trip was $3.10 – above the estimates of $2.91. In its first six months of operation, Eastlink made a loss of almost $93 million, in 2010 the road had to be refinanced with its traffic forecasts rewritten due to lower than expected traffic volumes
12.
Dressage
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Dressage is a highly skilled form of riding performed in exhibition and competition, as well as an art sometimes pursued solely for the sake of mastery. Competitions are held at all levels from amateur to the Olympic Games, at the peak of a dressage horses gymnastic development, the horse responds smoothly to a skilled riders minimal aids. The rider is relaxed and appears effort-free while the horse performs the requested movement. The discipline has a history with ancient roots in the writings of Xenophon. Much about training systems used today reflects practices of classical dressage, in modern dressage competition, successful training at the various levels is demonstrated through the performance of tests, prescribed series of movements ridden within a standard arena. A score of 9 is very good and is a high mark, all riding horses can benefit from use of dressage principles and training techniques. The most popular horse breeds seen at the Olympics and other international FEI competitions are warmblood horses bred for dressage, in classical dressage training and performances that involve the airs above the ground, the baroque breeds of horses are popular and purposely bred for these specialties. There are two sizes of arenas, small and standard, each has letters assigned to positions around the arena for dressage tests to specify where movements are to be performed. Cones with letters on them are positioned on the sidelines of the arena for reference as to where a movement is to be performed. The small arena is 20 by 40 m and is used for the levels of eventing in the dressage phase. Its letters around the edge, starting from the point of entry. Letters also mark locations along the line in the middle of the arena. Moving down the line from A, they are D-X-G. The standard arena is 20 by 60 m, and is used for tests in both dressage and eventing. The standard dressage arena letters are A-K-V-E-S-H-C-M-R-B-P-F, the letters on the long sides of the arena, nearest the corners, are 6 m in from the corners, and are 12 m apart from each other. The letters along the line are D-L-X-I-G, with X again being halfway down the arena. There is speculation as to why these letters were chosen, most commonly it is believed because the German cavalry had a 20 × 60-meter area in-between the barracks which had the letters posted above the doors. At the start of the test, the horse enters the arena at an opening at A, ideally this opening is then closed for the duration of the test, however, this is not always logistically possible, particularly at smaller competitions with few volunteers
