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The Case of the Upside-Down Union Jack
 Back in 1802, a french expedition led by Nicolas Baudin visited the infant Colony of Port Jackson (Sydney). Governor King got wind that Baudin intended to sail for northern Tasmania and stake a claim for France. Immediately after the French had left, acting under private instructions from Governor King, a young marine named Charles Robbins was hastily sent south with a party of 16 men aboard the the schooner Cumberland to to thwart any colonising attempts by the French and then examine Bass Strait.
Sea Elephant Bay, King Island
On 13th December 1802, Lieut. Robbins entered Sea Elephant Bay at King Island only to find Baudin's ships already at anchor near the present site of Naracoopa. Panic struck, Robbins launched a long boat with a party of men and made a dash for the shore, Union Jack in hand, so as to beat the French in claiming Van Diemen's Land. It failed to occur to him to ask Baudin if they had already claimed the island for France, since the French had already been there a few days, and would have already claimed it had that been their intention.
This was the first occasion the newly-created Union Jack was flown in Australia, and Robbins made a shambles of it. First up, he had to borrow the gunpowder for the salute from Baudin as he had neglected to bring any with him! After hoisting the flag up a large gum tree and firing three volleys in salute over the nearby French tents, he made a garbled proclamation of possession, and then realised that in his haste he had raised the flag upside down. Baudin found it all rather amusing.
The Great Ghan Gold Robbery of 1935
 Australia’s most memorable train heist was the Great Ghan Robbery, which happened on the Ghan train, in the outback of South Australia in 1935. Back rhen, they didn’t use armoured cars or security guards to transport money between banks. They just stuffed an envelope full of gold bullion, scribbled “Bank of NSW” on the front and took it down to the local railway station. Such was the course of events that landed a 15kg parcel of precious gold in a mail bag aboard The Ghan in May 1935. Much to everyone’s surprise, somewhere along the remote line between Alice Springs and Quorn the parcel went missing from the brakevan's safe. No one was ever caught, the missing gold was never found and the two staff aboard the mail train were each fined 15 shillings each for ‘carelessness’!
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Bust-Me-Gall & Break-Me-Neck
 Australia has some quirky place names but Tasmania has the pick of the. For example, there's Bust-Me-Gall Hill & Break-Me-Neck Hill, which are situated on the road from Hobart to Orford. Early east coast settlers and travellers, with their bullock drays laden with supplies, had difficulty in negotiating the two steep sections of road. The assent of Bust-Me-Gall was so difficult that travellers often had to dismount from their horses or wagons in order to relieve the animals of some of their burden. The descent on the other side was just as steep and equally difficult to negotiate.
Legend has it that Break-Me-Neck was named after an exclamation uttered by a wagoner during his first experience of the hill. It is not surprising that after negotiating these two hills and the Gatehouse Marshes, the trip down the Prosser River Valley with its convict-built road was seen as, and accordingly named, Paradise Gorge. More quirky Tasmanian place names
Cape Clear ... or I'll blow your head off!
 Cape Clear is small farming community in Western Victoria. It is also the only locality in the world named "Cape" that is not within sight of the sea - it is 100 km inland. Ask the locals, and they'll tell you the name is derived from a threat made by an early Irish settler to people who tried to cross his land. His suggestion to "keep clear" (with a strong Irish accent) to avoid getting bogged on the muddy roads through the area is reputed to have sounded like "Cape Clear" and became the name of the town.
This fanciful explanation is thrown into doubt by historical research, however, which indicates the name was first given by Irish immigrant Henry Boardman to a mine he operated in the area. Boardman, who was a native of Cape Island off the southern tip of Ireland, named the mine after Cape Clear on Cape Island. It is traditionally regarded as the last coastal feature seen when travelling by ship from Ireland, and would have been the last feature he and other Irish immmigrants saw as they sailed away from their homeland to the countries of their adoption.
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