First Flight celebrated in Albury

On 27 July 2013, Albury LibraryMuseum hung a replica of a vintage monoplane built by Robbins and Porter on the spot where the two young motor mechanics built the original in their Kiewa Street garage in 1912-13. It was 100 years to the day that the pioneering men successfully flew their invention.

The Albury and District Historical Society, with the support of the Albury Manual Activity, constructed the life-size replica of the monoplane and hung it from the ceiling of the LibraryMuseum.

Robbins and Porter

Azor Robbins and Alexander Porter learned their trade as motor mechanics at Dalgety’s Garage in Bourke Street, Melbourne. But they were not only mechanics, but inventors. In their spare time, they worked on the design and construction of a monoplane. By March 1913 the construction of the plane had been completed and the engine mounted in the fuselage.

The duo eagerly planned open-air trials; however, it was not until Sunday, 27 July 1913, in front of six witnesses, that the plane took to the air and flew for 700 yards at a height of 15–20 feet above the ground. A report of the trials was printed in the Border Morning Mail of 29 July 1913.

In their Australian built monoplane Messers Robbins and Porter, of Albury, made five successful flights on Bungowannah Park on Sunday (27 July). Although the monoplane was under complete control while in the air it could not be flown to any great height owing to the restricted area of the paddock. 

While other planes would surpass the one built by our industrious amateur aviators, today Robbins and Porter are credited with designing and building Australia’s first monoplane fitted with a flat-four aero engine – and the only one that has ever flown.

The permanently “flying” monoplane is now part of the First Flight exhibition running at the LibraryMuseum until 27 July 2014.

Find out more: www.alburycity.nsw.gov.au

Registered? Then make your profile

We have only one and a half weeks until lots of people are going to visit the website and explore your profile pages.

Unless you want them to see this:

Then we'd seriously recommend you start uploading all the evocative, enticing and beautiful images you have of your place, collections and people.

Uploading images and text to your profile page is easy. We've made a 5 minute video about it. If you have some images on hand, then it probably won't take more than 15 minutes in total.

And we are here to help.

Meanwhile . . . 

How good can you look?

This good. Jenny Summerville from Manning Valley Rock Hounds Lapidary Club Gem and Mineral Museum (phew, that's a mouthful) persevered with the content management system to upload ten images of staff at work. 

Luckily, their work is really interesting! If we showed photos of me working it would be ten pictures of a guy at a computer.

Below you can see curator, Janette Sutton collecting Triassic leaf fossils.

And did I say enticing and beautiful? Have you been to Lake Macquarie City Art Gallery? It's in the best location in the world - a gallery right next to sparkling waters and a rolling, grassy park. 

In these two screenshots you can see Lake Mac's slideshow shift from the bird's eye view to absolute detail:

The second image shows how integral school programs were to LMCAG's 2010-2011 project in partnership with the Aboriginal Reference Group, creating a significant possum skin cloak with the local Aboriginal community.

And last but by no means least, we head to the Tweed River Art Gallery showcasing the planned Margaret Olley Art Centre, now in construction.

You have until the end of August. By then we will have a website crammed with your stories, activities and experiences.

Do it today.

Look out, aeroplane about!

The newly acquired F-111 in the restored WWII Bellman Hangar with wings and tail fitted. 

Image courtesy of Dr Richard Gates, Evans Head Living Museum.

On 5 August, the F-111 fighter bomber above traveled along the Pacific Highway from Ipswich, Queensland, on two super-wide trucks. It headed to the Evans Head Memorial Aerodrome–an exciting acquisition for them and one that arrived under police escort in the dead of night!

The F-111 will be reassembled by specialists at its new home at the heritage-listed aerodrome and opened to the public on Sunday 25th August. 

The fighter jets, known as ‘swing-wing’ bombers can fly up to two and a half times the speed of sound and were retired from the RAAF in December last year. Australia saw 37 years of service from the planes and for many they’re a modern-day icon. Always popular at air shows for their spectacular speed and sound display, this is your chance to get up-close and personal with one.

If you are traveling up north, why not stop in and have a look at what was once Australia’s fastest and most ferocious fighter?

We're building a website: Tell us a story!

With well over 100 museums, galleries and Aboriginal cultural centres now registered on the website, M&G NSW is looking forward to telling your story in multiple ways.

Events and Exhibitions

Maybe you saw our long growing list of exhibitions and events when curiosity got the better of you and you clicked around the website. If you didn't, I'd suggest you log back on. It's impressive and it's hardly even begun. 

If you didn't see your museum or gallery events in the list then get in touch with us. We want an image, a date, a description and a link to your email or website. Then you can be part of our showcase of dynamic programming.

Articles

This week you would have noticed the story about the F-111 rushing through the night to the Evans Head Memorial Aerodrome. The new website is going to be chock full of stories like this presented in magazine style articles, with photos and videos.

Which means . . .

We want to hear from you. Did you open your doors as part of a community event? Tell us how it went. Got a new exhibition? Get in contact with us and we'll interview the artist, curator or visitors. We want to hear stories about your collections, people and communities. 

So get in touch. 

Meanwhile, who's on the website?

Golden Memories Millthorpe Museum already have a sophisticated web presence but took time to upload some very nice photos starting with this exterior.

Check out the MCA Australia. Nine glorious photos including images from their National Centre for Learning. Their images aren't only about art: they're about people creating, engaging and having a great time. 

Then again, when art is sharp, hot and gorgeous you can't get better than the slideshow MOP put together. I wish i'd seen this exhibition by Samuel Galileo Quinteros and Carl Cheleski.

MOP watched the five minute "how to" video and got straight into it. 

So what are you waiting for? 

Simply email us, register, watch the video and download or Website Guide. In ten minutes you'll have a brand spanking new profile page. 

We're building a website: Some great profiles

Since asking you to participate on the new M&G NSW website, we've been overwhelmed at the response. So many of you are embracing the opportunity to showcase your museums, galleries and collections.

Adding your museum to the website is easy. By registering on the website you'll receive an email with instructions on how to add images and information to your museum's profile page. Everything we're showing here is available to every one of you.

To see how easy it is watch this video.

The profile pages

Let's just take a look at some of the stand out profile pages:

The Australian National Maritime Museum was the first organisation to add their information. 

At the bottom of their profile page, the Museum's Facebook, Twitter and YouTube feeds are constantly updating. Users can click on the arrows to see the most recent posts, tweets and videos.

Underneath the social media feeds are some of the exhibitions and events on at the museum.

Here's the Bradman International Cricket Hall of Fame.  They do a great job of showcasing their exhibitions with fourteen stunning images in their slideshow.

Tongarra Museum have done an amazing job, uploading 18 beautifully shot images of their collection. They've opted for the Ask a Curator button so visitors to the site can send an email directly with questions about the specific collection items. 

They also added links to their online collection and History Blog. 

We want you!

If you haven't registered on the website yet, or you want more information, contact Katie or Andrew:

E: comms@mgnsw.org.au

P: 02 9358 1760

For Whom the Bell Tolls . . .: Richard Bell Imagining Victory

Richard Bell, Broken English, 2009. HD video, production stills. Courtesy of the artist and Milani Gallery, Brisbane.

If you like your art confronting, challenging and satirical, then Richard Bell’s show at Artspace is definitely for you. Imagining Victory is a collection of videos and paintings with related themes – racism, greed, elitism and the commodification of Aboriginal art.

Bell describes himself as ‘an activist masquerading as artist’, which should be enough to get you into the gallery because it’s a promise of something more than the usual gallery fare. This positioning allows Bell to step outside the arena and reorganise the stage; flipping roles, turning the big themes inside out and stripping them bare for all to see.

This is a show with significant social and political message and not one where the aesthetic concerns take centre stage. That’s not to imply that the works aren't visually appealing, they are―especially the large scale video piece The Dinner Party with its slow moving camera and muted sound track―it’s just that the aesthetic gives way to message. And the message is delivered hard and fast and leaves you with a slow ringing in the ears.

The video piece Scratch an Aussie is particularly successful. It cannot fail to bring you face-to-face with our own inherent racism through a series of Aboriginal centred jokes played out in a therapy session. We know these school yard jokes; we've heard them in pubs and in those moments we've laughed at 'otherness' in cruel and unkind ways. This universal past of ours circles and taunts us as viewer. It's strong and unsettling.

So if you are one who takes offense easily, best stay at home with your glass of red and your feet up. You’ll avoid the intellectual stimulation, the chance of self-reflection and the opportunity to see our culture from a different viewpoint. But you’ll also miss out on the challenging, and often poignant Richard Bell.

On until 11 August at Artspace. 

Or catch it at a regional gallery near you when the show goes on tour. View the tour itinerary.

Editing your profile page on the M&G NSW website

If you're having any problems registering or adding text and images to your organisation's profile page, this 5 minute video will show you how easy it is.



If you have any difficulty you can download our Website Guide.

Or don't hesitate to contact Katie or Andrew:

P: 02 9358 1760
E: comms@mgnsw.org.au