The Hon Tony Burke MP, the Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population, and Communities, invites people to nominate places for inclusion in the National Heritage List or in the Commonwealth Heritage List for the assessment period 1 July 2013 to 30 June 2014.

Nominations must be received by the Department by 8 March 2013. The following link is to the Minister’s Press Release:

The Federation has a continuing interest in the Australian Prospectors and Miners’ Hall of Fame (APMHF) on behalf of historians and tourists. In 2012 it became apparent that the facility was unsustainable. Government and industry have invested millions of dollars since it opened just over a decade ago.

It was decided that as the state government would inherit the building if it closed, it would use it for an expansion of the local TAFE known as the Goldfields Institute of Technology.

The actual Hall of Fame remains there and the remaining facilities are to reopen as a tourist mine, which is what it was before the Hall of Fame building was built on the site in 2001.

The new Chairman of the APMHF is the State Member for Kalgoorlie, John Bowler MLA. His main task in 2013 is to organise and manage the annual induction of members of the Hall of Fame. The median term purpose is to educate the community on the importance and flow-on effects of mining.

Hon Colin Barnett MP, the Premier of Western Australia, announced the recipients of round six of the Western Australian State Government's Social Innovation Grants (SIG) program on 25 January. Among the six successful organisations was the Carnamah Historical Society, who received $100,000 to further develop its virtual volunteering program. The grant round was open to all organisations within the community sector.

The funding, over a two-year period, will cover research, development, trials, refinement, and also the promotion and sharing of structure and outcomes. The aims of the program are to increase the output of the society, improve social inclusion and provide additional volunteering opportunities.

The good news doesn't end there though! The success is a solid win for historical societies in Western Australia. It affirms that we are deemed to be part of the community sector and that we provide valuable services to communities.

(Source: Andrew Bowman, Carnamah Historical Society – 30 January 2013)

In the wake of recent fires and floods, the following links on the National Library of Australia's website are relevant:

On 4 February 2013 the Infrastructure Minister, Hon David O'Byrne MP, issued a press release expressing disappointment at the imminent closure of the West Coast Wilderness Railway from April 30th.

The Federal Group has announced it will stop operating the service because of rising maintenance costs, the financial costs of operating in rugged isolated terrain, and the tourism downturn affecting most of regional Australia.

The Minister said, "This is a disappointing outcome which is largely beyond ours or the Federal Group's control."

"The West Coast Wilderness Railway has been a valuable tourism asset for the past decade.
"Unfortunately, the operation isn't viable for the foreseeable future, and the Federal Group has decided to withdraw," he said.

The Minister’s Press Release outlined that the track has been damaged by severe weather in recent years, contributing significantly to escalating costs in maintenance. The Federal Group has advised the state government that these and other ongoing maintenance and upgrade costs are too high for the operation to remain viable. It was stated that additional investment of between $15-20 million would be required in the next five years.

The Minister indicated that it would be appropriate for the railway to be sold and a new owner to operate it, but that the state government cannot manage that level of investment on its own. He further stated that passenger numbers had dropped from 45,000 to 30,000 in 2012. Forty-eight staff will be affected. Some may be deployed to other Federal Group operations.

The grave and identification of the last English king killed in battle, Richard III, has been confirmed at Leicester on 4 February 2013. He had been crowned king at age 30 on 6 July 1483. It is more than 500 years since he died on 22 August 1485 in the Battle of Bosworth fighting the Tudors led by Henry, who became King Henry VII.

A team of archaeologists and historians from the University of Leicester have announced that a skeleton discovered in 2012 during the excavation of a medieval friary under a Leicester car park is that of Richard III. DNA from the bones matched that of descendants of the king's sister, while the skeleton had the twisted spine and battle injuries consistent with contemporary accounts, lead researcher Richard Buckley said.

"Beyond reasonable doubt, the individual exhumed at Greyfriars in September 2012 is indeed Richard III, the last Plantagenet king of England," he confirmed.

"There are various traumas to the skull and elsewhere on the body, which have been looked at by the specialists who can then estimate which weapons might have been used."

DNA taken from the body matched that of Michael Ibsen, a Canadian-born furniture maker in London who genealogists said was the direct descendant of Richard's sister, Anne of York.

The ABC News report states: ‘Researchers who examined the skeleton said Richard was probably killed by one of two fatal injuries to his skull - one caused by a sword and one by a halberd, a heavy medieval axe mounted on a long, spear-like pole.

The blows were so heavy that part of the back of the skull was sliced off. Altogether there were 10 wounds on the skeleton - including what the researchers call "humiliation injuries", such as a sword wound to the right buttock. After the king was killed he was probably stripped naked and slung over the back of a horse to be taken to Leicester, where his body was exhibited in a church. ... He was finally interred in an unmarked grave, naked, without a shroud or coffin. In a final humiliation, the grave was too small to properly fit his body. ... Richard is thought to have been buried at the Franciscan friary of Grey Friars in Leicester, but the church was demolished in the 1530s and its location had been lost until now. The skeleton was unearthed in what is thought to have been the choir of the church, which was also uncovered during a three-week archaeological dig at the car park.’

BAMAKO, Mali —

‘The saving of Timbuktu’s priceless manuscripts owes everything to the bravery of an unlikely group — librarians.

The coalition of Tuareg separatists and Islamic militants who overran the city last April were just the latest in a series of foreign invaders to sweep into the fabled desert city, so the owners of Timbuktu’s manuscripts did what they have always done — they hid them.

An ancient city squeezed between the Niger River and the Sahara Desert, Timbuktu was a center of Islamic scholarship and trans-African trade in its medieval heyday but has gradually declined in the centuries that followed. The city's manuscripts are a unique treasure trove of scholarly information. Handwritten and many hundreds of years old, they are irreplaceable.

Commemorations of Tunnelling Companies from Britain and the Dominions

In April 2012 a group of descendants and supporters went overseas on a NZETC pilgrimage.

A slideshow of the trip can be viewed at the following URL: