POLITICIANS, pioneers, soldiers and sailors – they’re just some of the roles that have earned Australians the honour of street names in Canberra.
Now add to the list mouth-organ champion, of Geelong no less.
Yes, the ACT Government recently unveiled Ketterer St, in suburban Moncrieff, in honour of our very own William Ketterer. And such an honour he richly deserved.
After founding the wildly successful Geelong West City Harmonica Band in the 1920s, Ketterer went on to become Mouth Organ World Champion in 1931. Dextrous of gob, he also played the somewhat-larger tuba for Geelong City Municipal Band.
His name eventually faded from local conversation but that’s our William Ketterer: famous for the harmonica but never one to blow his own trumpet.
Ever wondered how to apply human rights to world heritage conservation?
What about the parenting secrets of seabirds?
And just what are the superpowers of medical maggots?
Well, Deakin University’s Three Minute Thesis challenge tried answering all these obscure questions and more in just 180 seconds each yesterday.
Deakin said a full-length oral presentation of the average thesis would take 14 hours, so the challenge really put the heat on participanting students to cut the waffle and get to the arcane point.
Given some of the topics involved, the attention-span challenge for the audience would have been closer to three seconds than three minutes.
When the Google alert flashed up, it looked ominous.
“Three crushed to death in Geelong mine,” it screamed.
Geelong mine? Where the hell is a mine around Geelong capable of crushing mineworkers to death?
Was this another Beaconsfield?
Turns out it was the Geelong mine in Matabeleland, Zimbabwe, where four illegal miners were crushed to death at midnight while searching for flecks of gold while trying to feed their families.
The origin of the Geelong moniker for the mine is difficult to find but was part of the colonisation of then-Rhodesia by the British South Africa Company in the late 1800s.
The old Geelong name gets quite an airing around the world – and we thought it was only sourced from the local Wathaurong Aboriginal name for the region, Jillong.
The scene: Cats coach Chris Scott’s weekly media conference.
Journalist: “Different week, same question: how close is Daniel Menzel?“
Scott: “One week closer.“
Journalist: “Gee, thanks.“
Media pack: laughter.
