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Rockhampton

Rockhampton is a city in the Rockhampton Region of Central Queensland, Australia. In the, the population of Rockhampton was 79,293. A common nickname for Rockhampton is 'Rocky', and the demonym of Rockhampton is Rockhamptonite.

The Scottish-Norwegian explorers Charles and William Archer came across the Toonooba River in 1853 and named it in-honour of Sir Charles FitzRoy; they also named many local landmarks after figures in Norse mythology, including the Berserker Range named after the Norse warrior "Baresark". The Archer brothers took-up a run near Gracemere in 1855, and more settlers arrived soon thereafter, enticed by the fertile valleys. The town of Rockhampton was proclaimed in 1858, and surveyed to a design that closely resembled the Hoddle Grid of Melbourne, and consisted of a grid of wide boulevards and laneways, which was uncommon for Queensland cities. Within a year, gold was found at Canoona, and led to the first North Australian gold rush. The Canoona gold rush led to an influx of migrants that transformed Rockhampton into the second-largest port in the state; during this period, Rockhampton was described by the then visiting English novelist, Anthony Trollope as the "City of the Three S's"—"sin, sweat, and sorrow". Subsequent gold discoveries at the Mount Morgan Mine, which was at that time one of the most-productive gold mines in the world, laid the foundations for much of the city's Victorian architecture, and recast Rockhampton into a grand northern city.

The economy of Rockhampton has strengths in tourism, health, and agriculture, with a GRP of $5.7 billion as of 2023. The Central Queensland University founded in 1967, has its main campus at Norman Gardens, and is the only Australian university with a campus presence in every mainland state. The city is served by Rockhampton Airport, and Port Alma, located at the south end of the Fitzroy river delta.

Rockhampton is renowned for its history and heritage and has been sometimes referred to as the “Melbourne of the North”; in reference to the city's tree-lined boulevards and laneways. The city's historic quarter is one of Australia's most significant 19th century streetscapes and is listed on the National Trust; the quarter comprises three city blocks along Quay street, from Fitzroy to Derby street, and is known for its neoclassical architecture, dining and nightlife. The Rockhampton Botanic Gardens are one of the oldest public gardens in the country, being founded in 1869 and is also the location of the monumental Rockhampton War Memorial, as well as the Rockhampton Zoo. Rockhampton has nationally prominent cultural institutions, including; the Rockhampton Museum of Art (RMOA), one of the most extensive regional galleries in Australia, and the Dreamtime Cultural Centre.

Indigenous Australians
The Capricorn district is the traditional home of the Darumbal Aboriginal people. The Darumbal (Tarumbul, Tharoombool) language region includes the city of Rockhampton extending south towards Raglan Creek and north towards the Styx River and inland along the Broad Sound Ranges. The Gangulu (Kangulu, Kanolu, Kaangooloo, Khangulu) language region includes the towns of Clermont and Springsure extending south towards the Dawson River, and includes parts of Rockhampton and South Rockhampton.

British colonisation
The British colonisation of the area began in 1853, when the Archer brothers, Charles and William, who were seeking grazing lands arrived in the Rockhampton area. They were acting on information from earlier expeditions by Ludwig Leichhardt and Thomas Mitchell, who had explored the area in 1844 and 1846 and noted suitable land for grazing then.

In January 1854, the New South Wales government proclaimed two new districts: Port Curtis and Leichhardt (roughly today's Fitzroy Region), and the Archer brothers returned in August 1855 to set up their pastoral run at Gracemere. The Fitzroy River provided a convenient waterway for shipping of supplies and produce, and the Archer brothers constructed a wool shed just downstream of a bar of rocks that prevented further upstream navigation from the coast. These rocks were incorporated with the traditional English term for a village, and the name "Rockhampton" was first coined by Charles Archer and the local Commissioner from Crown Lands, William Wiseman.

In 1855, Scottish colonists and brothers William Thomas Elliott and George Mackenzie Elliot arrived at Gracemere and soon after, took up landholdings at Canoona, north of present-day Yaamba. Their father was James Elliot, 3rd Laird of Wolfelee House near Hawick in Scotland. One of their other brothers was Walter Elliot of the East India Company and secretary to the governor of the Madras Presidency.

In January 1856, after a massacre of local Aboriginal people perpetrated by Lieutenant John Murray of the Native Police at nearby Nankin Creek, some 200 Aboriginal men, women and children came to Canoona and began shouting at the employees of the Elliots. William Thomas Elliot and his men opened fire at random upon the group which fled after a short time. William and an employee were wounded (the employee reportedly died) and about seven of the local inhabitants were killed. Fellow colonist, Charles Archer of Gracemere and a group of Native Police troopers later pursued these Aboriginal people toward the east and punished them further. Local Aboriginal people friendly to Archer were also fired upon, killing one.

Permanent British settlement at the Rockhampton township began in July 1856, when Richard Palmer travelled from Gladstone with an escort of Native Police under sub-Lieutenant Walter Powell to set up a store. Powell arrived at the site first and constructed the Native Police barracks. This was the first habitable British building established at Rockhampton and it was located on the south bank of the Fitzroy River at the end of Albert Street.

With abundant grazing lands and waters from the Fitzroy River and its many tributaries and lagoons, the region continued to expand rapidly. In 1858, the town of Rockhampton was officially proclaimed. The town was surveyed at this time and the first sales of building allotments were held that year. In 1859, gold was discovered at Canoona. Miners rushed to the new field, using the site of Rockhampton on the Fitzroy River as the nearest navigable port. The Canoona field proved to be very disappointing and thousands of would-be gold seekers were left stranded at Rockhampton. Although many returned south, others stayed, adding to the new town's population.

Conflict with Aboriginal people in the region continued and further massacres occurred. In 1859, John Arthur Macartney attempted to stock his cousin's Belmont property just to the north of Rockhampton when a shepherd was killed by local Aboriginal men. 2nd Lieutenant Frederick Carr of the Native Police together with his troopers, the Macartneys, Peter Fitzallan MacDonald and Henry Brisdon, formed an armed group which set out to track down those responsible. The group followed the tracks and "dispersed" them. One account of this incident describes how around hundred of the tribe were rounded up and "it ended in the usual way and the bulk of the wild mob were shot."

By 1861, the town boasted a regular newspaper, banks, court house, and school of arts. Direct shipments of imported goods and migrants from the United Kingdom began to be received during the 1860s. In 1862, land in the Kensington Estate, described as just three miles from "the most rapidly rising town and district in the whole of the colonies" was advertised for sale. During the 1860s and '70s, Rockhampton developed as the main port for the developing Central Queensland hinterland, the main export at that time being wool.

A Primitive Methodist Church opened in Fitzroy Street, Rockhampton, in January 1864.

Gold rushes and expansion

In the 1880s and '90s, sea ports were established on the coast, adjacent to the mouth of the Fitzroy River. Broadmount was on the northern side and Port Alma on the south. Railways were subsequently constructed to carry goods to the wharves at these locations, with the railway to Broadmount opening on 1 January 1898 and the line to Port Alma opening on 16 October 1911. Maintenance on the Broadmount line ceased in August 1929. The following month, the wharf caught fire and the line was effectively closed in July 1930. The line to Port Alma closed on 15 October 1986.

The significant gold deposit at Mount Morgan to the southwest was discovered in the 1880s, and Rockhampton became the main port through which the wealth of Mount Morgan gold was channelled. Due to the wealth of Mount Morgan, Rockhampton weathered the severe economic depression of the 1890s, and many of the town's substantial brick and stone public buildings date from this period. The historic streetscape of Quay Street still displays a number of substantial historic buildings, built when Rockhampton was envisaged as being capital of a state of North Queensland. Most prominent of these is the sandstone Customs House (1900), which today houses an information centre. Other important 19th-century buildings include the Post Office (1892), the Supreme Court House (1888), and St Joseph's Cathedral (1892).

In September 1892 the Anglican Church in Rockhampton was the first new building in Rockhampton to be lit by electricity from the new gasworks. It was also the first church in Australia to be lit with electricity.

Central Queensland Separation Movement
In 1889 the people of Rockhampton established the Central Queensland Territorial Separation League, a secessionist movement with the intentions of breaking away from the state of Queensland. The core argument of movement was that the seat of government, Brisbane was in the south-east corner of the State. It was so far removed from substantial portions of the state that these areas and their citizens were left disadvantaged and neglected as political and economic interests focused on the south. Supplementing the Central Queensland Territorial Separation League, the women of Rockhampton established their own separation league in October 1892. The inaugural meeting of the Women's Central Queensland Territorial Separation League was held at the Rockhampton School of Arts and attended by 200 women. Their main focus was preparing a petition to Queen Victoria. The introductory text set out their grievances and described the immense size of Queensland: being twelve times the area of England and Wales, and larger than France, Germany, Spain and Portugal combined. The State Library of Queensland holds the original petition, signed by over 3000 women who were in support of Central Queensland becoming a separate state. The petition was forwarded to Queen Victoria but was dismissed by the Premier of Queensland, Sir Samuel Walker Griffith.

20th century
The City of Rockhampton was proclaimed in 1902. The rail connection south to Brisbane was completed in 1903, but it was not until 1921 that the northern connection to Mackay was finally completed. A railway west from Rockhampton was started in 1867 and by 1892 had reached the terminus at Longreach, 700 km away. This further strengthened Rockhampton's role as the port for the whole of Central Queensland.

A passenger tramway began operating on 16 June 1909, making Rockhampton the only provincial city in Queensland to have a street tramway. Purrey steam trams ran on a number of routes throughout South Rockhampton, totalling 10 km of track. The discomfort of passengers riding in steam trams in a tropical climate in part led to their demise in 1939, replaced by a bus network run by the City Council.

Strong shaking was felt in Rockhampton when the "Great Queensland Earthquake of 1918" occurred on 7 June 1918. The earthquake was felt from Mackay in the north, to Grafton in New South Wales, and west to Charleville. Estimated to have reached a 6.0 magnitude, the earthquake caused some damage to buildings including chimney stacks crumbling, plaster being dislodged from walls and ceilings, water tanks bursting and trees being uprooted. Houses and buildings experienced considerable swaying with crockery smashing on the floor and pictures falling off walls. The 1918 earthquake remains as the largest to have ever hit Queensland since European settlement.

Restaurant proprietors, Emanuel, William and Nicholas Economos, trading as the Economos Bros., ran their business in East Street, Rockhampton. East Street was a bustling metropolis when the brothers opened their traditional Greek café in the 1920s. Previously known as the Australian Café, the brothers renamed it the Busy Bee Café.

During the Second World War, a US army base was established outside the city; it hosted up to 70,000 servicemen en route to action in the Pacific and New Guinea.

On 2 March 1949, Rockhampton was severely damaged by a cyclone.

The Fitzroy River Barrage was commissioned in 1971. The barrage has a capacity of 81,300 megalitres and holds back a lake 60 km long. The barrage was funded by the Rockhampton City Council to provide a reliable source of water to the city, and to effectively drought proof Rockhampton. In 2002, a study showed that salinity was increasing in the Fitzroy Basin and, while only small areas of land were severely affected by salinity, urged that steps be taken to manage salinity by good irrigation practices and better management of tree clearing.

In 1989, two bombs exploded inside the Shark Nightclub, causing injuries and extensive damage to the building. The following year, the Factory Nightclub was also damaged by a bomb. It is not known who planted the bombs.

21st century
In 2003, Rockhampton was the centre of significant national media interest after local teenager Natasha Ryan was found in the North Rockhampton home of her boyfriend, Scott Black, after being missing for five years. Serial killer Leonard Fraser had been charged with her murder, as her disappearance occurred in the period in which Fraser had abducted and murdered other women and girls. An anonymous tip-off during Fraser's trial led to the discovery of Ryan. Despite Ryan's discovery, Fraser's defence did not seek a mistrial and Fraser was convicted of the murders of other women and girls and was given an indefinite life sentence.

On 20 February 2015, Rockhampton was severely damaged by Cyclone Marcia damaging hundreds of homes and businesses with wind speeds over 150 km/h recorded in Rockhampton. Major flooding was experienced in the upper reaches of the Fitzroy River after more than 250mm were recorded. The cyclone left about 100,000 properties across Central Queensland without power.

According to the, there were 76,985 people in Rockhampton. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people made up 7.2% of the population. 82.8% of people were born in Australia. The next most common countries of birth were New Zealand 1.4%, England 1.3%, Philippines 1.1%, India 0.6% and Vietnam 0.4%. 86.4% of people spoke only English at home. Other languages spoken at home included Vietnamese 0.5%, Tagalog 0.5%, Portuguese 0.3%, Filipino 0.3% and Mandarin 0.3% The most common responses for religion were Catholic 26.5%, No Religion 22.6% and Anglican 17.1%.

Geography
The town lies on the Fitzroy River, approximately 45 km from where the river enters the Coral Sea, and some 600 km north of the state capital, Brisbane. Rockhampton has a north and south side with three bridges connecting the two sides, one for trains and two for vehicles and people.

Rockhampton lies just north of the Tropic of Capricorn in Central Queensland. A sculpture originally marking the latitude was later moved into town to be more accessible to tourists. Although the Tropic of Capricorn is represented on maps as a "dotted line" that lies at 23° 26' 22", there is actually a bio-geographical overlap of Tropical and Temperate zones more than 500 km wide; Rockhampton is roughly at its centre on the East Coast of Australia.

The city is located on the banks of the Fitzroy River, approximately 40 km from the river mouth. The Berserker Range lies on the eastern side of the city, with the Athelstane Range to the west. The coastal area to the east of the city is known as the Capricorn Coast, with the rapidly growing town of Yeppoon its major centre.

Climate

Rockhampton experiences a humid subtropical climate (Köppen: Cfa) with hot, humid summers and very mild, relatively dry winters with cool nights. The city receives 116.3 days of clear skies annually; primarily in winter. The highest recorded temperature in Rockhampton was 45.3 C, while the lowest was -1.0 C. Furthermore, the highest recorded 24-hour rainfall total was 348.0 mm due to the January 2013 Eastern Australia floods.

In summer, Rockhampton is subject to summer thunderstorms; and lying within the cyclone risk zone, it has experienced several large floods cyclones since European settlement. This is exemplified by the Fitzroy River; which has a lengthy, well documented history of flood records dating back to 1859. The highest recorded flood occurred in January 1918 and reached 10.11 m. More recently, being affected by the 2010–2011 Queensland floods the Fitzroy River peaked at 9.2 metres on 5 January 2011.

Heritage listings
Rockhampton has a number of heritage-listed sites. For details see the List of heritage listed buildings in Rockhampton.

Governance
Rockhampton is governed by the Rockhampton Regional Council. The Council consists of a mayor and seven councillors. The Mayor is elected by the public, and the Councillors are elected from seven single-member divisions using an optional preferential voting system. Elections are held every four years.

Tony Williams is the current mayor after the 2021 mayoral by-election following the resignation of long time mayor Margaret Strelow. Margaret Strelow won the mayoral elections in 2013, 2016 and March 2020. Strelow had also served as Mayor of the former City of Rockhampton from 2000 to 2008.

The present Rockhampton Regional Council area was formed as a result of the 2008 amalgamation of four local government areas. These were the original City of Rockhampton which comprised most of the Rockhampton metropolitan area, the Shire of Fitzroy comprising Gracemere and surrounding districts, and the Shire of Mount Morgan around the town of Mount Morgan itself.

The fourth local government area was the Shire of Livingstone which comprised the adjacent coastal towns and hinterland to the east and north of Rockhampton as well as some outlying Rockhampton suburbs. However, Livingstone Shire de-amalgamated from Rockhampton Region in 2014 following a referendum.

Before the 2008 amalgamation, the City of Rockhampton had a population of approximately 74,530, Fitzroy Shire approximately 11,357, and Mount Morgan Shire approximately 2,925 people.

Proposed boundary changes between Rockhampton Regional Council and Livingstone Shire Council are under review by the Local Government Change Commission. The changes relate to three suburbs contiguous with Rockhampton City which are presently part of Livingstone Shire. The proposed changes will affect 1170 properties in the suburbs of Glenlee, Rockyview, and Glendale.

Agriculture
The agricultural sector, specifically the cattle trade, is a dominant industry in Central Queensland. The latter has been visually represented around Rockhampton City with a set of seven large statues of bulls known as the 'Big Bulls'.

Two large abattoirs are located on the south-eastern outskirts of Rockhampton provides employment for people living in Rockhampton and also for refugees from overseas who are recruited when the companies experience difficulty finding local workers to fill vacancies.

One meat processing plant is located at Lakes Creek, operated by Teys Australia (a Cargill joint venture) while the JBS meatworks is located at Nerimbera.

The Teys Australia meatworks at Lakes Creek was previously owned by Kerry Packer's Consolidated Meat Group. CMG temporarily closed the facility in 2002. It was reopened in 2004, when Consolidated Meat Group announced they had formed a joint venture with Teys Australia. In 2011, Cargill bought out CMG's share in the company.

Due to drought, floods, general economic conditions and disputes with workers, both facilities have experienced a number of closures over the years including the closure of the Lakes Creek meatworks from 2002 until 2004, but they are both currently operating as normal.

The Central Queensland Livestock Exchange at Gracemere is one of the largest livestock sales facilities in the country, lies just to the west of the city.

Rockhampton promotes itself as the Beef Capital of Australia but the title has been disputed a number of times by the New South Wales town of Casino.

The tri-annual Beef Australia Expo held in the city is a celebration of the local area's cattle industry.

Military
There is a permanent military presence in Rockhampton with members of the Australian Defence Force based at the Western Street Army Barracks located near the Rockhampton Airport. To the north of the city lies the extensive Shoalwater Bay Military Training Area where large scale ground, air and amphibious operations are regularly conducted.

Due to its close proximity to the training area, the city regularly sees military movements between the Western Street Army Barracks and Shoalwater Bay, and hosts service personnel from overseas when joint military exercises are held. When these exercises occur, Rockhampton sees a noticeable increase in activity from military transport, including from defence aircraft that are frequently seen at Rockhampton Airport throughout the exercise periods.

The local economy is significantly boosted when visiting overseas troops stay in the city while participating in the army exercises.

Military training conducted in the Rockhampton area regularly draws the ire of nomadic peace activists who travel to the city to protest the exercises.

In 2011, during Exercise Talisman Sabre, a protester made his way onto the tarmac at Rockhampton Airport and attacked a $36 million Tiger helicopter with a garden mattock. The man was ordered to stand trial charged with wilful damage and threatening an aircraft but died before the matter went to trial.

Tourism
Tourism is increasingly playing a role in the economic development of city and surrounds. The city is a convenient distance north from Brisbane to provide an overnight stop for tourists, who can then branch out to visit local attractions and spend money at local businesses including eateries, entertainment facilities or on recreational activities. The Capricorn Coast is a 30-minute drive from Rockhampton, with the islands of the Keppel group easily accessible from there.

Other attractions that are promoted to the tourist market include the Fitzroy River, the Heritage-listed buildings in the CBD, the Rockhampton Heritage Village, the Dreamtime Cultural Centre, the Archer Park Rail Museum, Mount Archer National Park, Rockhampton Botanic Gardens, and Rockhampton Zoo.

A national promotional campaign was launched in 2013 to promote the local area as a premium tourist destination, featuring local singer-songwriter Kate Leahy whose song "We Like" featured as the soundtrack to the television commercials that showed the attractions of Rockhampton and the Capricorn Coast.

Other Industry
Other industries in the Rockhampton area include the transport, manufacturing, mining and energy sectors.

Rail group Aurizon (previously known as QR National) has a large workforce in the city, which is the meeting point for the main north coast rail line and the line to the major coalfields to the west. However, the company announced in October 2015 that it was closing its locomotive and maintenance depots in Rockhampton with forty jobs lost from the Rockhampton site. Management of Aurizon's Rockhampton site was criticised by the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union in 2016 who described it as "appalling", prompting 60 workers to walk off the job citing lack of consultation, lack of adequate training for apprentices, a lack of privacy and unfair demands from management for workers to increase productivity.

The coal fired 1445 megawatt Stanwell Power Station lies at Stanwell, 30 km west of the city, where Stanwell Corporation provides jobs for people living in Rockhampton. The power station currently has a workforce of about 150 employees and regularly hires new apprentices from Rockhampton

Mining - Queensland Magnesia (QMAG) Queensland Magnesia (QMAG) is a leading producer of premium-quality magnesia products. From one of the world's largest deposits of cryptocrystalline magnesite in Queensland, Australia, they mine, process and deliver to global and domestic customers with a strong focus on sustainability.

The high temperatures of steel, iron, cement, glass and ceramics production require thermal insulation in the form of refractory bricks using DBM and EFM magnesia products. The agricultural sector uses their magnesia as a vital animal feed supplement and fertilizer to maintain plant and animal health. They support the path to net zero carbon emissions by supplying magnesia to precipitate nickel and cobalt used in EV batteries. Their magnesia is also used in numerous industrial applications such as waste water treatment and the pulp and paper industry.

The magnesia mine is located at Kunwarara (located approximately 81km north of Rockhampton) and have a processing plant at Parkhurst, which employs over 200 locals. QMAG was purchased by Refratechnik in 2020 from Sibelco. Headquartered in Munich, the global Refratechnik Group develops, manufactures, and installs high-grade refractories for high-temperature industrial processes. As a systems supplier, Refratechnik offers customised and all-inclusive refractory solutions for all major industrial sectors. Refratechnik also owns Baymag, a sister company to QMAG, producing MgO products for various markets around the world.

Culture
Many local concerts, performances, events, festivals are held at the Rockhampton's numerous venues throughout the city each year.

The annual Rockhampton Cultural Festival held each August at the Rockhampton Heritage Village features a variety of market stalls, displays, international foods, music and cultural displays.

The Rockhampton Showgrounds plays host to numerous events each year. Most notably, the three-day Rockhampton Show is held in June each year.

Like many Australian communities, Rockhampton commemorates Anzac Day on 25 April each year. Rockhampton is believed to be the very first city in Australia to hold an early morning commemoration intentionally scheduled to coincide with when the landing at Gallipoli took place, as the city held a "daybreak" service at 6:30 am on 25 April 1916, in which 700 people attended.

In 1893, Alfred Henry Lambton wrote what is recognised as the first crime novel set in Queensland, From Prison to Power. The novel takes place at the fictitious cattle station, 'Banalba', located 200 miles inland from the important tropical Queensland town of 'Rockington' [Rockhampton].

Pilbeam Theatre opened in 1979 and is Rockhampton's largest theatre.

The Rockhampton Art Gallery collection, also owned by the Rockhampton Regional Council, is situated next to the Pilbeam Theatre and consists mainly of works by Australian artists from the 1940s to the 1970s.

Opened in 1985, closed in 2011 and then re-opened in 2015 the Rockhampton Music Bowl regularly plays host to events including the annual Carols by Candlelight every December.

The tri-annual Beef Australia Exposition is held every third May at the Rockhampton Showgrounds. In 2009 as part of the Q150 celebrations, the Beef Australia Expo was announced as one of the Q150 Icons of Queensland for its role as an "event and festival".

Rockhampton has played quite an important role in the production and exhibition of films in Central Queensland.

Films shot in Rockhampton include The Kid Stakes,  Buddies,  and Broke.

Sport
The Central Queensland Capras are the city's representative team in the Queensland Cup competition. The local competition, the Rockhampton District Rugby League features 6 clubs, with the Fitzroy-Gracemere Sharks, Norths Chargers and Rockhampton Brothers clubs based in the city itself.

Local Sporting Teams

 * Australian rules football – Brothers Roos, Glenmore Bulls, Rockhampton Panthers (AFL Capricornia)
 * Basketball – Rockhampton Rockets (men's); Rockhampton Cyclones (women's)
 * Cricket – Senior – Frenchville Falcons, North's Tigers, Gracemere Bulls, Rocky United, Capricorn Coast, Brothers, Colts Junior – Frenchville Falcons, North's Tigers, Gracemere Bulls, Capricorn Coast, Brothers, Grammar
 * Football (Soccer) – Capricorn Cougars and Central Queensland
 * Mountain Biking – ''Rockhampton Mountain Bike Club – "Rocky MTB" '. With three trail networks around the city, Rocky MTB is based at First Turkey MTB Reserve at Norman Gardens adjacent to Mount Archer National Park. The club is a member of Mountain Bike Australia (MTBA) and hosts regional, state and national events. Team members compete throughout Australia at major races.
 * Roller Derby – Rocky Roller Derby – "Beef City Brawlers"
 * Rugby League – Central Comets in the Queensland Cup, Central Queensland Capras (representative), Central Queensland University – Norths Chargers, Fitzroy – Gracemere Sharks, Rockhampton Brothers in the Rockhampton District Rugby League (A Grade)
 * Rugby Union – Rockhampton Brahmans, Brothers Old Boys
 * Touch Football – Rockhampton Redbacks

Attractions
Established in 1869, the Rockhampton Botanic Gardens are located on Spencer Street in South Rockhampton. Excellent specimens of palms, cycads and ferns are found throughout the manicured grounds. Some specimens are over 100 years old.

Rockhampton Zoo is located between the Botanic Gardens and Murray Lagoon. Animals and birds include koalas, chimpanzees, saltwater crocodiles, freshwater crocodiles, red kangaroos and the rare cassowary.

A second public garden, the Kershaw Gardens, was officially opened in 1988 on the site of the former Rockhampton rubbish dump. Located on the Bruce Highway in North Rockhampton, these gardens specialise in Australian native plants, especially those of Central Queensland. The most striking feature of the gardens is the imitation waterfall constructed on the northern boundary of the site (adjacent to the highway), which aims to recreate a scene from the Blackdown Tableland. The Dreamtime Cultural Centre is Australia's largest Cultural Centre and is set on more than 12 ha of land, with native plants, trees and waterfalls. The major points of interest at the Dreamtime Cultural Centre include the Torres Strait Islander village, didgeridoo playing, Djarn Djarn dancers, and throwing the returning boomerang. Black flying foxes and occasionally Grey-headed flying foxes can be seen and heard at night and are important native pollinators and seed dispersers of over 100 species of trees.

The Archer Park Steam Tram Museum covers the development and history of rail-based transportation in the major central Queensland town of Rockhampton and is set in the 100-year-old Archer Park rail station on Denison Street on the city's southside. The museum tells the story of Archer Park Station (built in 1899) and the unique Purrey Steam Tram, through photographs, soundscapes and object-based exhibitions.

Rising out of Rockhampton's north-eastern suburbs, Mount Archer National Park provides views of the city, and showcases a range of native Australian flora and fauna. Frazer Park, at the summit of Mount Archer, is approximately 604 m above sea level.

A short drive north of Rockhampton is the Capricorn Caves.

Health
The Rockhampton Base Hospital is situated in the suburb of The Range, and is located around 4 km from Rockhampton CBD, and is the major hospital for the Central Queensland Region. The smaller Hillcrest and Mater private hospitals are located nearby. The Australian Red Cross Blood Service is located at the rear of the Base Hospital on Quarry Street.

Rockhampton is a base for the Royal Flying Doctor Service and the Capricorn Helicopter Rescue Service which operates clinics and provides emergency evacuations in remote communities throughout the region.

Facilities
The Rockhampton Regional Council operates the Rockhampton Regional Library Administration and History Centre in Rockhampton on the corner of William & Alma Streets. Branch libraries are located in Berserker ("Rockhampton North"), Gracemere, Mount Morgan and West Rockhampton ("Anytime" at Rockhampton Airport).

Education
The first school, The Rockhampton National School was opened in 1859. Rockhampton is a major education centre for the region and has numerous state and private primary and high schools.

CQUniversity Australia was founded in Rockhampton in 1967, however the university now has more than 30,000 students spread across 24 campuses and locations Australia-wide.

The university currently delivers more than 300 education and training offerings, from short courses and certificates, through to undergraduate, postgraduate and research degrees.

Secondary schools in Rockhampton include Rockhampton State High School, North Rockhampton State High School, Rockhampton Grammar School, Rockhampton Girls Grammar School, The Cathedral College, Rockhampton, Emmaus College and Heights College.

Newspapers
Rockhampton has had a number of newspapers published in the city since European settlement.

The Morning Bulletin is the only surviving daily newspaper, first published in 1861 as the Rockhampton Bulletin and Central Queensland Advertiser. The title was changed to the Rockhampton Bulletin in 1871 before finally becoming The Morning Bulletin in 1878. The Morning Bulletin is a member of the Australian Regional Media network of newspapers, now owned by News Corporation. The Morning Bulletin has also previously complimented their main daily newspaper with a free home-delivered community newspaper, with previous incarnations including titles such as the Capricorn Local News, Rockhampton and Fitzroy News and The Rocky Mirror.

In 2012, a new Rockhampton newspaper called The Queensland Telegraph was launched by Queensland Media Holdings. However, after publishing the newspaper for about a year, the newspaper's management announced on 17 July 2013 that the local newspaper office had closed.

The Central Queensland Herald was a Rockhampton newspaper which was published from 1930 until 1956. The Capricornian was a Rockhampton newspaper which was published from 1875 until 1929. In 1929, The Capricornian merged with The Artesian to become The Central Queensland Herald. The Artesian was a Rockhampton newspaper which was published from 1919 until 1929. In 1929, The Artesian merged with The Capricornian to become The Central Queensland Herald. The Evening News was a Rockhampton newspaper published from 1922 until 1941. The Daily Northern Argus (originally The Northern Argus) was a Rockhampton newspaper published from 1863 until 1896. In 1897 the newspaper merged with The Record and was published as The Daily Record until 1922.

Established in 2006, industrial magazine publication Shift Miner is also produced in Rockhampton with its head office located in the Rockhampton CBD.

Radio
Rockhampton is serviced by a number of commercial, community, narrowcast and ABC stations

4RO is Rockhampton's local AM station, owned by Grant Broadcasters. 4RO broadcasts local breakfast and morning programs from its local studios each weekday with all other programming sourced from elsewhere. The music played on 4RO is of the classic hits genre. 4RO broadcasts a local news service in the morning, although the bulletins are prepared and read by journalists based at Grant's Sunshine Coast hub, especially for 4RO and its sister station, 4CC.

4CC also owned by Grant Broadcasters, is an AM commercial station servicing Rockhampton on a local AM frequency, although its local breakfast show is presented from a studio in Gladstone. 4CC has a classic hits format and also relies heavily on programming sourced from elsewhere.

Triple M Central Queensland is Rockhampton's local commercial FM station owned by Southern Cross Austereo. The station was previously branded as Sea FM. Triple M broadcasts local programs from its Rockhampton studios each weekday morning, before taking networked programming sourced from Gold FM on the Gold Coast and other Triple M stations. Triple M in Rockhampton also produces a local news service with a journalist based at the station, compiling and recording local news bulletins for Triple M and sister station Hit Central Queensland. As part of the Triple M network, the station also broadcasts sports coverage such as Triple M Rocks NRL and Triple M Rocks Test Cricket.

Hit Central Queensland, also owned by Southern Cross Austereo, is a commercial FM station servicing Rockhampton on a local FM frequency, although its local breakfast show is broadcast from a studio in Gladstone. The station was previously branded as Hot FM and is skewed towards the younger listeners with a Top 40/pop music format. Following the local breakfast show, the station takes generic Hit Network programming sourced from Southern Cross Austereo's hub at Sea FM on the Gold Coast or nationally networked programs from metropoliton Hit Network stations such as 2Day FM or Fox FM.

ABC Capricornia, originally known as 4RK, is the local ABC station in Rockhampton, servicing the entire Central Queensland region. It broadcasts a local breakfast show and a local morning show each weekday. Friday's local morning show is also broadcast to other stations on the ABC Local Radio network enabling listeners from outside of the local listening area to call into the popular gardening talk back program. ABC Capricornia also has a local news service, produced by local journalists. The station also airs a local Saturday breakfast show, which is followed by a local Saturday morning sports program. Apart from local programming, ABC Capricornia takes national programs like AM, Conversations, The World Today, PM, Nightlife, Grandstand, Saturday Night Country and Australia All Over along with a mid-afternoon program, a drive program, an evening show and a weekend morning program syndicated from Brisbane. Other national ABC services that are available in Rockhampton on separate FM frequencies include Triple J, RN, ABC Classic FM and ABC NewsRadio.

4YOU is the local community station, broadcasting local programs from their Rockhampton studio, presented by a number of volunteers. The station is skewed towards the older demographic and plays a lot of easy listening and country music. All programs are locally produced apart from the regular Sunday evening programs the station takes from the national community radio network.

4US is the local indigenous community station, broadcasting from a studio at the Dreamtime Cultural Centre in Rockhampton servicing the local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population featuring traditional music and focusing on indigenous issues and event within its programming content.

KIX Country is a national narrowcast FM broadcasting service provided by Grant Broadcasters, available in Rockhampton. Kix solely broadcasts country music-themed programming, which includes programs which originate from studios in Bundaberg complemented by some nationally syndicated programming. While Kix transmits on a narrowcast licence, the station is allowed to broadcast commercials.

Other narrowcast radio services available in Rockhampton include racing station, Radio TAB (formerly 4TAB), Vision Radio Network and Radio FM 88 (Tourist Information).

Television
Rockhampton is served by three commercial stations and two public broadcasters.
 * Seven Queensland
 * Southern Cross 10
 * WIN Television Queensland
 * ABC TV
 * SBS TV

Each broadcasts television services in digital formats.

ABC offers digital high-definition simulcasts of their main channel, ABC on ABC HD. SBS offers digital high-definition simulcasts of their main channel, SBS on SBS HD. There are other main channels also available: ABC Kids, ABC TV Plus, ABC Me, ABC News, SBS Viceland, SBS Food, SBS World Movies, SBS WorldWatch, NITV, 10 Bold, 10 Peach, 10 Shake, 7two, 7mate, 7flix, 7Bravo, 9Gem, 9Go! and 9Life. Foxtel provides subscription satellite television services.

All three main commercial networks produce local news coverage – Seven Queensland and WIN Television both air 30-minute local news bulletins at 6pm each weeknight, produced from newsrooms in the city but broadcast from studios in Maroochydore and Wollongong respectively. Southern Cross 10 airs local news updates during the day from its studios in Hobart. It previously aired a regional Queensland edition of Nine News from Brisbane each weeknight at 6pm, featuring local opt-outs for Rockhampton and Central Queensland when it was a Nine affiliate.

There is also a small television facility at the ABC studios in Rockhampton with a journalist and camera operator employed locally to produce stories for ABC News and programs such as 7.30 and Landline. The journalist can also be required to do live crosses for ABC News. The ABC had also previously produced a nightly local TV news bulletin for Rockhampton and Central Queensland but it was axed in 1985.

Transport
Rockhampton is an important transport hub in the Central Queensland region. Rockhampton provides important transport links between the Central Highlands and Capricorn Coast regions and the areas to the north and south of the state. Rockhampton Airport is essential to the viability of the tourism industry.

The Rockhampton region is well serviced by the national and state highway systems, with the city being located at the main junction of the coastal highway, the Bruce Highway, the central western highway, the Capricorn Highway, and the Rockhampton Hinterland is serviced by the Burnett Highway. Driving time is seven and a half hours from Brisbane to Rockhampton.

Rockhampton is also served by long-distance coaches to Brisbane in the south, and as far as Cairns in the north. Daily services operate into Rockhampton with Greyhound Australia. The Hinterland and Central Highlands are also serviced daily by Rothery's Coaches, Pacific Coaches and Emerald Coaches.

Bus services are operated by Kinetic Group, which operates under the QConnect public transport system. Two bus interchanges are located in Rockhampton City through which the majority of services operate. Service include most parts of the city, Parkhurst in the north to Allenstown and Depot Hill in the south and to The Range and Lakes Creek in the west

Rockhampton railway station is located on the North Coast railway, and is the terminus of the electrified section of line from Brisbane with through diesel service continuing beyond; services are provided by Queensland Rail. Denison St, Rockhampton is one of the few places where the main line runs down the middle of the street. An Electric Tilt Train services connects it to Brisbane, and the Diesel Tilt Train services the station en route to Cairns.

Rockhampton Airport is operated by Rockhampton Regional Council and is located 6 km west of Rockhampton City. It is Australia's twelfth busiest domestic airport. The airport handles flights to major Australian cities, tourist destinations, and regional destinations throughout Central Queensland. It is an important base for general aviation serving the Central Highlands and Capricorn Coast communities. The airport is also a base for the Royal Flying Doctor Service and the Rescue Helicopter.

Road train access to Rockhampton
The project for upgrading between Gracemere saleyards and the Rockhampton abattoirs to provide access for Type 1 Road Trains was completed by early 2021 at a total cost of $30 million. It involved about 29 km of road improvements on four roads:
 * Capricorn Highway – from Saleyards Road at Gracemere to the Bruce Highway roundabout at Rochhampton (7.7 km).
 * Bruce Highway – from the Capricorn Highway roundabout to the Yaamba Road intersection (8.3 km).
 * Rockhampton–Yeppoon Road – from the Bruce Highway intersection south-west to the Emu Park Road intersection (2.4 km.
 * Rockhampton–Emu Park Road – from the Rockhampton-Yeppoon Road intersection to St Christophers Chapel Road at (10.2 km).

Water
The catchment area of the Fitzroy River is approximately 145,000 square kilometres (almost the size of England). It contains six major rivers, and Rockhampton and Central Queensland accordingly enjoy abundant good water. The existing and future dams under construction ensure on-going needs for agriculture, industry and domestic purposes are met. The Fitzroy River Barrage at Rockhampton separates tidal salt water from upstream fresh water, and provides the supply for Rockhampton's domestic and industrial needs.

Power
Central Queensland's major generating facilities, including the Stanwell, Gladstone and Callide power stations, produce the majority of the State's power. Queensland's newest and most technologically advanced powerhouse at Stanwell, 28 km west of the city, came on line in 1993. The Stanwell facility is a key element in the State's program to expand electricity supply and is a major exporter of power station technology.

Sister city

 * 🇯🇵 Ibusuki, Japan (since 20 November 1980)

title: Rockhampton


text:
Talk:Local homeomorphism

I haven't read the definition of local homeomorphism anywhere, but I would disagree with the definition given in the article: the first-coordinate inclusion R→R2 does not feel like a local homeomorphism to me.

Also, for a covering map one needs a bit more than just a surjective local homeomorphism. AxelBoldt 05:55 21 Jun 2003 (UTC)

You are certainly right. I rewrote the article: I think it looks a bit better now. Note that a surjective local homeomorphism between compact Hausdorff spaces is always a covering map but the converse fails, of course. -- PS T  20:58, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

"Every homeomorphism is of course also a local homeomorphism, but this is boring." This is poorly worded: 1) The coordinating conjunction "but" sets up a contradiction/negation of a previous idea, but the follow "this is boring" is either a positive addition to the point or a logical continuation (usually "and" or "so," respectively); and 2) "of course" and "boring" are hardly professional and only add to the verboseness of the statement. A better way to word this statement would be: "By definition, every homeomorphism is a local homeomorphism." This is clear and to the point and informs the reader of the fact at hand without extraneous language. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 97.94.204.72 (talk) 17:34, 17 March 2013 (UTC)
 * ✅ AxelBoldt (talk) 21:03, 19 April 2018 (UTC)

In the "Formal Definition" the open set U gets silently promoted to a topological space - one should mention that the subspace topology is assumed, which might not be obvious to someone approaching the definition for the first time.
 * ✅ AxelBoldt (talk) 21:03, 19 April 2018 (UTC)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Talk:Local homeomorphism


text:
Erica Jong

Erica Jong (née Mann; born March 26, 1942) is an American novelist, satirist, and poet, known particularly for her 1973 novel Fear of Flying. The book became famously controversial for its attitudes towards female sexuality and figured prominently in the development of second-wave feminism. According to The Washington Post, it has sold more than 20 million copies worldwide.

Early life and education
Jong was born on March 26, 1942. She is one of three daughters of Seymour Mann (died 2004), and Eda Mirsky (1911–2012). Her father was a businessman of Polish Jewish ancestry who owned a gifts and home accessories company known for its mass production of porcelain dolls. Her mother was born in England of a Russian Jewish immigrant family, and was a painter and textile designer who also designed dolls for her husband's company.

Jong has an elder sister, Suzanna, who married Lebanese businessman Arthur Daou, and a younger sister, Claudia, a social worker who married Gideon S. Oberweger (the chief executive officer of Seymour Mann Inc. until his death in 2006). Among her nephews is Peter Daou, who is a Democratic Party strategist.

Jong attended New York's The High School of Music & Art in the 1950s, where she developed her passion for art and writing. As a student at Barnard College, Jong edited the Barnard Literary Magazine and created poetry programs for the Columbia University campus radio station, WKCR. In 1963, Jong graduated from Barnard College, and in 1965, with an MA in 18th century English Literature from Columbia University.

Career
Jong is best known for her first novel, Fear of Flying (1973), which created a sensation with its frank treatment of a woman's sexual desires, through an account of Isadora Wing, a woman in her late twenties, searching for who she is and where she is going. Jong employed psychological and humorous descriptive elements, rich cultural and literary references, and frank depictions and ruminations of sex.

The book addresses some of the conflicts that were arising for women in late 1960s - early 1970s America - - of womanhood, femininity, sex, and relationships, versus the quest for freedom and purpose. The saga of the thwarted fulfillment of Isadora Wing continues in two further novels, How to Save Your Own Life (1977) and Parachutes and Kisses (1984).

Personal life
Jong has been married four times. After a brief marriage to Michael Werthman while at Barnard, and another in 1966 to Allan Jong, a Chinese American psychiatrist, in 1977 she married Jonathan Fast, a novelist, social work educator, and son of novelist Howard Fast. This marriage was described in How to Save Your Own Life and Parachutes and Kisses. She has a daughter from her third marriage, Molly Jong-Fast. Jong was married to Kenneth David Burrows, a New York litigator, until his death on December 14, 2023.

Jong lived on an army base in Heidelberg, West Germany, for three years (1966–69) with her second husband. She was a frequent visitor to Venice, and wrote about that city in her novel Shylock's Daughter.

In 2007, her literary archive was acquired by Columbia University in New York City.

Jong is mentioned in "Highlands", the closing song of Bob Dylan's Grammy Award-winning album Time Out of Mind (1997), as a "women author" that the narrator reads. She is also satirized on the MC Paul Barman track "N.O.W.", in which the rapper fantasizes about a young leftist carrying a fictitious Jong book titled America's Wrong.

Jong supports LGBT rights and legalization of same-sex marriage. She says, "Gay marriage is a blessing not a curse. It certainly promotes stability and family. And it's certainly good for kids."

Fiction

 * Fear of Flying (1973)
 * How to Save Your Own Life (1977)
 * Fanny, Being the True History of the Adventures of Fanny Hackabout-Jones (1980) (a retelling of Fanny Hill)
 * Megan's Book of Divorce: a kid's book for adults; as told to Erica Jong; illustrated by Freya Tanz. New York: New American Library (1984)
 * Megan's Two Houses: a story of adjustment; illustrated by Freya Tanz (1984; West Hollywood, CA: Dove Kids, 1996)
 * Parachutes & Kisses. New York: New American Library (1984) (UK ed. as Parachutes and Kisses: London: Granada, 1984.)
 * Shylock's Daughter (1987): formerly titled Serenissima
 * Any Woman's Blues (1990)
 * Inventing Memory (1997)
 * Sappho's Leap (2003)
 * Fear of Dying (September 8, 2015)

Non-fiction

 * Witches; illustrated by Joseph A. Smith. New York: Harry A. Abrams (1981)
 * The Devil at Large: Erica Jong on Henry Miller (1993)
 * Fear of Fifty: A Midlife Memoir (1994)
 * What Do Women Want? bread roses sex power (1998)
 * Seducing the Demon: Writing for My Life (2006)
 * Essay, "My Dirty Secret". Bad Girls: 26 Writers Misbehave (2007)
 * Essay, "It Was Eight Years Ago Today (But It Seems Like Eighty)" (2008)

Anthology

 * Sugar in My Bowl: Real Women Write About Real Sex Ed. Erica Jong (2011)

Poetry

 * Fruits & Vegetables (1971, 1997)
 * Half-Lives (1973)
 * Loveroot (1975)
 * At the Edge of the Body (1979)
 * Ordinary Miracles (1983)
 * Becoming Light: New and Selected (1991)
 * Love Comes First (2009)
 * The World Began with Yes (Red Hen Press, 2019)

Awards

 * Poetry Magazine's Bess Hokin Prize (1971)
 * Sigmund Freud Award For Literature (1975)
 * United Nations Award For Excellence In Literature (1998)
 * Deauville Award For Literary Excellence In France
 * Fernanda Pivano Award For American Literature In Italy

Documentary

 * 2023 Erica Jong - Breaking the Wall by Kaspar Kasics.

title: Erica Jong


text:
Battle of Arsuf

The Battle of Arsuf took place on 7 September 1191, as part of the Third Crusade. It saw a multi-national force of Crusaders, led by Richard I of England, defeat a significantly larger army of the Ayyubid Sultanate, led by Saladin.

Following the Crusaders' capture of Acre, Saladin moved to intercept Richard's advancing army just outside of the city of Arsuf (Arsur in Latin) as it moved along the coast from Acre towards Jaffa. In an attempt to disrupt the cohesion of the Crusader army as they mobilized, the Ayyubid force launched a series of harassing attacks that were ultimately unsuccessful at breaking their formation. As the Crusaders crossed the plain to the north of Arsuf, Saladin committed the whole of his army to a pitched battle. The Crusader army maintained a defensive formation as it marched, with Richard awaiting the ideal moment to mount a counterattack. However, after the Knights Hospitaller launched a charge at the Ayyubids, Richard was forced to commit his entire force to support the attack. The Crusader charge broke the Ayyubid army; Richard was able to restrain his cavalry from a rash pursuit, regrouping them to achieve victory.

Following the engagement, the Crusaders secured control over the central coast of Palestine, including the city of Jaffa.

Prelude: south from Acre

Following the capture of Acre in 1191, Richard was aware that he needed to capture the port of Jaffa, before making an attempt on Jerusalem. Richard began to march down the coast from Acre towards Jaffa in August. Saladin, whose main objective was to prevent the recapture of Jerusalem, mobilised his army to attempt to stop the Crusaders' advance. Richard organised the advance with attention to detail. A large part of the Egyptian fleet had been captured at the fall of Acre, and with no threat from this quarter he could march south along the coast with the sea always protecting his right flank. Saladin had destroyed (slighted) Jaffa's fortifications in the summer of 1190 due to its potential importance to the Crusaders.

Mindful of the lessons of the disaster at Hattin, Richard knew that his army's greatest need was water and that heat exhaustion was its greatest danger. Although pressed for time he proceeded at a relatively slow pace. He marched his army only in the morning before the heat of the day, making frequent rest stops, always beside sources of water. The fleet sailed down the coast in close support, a source of supplies and a refuge for the wounded. Aware of the ever-present danger of enemy raiders and the possibility of hit-and-run attacks, he kept the column in tight formation with a core of twelve mounted regiments, each with a hundred knights. The infantry marched on the landward flank, covering the flanks of the horsemen and affording them some protection from missiles. The outermost ranks of the infantry were composed of crossbowmen. On the seaward side was the baggage and also units of infantry being rested from the continuous harassment inflicted by Saladin's forces. Richard wisely rotated his infantry units to keep them relatively fresh.

Though provoked and tormented by the skirmish tactics of Saladin's archers, Richard's generalship ensured that order and discipline were maintained under the most difficult of circumstances. Baha al-Din ibn Shaddad, the Muslim chronicler and eyewitness, describes the march:

"'The Moslems discharged arrows at them from all sides to annoy them, and force them to charge: but in this they were unsuccessful. These men exercised wonderful self-control; they went on their way without any hurry, whilst their ships followed their line of march along the coast, and in this manner they reached their halting-place.'"

Baha al-Din also described the difference in power between the Crusader crossbow and the bows of his own army. He saw Frankish infantrymen with from one to ten arrows sticking from their armoured backs marching along with no apparent hurt, whilst the crossbows struck down both horse and man amongst the Muslims.

Saladin's strategy

The Crusader army's pace was dictated by the infantry and baggage train; the Ayyubid army, being largely mounted, had the advantage of superior mobility. Efforts to burn crops and deny the countryside to the Frankish army were largely ineffective as it could be continuously provisioned from the fleet, which moved south parallel with it. On 25 August the Crusader rearguard was crossing a defile when it was almost cut off. However, the Crusaders closed up so speedily that the Muslim soldiery was forced to flee. From 26 to 29 August Richard's army had a respite from attack because while it hugged the coast and had gone round the shoulder of Mount Carmel, Saladin's army had struck across country. Saladin arrived in the vicinity of Caesarea before the Crusaders, who were on a longer road. From 30 August to 7 September Saladin was always within striking distance, and waiting for an opportunity to attack if the Crusaders exposed themselves.

By early September, Saladin had realised that harassing the Frankish army with a limited portion of his troops was not going to stop its advance. In order to do this he needed to commit his entire army to a serious attack. Fortuitously for Saladin, the Crusaders had to traverse one of the few forested regions of Palestine, the "Wood of Arsuf", which ran parallel to the sea shore for more than 20 km. The woodland would mask the disposition of his army and allow a sudden attack to be launched.

The Crusaders traversed half of the forest with little incident, and they rested on 6 September with their camp protected by the marsh lying inland of the mouth of the river Nahr-el-Falaik, called by them Rochetaillée. To the south of the camp, in the 10 km the Crusaders needed to march before gaining the ruins of Arsuf, the forest receded inland to create a narrow plain 1.5 – wide between wooded hills and the sea. This is where Saladin intended to make his decisive attack. While threatening and skirmishing along the whole length of the Crusader column, Saladin reserved his most sustained direct assault for its rear. His plan appears to have been to allow the Frankish van and centre to proceed, in the hope that a fatal gap might be created between them and the more heavily engaged rearmost units. Into such a gap Saladin would have thrown his reserves in order to defeat the Crusaders in detail.

Estimation of the size of the opposing armies
The Itinerarium Regis Ricardi implies that the Ayyubid army outnumbered the Crusaders three-to-one. However, unrealistically inflated numbers, of 300,000 and 100,000 respectively, are described. Modern estimates of Saladin's army place it at around 25,000 soldiers, almost all cavalry (horse archers, light cavalry, and a minority of heavy cavalry). Based on the number of soldiers that the three kings brought to the Holy Land, as well as what troops the Kingdom of Jerusalem could muster, McLynn calculates the total Crusader forces at Arsuf as numbering 20,000: 9,000 troops brought by Richard from his dominions, 7,000 French troops left by Phillip, 2,000 troops from Outremer, and 2,000 more soldiers from every other source (Danes, Frisians, Genoese, Pisans, Turcopoles). Boas notes that this calculation doesn't account for losses in earlier battles or desertions, but that it is probable that the Crusader army had 10,000 men and perhaps more. The Cambridge Illustrated Atlas of Warfare lists Richard's army as possessing 10,000 infantry (including spearmen and crossbowmen) and 1,200 heavy cavalry, with Saladin's army possessing twice as many men with a preponderance of cavalry.

Organisation and deployment
At dawn on 7 September, as Richard's forces began moving out of camp enemy scouts were visible in all directions, hinting that Saladin's whole army lay hidden in the woodland. King Richard took especial pains over the disposition of his army. The probable posts of greatest danger, at the front and especially the rear of the column, were given to the military orders. They had the most experience of fighting in the East, were arguably the most disciplined, and were the only formations which included Turcopole cavalry who fought like the Turkish horse archers of the Ayyubid army.

The vanguard of the Crusader army consisted of the Knights Templar under Robert de Sablé. They were followed by three units composed of Richard's own subjects, the Angevins and Bretons, then the Poitevins including Guy of Lusignan, titular King of Jerusalem, and lastly the English and Normans who had charge of the great standard mounted on its waggon. The next seven corps were made up of the French, the Flemings, the barons of Outremer and small contingents of crusaders from other lands. Forming the rearguard were the Knights Hospitaller led by Garnier de Nablus. The twelve corps were organised into five larger formations, though their precise distribution is unknown. Additionally, a small troop, under the leadership of Henry II of Champagne, was detached to scout towards the hills, and a squadron of picked knights under King Richard and Hugh of Burgundy, the leader of the French contingent, was detailed to ride up and down the column checking on Saladin's movements and ensuring that their own ranks were kept in order.

The first Saracen attack did not come until all the crusaders had left their camp and were moving towards Arsuf. The Ayyubid army then burst out of the woodland. The front of the army was composed of dense swarms of skirmishers, both horse and foot, Bedouin, Sudanese archers and the lighter types of Turkish horse archers. Behind these were the ordered squadrons of armoured heavy cavalry: Saladin's mamluks (also termed ghulams), Kurdish troops, and the contingents of the emirs and princes of Egypt, Syria and Mesopotamia. The army was divided into three parts, left and right wings and centre. Saladin directed his army from beneath his banners, surrounded by his bodyguard and accompanied by his kettle-drummers.

Saladin's attack

In an attempt to destroy the cohesion of the Crusader army and unsettle their resolve, the Ayyubid onslaught was accompanied by the clashing of cymbals and gongs, trumpets blowing and men screaming war-cries.

"'In truth, our people, so few in number, were hemmed in by the multitudes of the Saracens, that they had no means of escape, if they tried; neither did they seem to have valour sufficient to withstand so many foes, nay, they were shut in, like a flock of sheep in the jaws of wolves, with nothing but the sky above, and the enemy all around them.'"

The repeated Ayyubid harrying attacks followed the same pattern: the Bedouin and Nubians on foot launched arrows and javelins into the enemy lines, before parting to allow the mounted archers to advance, attack and wheel off, a well-practiced technique. Crusader crossbowmen responded, when this was possible, although the chief task among the Crusaders was simply to preserve their ranks in the face of sustained provocation. When the incessant attacks of skirmishers failed to have the desired effect, the weight of the attack was switched to the rear of the Crusader column, with the Hospitallers coming under the greatest pressure. Here the right wing of the Ayyubid army made a desperate attack on the squadron of Hospitaller knights and the infantry corps covering them. The Hospitallers could be attacked from both their rear and flank. Many of the Hospitaller infantry had to walk backwards in order to keep their faces, and shields, to the enemy. Saladin, eager to urge his soldiers into closer combat, personally entered the fray, accompanied by two pages leading spare horses. Sayf al-Din (Saphadin), Saladin's brother, was also engaged in actively encouraging the troops; both brothers were thus exposing themselves to considerable danger from crossbow fire.

Hospitallers break formation and charge
All Saladin's best efforts could not dislocate the Crusader column, or halt its advance in the direction of Arsuf. Richard was determined to hold his army together, forcing the enemy to exhaust themselves in repeated charges, with the intention of holding his knights for a concentrated counter-attack at just the right moment. There were risks in this, because the army was not only marching under severe enemy provocation, but the troops were suffering from heat and thirst. Just as serious the Saracens were killing so many horses that some of Richard's own knights began to wonder if a counter-strike would be possible. Many of the unhorsed knights joined the infantry.

Just as the vanguard entered Arsuf in the middle of the afternoon, the Hospitaller crossbowmen to the rear were having to load and shoot walking backwards. Inevitably they lost cohesion, and the enemy was quick to take advantage of this opportunity, moving into any gap wielding their swords and maces. For the Crusaders, the Battle of Arsuf had now entered a critical stage. Garnier de Nablus repeatedly pleaded with Richard to be allowed to attack. He was refused, the Master was ordered to maintain position and await the signal for a general assault, six clear trumpet blasts. Richard knew that the charge of his knights needed to be reserved until the Ayyubid army was fully committed, closely engaged, and the Saracens' horses had begun to tire. Whether through a lack of discipline or acting on Richard’s delegated authority, the Order’s marshal and one of Richard’s household knights, Baldwin le Carron, moved through their own infantry and charged into the Saracen ranks with a cry of “St. George!”; they were then followed by the rest of the Hospitaller knights. Moved by this example, the French knights of the corps immediately preceding the Hospitallers also charged.

The traditionally accepted version of events is that Garnier de Nablus and the Hospitaller cavalry charged when goaded beyond endurance, and did so in direct disobedience of Richard's orders. However, this version has been challenged. The established viewpoint draws on two related sources which do not match some other accounts, including Richard’s own letters on the battle. Recently, it has been proposed that Richard may have devolved authority to trusted subordinates to spot and seize any opportune moment to order a charge. Indeed, it is not clear how a trumpet signal would be heard amidst the clashing cymbals and gongs of the Ayyubid army or distinguished from Saladin’s own regular trumpet blasts.

Crusader counterattack

If the action of the Hospitallers constituted a breach of discipline, it could have caused Richard's whole strategy to unravel. Alternatively, he may have given Baldwin le Carron freedom to act on his own initiative in order to take advantage of a fleeting opportunity. Either way, Richard recognised that the counterattack, once started, had to be supported by all his army and ordered the signal for a general charge to be sounded. Unsupported, the Hospitallers and the other rear units involved in the initial breakout would have been overwhelmed by the superior numbers of the enemy. The Frankish infantry opened gaps in their ranks for the knights to pass through and the attack naturally developed in echelon from the rear to the van. To the soldiers of Saladin's army, as Baha al-Din noted, the sudden change from passivity to ferocious activity on the part of the Crusaders was disconcerting, and appeared to be the result of a preconceived plan.

Having already been engaged in close combat with the rear of the Crusader column, the right wing of the Ayyubid army was in compact formation and too close to their enemy to avoid the full impact of the charge. Indeed, some of the cavalry of this wing had dismounted in order to loose their arrows more effectively. As a result, the Ayyubids suffered great numbers of casualties, the knights taking a bloody revenge for all they had had to endure earlier in the battle. Baldwin le Carron and the marshal of the Hospitallers had chosen their moment well. Baha al-Din noted that "the rout was complete." He had been in the centre division of Saladin's army, when it turned in flight he looked to join the left wing, but found that it also was in rapid flight. Noting the disintegration of the right wing he finally sought Saladin's personal banners, but found only seventeen members of the bodyguard and a lone drummer still with them.

Being aware that an over-rash pursuit was the greatest danger when fighting armies trained in the fluid tactics of the Turks, Richard halted the charge after about 1.5 km had been covered. The right flank Crusader units (including the English and Normans), which had formed the van of the column, had not yet been heavily engaged in close combat. They constituted a ready-made reserve, on which the rest regrouped. Freed from the pressure of being actively pursued, many of the Ayyubid troops turned to cut down those of the knights who had unwisely drawn ahead of the rest. James d'Avesnes, the commander of one of the Franco-Flemish units, was the most prominent of those killed in this episode. Amongst the Ayyubid leaders who rallied quickly and returned to the fight was Taqi al-Din, Saladin's nephew. He led 700 men of the Sultan's own bodyguard against Richard's left flank. Once their squadrons were back in order, Richard led his knights in a second charge and the forces of Saladin broke once again.

Leading by example, Richard was in the heart of the fighting, as the Itinerarium describes: "'There the king, the fierce, the extraordinary king, cut down the Turks in every direction, and none could escape the force of his arm, for wherever he turned, brandishing his sword, he carved a wide path for himself: and as he advanced and gave repeated strokes with his sword, cutting them down like a reaper with his sickle, the rest, warned by the sight of the dying, gave him more ample space, for the corpses of the dead Turks which lay on the face of the earth extended over half a mile.'"

Alert to the danger presented to his scattered ranks, Richard, prudent as ever, halted and regrouped his forces once more after a further pursuit. The Ayyubid cavalry turned once again, showing they still had stomach to renew the fight. However, a third and final charge caused them to scatter into the woodland where they dispersed into the hills in all directions, showing no inclination to continue the conflict. Richard led his cavalry back to Arsuf where the infantry had pitched camp. During the night the Saracen dead were looted.

Aftermath
As always with medieval battles, losses are difficult to assess with any precision. The Christian chroniclers claim that Saladin's force lost 32 emirs and 7,000 men, but it is possible that the true number may have been fewer. Ambroise mentions that Richard's troops counted several thousand bodies of dead Saracen soldiers on the field of battle after the rout. Baha al-Din records only three deaths amongst the leaders of the Ayyubid army: Musek, Grand-Emir of the Kurds, Kaimaz el Adeli and Lighush. King Richard's own dead are said to have numbered no more than 700. The only Crusader leader of note to die in the battle was James d'Avesnes; a French knight of whom Ambroise made the claim that he cut down 15 Saracen cavalrymen before being killed.

Arsuf was an important victory. The Ayyubid army was not destroyed, despite the considerable casualties it suffered, but it did rout; this was considered shameful by the Muslims and boosted the morale of the Crusaders. A contemporary opinion stated that, had Richard been able to choose the moment to unleash his knights, rather than having to react to the actions of an insubordinate unit commander, the Crusader victory might have been much more effective. Possibly being so complete a victory that it would have disabled Saladin's forces for a long time. After the rout Saladin was able to regroup and attempted to resume his skirmishing method of warfare but to little effect; shaken by the Crusaders' sudden and devastatingly effective counterattack at Arsuf, he was no longer willing to risk a further full-scale attack. Arsuf had dented Saladin's reputation as an invincible warrior, and proved Richard's courage as a soldier and his skill as a commander. Richard was able to take, defend and hold Jaffa – a strategically crucial move toward securing Jerusalem. Also Saladin had to evacuate and demolish most of the fortresses of southern Palestine: Ascalon, Gaza, Blanche-Garde, Lydda and Ramleh, as he realised he could not hold them. Richard took the fortress of Darum, the sole fortress that Saladin had garrisoned, with only his own household troops, so low had Saracen morale been reduced. By depriving Saladin of the coast, Richard seriously threatened Saladin's hold on Jerusalem. Richard spent time at Jaffa to rebuild the fortifications that Saladin had pre-emptively destroyed in the summer of 1190 in anticipation that the city would be useful to the Crusaders.

Although the Third Crusade, in the end, failed to retake Jerusalem, a three-year truce was eventually negotiated with Saladin. The truce, known as the Treaty of Jaffa, ensured that Christian pilgrims from the west would once again be allowed to visit Jerusalem. Saladin also recognised the Crusaders' control of the Levantine coast as far south as Jaffa. Both sides had become exhausted by the struggle, Richard needed to return to Europe in order to protect his patrimony from the aggression of Philip of France, and Palestine was in a ruinous state.

title: Battle of Arsuf


text:
Ivan Meštrović

Ivan Meštrović (15 August 1883 – 16 January 1962) was a Croatian and Yugoslav sculptor, architect, and writer. He was the most prominent modern Croatian sculptor and a leading artistic personality in contemporary Zagreb. He studied at Pavle Bilinić's Stone Workshop in Split and at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, where he was formed under the influence of the Secession. He traveled throughout Europe and studied the works of ancient and Renaissance masters, especially Michelangelo, and French sculptors Auguste Rodin, Antoine Bourdelle and Aristide Maillol. He was the initiator of the national-romantic group Medulić (he advocated the creation of art of national features inspired by the heroic folk songs). During the First World War, he lived in emigration. After the war, he returned to Croatia and began a long and fruitful period of sculpture and pedagogical work. In 1942 he emigrated to Italy, in 1943 to Switzerland and in 1947 to the United States. He was a professor of sculpture at the Syracuse University and from 1955 at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana.

Most of his early works of symbolic themes were formed in the spirit of the Secession, some of which, like the Well of Life, show impressionist restless surfaces created under the influence of Rodin's naturalism, and the second, reviving national myth, become stylized monumental plastics (Kosovo cycle, 1908-1910). Before the First World War, he left pathetic epic stylization, expressing increasingly emotional states, as evidenced by the wooden reliefs of biblical themes made in a combination of Archaic, Gothic, Secessionist and Expressionist styles. During the 1920s and 1930s, the classical component prevailed in his works. In this period, he created a number of public monuments of strong plastic expression, pronounced and legible shapes (Grgur Ninski and Marko Marulić in Split, Andrija Medulić, Andrija Kačić-Miošić and Josip Juraj Strossmayer in Zagreb, Pobednik in Belgrade, Svetozar Miletić in Novi Sad and The Bowman and The Spearman in Chicago). Portraits take a special place in his opus.

Meštrović achieved works of strong plastic value in the construction-sculptural monuments and projects, mostly with central layout (the Mausoleum of the Račić family in Cavtat, the Mausoleum of the Meštrović family in Otavice, the Meštrović Pavilion in Zagreb, Monument to the Unknown Hero in Belgrade). He also designed a memorial church of King Zvonimir in Biskupija near Knin inspired by old Croatian churches, a representative family palace, today the Ivan Meštrović Gallery, and reconstructed renaissance fortified mansion Crikvine-Kaštilac in Split.

Early life
He was born in Vrpolje, Slavonia, and spent his childhood in the small Dalmatian village of Otavice, the native place of his parents in the Dinaric Alps. His father was a poor peasant and sheep-breeder. At the age of sixteen he was accepted as an apprentice by Pavle Bilinić, a master of a stonemasonry in Split.

His artistic skills were improved by studying the monumental buildings in the city and his education at the hands of Bilinić's wife, who was a high-school teacher. Soon, they found a mine owner from Vienna who paid for Meštrović to move there and be admitted to the Academy of Fine Arts where he studied under Edmund von Hellmer and Otto Wagner. Quickly he had to learn German from scratch and adjust to the new environment, but he persevered and successfully finished his studies.

In 1905 he had his first exhibit with the Secession Group in Vienna, noticeably influenced by the Art Nouveau style. His work quickly became popular, even with the likes of Auguste Rodin who once said that Meštrović is the greatest phenomenon among sculptors and even greater sculptor than he was. Because of that popularity he soon earned enough for him and his wife (since 1904), Ruža Klein, to travel to more international exhibitions.

In 1908 Meštrović moved to Paris and the sculptures made in this period earned him international reputation. At this time, Ivan was a friend of the cubist painter Jelena Dorotka (Helene Dorotka von Ehrenwall). In 1911 he moved to Zagreb, and soon after to Rome where he received the grand prix for the Serbian Pavilion on the 1911 Rome International Exhibition. There his work was praised as being strong and monumental compared to the "soft and ineffectual" pieces exhibited by his contemporaries, Hugo Lederer, Anton Hanak, and Franz Metzner. He remained in Rome, spending four years studying ancient Greek sculpture.

Meštrović became a supporter of Yugoslavism and Yugoslav identity after he traveled to Serbia and became impressed with Serb culture. He created a sculpture of Serbian folk-legend hero Prince Marko for the International Exhibition of Art (1911), which was exhibited along with 73 sculptures at the pavilion of Kingdom of Serbia. When asked about the statue, Meštrović replied "This Marko is our Yugoslav people with its gigantic and noble heart". Meštrović wrote poetry speaking of a "Yugoslav race". Those who knew Meštrović's views referred to him as "The Prophet of Yugoslavism". He also participated in 1911 at the Turin International.

First World War and Yugoslavia
At the onset of World War I, after the assassination in Sarajevo, Meštrović tried to move back to Split via Venice, but was dissuaded by threats made against him because of his political opposition to the Austro-Hungarian authorities. During the war he travelled to present exhibits in Paris, Cannes, London and in Switzerland. He was a founding member of the Yugoslav Committee.

He was the first artist of Croatian origin to exhibit his work at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, in 1915. After World War I he moved back home to the newly formed Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes and met the second love of his life, Olga Kesterčanek, whom he married shortly thereafter. They had four children: Marta, Tvrtko, Maria and Mate, all of whom were born in Zagreb, where Ivan and Olga settled in 1922. He was a contemporary and friend of Nikola Tesla. Meštrović and his family would later spend the winter months in their mansion in Zagreb and the summer months in a summer house he built by the end of the 1930s in Split. He became a professor and later the director of the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, and proceeded to build numerous internationally renowned works as well as many donated chapels and churches and grants to art students.

By 1923 he designed the mausoleum for the Račić Family Memorial Chapel in Cavtat, also known as Our Lady of the Angels. He also created a set of statues for a never-built Yugoslav national temple that would have been erected in Kosovo to commemorate the 1389 Battle of Kosovo.

Meštrović sculpted numerous sculptures commissioned by the Karađorđević dynasty, especially Alexander I of Yugoslavia. Among the orders of King Alexander are sculptures of a sphinx, Miloš Obilić, Marko Kraljević, the hero of the Kosovo myth Srđa Zlopogleđa, sculptures of female counterparts to Kosovo's heroes, as well as a self-portrait of Meštrović. Most of the commissioned sculptures had the idea of an integral Yugoslav nation as ideological background. Today, the works are mostly located within the royal compound in Dedinje. Meštrović had a role in the constitution of Yugoslav national identity.

He continued to travel to post his exhibits around the world: he displayed at the Brooklyn Museum in New York in 1924, in Chicago in 1925, he even travelled to Egypt and Palestine in 1927. In 1927 he entered a design for the coins of the Irish Free State, and though his design arrived too late for consideration it was adopted in 1965 as the seal of the Central Bank of Ireland.

Second World War
During the April War in 1941 Meštrović was living in Split. After being warned by novelist and Independent State of Croatia (NDH) minister Mile Budak that the Croatian authorities could not guarantee his safety in Split, he moved to Zagreb in September 1941. Meštrović and painter Jozo Kljaković were arrested by the Ustaše in Zagreb on 7 November 1941, ostensibly due to the regime's fears that the two would emigrate. He eventually served three and a half months in the Savska Cesta prison. With help from archbishop Aloysius Stepinac and subsequently the Vatican he was released, on condition that he travel to Venice to attend the Independent State of Croatia pavilion at the Venice Biennale. From there he relocated to Rome, where he stayed and worked at the Pontifical Croatian College of St. Jerome. He was sponsored here by Fra Dominik Mandić, and during his time in the city was received by Pope Pius XII. In July 1943, Meštrović secured a visa to Switzerland through NDH diplomat Stijepo Perić and moved there. Not all of his family managed to escape — his first wife Ruža died in 1942 and many from her Jewish family were murdered in the Holocaust. Later, his brother Petar was imprisoned for publicly advising Ivan not to return to the country. Looking to create a more favorable image of the newly established socialist regime in Yugoslavia, Marshal Josip Broz Tito's government invited Meštrović to return to the country after World War II ended, but he refused to do so. His decision was final after he received a letter from a high-ranking communist official warning him that he would be given a prominent position such as at a national academy and expected to display complete obedience to the Communist Party. In 1946, Syracuse University offered him a professorship, and he moved to the United States. He became the first artist of Croatian origin to exhibit his work at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City in 1947.

From 1951 he began making contributions to the Croatian emigrant journal Hrvatska revija, which would later publish his memoirs. He was awarded the American Academy of Arts and Letters' Gold Medal for sculpture in 1953. President Dwight D. Eisenhower personally presided over the 1954 ceremony granting Meštrović American citizenship. He went on to become a professor at the University of Notre Dame in 1955.

At the end of January 1951 Meštrović joined the American campaign for the release of Archbishop Stepinac from prison.

Later years
Before he died, Meštrović returned to Yugoslavia one last time to visit with the imprisoned Cardinal Stepinac and with Tito. At the request of various people from his homeland he sent 59 statues from the United States to Yugoslavia (including the monument of Petar Petrovic-Njegos), and in 1952 signed off his Croatian estates to the people of Croatia, including more than 400 sculptures and numerous drawings. Upon his return he vowed to his colleague painter Jozo Kljaković that he would not return to the country as long as the communists were in power.

Two of his children predeceased him. His daughter Marta, who moved with him to the U.S., died in 1949 at the age of 24. His son Tvrtko, who remained in Zagreb, was 39 when he died in 1961.

In 1960 he suffered a minor stroke which affected his eyesight. In 1961, his memoir, Uspomene na političke ljude i događaje (Reminiscences of Political People and Events), was published by the Croatian emigrant publishing house Hrvatska revija (Croatian Review) in Buenos Aires, Argentina. In 1969, they were published by Matica hrvatska in Zagreb.

After creating four clay sculptures to memorialize his children, Meštrović died in early 1962, aged 79, in South Bend, Indiana. His funeral mass was celebrated by the bishops of Šibenik, Josip Arnerić, and bishop of Split-Makarska Frane Franić. His remains were interred at a mausoleum in his childhood home of Otavice. Communist Yugoslav authorities had originally promised the Meštrović family that his remains could lie in repose at the cathedrals in Zagreb and Split. Once his remains had arrived in Yugoslavia, however, the authorities reneged and did not allow this to take place. After communist officials interfered during his funeral, his son Mate Meštrović sharply criticized the level of religious freedom in the country.

His son, Mate, is a Croatian-American diplomat, university professor and editor at Time magazine, who served as a lieutenant in the US Army PsyWar. Later, he served as president of the Croatian National Congress and lobbied on behalf of Croatian self-determination in Washington, D.C., Western Europe and Australia, and was a deputy in the Croatian Parliament, a member of Croatia's delegation to the Council of Europe, and the Inter-Parliamentary Union. He also served as an ambassador in the Foreign Ministry.

Meštrović's grandson Stjepan is an American sociology professor at Texas A&M and author of several books.

Reputation and legacy
His sculptural strengths are manifested in the lyrical and dramatic expression of the human body. Critics in Europe and the United States ranked him highly in the first half of the 20th century. He is one of the most prominent Croatian artists whose work has at times gained worldwide recognition.

Professor Miljenko Jurkovic of the University of Zagreb states he:
 * is the most renowned modern Croatian sculptor. His works combine various influences, and they are both monumental and poetic. He sculpted in stone, bronze and wood, covering a diverse range of themes – spreading to religious, portraits and symbolic themes.

Historians Wojciech Roszkowski and Jan Kofman report: "Meštrović's sculpture of the 1389 Battle of Kosovo Field won first prize at an international exhibition in 1911, and critics acclaimed him the greatest sculptor of modern times."

Auguste Rodin's evaluation was often quoted: "Meštrović was the greatest phenomena among the sculptors" of his time.

Alonzo Lansford, editor of Arts Magazine in New York City, reviewed the Mestrovic show of 1947 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He wrote: "It is therefore singularly significant that he is almost unanimously revered by American sculptors of all schools as one of the greatest living sculptors."

Several streets in Serbia are named after him.

In 2013, Meštrović was named honorary citizen of the Croatian town Drniš.

Work
Meštrovic created over fifty monuments during his two years in Paris (1908–1910). The theme of the Battle of Kosovo particularly moved him, prompting one of his first great works, the Paris Kosovo Monument, as well as other works in bronze and stone. Much of his early work commemorated such epic moments from Slavic history, as he attempted to foster the pan-Slavic cause in his native country.

With the creation of the first Yugoslavia, Meštrović's focus shifted to more mundane topics such as musical instruments or chapels. He particularly oriented himself towards religious items, mostly made of wood, under artistic influence from the Byzantine and Gothic architecture. The most renowned works from his early period are the Crucifix and Madonna; later he became inspired by Michelangelo Buonarroti and created a large number of stone reliefs and portraits. The Croatian dinar featured Meštrović's work History of the Croats.

Meštrović's most famous monuments include:
 * Canadian Phalanx, a marble relief, 284 Wellington Street in Ottawa, Ontario
 * Gregory of Nin in Split
 * Josip Juraj Strossmayer in Zagreb
 * Monument of Gratitude to France in Belgrade
 * Monument to the Unknown Hero, Avala, Belgrade
 * Victor monument on Kalemegdan Fortress in Belgrade
 * Svetozar Miletić in Novi Sad (1939)
 * Nadežda Petrović in Čačak
 * Nikola Tesla in Zagreb
 * History of Croats in Zagreb and in the Royal Compound, Belgrade (two copies made)
 * Mausoleum of Njegoš on Mount Lovćen in Montenegro
 * The Spring of Life in Zagreb
 * Domagoj's Archers in Zagreb (Meštrović Foundation)
 * The Bowman and The Spearman in Chicago
 * Martin Kukučín in the Medical Garden, Bratislava, Slovakia
 * Ion I. C. Brătianu in Bucharest, Romania (24 noiembrie 1937)
 * King Carol I in Bucharest, Romania (1939) - this monument was destroyed by communists after 1948
 * Pietà in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, Notre Dame
 * Relief of Cardinal Stepinac with Christ, Zagreb Cathedral
 * St. Jerome the Priest, Washington, D.C.
 * Christ and the Samaritan Woman and St. Luke (1957), Notre Dame
 * Crucifix and Young Christ Teaching in the Temple (1957), Keenan and Stanford Halls, Notre Dame
 * Crucifix at St. Joseph Cathedral (Baton Rouge, Louisiana)

Galleries displaying his work include:
 * Ivan Meštrović Gallery in Split, created after his major donation in 1950, which includes 86 statues in marble, stone, bronze, wood and gypsum, 17 drawings, and also eight bronze statues in the open garden, 28 reliefs in wood in the kaštelet and one stone crucifix
 * Ivan Meštrović Memorial Gallery created in 1973 in Vrpolje, his birthplace, with 35 works in bronze and plaster stone
 * Raclin Murphy Museum of Art at the University of Notre Dame has many of his works. He was artist-in-residence at Notre Dame and resided in South Bend, Indiana, until his death.
 * National Museum of Serbia holds sculptures and monuments (a total of 45 works) including Miloš Obilić, Kosovo girl, Srđa Zlopogleđa, Kraljević Marko, and Widow
 * Louisiana Arts and Science Museum (LASM) (retrieved January 29, 2016) in Baton Rouge has a large collection of his sculpture and drawings.
 * Church of Sts. Cyril & Methodius and St. Raphael (New York City)

He painted in oil (Moja majka [My mother], 1911).

Written works
He wrote essays (Moji razgovori s Michelangelom [My Interviews with Michelangelo], 1926), memoirs about the public and political life of his time (Uspomene na političke ljude i događaje [Memories of Political People and Events], 1969) and short stories (Ludi Mile [Crazy Mile], 1970).

 * Stepinac - duhovni heroj (Stepinac - Spiritual Hero), Hrvatska revija, Buenos Aires 1956.
 * Uspomene na političke ljude i događaje (Memories of Political Persons and Events), Hrvatska revija, Buenos Aires 1961, reprinted by Matica hrvatska in 1969.

title: Ivan Meštrović


text:
Spotless starling

The spotless starling (Sturnus unicolor) is a passerine bird in the starling family, Sturnidae. It is closely related to the common starling (S. vulgaris), but has a much more restricted range, confined to the Iberian Peninsula, Northwest Africa, southernmost France, and the islands of Sicily, Corsica and Sardinia. It is largely non-migratory.

Taxonomy and systematics
Subsequent to the recent split of the genus Sturnus, this species and the common starling are the only species retained in the genus. Hybrids with the common starling are found occasionally where the breeding ranges overlap in southwestern France and northeastern Spain.

Description
The adult spotless starling is very similar to the common starling, but marginally larger (21–23 cm length; 70–100 g weight), and has darker, oily-looking black plumage, slightly purple- or green-glossed in bright light, which is entirely spotless in spring and summer, and only with very small pale spots in winter plumage, formed by the pale tips of the feathers. It also differs in having conspicuously longer throat feathers (twice the length of those on common starlings ), forming a shaggy "beard" which is particularly obvious when the bird is singing. Its legs are bright pink. In summer, the bill is yellow with a bluish base in males and a pinkish base in females; in winter, it is duller, often blackish. Young birds are dull brown, darker than young common starlings, and have a black bill and brown legs. Confusion with the common starling is particularly easy during the winter, when common starlings are abundant throughout the spotless starling's range, but also in summer where their breeding ranges overlap in northeastern Spain and the far southwest of France. It can also be confused with the common blackbird (Turdus merula), which differs most obviously in its longer tail and lack of plumage gloss.

Like the common starling, it walks rather than hops, and has a strong direct flight, looking triangular-winged and short-tailed. It is a noisy bird and a good mimic; its calls are similar to the common starling's, but louder.

Distribution and habitat
The spotless starling uses a wide range of habitats and can be found in any reasonably open environment, from farmland and olive groves to human habitation. The highest population densities are in open grazed holm oak woods, and in urban habitats such as Gibraltar, where it is common. The population has grown in recent decades with a northward expansion in range, spreading to the whole of Spain (previously absent from the northeast) between 1950 and 1980, and colonising locally along the southern coast of mainland France since 1983. Like its more common relative, it is an omnivore, taking a wide variety of invertebrates, berries, and human-provided scraps. It is gregarious, forming sizeable flocks, often mixed with common starlings, of up to 100,000 in winter.

Like most starlings, it is a cavity-nesting species, breeding in tree holes, buildings and in cliff crevices. It typically lays three to five eggs.

title: Spotless starling


text:
Eschscholzia

Eschscholzia is a genus of 12 annual or perennial plants in the Papaveraceae (poppy) family. The genus was named after the Baltic German/Imperial Russian botanist Johann Friedrich von Eschscholtz (1793–1831). All species are native to Mexico or the southern United States.

Description
Leaves are deeply cut, glabrous and glaucous, mostly basal, though a few grow on the stem.

Flowers have four yellow or orange petals, and grow at the end of the stem, either alone or in many-flowered cymes. The petals are wedge-shaped, forming a funnel. The two fused sepals fall off as the flower bud opens. There are 12 to numerous stamens. The flowers close in cloudy weather.

Seeds are tiny and black, held in long pointed pods that split open when ripe often with enough force to fling the seeds some distance with an audible snap.

The taproot gives off a colorless or orange clear juice, which is mildly toxic.

Cultivation
The best-known species is the California poppy (Eschscholzia californica), the state flower of California. Eschscholzia caespitosa is very similar to E. californica, but smaller and without a collar below the petals.

Another species common in cultivation is Eschscholzia lobbii, which is often sold as Eschscholzia caespitosa. E. lobbii has yellow flowers and very narrow leaves.

They prosper in warm, dry climates, but withstand some frost. They grow in poor soils with good water drainage.

The cultivars 'Apricot Chiffon', with orange/yellow flowers, and 'Rose Chiffon', with pink and cream flowers, have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.

title: Eschscholzia