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National Museum of Natural History, France

The French National Museum of Natural History, known in French as the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle (abbreviation MNHN), is the national natural history museum of France and a grand établissement of higher education part of Sorbonne Universities. The main museum, with four galleries, is located in Paris, France, within the Jardin des Plantes on the left bank of the River Seine. It was formally founded in 1793, during the French Revolution, but was begun even earlier in 1635 as the royal garden of medicinal plants. The museum now has 14 sites throughout France.

Since the 2014 reform, it has been headed by a chairman, assisted by deputy managing directors. The Museum has a staff of approximately 2,350 members, including six hundred researchers. It is a member of the national network of naturalist collections (RECOLNAT).

17th–18th century
The museum was formally established on June 10, 1793, by the French Convention, the government during the French Revolution, at the same time that it established the Louvre Museum. But its origins went back much further, to the Royal Garden of Medicinal Plants, which was created by King Louis XIII in 1635, and was directed and run by the royal physicians. A royal proclamation of the boy-king Louis XV on 31 March 1718, removed the purely medical function. Besides growing and studying plants useful for health, the royal garden offered public lectures on botany, chemistry, and comparative anatomy. In 1729, the chateau in the garden was enlarged with an upper floor, and transformed into the cabinet of natural history, designed for the royal collections of zoology and mineralogy. A series of greenhouses were constructed on the west side of the garden, to study the plants and animals collected by French explorers for their for medical and commercial uses.

From 1739 until 1788, the garden was under the direction of Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, one of the leading naturalists of the Enlightenment. Though he did not go on scientific expeditions himself, he wrote a monumental and influential work, "Natural History", in thirty-six volumes, published between 1749 and 1788. In his books, he challenged the traditional religious ideas that nature had not changed since the creation; he suggested that the earth was seventy-five thousand years old, divided into seven periods, with man arriving in the most recent. He also helped fund much research, through the iron foundry which he owned and directed. His statue is prominently placed in front of the Gallery of Evolution.

Following the French Revolution the museum was reorganized, with twelve professorships of equal rank. Some of its early professors included eminent comparative anatomist Georges Cuvier and the pioneers of the theory of evolution, Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck and Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire. The museum's aims were to instruct the public, put together collections and conduct scientific research. The naturalist Louis Jean Marie Daubenton wrote extensively about biology for the pioneer French Encyclopédie, and gave his name to several newly discovered species. The museum sent its trained botanists on scientific expeditions around the world. Major figures in the museum included Déodat de Dolomieu, who gave his name to the mineral dolomite and to a volcano on Reunion island, and the botanist Rene Desfontaines, who spent two years collecting plants for study Tunisia and Algeria, and whose book "Flora Atlantica" (1798–1799, 2 vols), added three hundred genera new to science.

When Napoleon Bonaparte launched his military campaign to conquer Egypt in 1798, his army was accompanied by more than 154 scientists, including botanists, chemists, mineralogists, including Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, Vivant Denon, Joseph Fourier, and Claude Louis Berthollet, who together took back a large quantity of specimens and illustrations to enrich the collections of the museum.

19th century
The museum continued to flourish during the 19th century, particularly under the direction of chemist Michel Eugène Chevreul, His research with animal fats revolutionized the manufacture of soap and of candles and led to his isolation of the heptadecanoic (margaric), stearic, and oleic fatty acids. In the medical field, he was first to demonstrate that diabetics excrete glucose. and to isolate creatine. His theories of color "provided the scientific basis for Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painting."

Henri Becquerel held the chair for Applied Physics at the Muséum (1892–1908). By wrapping uranium salts in photographic paper, he first demonstrated the radioactive properties of uranium. In 1903, he shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with Pierre Curie and Marie Curie for the discovery of spontaneous radioactivity. Four generations of Becquerels held this chairmanship, from 1838 to 1948.

As its collections grew, the museum was enlarged, with the construction of a new gallery of zoology. it was begun in 1877 and completed in 1889, for the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution. A new gallery of paleontology and comparative anatomy was opened in 1898. The cost of construction Drained the museum budget and it began to run short of funds. Its emphasis on teaching brought it into conflict with the University of Paris, which had better political connections. It gradually scaled back its program of teaching and focused primarily on research and the museum collections.

20th–21st century
After receiving greater financial autonomy in 1907, it began a new phase of growth. In 1934, the museum opened the Paris Zoological Park, a new zoo to in the Bois de Vincennes, as the home for the larger animals of the Menagerie of the Jardin des Plantes. In 1937, it opens the Musée de l'Homme, a museum of anthropology located in Palais de Chaillot, across the Seine from the Eiffel Tower, in a building created for the 1937 Paris International Exposition. In recent decades, it has directed its research and education efforts at the effects on the environment of human exploitation. In French public administration, the Muséum is classed as a grand établissement of higher education.

Some of the buildings, particularly the Grand Gallery of Evolution, completed in 1889, were in poor condition by the mid-20th century. It was closed entirely in 1965, then underwent major restoration between 1991 and 1994 to its present state.

Galleries and gardens
The birthplace of the museum and a large part of its modern collections are found in five galleries in the Jardin des Plantes. These are the Gallery of Evolution; the Gallery of Mineralogy and Geology; the Gallery of Botany; the Gallery of Paleontology and Comparative Anatomy and the Laboratory of Entomology.

The Grand Gallery of Evolution
The National Museum of Natural History has been called "the Louvre of the Natural Sciences". Its largest and best-known gallery is the Grand Gallery of Evolution, located at the end of the central alley facing the formal garden. It replaced an earlier Neoclassical gallery built next to the same by Buffon, opened in 1785, and demolished in 1935. It was proposed in 1872 and begun in 1877 by the architect Louis-Jules André, a teacher at the influential École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. It is a prominent example of Beaux Arts Architecture. It was opened in 1889 for the Paris Universal Exposition of 1889, which also presented the Eiffel Tower. It was never fully completed in its original design; it never received the neoclassical entrance planned for the side of the building away from the garden, facing Rue Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire.

The facade of the building was designed specifically as a backdrop for the garden. The facade facing the garden is divided into eleven traverses. Ten are decorated with sculpted medallions honouring prominent French scientists associated with the museum. The central traverse has a larger marble statue of a woman seated holding a book, in a pose similar to that of statue of Buffon facing the building. The statues are the work of Eugene Guillaume, a pupil of the sculptor Pradier.

While the building exterior was neo-classical, the iron framework of the interior was extremely modern for the 19th century, like that of the Gare d'Orsay railroad station of the same period. It contained an immense rectangular hall, 55 meters long, 25 wide and 15 meters high, supported by forty slender cast-iron columns, and was originally covered with a glass roof one thousand square meters in size.The building suffered from technical problems, and was closed entirely in 1965. It was extensively remodelled between 1991 and 1994 and reopened in its present form.

The great central hall, kept in its same form but enlarged during the modernisation, is devoted to the presentation of marine animals on the lower sides, and, on a platform in the center, a parade of full-size African mammals, including a rhinoceros originally presented to King Louis XV in the 18th century. On the garden side is another hall, in its original size, devoted to animals which have disappeared or are in danger of extinction.

Gallery of Mineralogy and Geology
The Gallery of Mineralogy, looking across the formal garden and close to the Gallery of Evolution, was constructed between 1833 and 1837 by Charles Rohault de Fleury in a neoclassical style, with two porticos of Doric columns. Directly in front is the rose garden, renewed in 1990 with 170 types of European roses, as well as a Styphnolobium japonicum or Japanese pagoda tree, planted there by Bernard de Jussieu in 1747.

The gallery contains over 600,000 stones and fossils. It is particularly known for its collection of giant crystals, including colourful examples of azurite, Tourmaline (Rubelite), Malachite and Ammonite. Other displays include the jars and vestiges of the original royal apothecary of Louis XIV, and three Florentine marble marquetry tables from the palace of Cardinal Mazarin.

The gallery also contains a large collection of meteorites, gathered from around the world. These include a large fragment of Canyon Diablo meteorite, a piece of an asteroid which fell in Arizona about 550,000 years ago, and created the Meteor crater. It weighs 360 kilograms (970 pounds).

Gallery of Botany
The Gallery of Botany is on the Allée the Buffon facing the centre of the garden, between the Gallery of Mineralogy and the Gallery of Paleontology. At the corner is one of the two oldest trees in Paris, a Robinia pseudoacacia or black locust, planted in 1635 by Vespasien Robin, the royal gardener and botanist, from an earlier tree brought from America by his brother, also a botanist, in 1601. It is tied in age with another from the same source planted at the same time on the square of Saint-Julien-le-Pauvre.

The Gallery was built in 1930–35 with a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation. Directly in front is a statue entitled "Science and Mystery" by J.L.D. Schroeder, made in 1889. It represents the enigma of and old man meditating over an egg and a chicken, pondering which came first.

The primary content of the gallery is the Herbier National, a collection representing 7.5 million plants collected since the founding of the museum. They are divided for study into Spermatophytes, plants which reproduce with seeds, and cryptogams, plants which reproduce with spores, such as algae, lichens and mushrooms. Many of the plants were collected by Jean Baptiste Christophore Fusée Aublet, the royal pharmacist and botanist in French Guiana. In 1775 he published his "Histoire des plantes de la Guiane Française" describing 576 genera and 1,241 species of neotropical plants, including more than 400 species that were new to science, at a time when only 20,000 plants had been described,

The ground floor interior of the gallery has vestibules built in a combination of Art Deco and Neo-Egyptian styles. It is used for temporary exhibits. The exhibits include a slice of a giant Sequoia tree, 2200 years old, which fell naturally in 1917.

The Gallery of Paleontology and Comparative Anatomy
The Gallery of Paleontology and Comparative Anatomy was built between 1894 and 1897 by architect Ferdinand Dutert, who had built the innovative iron-framed Galerie des machines at the 1889 Paris Exposition. A new pavilion in the same style was added to the west side of the gallery; it was completed in 1961. In front of the Gallery is the Iris Garden, created in 1964, which displays 260 varieties of iris flowers, and a sculpture, "Nymph with a pitcher" (1837) by Isidore Hippolyte Brion. The sides of gallery are also decorated with sculpture; twelve relief sculptures of animals in bronze and fourteen medallions of famous biologists. The ironwork grill and stone arches over the entrance are filled with elaborate designs and sculpture of seashells. Inside the entrance is a large marble statue of an Orangutan strangling a hunter, created in 1885 by the noted animal sculptor Emmanuel Fremiet, best known for his statue of Joan of Arc on horseback on the Place des Pyramides in Paris.

Jardin des Plantes
The Jardin des plantes is the home of the main galleries of the National Museum of Natural History, and a division of the museum, which was born there. The garden was founded by Louis XIII 1635 as the Royal Garden of medicinal plants, under the direction of the royal physician. In the early 18th century, the chateau of the gardens was enlarged to house the collections of the royal pharmacist. In 1729, this collection was broadened into the Cabinet of Natural History, destined to receive the Royal collections dedicated to zoology and mineralogy. New plants and animal species were collected from around the world, examined, illustrated, classified, named and described in publications which were circulated across Europe and to America. An amphitheater was constructed in the garden in 1787 to provide a venue for lectures and classes on the new discoveries. New greenhouses were built beginning in 1788, and the size of the gardens was doubled. The gardens served as the laboratory of scientists including Jean Baptiste Lamarck, author of the earliest theory of evolution, and were a base for major scientific expeditions by Nicolas Baudin, Alexander von Humboldt, Jules Dumont d'Urville and others throughout the 18th and 19th century.

The gardens today include a large formal garden planted in geometric designs; and two enormous greenhouses, keeping tropical plants at a steady temperature of 22 degrees Celsius. The Alpine gardens present plants coming from Corsica, the Caucasus, North American and the Himalaya. The gardens of the School of Botany contain 3,800 species of plants, displayed by genre and family.

Ménagerie of the Jardin des Plantes
The Menagerie is the second-oldest public zoo in the world still in operation, following the Tiergarten Schönbrunn in Vienna, Austria, founded in 1752. It occupies the northeast side of the garden along the Quai St. Bernard, covering five hectares (13.6 acres). It was created between 1798 and 1836 as a home for the animals of the royal menagerie at Versailles, which were largely abandoned after the French Revolution. Its architecture features picturesque "fabriques", or pavilions, mostly created in the 19th century, to shelter the animals. In the 20th century the larger animals were moved to the Paris Zoological Park, a more extensive site in the Bois de Vincennes. also governed by the National Museum of Natural History. The menagerie is currently home to about six hundred mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and invertebrates, representing about 189 species. These include the Amur leopard from China, one of the rarest cats on earth.

Mission and organization
The museum has as its mission both research (fundamental and applied) and public diffusion of knowledge. It is organized into seven research and three diffusion departments.

The research departments are:
 * Classification and Evolution
 * Regulation, Development, and Molecular Diversity
 * Aquatic Environments and Populations
 * Ecology and Biodiversity Management
 * History of Earth
 * Men, Nature, and Societies, and
 * Prehistory

The diffusion departments are:
 * The Galleries of the Jardin des Plantes
 * Botanical Parks and Zoos, and
 * The Museum of Man (Musée de l'Homme)

The museum also developed higher education, and now delivers a master's degree.

Location and branches
The museum comprises fourteen sites throughout France with four in Paris, including the Jardin des Plantes in the 5th arrondissement. (métro Place Monge).

The herbarium of the museum, referred to by code P, includes a large number of important collections amongst its 8 000 000 plant specimens. The historical collections incorporated into the herbarium, each with its P prefix, include those of Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck (P-LA) René Louiche Desfontaines (P-Desf.), Joseph Pitton de Tournefort and Charles Plumier (P-TRF). The designation at CITES is FR 75A. It publishes the botanical periodical Adansonia and journals on the flora of New Caledonia, Madagascar and Comoro Islands, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, Cameroon, and Gabon.

The Musée de l'Homme is also in Paris, in the 16th arrondissement (métro Trocadéro). It houses displays in ethnography and physical anthropology, including artifacts, fossils, and other objects.

Also part of the museum are:
 * Three zoos, the Paris Zoological Park (Parc zoologique de Paris, also known as the Zoo de Vincennes), at the Bois de Vincennes in the 12th arrondissement, the Cleres Zoological Park (Parc zoologique de Clères), at a medieval manor in Clères (Seine-Maritime) and the Réserve de la Haute Touche in Obterre (Indre), the largest in France,
 * Three botanical parks, the Arboretum de Chèvreloup in Rocquencourt next to the Château de Versailles, the Jardin botanique exotique de Menton and the Jardin alpin de La Jaÿsinia in Samoëns,
 * Two museums, the Musée de l'abri Pataud in Les Eyzies-de-Tayac and the Harmas de Fabre in Sérignan-du-Comtat,
 * Four scientific sites, the Institut de Paléontologie humaine in Paris, the Centre d'Écologie générale de Brunoy, the Station de Biologie marine et Marinarium de Concarneau and the CRESCO (Centre de Recherche et d'Enseignement sur les Systèmes Côtiers) in Dinard.

Chairs
The transformation of the Jardin from the medicinal garden of the king to a national public museum of natural history required the creation of twelve chaired positions. Over the ensuing years the number of Chairs and their subject areas evolved, some being subdivided into two positions and others removed. The list of Chairs of the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle includes major figures in the history of the Natural sciences. Early chaired positions were held by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, René Desfontaines and Georges Cuvier, and later occupied by Paul Rivet, Léon Vaillant and others.

In popular culture
The Gallery of Palaeontology and Comparative Anatomy and other parts of Jardin des Plantes was a source of inspiration for French graphic novelist Jacques Tardi. The gallery appears on the first page and several subsequent pages of Adèle et la bête (Adèle and the Beast; 1976), the first album in the series of Les Aventures extraordinaires d'Adèle Blanc-Sec. The story opens with a 136-million-year-old pterodactyl egg hatching, and a live pterodactyl escaping through the gallery glass roof, wreaking havoc and killing people in Paris (The Gallery of Palaeontology and Comparative Anatomy returned the favor by placing a life size cardboard cutout of Adèle and the hatching pterodactyl in a glass cabinet outside the main entrance on the top floor balcony).

The Pulitzer Prize–winning novel All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr, partially takes place at the natural history museum; the father of the protagonist Marie-Laure works as the chief locksmith of the museum.

Directors of the museum

Directors elected for one year:

 * 1793–1794: Louis Jean-Marie Daubenton
 * 1794–1795: Antoine-Laurent de Jussieu
 * 1795–1796: Bernard Germain Étienne de Laville-sur-Illon, comte de Lacépède
 * 1796–1797: Louis Jean-Marie Daubenton
 * 1797–1798: Louis Jean-Marie Daubenton
 * 1798–1799: Antoine-Laurent de Jussieu
 * 1799–1800: Antoine-Laurent de Jussieu

Directors elected for two years:

 * 1800–1801: Antoine-François Fourcroy
 * 1802–1803: René Desfontaines
 * 1804–1805: Antoine-François Fourcroy
 * 1806–1807: René Desfontaines
 * 1808–1809: Georges Cuvier
 * 1810–1811: René Desfontaines
 * 1812–1813 : André Laugier
 * 1814–1815 : André Thouin
 * 1816–1817 : André Thouin
 * 1818–1819 : André Laugier
 * 1820–1821 : René Desfontaines
 * 1822–1823 : Georges Cuvier
 * 1824–1825 : Louis Cordier
 * 1826–1827: Georges Cuvier
 * 1828–1829: René Desfontaines
 * 1830–1831: Georges Cuvier
 * 1832–1833: Louis Cordier
 * 1834–1835: Adrien de Jussieu
 * 1836–1837: Michel Eugène Chevreul
 * 1838–1839: Louis Cordier
 * 1840–1841: Michel Eugène Chevreul
 * 1842–1843: Adrien de Jussieu
 * 1844–1845: Michel Eugène Chevreul
 * 1846–1847: Adolphe Brongniart
 * 1848–1849: Adrien de Jussieu
 * 1850–1851: Michel Eugène Chevreul
 * 1852–1853: André Marie Constant Duméril
 * 1854–1855: Michel Eugène Chevreul
 * 1856–1857: Marie Jean Pierre Flourens
 * 1858 to 1859: Michel Eugène Chevreul
 * 1860–1861: Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire
 * 1862–1863: Michel Eugène Chevreul

Directors elected for five years:

 * 1863–1879: Michel Eugène Chevreul
 * 1879–1891: Edmond Frémy
 * 1891–1900: Alphonse Milne-Edwards
 * 1900–1919: Edmond Perrier
 * 1919–1931: Louis Mangin
 * 1932–1936: Paul Lemoine
 * 1936–1942: Louis Germain
 * 1942–1949: Achille Urbain
 * 1950: René Jeannel
 * 1951–1965: Roger Heim
 * 1966–1970: Maurice Fontaine
 * 1971–1975: Yves Le Grand
 * 1976–1985: Jean Dorst
 * 1985–1990: Philippe Taquet
 * 1994–1999: Henry de Lumley

Presidents elected for five years:

 * 2002–2006: Bernard Chevassus-au-Louis
 * 2006–2008: André Menez (deceased in February 2008)
 * 2009–2015: Gilles Boeuf
 * 2015–2023: Bruno David
 * 2023–present: Gilles Bloch

Friends
The Friends of the Natural History Museum Paris is a private organization that provides financial support for the museum, its branches and the Jardin des Plantes. Membership includes free entry to all galleries of the museum and the botanical garden. The Friends have assisted the museum with many purchases for its collections over the years, as well as funds for scientific and structural development.

Pictures gallery

 * captions:

A) The cetaceum (podium of cetaceans), in the Comparative Anatomy gallery

B) Statue of Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, with Paul and Virginia

C) The alpine garden

D) The Hôtel de Magny

E) The gallery of Paleontology and Comparative Anatomy, with the statue of the First Artist by Paul Richer

F) The Gallery of Mineralogy and Geology

G) The greenhouse of New Caledonia built between 1834 and 1836 (at the time the "oriental pavilion") according to the plans of Charles Rohault de Fleury

H) Cuvier's house on the left and the triangular pediment of the east wing of the Whale Pavilion on the right

I) The Becquerel alley, north side, leads to Cuvier's house where Henri Becquerel discovered radioactivity in 1896 J) The Paleontology gallery, on the second floor, with its mezzanine. The second floor exhibits the vertebrate fossils and the mezzanine the invertebrate fossils

K) One of the zoological shelters of the menagerie

L The façade of the Musée de l'Homme, in the southwest wing of the Palais de Chaillot

M The botanical museum of La Jaÿsinia, in the Alps

N The excavations of the Pataud shelter, in Dordogne .


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Goulburn

Goulburn is a regional city in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales, Australia, approximately 195 km south-west of Sydney and 90 km north-east of Canberra. It was proclaimed as Australia's first inland city through letters patent by Queen Victoria in 1863. Goulburn had a population of 24,565 as of the. Goulburn is the seat of Goulburn Mulwaree Council.

Goulburn is a railhead on the Main Southern line, and regional health & government services centre, supporting the surrounding pastoral industry as well as being a stopover for travellers on the Hume Highway. It has a central historic park and many historic and listed buildings. It is also home to the monument the Big Merino, a sculpture that is the world's largest concrete-constructed sheep.

History
Goulburn was named by surveyor James Meehan after Henry Goulburn, Under-Secretary for War and the Colonies, and the name was ratified by Governor Lachlan Macquarie.

The colonial government made land grants to free settlers such as Hamilton Hume in the Goulburn area from the opening of the area to settlement in about 1820. Land was later sold to settlers within the Nineteen Counties, including Argyle County (the Goulburn area). The process displaced the local indigenous Mulwaree population and the introduction of exotic livestock drove out a large part of the Aboriginal peoples' food supply.

Indigenous history
The Mulwaree People lived throughout the area covering Goulburn, Crookwell and Yass and belong to the Ngunawal language group. To the north of Goulburn, Gundungurra was spoken within the lands of the Dharawal people. This was due to Gundungurra people of the Blue Mountains being driven south from their traditional land due to Governor Macquarie's punitive parties sent to massacre the Dharawal and Gundungurra People, at the behest of influential settlers.

Their neighbours were the Dharawal to their north and Dharug surrounding Sydney, Darkinung, Wiradjuri, Ngunawal and Thurrawal, eastwards peoples.

European settlement
The first recorded settler in Goulburn established 'Strathallan' in 1825 (on the site of the present Police Academy) and a town was originally surveyed in 1828, although moved to the present site of the city in 1833 when the surveyor Robert Hoddle laid it out.

George Johnson purchased the first land in the area between 1839 and 1842 and became a central figure in the town's development. He established a branch store with a liquor licence in 1848. The 1841 census records Goulburn had a population of 665 people, 444 males and 211 females. This number had jumped to 1,171 inhabitants by 1847, 686 males and 485 females. It had a courthouse, police barracks, churches, hospital and post office and was the centre of a great sheep and farming area.

A telegraph station opened in 1862, by which time there were about 1,500 residents, a blacksmith's shop, two hotels, two stores, the telegraph office and a few cottages. The town was a change station (where coach horses were changed) for Cobb & Co by 1855. A police station opened the following year and a school in 1858. Goulburn was proclaimed a municipal government in 1859 and was made a city in 1863.

The arrival of the railway in 1869, which was opened on 27 May by the Governor Lord Belmore (an event commemorated by Belmore Park in the centre of the city), along with the completion of the line from Sydney to Albury in 1883, was a boon to the city. Later branchlines were constructed to Cooma (opened in 1889) and later extended further to Nimmitabel and then to Bombala, and to Crookwell and Taralga. Goulburn became a major railway centre with a roundhouse and engine servicing facilities and a factory which made pre-fabricated concrete components for signal boxes and station buildings. The roundhouse is now the Goulburn Rail Heritage Centre with steam, diesel and rolling stock exhibits. CFCL Australia operate the Goulburn Railway Workshops.

St Saviour's Cathedral, designed by Edmund Thomas Blacket, was completed in 1884 with the tower being added in 1988 to commemorate the Bicentenary of Australia. Though completed in 1884, some earlier burials are in the graveyard adjacent to the cathedral. St Saviour's is the seat of the Bishop of Canberra and Goulburn. The Church of SS Peter and Paul is the former cathedral for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn.

The Goulburn Viaduct was built in 1915 replacing an earlier structure. This brick arch railway viaduct spanning the Mulwaree Ponds is the longest on the Main Southern railway line and consists of 13 arches each spanning 13.1 m.

Proclaimed a city
Goulburn holds the distinction of being proclaimed a City on two occasions. The first, unofficial, proclamation was claimed by virtue of Royal Letters Patent issued by Queen Victoria on 14 March 1863 to establish the Diocese of Goulburn. It was a claim made for ecclesiastical purposes, as it was required by the traditions of the Church of England. The Letters Patent also established St Saviour's Church as the Cathedral Church of the diocese. This was the last instance in which Letters Patent were used in this manner in the British Empire, as they had been significantly discredited for use in the colonies, and were soon to be declared formally invalid and unenforceable in this context. Several legal cases over the preceding decade in particular had already established that the monarch had no ecclesiastical jurisdiction in colonies possessing responsible government. This had been granted to NSW in 1856, seven years earlier. The Letters Patent held authority only over those who submitted to it voluntarily, and then only within the context of the Church—it had no legal civil authority or implications. An absolute and retrospective declaration to this effect was made in 1865 in the Colenso Case, by the Judiciary Committee of the Privy Council.

However, under the authority of the Crown Lands Act 1884 (48. Vict. No. 18), Goulburn was officially proclaimed a City on 20 March 1885 removing any lingering doubts as to its status. This often unrecognised controversy has in no way hindered the development of Goulburn as a regional centre, with an impressive court house (completed in 1887) and other public buildings, as a centre for wool selling, and as an industrial town.

Goulburn School Strike
In 1962, Goulburn was the focus of the fight for state aid to non-government schools. An education strike was called in response to a demand for installation of three extra toilets at a local Catholic primary school, St Brigid's. The local Catholic archdiocese closed down all local Catholic primary schools and sent the children to the government schools. The Catholic authorities declared that they had no money to install the extra toilets. Nearly 1,000 children turned up to be enrolled locally and the state schools were unable to accommodate them. The strike lasted only a week but generated national debate. In 1963 the prime minister, Robert Menzies, made state aid for science blocks part of his party's platform.

Heritage listings
Goulburn has a number of heritage-listed sites, including:

 * 165 Auburn Street: Goulburn Post Office
 * 170 Bourke Street: St Saviour's Cathedral, Goulburn
 * 197 Braidwood Road: Railway Barracks
 * Bungonia Road: Old Goulburn Brewery
 * Bungonia Road: Lansdowne Park
 * Clifford Street: Colonial Mutual Life Building
 * 248 Main Road: Rossi Bridge over Wollondilly River
 * Main Southern railway: Goulburn Viaduct
 * Main Southern railway: Goulburn railway station
 * off Maud Street: Goulburn Correctional Centre
 * Maud Street: Riversdale
 * 4 Montague Street: Goulburn Court House
 * Sloane Street: Connollys Mill
 * Sloane Street: Old Police Barracks, Goulburn
 * Sloane Street: Goulburn Railway Workshops
 * 244–248 Sloane Street: Alpine Lodge Motel
 * 318 Sloane Street: St Clair
 * Taralga Road: Kenmore Asylum
 * 42 Verner Street: St Peter and Paul's Old Cathedral
 * Wollondilly River: Goulburn Pumping Station

Demographics
According to the, there were 24,565 people in Goulburn. Of these:
 * Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people made up 5.3% of the population.
 * 83.3% of people were born in Australia. The next most common countries of birth included England 1.9%, New Zealand 1.0%, India 0.9% and the Philippines 0.7%, and Nepal 0.6%.
 * 85.6% of people spoke only English at home, the next most common languages spoken at home included Nepali 0.7%, Mandarin 0.6%, Malayalam 0.4%, Greek 0.3%, and Punjabi 0.3%
 * The most common responses for religion were No Religion 30.6%, Catholic 25.3%, Anglican 20.8%, and Uniting Church 3.0%; a further 8.5% of respondents elected not to disclose their religion.

Geography
Goulburn is located a small distance east of the peak ridge of the Great Dividing Range and is 690 m above sea level. It is intersected by the Wollondilly River and the Mulwaree River, and the confluence of these two rivers is also located here. The Wollondilly then flows north-east, into Lake Burragorang (Warragamba Dam) and eventually into the Tasman Sea via the Hawkesbury River. The city is located within the Southern Tablelands Temperate Grassland.

Climate
Owing to its elevation, Goulburn has an oceanic climate (Cfb) with warm summers and cool winters; with a high diurnal range. Its climate is variable much of the year, though generally dry with maximum temperatures ranging from 11.8 C in July to 28.3 C in January. Rainfall is distributed evenly throughout the year, with an annual average of 542.8 mm. Snow occasionally falls, although rarely in significant quantities due to the rainshadow brought about by the hills to the west-northwest of Goulburn (around Crookwell). Temperature extremes have ranged from -10.9 to 42.8 C.

Governance
As a major settlement of southern New South Wales, Goulburn was the administrative centre for the region and was the location for important buildings of the district. The first lock-up in the town was built in 1830. In 1832 a postal service commenced in Goulburn, four years after the service was adopted in New South Wales. The first town plan had been drawn up by Assistant Surveyor Dixon in 1828, but the site was moved, as it was subject to flooding. The new town plan was drawn up by Surveyor Hoddle and was gazetted in 1833. Goulburn is the seat of the Goulburn Mulwaree Shire local government area (LGA) of New South Wales, Australia formed in 2004. The most recent elections for Council were held on 4 December 2021.

New South Wales Police Academy

The Police Academy relocated to Goulburn from Sydney in 1984. At this time it was known as the New South Wales Police Academy; however, the name has subsequently changed.

The Academy has relocated to the former campus of the Goulburn College of Advanced Education located on the banks of the Wollondilly River. The New South Wales Police Academy is now the largest education institution for law enforcement officers in the southern hemisphere.

Since its relocation there has been significant expansion of the facilities including a new site on the Taralga Road which houses the New South Wales Police School of Traffic and Mobile Policing.

Goulburn Gaol
Goulburn is home to Goulburn Correctional Centre, more generically known as Goulburn Gaol. It is a maximum-security male prison, the highest-security prison in Australia and is home to some of the most dangerous, and infamous, prisoners. One of these prisoners was Ivan Robert Marko Milat (27 December 1944 – 27 October 2019) an Australian serial killer who was convicted of the backpacker murders in 1996.

Theatre
Goulburn is home to Australia's oldest existing theatre company Lieder Theatre Company, established in 1891. The Lieder Theatre Company presents up to five major performance projects each year, along with numerous community events, readings, workshops, and short seasons of experimental and new work. The company, along with the Lieder Youth Theatre Company, is based in the historic Lieder Theatre, built by the company in 1929.

A former quarry adjacent to the Main Southern railway line in North Goulburn was used to film cliff top scenes in the 2016 film Hacksaw Ridge.

Sport
The most popular sport in Goulburn is rugby league. The town has a team, the Goulburn City Bulldogs, who play in the Canberra Rugby League. The club was founded in 2020, superseding the Goulburn Workers Bulldogs. Historically, there have been many clubs in Goulburn, including:
 * Goulburn United Roosters (1932–1986)
 * Goulburn Workers Bulldogs (1958–1984, 2008–2019)
 * Goulburn City (1987)
 * Goulburn Gladiators (1991–1995)
 * Goulburn Stockmen (1996–2007)

The Goulburn Stockmen played in both the Canberra Rugby League and also the Group 6 Rugby League before folding. The town's junior rugby league team is still called the Goulburn Junior Stockmen.

The Goulburn Dirty Reds rugby union team play in the John I Dent Cup third grade and Goulburn City Swans Australian rules club play in a lower grade Canberra competition. Other sports played in the town include soccer, cricket and tennis among others.

Goulburn Medical Clinic
The Goulburn Medical Clinic was established in 1946 making it the most longstanding medical practice in the city. Historically, it was the first group practice of any size established in New South Wales and probably only the third in Australia. The clinic has a mixture of general practitioners and specialists that provide comprehensive healthcare.

Water supply
With a history of water shortages, an 84 km underground water supply pipeline was constructed to pump water from the Wingecarribee Reservoir in the Southern Highlands to Goulburn, opening in 2011. This pipeline has a capacity of 7.5 ML per day.

The $54 million water supply pipeline was at the time the largest construction project in the history of Goulburn.

Transport
Goulburn is approximately two hours' drive from Sydney via the Hume Highway, or a one-hour drive from Canberra via the Federal and Hume Highways. Goulburn benefited from the 1992 Hume Highway bypass, prompting significant civic rejuvenation and removing 23,000 cars from the city each day. Goulburn's city centre was populated by a notable number of eateries owned and operated by Greek migrants, as part of a broader trend of Greek cafes and milk bars in regional Australia. Years after the bypass, the main street featured numerous neon signs advertising businesses that had since gone out of business some of which are preserved today.

Goulburn railway station is the southern terminus of the Southern Highlands Line which reaches from the Sydney suburb Campbelltown and is part of the NSW TrainLink intercity passenger train system. Most services for Goulburn operate to Moss Vale, some 65 km north-east, while there are also daily direct express Sydney Central services covered by Sydney's suburban Opal card. The station is also served by the long distance Southern XPT and Xplorer trains between Sydney and Griffith, Canberra and Melbourne Southern Cross railway station. All services are operated by NSW TrainLink.

Goulburn also has eight direct return NSW Trainlink buses to Canberra per week giving access to Canberra Airport, city and hospitals.

Goulburn Airport is approximately 7 km south of Goulburn and services light aircraft.

Public transport within Goulburn consists of the local taxi service that operates twenty-seven taxis, Goulburn Radio Cabs. A bus service is operated by PBC Goulburn.

Goulburn Tourist Information Centre has a Tesla Motors Supercharger station.

Newspapers
The Goulburn Post, established as the Goulburn Evening Post in 1870 is Goulburn's local newspaper. It runs three times per week and is owned by Australian Community Media.

Radio stations
Radio stations with transmitters located in or nearby to Goulburn include:

AM:
 * Radio National (2RN) 1098 AM

FM:
 * Raw FM 87.6 (narrowcast)
 * Triple J (2JJJ) 88.7 FM
 * ABC Classic FM (2ABCFM) 89.5 FM
 * ABC Riverina (2ABCRR) 90.3 FM
 * Eagle FM 93.5 (2SNO) (commercial)
 * Sky Sports Radio 94.3 FM (narrowcast)
 * ABC NewsRadio (2PNN) 99.9 FM
 * Kix Country Radio 100.7 FM (narrowcast)
 * 2GCR 103.3 FM (community)
 * GNFM 107.7 FM (2GBN) (commercial)

Depending on location some Illawarra- and/or Canberra-based radio stations can also heard.

Television
Goulburn receives five free-to-air television networks relayed from Canberra, and broadcast from nearby Mt Gray:

 * ABC
 * SBS
 * Seven
 * WIN Television's Nine
 * Southern Cross 10

A much smaller retransmission site also exists to cover residences in the suburb of Eastgrove.

Landmarks
Goulburn's second court house was built in 1847; designed by Mortimer Lewis, the colonial architect. James Barnet, the colonial architect from 1862 to 1890, built a number of buildings in Goulburn. These included the Goulburn Gaol that opened 1884; the current court house that opened in 1887; and a post office in 1881. Barnet's successor, Walter Liberty Vernon, was responsible for the first buildings of Kenmore Hospital, completed in 1894. St Saviour's Anglican Cathedral and Hall were designed by Edmund Blacket. Building started in 1874 and it was dedicated in 1884. It was finally consecrated in 1916. A tower was added in 1988 as part of a Bicentennial project but Blacket's plans included a spire which is yet to be added. E.C. Manfred was a prominent local architect responsible for many of the buildings in the city, including the first public swimming baths opened in 1892; the old Town Hall constructed in 1888; the Goulburn Base Hospital designed in 1886; the old Fire Station built in 1890; the Masonic Temple built in 1928; he also designed the earlier building of 1890 it replaced. Goulburn's first permanent fire station built 1890 and designed by local architect E.C. Manfred. The city was home to Kenmore Hospital, a psychiatric hospital which was finally closed in 2003. Goulburn remains a hub for mental health with facilities now located at the Goulburn Base Hospital.

Goulburn Rail Heritage Centre
The roundhouse at Goulburn was a significant locomotive depot both in the steam and early diesel eras. After closure it became the Goulburn Rail Heritage Centre, a railway museum with preserved steam and diesel locomotives as well as many interesting examples of rolling stock. Some minor rail operators such as RailPower have used the site to restore diesel locomotives to working order for main line use. The Railway Barracks built in 1935 is situated opposite the roundhouse. It accommodated the steam engine drivers, and now converted into an accommodation wedding & events centre.

Notable people

 * Andrew Blackshaw, international softball player
 * Beatrice Bligh (1916–1973), gardener at Pejar Park
 * Todd Carney, (born 1986) rugby league player
 * Kyle Cranston, (born 1993) track and field athlete
 * Jarrod Croker, (born 1990) rugby league player, captain Canberra Raiders (2015–)
 * Bruce Devlin, former professional golfer who won 8 tournaments on the US PGA Tour
 * Michael Diamond, target shooter and Olympic gold medalist
 * Miles Franklin, (1879–1954) writer and feminist
 * Thomas Hazelton, (born 1999) rugby league footballer
 * William Hovell, (1786–1875) English-born Australian explorer is buried in one of the many cemeteries
 * Rod Jackson, (born 1951) rugby league player
 * George Lazenby, (born 1939) the only Australian actor to play James Bond, in On Her Majesty's Secret Service
 * Donald MacDonald, (1857–1937) Australian pastoralist
 * Marc McDermott, (1871–1929) American silent film star
 * Adam O'Brien, (born 1977) rugby league coach
 * George Ogilvie, theatre director, born in Goulburn in 1931
 * Simon Poidevin, rugby union player and World Cup winner in 1991
 * Kate Ritchie, (born 1978) actress and radio host
 * Sally Shaw, (born 1978) cricketer
 * Ursula Stephens, senator (2002–2014)
 * Glenn Turner, Kookaburras hockey player
 * Peta Murphy (1973–2023), federal MP for the division of Dunkley from 2019 to 2023

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

title: Goulburn


text:
Saunders-Roe SR.A/1

The Saunders-Roe SR.A/1 was a prototype flying boat fighter aircraft designed and built by British seaplane manufacturer Saunders-Roe. It was the first jet-propelled water-based aircraft in the world.

The concept behind the SR.A/1 originated during the Second World War as a reaction to Japan's successful use of military floatplanes and the emergence of the turbojet engine. Saunders-Roe presented an initial proposal of their jet-powered seaplane concept, then designated SR.44, to the Air Ministry during mid-1943. In April 1944, the Ministry issued Specification E.6/44 for the type and supported its development with a contract for three prototypes. Development was protracted by Saunders-Roe's work on other projects, the war having ended prior to any of the prototypes being completed.

On 16 July 1947, the first prototype made its maiden flight. The SR.A/1 was evaluated by the Royal Air Force (RAF), who concluded that the design was incapable of matching up to the performance of land-based designs. Despite interest from foreign governments, including the United States, no orders for the SR.A/1 materialised. As such, it never entered volume production or saw service with any operators. While interest in the SR.A/1 programme was briefly revived following the start of the Korean War, the aircraft was considered to be obsolete by that point and was again rejected.

Origins
The SR./A.1 was directly inspired by the modest successes experienced by the Imperial Japanese Navy in using seaplane fighters, such as the Nakajima A6M2-N (an adaptation of the Mitsubishi Zero) and the Kawanishi N1K. Seaplanes had performed successfully during both of the world wars although, according to author H. F. King, their achievements were often not highly publicised or well known. Prior to the introduction of the Gloster Gladiator, every British shipborne fighter was designed with an interchangeable wheel-or-float undercarriage. In theory, seaplanes were ideally suited to conditions in the Pacific theatre of the Second World War, and could turn any relatively calm area of coast into an airbase. Their main disadvantage came from the way in which the bulk of their flotation gear penalised their performance compared to other fighters.

Both immediately prior to and during the war, Britain made very little use of seaplane fighters, instead relying upon aircraft carriers and land-based fighters as the basis of their military operations, despite the concept having remained popular with other powers, including Japan, Italy, and France. Proposed seaplane conversions were produced for both the Hawker Hurricane and the Supermarine Spitfire to meet operational needs in the Norwegian Campaign, but were largely curtailed following the rapid German victory in this theatre. No quantity production of seaplane fighters followed. It was in this backdrop that British seaplane manufacturer Saunders-Roe recognised that the newly developed turbojet engine presented an opportunity to overcome the traditional performance drawbacks and design limitations of floatplanes. By not requiring clearance for a propeller, the fuselage could sit lower in the water and use a flying boat-type hull. The prospective aircraft's performance when powered by Halford H.1 engines was projected to be 520 mph at 40,000 ft.

Saunders-Roe speculated that, as floatplanes could have staging grounds nearer to their objectives than land-based counterparts, both the time and effort involved in mounting missions, particularly offensive ones, could be reduced. Early jet aircraft were typically restrained in terms of their range due to the high fuel consumption involved, a factor which could be overcome by bringing forward their staging areas, something which a floatplane would be readily capable of doing. Re-basing to virtually any body of water could also be performed with little in the way of setup or ground preparation, according to the company.

Order and production preparations
Saunders-Roe first presented their idea, then designated as the SR.44, to the Air Ministry during mid-1943. Criticisms of the design were produced by Ministry officials, included the observation that the wing thickness/chord ratio was considered to be too high for a high-speed fighter when operating at a high altitude. In response to these criticisms, the seaplane's design was modified and refined. During April 1944, the Air Ministry issued Specification E.6/44 in direct response to the modified design. In the following month, an accompanying development contract covering the production of three prototypes was issued to Saunders-Roe.

At this point, there were intentions for the SR.A/1 to be used in the Pacific theatre against Japan; as such, there were measures taken even at an early stage of development to support immediate quantity production. However, shortly following the end of the Pacific War in August 1945, Saunders-Roe opted to concentrate its efforts on the Saunders-Roe Princess, a long-range civilian flying boat project, a choice which caused development of the fighter to slip behind. Due to the war's end, pressure for the commencement of the type's production had lessened significantly.

Flight testing and cancellation
On 16 July 1947, the first prototype, piloted by Geoffrey Tyson, conducted its maiden flight. Barely two weeks later, Tyson flew the fifth flight for a crowd of officials representing multiple organisations, including the Royal Navy, the Royal Air Force, the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Saunders-Roe, Metropolitan-Vickers and at least one unidentified foreign government. Subsequent flight testing with the prototypes revealed that the SR.A/1 possessed a relatively good level of performance and handling. Its agility was publicly displayed when Tyson performed a demonstration of high-speed aerobatics and inverted flight above an international audience at the 1948 Farnborough Airshow while piloting the type. During the flight test programme, two of the three prototypes suffered accidents, leading to an interruption in the trials and modifications being made to the remaining intact aircraft.

TG263 appeared in a Pathé Newsreel in July 1947. TG271 appeared in a BBC Newsreel in August 1948.

The SR.A/1 possessed a somewhat small and heavily framed cockpit canopy, which provided the pilot with a poor view outside the aircraft, a particularly negative feature for a prospective fighter aircraft. Despite this, the pressurised cockpit was relatively spacious, providing enough room to accommodate an additional crew member potentially; an observer could also have been seated in a more rearward position. As a measure to increase survivability, two of the SR.A/1 prototypes were fitted with the first two production Martin-Baker ejection seats to be built. An automatic mooring system was incorporated, allowing the pilot to moor the aircraft without any external aids or even having to leave the cockpit. The air intake for the engines was extendable to minimise the ingestion of seawater during takeoffs, although testing revealed only minor performance decreases due to this factor. To reduce drag, the floats could be retracted during flight.

A fundamental problem that emerged during development was that the Beryl engine, which powered the type, had ceased production when British manufacturing conglomerate Metropolitan-Vickers had decided to withdraw from jet engine development, leaving only a limited number of engines available. For any production to have proceeded, an alternative powerplant would had to have been acquired. Despite possessing some favourable qualities, officials judged that the need for such aircraft had completely evaporated with the end of the war. Furthermore, the success of the aircraft carrier in the Pacific had demonstrated a far more effective way to project airpower over the oceans, though Saunders-Roe argued that carriers and their escorts were still very vulnerable to aircraft or other vessels.

Due to a lack of orders, work on the project was suspended, leading to the remaining prototype being placed into storage in early 1950. During November 1950, shortly after the outbreak of the Korean War, interest in the SR.A/1 programme was briefly resurrected. This interest was not just confined to Britain; data on the project was also passed onto the United States. However, it was soon recognised that the concept had been rendered obsolete in comparison to increasingly capable land-based fighters, together with the inability to solve the engine problem, forcing a second and final cancellation. During June 1951, the SR.A/1 prototype (TG263) flew for the last time. It is now in the Solent Sky Museum in Southampton, UK.

Although the aircraft never received an official name, it was commonly referred to by company workers as "Squirt".

P.121 Hydro-ski naval fighter
Despite the SR.A/1's rejection, Saunders-Roe remained interested in the development of military seaplanes, performing several internal design studies on the subject, including some relatively radical concepts. Amongst these were designs that drew or built upon the SR.A/1. During the early 1950s, the company worked on a new fighter design featuring skis aircraft publication Flight referred to it as the "Saunders-Roe Hydroski"  with the aim of bringing its performance closer to that of land-based aircraft. By adopting hydroskis and dispensing with the hull approach of the SR.A/1, no concessions to hydrodynamic requirements were imposed upon the fuselage. It was designated Project P.121.

Work on the P.121 reportedly "received no official support". On 29 January 1955, the company decided not to proceed with the construction of a prototype.

Operators

 * Marine Aircraft Experimental Establishment
 * Marine Aircraft Experimental Establishment

Survivors
The first prototype, serial number TG263, has been preserved and is on display at Solent Sky aviation museum in Southampton. Both other aircraft (TG267 and TG271) were lost in accidents during the four-year flight test programme.

title: Saunders-Roe SR.A/1


text:
Jerilderie

Jerilderie is a small, rural town in the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. It is part of the Murrumbidgee Council Local Government Area. At the, Jerilderie had a population of 922 people.

It can be found along the Newell Highway 674 km west-southwest of Sydney and 45 km north of the Victorian state border.

The town was raided by Ned Kelly and his gang between 6 February and 10 February 1879, in which the then Bank of Jerilderie was robbed, residents taken hostage, and police locked in the local prison.

Overview
Jerilderie is an irrigated farming centre. The area around Jerilderie produces a quarter of all tomatoes grown in Australia, as well as being a prime Merino stud region. Additionally, Jerilderie has a diverse number of crops such as rice, olives, wheat, canola, mung and soybeans, onions, liquorice, grapes and a number of cattle farms.

The town has two primary schools, Jerilderie Public School and Jerilderie Catholic School, an 18-hole golf course, three pubs, and a hospital which was the first in regional Australia to operate with solar power. This hospital has now been rebuilt as a multi purpose medical centre that incorporates an emergency room, aged care beds and a palliative care bed.

The town has an Australian rules football team competing in the Picola & District Football League.

Steel Wings Windmill
Jerilderie has rare windmills of unusual design. Both are situated on National Route 39, which provides a straight run from Victoria to the Queensland tropical coast.

The windmill was produced by the Steel Wings Company, in North Sydney between 1907 and 1911 with only six models ever erected. The windmills comprise a steel frame and fan which turns to the wind between a bearing at the bottom and a swivel at the top, all supported by guy-wires. One is also located in the Shire of Taroom in the central Queensland highlands.The fully restored windmills, the only two known working examples in the world, are unique because their fan is contained and spins within the fully pivoting frame.

The Jerilderie Steel Wings windmill, built in 1910, was transported by rail from Sydney and then taken by bullock wagon to Goolgumbula Station for Sir Samuel McCaughey. It provided water to the stations homestead, ram sheds and dams along a 43 km channel system. The mill suffered storm damage in 1977, was offered to the town as a historical exhibit and placed in Luke Park which was named after Thomas Raymond Luke (1908–1979) who was one of the main 'stirrers' for the construction of the lake. Shortly after the lake was completed 'Tommy' Luke died while water-skiing on the lake he had been so instrumental in creating. (Since the 1960s locals had been skiing on the creek nearby and for years had wanted a more suitable facility.) A secondary use for the lake was to hold excess water from the Billabong Creek which flooded annually.

In 1989, members of Lions, Apex and the then Jerilderie Shire Council repaired and refurbished the windmill with two people, Clive Langfield and George Cornish (now dec.) spending some 600 hours to bring it to its present working condition, pumping 9 L per revolution from the Billabong Creek to the Jerilderie Lake using a 15 cm draw plunger with a 48 cm stroke. The Jerilderie windmill, the larger of the two stands 17 m high with a 9 m fan.

Ned Kelly

Jerilderie was visited by Ned Kelly and his gang in 1879. The outlaws captured the town's two policemen and imprisoned them in their own cell before dressing in the police uniforms. They then told the locals that they were reinforcements from Sydney sent to protect them from the notorious Kelly Gang.

Later the gang held up the local Bank. More than two thousand pounds were stolen before Kelly and his gang walked to the Telegraph Office and chopped down the telegraph poles. He and his gang held 30 people hostage overnight in the Royal Mail Hotel where Ned Kelly wrote the famous Jerilderie Letter which documents Kelly's passionate pleas of innocence and desires for justice for both his family and the poor Irish settlers of Victoria's north-east. It has also been described as the Ned Kelly 'manifesto' and remains the only source providing a direct link between the Kelly Gang and the actions they are accused of.

The current Jerilderie Police Station features no less than 19 structural components mimicking Ned Kelly's distinctive face plate. Some examples include walls made of differently toned bricks making up his image to storm drains with holes cut in the same pattern.

Sir John Monash
Jerilderie is the childhood home of Sir John Monash, honoured military commander whose image adorns the Australian one hundred dollar note. He attended and achieved dux at Jerilderie Public School, a record of which can be seen on a board in the school’s head office. The Sir John Monash Memorial Drive, created in his honour, is just off the Newell Highway, just outside the town on the way to Finley.

Lord Loudoun
In the early 2000s, a Medieval scholar, Dr Michael Jones, claimed Queen Elizabeth's claim to the throne was illegitimate because King Edward IV, who reigned from 1461 to 1483, was not of royal blood; he was the illegitimate son of a French archer. Dr Jones concluded that, tracing the correct path, The 14th Earl of Loudoun (usually known simply as Michael Hastings; 1942–2012), who migrated to Jerilderie in the 1960s, was the true King of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth.

Billy Brownless
Jerilderie is also the childhood home of former AFL Geelong player Billy Brownless. He is a panelist on The Sunday Footy Show, and is a regular panelist on The Footy Show. He was previously a co-host on the program Morning Glory on radio station SEN 1116, and now he co-hosts The Rush Hour with fellow Footy Show host James Brayshaw a high rating drive program, on radio station Triple M in Melbourne.

History
Prior to European settlement, the Jerilderie region was inhabited by the Jeithi Aborigines, and the name 'Jerilderie' is thought to derive from their word for 'reedy place'.

The Jerilderie district originated with the gazettal of the final licences to landholders in the 1870s. Before this time annual licences were issued. The pioneers of that time established cattle stations and it was not until the 1860s that sheep were found better suited to the area.

The birth of the town of Jerilderie itself is traced to the establishment of a house and store by John Carractacus Powell in 1854. He was apparently encouraged and assisted by the Kennedy Family to establish his home and business in what is known today as Powell Street, Jerilderie. The Kennedy family were the pioneers who first took up the property known as Mary's Creek Run, the station which surrounded the site of the town of Jerilderie. After John Powell first built, in 1859 William Davidson arrived in Jerilderie and he chose the site of the official village to settle on, being the "Cape" region. He had evidently noted the survey of 1852. William Davidson then constructed a brick kiln, the bricks from which he erected a house, hotel and blacksmith shop.

Thus Jerilderie had two establishments, about three kilometres apart, and the business rivalry was keen in each endeavour to capture trade from the travelling public.

Whilst the rivalry continued between Powell and Davidson, a Mr Cadell settled at a site opposite the existing Police Station and erected a store to compete with Powell and Davidson.

The Post Office opened on 1 October 1862 but was spelt Jereelderie until 1890.

No other development occurred for some years, but following an application from Mr Powell in 1863 a surveyor was instructed to survey and report on the Jerilderie Village site. As a consequence of this report the Village of Jerilderie and suburban boundaries were Gazetted on 14 March 1865. The village contained an area of 195 acre, bounded generally by West, Coonong, East and Jerilderie Streets.

With the continual growth of the town and the development of the sheep and wool industry over the years, there became the need for control and development of local facilities and services such as roads, bridges, water supply, etc. Hence in 1889 the area was introduced to official Local Government with the proclamation of the Jerilderie Municipal Council. The Municipality was originally formed in 1885 from previously formed Progress Association but did not gain official recognition and charter until 1889.

Whilst the town had its Local Government authority, the landholders outside the Municipality found the need to work for the establishment of a Shire Council, and as a result of this need the Wunnamurra Shire Council was realised in 1906.

Both the Jerilderie Municipality and the Wunnamurra Shire continued on their works for the following years up to 1918 when the Shire of Jerilderie was formed from the union of the two Councils. In 2016, the Jerilderie Shire was dissolved to form part of the new Murrumbidgee Council.

Heritage listings
Jerilderie has a number of heritage-listed sites, including:
 * Nowranie Street: Jerilderie railway station

Rail
The Tocumwal railway line is a closed railway line that linked Jerilderie to Narrandera in the north and Tocumwal to the south. The line commenced at Narrandera station and then headed south west to Tocumwal station where there was a break-of-gauge with the Victorian Railways Goulburn Valley line from Shepparton. The line was opened to Jerilderie in 1884, extended to Berrigan in 1896, Finley in 1898 and Tocumwal in 1914. The line was closed south of Jerilderie in 1986 and to the north in 1988.

Population
In the 2016 Census, there were 1,029 people in Jerilderie, 76.4% of people were born in Australia and 82.3% of people spoke only English at home. The most common responses for religion were Catholic 34.1%, Anglican 17.4% and No Religion 15.7%.

title: Jerilderie


text:
Frank Bainimarama

Josaia Voreqe "Frank" Bainimarama ( Fijian: [tʃoˈsɛia βoˈreŋɡe mbɛiniˈmarama]; born 27 April 1954) is a Fijian former politician and naval officer who served as the prime minister of Fiji from 2007 until 2022. A member of the FijiFirst party, which he founded in 2014, he began his career as an officer in the Fijian navy and commander of the Fijian military. Despite being suspended from Parliament, he served as the opposition leader from 24 December 2022 until 8 March 2023, when he resigned and was replaced by Inia Seruiratu.

Bainimarama attended Marist Brothers High School, the Asian Institute of Technology and Dalhousie University. He joined the Fijian Navy in 1975 and rose through the ranks, becoming an able seaman and a midshipman in 1976, an ensign in 1977, and later promoted to a sub-lieutenant at the end of that year. He was promoted to lieutenant-commander in 1986 and became a commander in 1988. He later became captain in 1991. In 1997, he was appointed Chief of Staff of the Republic of Fiji Military Forces.

In 1998, he was promoted to a commodore and later became the commander of the Armed Forces in 1999. In 2000, during a coup attempt, he convinced the President of Fiji Kamisese Mara to resign and formed an interim military government, which negotiated with the coup leaders. The military government was replaced by a civilian one by the end of the year. He relinquished command of the military in 2014, and in recognition of his military service, he was promoted to rear admiral.

Bainimarama instigated the 2006 coup, removing Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase from power. He later restored Ratu Josefa Iloilo as president and himself as prime minister in 2007. Bainimarama promised the return of elections and democracy in 2014 and formed a party named FijiFirst. In the 2014 Fijian general election, FijiFirst won a majority, and Bainimarama was sworn in as prime minister of Fiji by President Epeli Nailatikau. In the 2018 Fijian general election, FijiFirst won an outright majority, and Bainimarama became prime minister for a second term on 20 November 2018. In the 2022 Fijian general election, FijiFirst won a plurality but was unable to form a government, meaning Bainimarama ceased to be prime minister after 16 years of rule, making him the second-longest serving Prime Minister of Fiji after Kamisese Mara. He was succeeded by the leader of the 1987 Fijian coups d'état, Sitiveni Rabuka.

Bainimarama resigned from Parliament and as the leader of the opposition in March 2023. The next day, he was charged with abuse of office over allegations he and police commissioner Sitiveni Qiliho interfered with an investigation into financial mismanagement at the University of the South Pacific. On 14 March 2024, the High Court of Fiji convicted him of attempting to pervert the course of justice. On 9 May 2024, he was sentenced to one year in prison.

Military career
Bainimarama's naval career spans three decades. He has received a number of honours for his service. He has been made an Officer Brother in the Order of St John of Jerusalem, and has received the Meritorious Service Decoration, the Peacekeeping Medal for United Nations peacekeepers, the General Service Medal, the Fiji Republic Medal, and the 25 Anniversary Medal.

Naval career
Following his education at Marist Brothers High School, Bainimarama enlisted with the Fijian Navy on 26 July 1975 and rose smoothly through the ranks, becoming an able seaman in August 1976, a midshipman in December the same year, and an ensign on 1 November 1977.

After completing the Midshipmen's Supplementary Course in Australia, he was appointed navigation officer of HMFS Kiro in August 1978. At the end of that year, he was promoted to sub-lieutenant. In January 1979, Bainimarama embarked on the Chilean naval training ship, the Buque Escuela Esmeralda, which spent six months circumnavigating South America. On his return to Fiji in August, Bainimarama was appointed executive officer of HMFS Kiro.

After a brief navigation course in HMAS Watson in March 1982, Bainimarama underwent search and rescue training at the United States Coast Guard Centre in New York City. On his return to Fiji, he was appointed commander of HMFS Kikau, his first command post. He went on to command HMFS Kula, and spent four months in 1984 in the markings of the Exclusive Economic Zones of Tonga, Tuvalu, and Kiribati. After being promoted to lieutenant commander in February 1986, he departed for Sinai where he served for eighteen months with the Multinational Force and Observers.

Bainimarama returned to Fiji in September 1987. He took charge of the delivery of two naval ships, the Levuka and Lautoka, from Louisiana in the United States. He became commanding officer of the Fijian Navy in April 1988, and was promoted to the rank of commander on 4 October that year. He held this post for the next nine years.

Bainimarama underwent further training at the Malaysian Armed Forces Staff College in 1991 and at the Australian Defence Force Warfare Centre at RAAF Williamtown, Newcastle, New South Wales, where he studied Maritime Surveillance Training. This was followed by Disaster Management training at the Asian Institute of Technology in 1993, and Exclusive Economic Zone Management training at Dalhousie University, Canada, in 1994. He was promoted to the rank of captain in October of that year, and went on to attend the Australian Joint Services Staff College (JSSC). He attended the Integrated Logistics Support Overview course of the Australian Defence Co-operation Program on 23 September 1996, and the Chief of Army Conferences in Singapore in 1998 and 1999, as well as the Chief of Defence Conference in Hawaii.

Bainimarama was appointed as the acting chief of staff on 10 November 1997, and was confirmed in this post on 18 April 1998. On 1 March 1999, he was promoted to the rank of commodore and was named commander of the Armed Forces, to replace Brigadier-General Ratu Epeli Ganilau, who resigned to pursue a political career. It was in his capacity as commander of the Armed Forces that Bainimarama assumed command on 29 May 2000. He relinquished command on 5 March 2014, to Brigadier-General Mosese Tikoitoga. Bainimarama was promoted to the rank of rear admiral on his retirement in recognition of his military service.

Fiji coup of 2000
A group led by George Speight, a businessman who had been declared bankrupt following the cancellation of several contracts by the government, entered Parliament buildings on 19 May 2000 and disaffected elements of the Fijian population rallied to his side. For 56 days Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry and most of his cabinet, along with many parliamentarians and their staff, were held as hostages while Speight attempted to negotiate with the president, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, who denounced the coup and declared a state of emergency.

Believing that President Kamisese Mara was not dealing effectively with the situation, Bainimarama forced Mara to resign on 29 May 2000, in what some politicians have since called "a coup within a coup", and formed an interim military government, which negotiated an accord under which the rebels would release all hostages, including the deposed Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry, and would surrender without penalty. The government later reneged on the last part of the agreement and arrested Speight on 27 July 2000, with Bainimarama saying that he had signed that part of the accord "under duress".

Post-2000 coup
Bainimarama attended a Leadership and Change Management course with the Public Service Training and Development program in February 2002, and a Policy Planning Analysis and Management course at the University of the South Pacific in Suva the following month. He went on to attend the Defence and Strategic Studies Annual Conference at the Australian Defence College in Canberra on 2 August, and the Program for Senior Executives in National and International Security at Harvard University in the United States from 18 to 30 August. In November that year, he was promoted to rear admiral, but this promotion was reverted to commodore on 1 February 2003. In 2014, he was made rear admiral again.

On 4 September 2003, Bainimarama attended the Pacific Armies Management Seminar XXVII in Seoul, South Korea, and went on to attend the PKO Capacity Building Seminar in the Philippine capital of Manila.

Despite his deteriorating relationship with the government, Bainimarama was reappointed commander of the Republic of Fiji Military Forces on 5 February 2004. That month, he attended the Pacific Area Special Operations Conference. This was followed by the Seminar Executive Course at the Asia Pacific Centre for Strategic Studies in Hawaii in April. In May and June, he attended the South East Asia Security Symposium. In September, he attended both the PAMS XXVII in the Indian capital of New Delhi, and the 7th Chief of Defence Conference in Tokyo, Japan.

On 14 December 2005, Bainimarama began an official visit to China, at the invitation of the People's Liberation Army.

Fijian coup d'état, 2006
On 31 October 2006, while Bainimarama was in Egypt visiting Fijian forces on peacekeeping duties in the Middle East, President Iloilo moved to terminate the appointment of Bainimarama, appointing instead Lieutenant Colonel Meli Saubulinayau who declined to take the position. Senior Fijian military officers backed Bainimarama, who quickly called on the Government to resign. The governments of Australia, New Zealand, the U.S. and others called for calm, and asked for assurances that the Fijian military not rise against the government.

In late November 2006, Bainimarama handed down a list of demands to Qarase, one of which was the withdrawal of three controversial bills, including the Qoliqoli Bill (which would have transferred ownership of maritime resources to the Fijian people) and the Reconciliation, Tolerance, and Unity Bill, which would have offered conditional pardons to persons convicted of involvement in the 2000 coup. Despite further talks in Suva and in Wellington, New Zealand, Bainimarama gave the Prime Minister Qarase an ultimatum of 4 December to accede to his demands or to resign. In a televised address, Qarase agreed to put the three race-based bills on hold, review the appointment of Andrew Hughes as police commissioner (Bainimarama had demanded his dismissal), and give the police the option of discontinuing investigations into the commander's alleged acts of sedition. He refused further concessions, saying that he had conceded all that was possible within the law.

Military manoeuvres followed, including the seizure of government vehicles and the house arrest of Prime Minister Qarase. On 5 December President Ratu Josefa Iloilo was said to have signed a legal order dissolving Parliament after meeting with Bainimarama. The president later issued a statement categorically denying signing any such decree, and the exiled Commissioner of Police, Andrew Hughes, implicated Iloilo's secretary in the fabrication of the decree at the direction of Commander Bainimarama.

As of 9 December, there were reported arrests of members of the media and open dissenters, as well as incidents of intimidation and violence committed against political figures.

Bainimarama told a press conference on 15 December that he would agree to attend a forthcoming meeting of the Great Council of Chiefs, the feudal body empowered to choose the country's president, vice-president, and fourteen of the thirty two Senators, only in his capacity as president of the Republic, the Fiji Sun reported.

On 6 September 2007, Bainimarama imposed a renewed state of emergency for one month, alleging that deposed Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase and his spokesman were spreading lies and attempting to cause destabilisation, following Qarase's return to Suva after having been confined to the island of Vanua Balavu since his ouster. Bainimarama said that Qarase and his spokesman should return to Vanuabalavu and that they could "talk from there".

Bainimarama became acting Minister of Finance on 18 August 2008 after Chaudhry and the other Labour Party ministers withdrew from the interim government.

Explaining the coup
The immediate cause of the military coup was Prime Minister Qarase's refusal to withdraw the Qoliqoli Bill. Bainimarama stated that his main reasons for overthrowing the Qarase government were that it was corrupt, and that it was conducting racially discriminatory policies against the country's Indo-Fijian minority. In a speech publicly announcing the coup, he stated that Qarase's policies had "divided the nation now and will have very serious consequences to our future generations". He added that "the passing of the Reconciliation, Qoliqoli and Land Claims [Bills] will undermine the Constitution, will deprive many citizens of their rights as guaranteed under the Constitution and compromise and undermine the integrity of the Constitutional Offices including the Judiciary". He explained that he would amend the race-based electoral rolls, so as to "lead us into peace and prosperity and mend the ever widening racial divide that currently besets our multicultural nation".

Addressing the United Nations General Assembly in September 2007, he stated:

"[I]n 1970, Fiji started its journey as a young nation on a rather shaky foundation, with a race-based Constitution, one which rigidly compartmentalised our communities. The 'democracy' which came to be practised in Fiji was marked by divisive, adversarial, inward-looking, race-based politics. The legacy of leadership, at both community and national levels, was a fractured nation. Fiji's people were not allowed to share a common national identity.

Of the two major communities, indigenous Fijians were instilled with fear of dominance and dispossession by Indo-Fijians, and they desired protection of their status as the indigenous people. Indo-Fijians, on the other hand, felt alienated and marginalised, as second-class citizens in their own country, the country of their birth, Fiji. [...]

Fiji's overall situation by 2006 had deteriorated sharply, heightened by massive corruption and lawlessness [...].

[P]olicies which promote racial supremacy [...] must be removed once and for all. [...] Fiji will look at making the necessary legal changes in the area of electoral reform, to ensure true equality at the polls. [...] [E]very person will be given the right to vote for only one candidate, irrespective of race or religion."

This was to be achieved, he declared, through a People's Charter for Change, Peace and Progress, the stated aim of which was to "rebuild Fiji into a non-racial, culturally-vibrant and united, well-governed, truly democratic nation that seeks progress, and prosperity through merit-based equality of opportunity, and peace".

In April 2009, he told The Australian's Graham Davis:

"My vision for Fiji is one that's free of racism. That's the biggest problem we've had in the last 20 years and it needs to be taken out. It's the lies that are being fed to indigenous Fijians that are causing this, especially from our chiefs who are the dominating factor in our lives. And the politicians take advantage of that. We need to change direction in a dramatic way. We need to get rid of Qarase and everything associated with the 2000 coup and begin entirely on a new path."

Davis noted that Bainimarama had introduced greater ethnic diversity into senior positions, and suggested that "maybe that's what drives Bainimarama most of all; the notion, however quixotic, of a multiracial meritocracy belatedly fulfilling the great promise Fiji had in its early post-independence years, when a visiting pope John Paul II famously described it as a model for the developing world. Before the greed, the racism and the gun."

2009 constitutional crisis
In April 2009, the Court of Appeal ruled the removal of the democratic government during his 2006 military coup was illegal. Bainimarama stepped down on 10 April 2009 as interim prime minister.

President Iloilo then announced that he had abolished the constitution, assumed all governing power and revoked all judicial appointments. He reappointed Commodore Frank Bainimarama as prime minister only 24 hours later. On 24 April, the president made him Companion of the Order of Fiji in recognition of his "eminent achievement and merit of highest degree and service to Fiji and to humanity at large".

On 3 November 2009, Bainimarama banished the envoys of Australia and New Zealand giving them 24 hours to leave the country.

Essential National Industries Decree
In September 2011, the Bainimarama government introduced a decree severely curtailing labour rights, so as to "ensure the present and continued viability and sustainability of essential national industries". In particular, the decree banned strikes in all but exceptional circumstances, subjecting them in addition to government authorization on a case-by-case basis. It also curtailed the right for workers to take their grievances to courts of law. The Fiji Trades Union Congress said the decree "offers major weapons to the employers to utilize against unions [...] It outlaws professional trade unionists, eliminates existing collective agreements, promotes a biased system of non-professional bargaining agents to represent workers, severely restricts industrial action, strengthens sanctions against legally striking workers and bans overtime payments and other allowances for workers in 24-hour operations". Attar Singh, general secretary for the Fiji Islands Council of Trade Unions, said: "We have never seen anything worse than this decree. It is without doubt designed to decimate unions [...] by giving [employers] an unfair advantage over workers and unions". Amnesty International said the decree threatened "fundamental human rights [...], including the right to freedom of association and assembly, and the right to organize".

Electoral victories
Bainimarama promised the return of elections and democracy in 2014, and formed a party named FijiFirst. In the 2014 Fijian general election, FijiFirst won a majority and Bainimarama was sworn in as prime minister of Fiji by President Ratu Epeli Nailatikau. In the 2018 Fijian general election, FijiFirst won an outright majority, and Bainimarama became prime minister for a second term on 20 November 2018. In the 2022 Fijian general election, FijiFirst won a plurality but was unable to form a government, meaning Bainimarama would cease to be prime minister after 16 years of rule. He was succeeded by Sitiveni Rabuka on 24 December 2022. The same day, Bainimarama was elected leader of the opposition.

He has been described by some as a dictator  or an authoritarian,   although he denies these claims.

Suspension from Parliament and conviction
On 17 February 2023, Bainimarama was suspended from parliament for three years after making disparaging references to President Wiliame Katonivere and Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka, as well as making treasonous comments in breach of standing orders. He remained the opposition leader.

On 8 March 2023 Bainimarama resigned from Parliament and as leader of the opposition.

On 9 March 2023 Bainimarama was charged with abuse of office over allegations he and police commissioner Sitiveni Qiliho interfered with an investigation into financial mismanagement at the University of the South Pacific. The two were released on bail the next day after pleading not guilty. Bainimarama and Qiliho were acquitted on 12 October 2023. On 14 March 2024 the High Court of Fiji overturned the acquittal and convicted Bainimarama of attempting to pervert the course of justice and Qiliho of abuse of office. On 9 May 2024, he was sentenced to a year in jail.

Personal life
Bainimarama hails from the village of Kiuva in the Kaba Peninsula, Tailevu Province. He is the brother of Ratu Meli Bainimarama and Ratu Timoci Bainimarama, both senior civil servants. He was Roman Catholic-educated and graduated from Marist Brothers High School in Suva. He is married to Maria Makitalena; they have six children.

Bainimarama is a sports enthusiast, with a particular passion for rugby union and athletics; he became president of the Fiji Rugby Union on 31 May 2014. In January 2022, he underwent heart surgery in Melbourne, Australia. During his recovery, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum was named Acting Prime Minister. He returned to Fiji in March 2022.

title: Frank Bainimarama


text:
User:Friedo

I'm a professional computer programmer currently finishing my degree part time. I contribute mostly to articles about New York City and the surrounding area and history, though I also spend a lot of time copyediting, fixing bad grammar and spelling, improving formatting, wikifying, and thwarting vandals when I see them.

Major Articles
I've made major contributions to (and in some cases started) the following:
 * New York, New York
 * Government of New York City
 * Second Avenue Subway
 * Robert Moses
 * History of New York City
 * New York Public Library
 * Queens Borough Public Library
 * Bannerman's Castle
 * Intelligence community
 * Central Intelligence Agency
 * City University of New York
 * Borough of Manhattan Community College
 * New York City College of Technology
 * York College
 * U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services
 * U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry
 * Federal Government of the United States
 * Hudson River
 * Easton Press

Other stuff
I've also made small contributions to articles relating to the United States Senate, Star Trek (especially Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) and quite a few VFDs.

Pictures
I plan to release a lot of photographs I have taken for use in Wikipedia articles; here is a list of the ones I have contributed thus far:

 * Bannerman's Castle viewed from the water
 * Hell Gate Bridge

title: User:Friedo


text:
SIG Sauer

Several sister companies that design and manufacture firearms use the brand name SIG Sauer. The original company, Schweizerische Waggonfabrik (SWF), later Schweizerische Industrie-Gesellschaft (SIG), went through several selloffs, leaving the SIG Sauer brand spread over several companies. The original SIG is now known as SIG Combibloc Group and no longer has any firearms business.

 * The German company was SIG Sauer GmbH & Co. KG. It was formed in 1976 as a partnership between Schweizerische Industrie Gesellschaft (SIG) of Switzerland and J.P. Sauer & Sohn of Germany.
 * The Swiss company is SIG Sauer AG. Its predecessor SIG Arms AG was sold to L&O Holding in western Germany and was first renamed SAN Swiss Arms AG, commonly known as Swiss Arms, and in late 2019 was further renamed SIG Sauer AG.
 * The American company is SIG Sauer, Inc (stylized as SIG SAUER). Its predecessor SIGARMS was founded in Virginia in 1985 to import and distribute SIG Sauer firearms into the United States: Its headquarters were moved to New Hampshire in 1990. This company was renamed SIG Sauer, Inc. in 2007, and since 2000 is organizationally separate from SIG Sauer GmbH.

L&O Holding is the parent company of the German SIG Sauer GmbH & Co. KG, the Swiss SIG Sauer AG, and the American SIG Sauer, Inc.

1853–1863
The origins of the SIG Sauer company lie in the company named Schweizerische Waggonfabrik ("Swiss Wagon Factory"), which was founded in 1853 by Friedrich Peyer im Hof (1817–1900), Heinrich Moser (1805–1874) and Johann Conrad Neher (1818–1877).

The group pooled their engineering talents and created the Prelaz-Burnand rifle, known as the "Prélaz-Burnand 1859" or "Prelaz-Burnand 1860" rifle. The invention of this rifle is credited to gunsmith Jean-Louis Joseph Prélaz and army officer Edouard Burnand. The rifle was submitted to an 1860 competition by Switzerland's Federal Ministry of Defence. It won and in 1864 the company was awarded a contract to produce 30,000 Prelaz-Burnand rifles, adopted as the M1863.

1864–1975
Upon receiving the 1864 government contract to produce rifles, the company name was changed to Schweizerische Industrie Gesellschaft (SIG, German for "Swiss Industrial Company"), known as Société Industrielle Suisse in French-speaking regions of Switzerland, reflecting the new emphasis on their production.

The SIG P210 pistol was developed in 1947 based on the French Modèle 1935 pistol (the Petter-Browning design was licensed). It was adopted by the Swiss military in 1949 as the "Pistole 49". This single-action semi-automatic P210 brought SIG much acclaim, due to the precision manufacturing processes employed in its manufacture and its resultant accuracy and reliability. The P210 frame design incorporates external rails that fit closely with the slide, thus eliminating play in the mechanism during firing. The P210 was noted for its extreme accuracy. The Petter-Browning patent was a refinement of the Browning Hi-Power (P35), which was John Moses Browning's last design which was created for the French 1935 pistol, but not adopted.

Swiss law limits the ability of Swiss companies to export firearms. Swiss companies which wish to do this have to do so by using a foreign partner. So in the 1970s SIG purchased both Hämmerli and J. P. Sauer and Sohn, which resulted in the formation of SIG Sauer.

1976–1984
SIG Sauer's line of handguns began in 1975 with the SIG Sauer SIG P220. It was initially developed by SIG and produced and distributed by J.P. Sauer & Sohn, but in 1976 SIG bought J.P. Sauer & Sohn and the resultant company was called SIG Sauer GmbH, based in Germany.

Prior to World War II, Sauer had been primarily a maker of shotguns and hunting rifles. During the war, they produced a handgun, the Sauer 38H, but afterward had withdrawn from this market. With SIG as their partner/owner, Sauer returned to the business of manufacturing handguns. Their Sauer 38H had been produced in competition with other German makers such as Mauser and Walther at a time when new designs began to feature a double/single-action trigger. This double-action trigger mechanism, combined with advanced safety features including the hammer-lowering decocking lever, was incorporated by Sauer into the new P220 design. This new P220 design was derived from the Petter-Browning design and was created in response to a Swiss military and police requirement for a handgun to replace the P210. This new P220 design should properly be called the SIG Sauer System, which was, in fact, the labeling on one of the first SIG Sauer handguns, a modified SIG Sauer P220 design produced for the Browning Arms company in 1977. On the right side of the slide are the words "SIG Sauer System". This was the first SIG Sauer P220 type sold in the US.

1985–1999
In January 1985, SIG established a subsidiary, SIGARMS, Inc, in Tyson, Virginia, to import the P220 and P230 models into the United States. Two years later the firm moved to a larger facility in Herndon, Virginia, and introduced models P225, P226 and P228. SIGARMS moved to Exeter, New Hampshire, in 1990 where production facilities had been established and production began on the P229 in 1992.

2000–2007
SIG's firearms subsidiaries in Germany and the United States and its firearms subdivision in Switzerland were all sold to Michael Lüke and Thomas Ortmeier's L&O Holding in October 2000. Its firearms subdivision in Switzerland became a subsidiary in its own right, SAN Swiss Arms AG, more commonly known as Swiss Arms, although its products still used the SIG Sauer brand.

In 2004, according to CEO Ron Cohen, the company was near failure with just 130 employees. Cohen decided to add AR-15 style rifles to the company's product catalog, which he credits with saving the company.

In 2007, SIGARMS changed its name to SIG Sauer, Inc., sometimes called SIG Sauer USA. By 2016, it had over 1,000 employees and was selling more than 43,000 firearms a year.

2008–2018
In 2014 news reports first emerged reporting arms sales by SIG to Colombia which were in contravention of German weapons trafficking laws. The reporting was corroborated by whistleblowers inside the company including in New Hampshire. It was alleged that SIG had filed false export paperwork with the German government for nearly 38,000 pistols. SIG claimed that the end user of the weapons was in the US when in fact they were in Colombia, a location which weapons exports were banned by German law.

In 2015, SIG Sauer expanded to include suppressors, optics, ammo and airguns, aiming to provide a greater range of firearm and firearm safety equipment and accessories. Also in 2015 human rights campaigners in Germany brought a lawsuit against SIG for allegedly not doing enough to prevent the use of their weapons by cartel groups in Mexico.

The US military has produced a requirement for a new handgun to replace the current M9 model (Beretta 92FS). In February 2016, bids were submitted by 12 companies to compete for this contract which was expected to result in purchases of more than 500,000 pieces. On 1 July 2016, SIG Sauer was reported to be one of three remaining competitors who were in consideration for this contract. On 19 January 2017, SIG Sauer was awarded the contract for the P320.

In a press event on 25 July 2018, SIG Sauer announced that its airgun division was renamed to SIG Air, and introduced its Precision Line air rifles, starting with the ASP20 break-barrel gas piston air rifle.

On 5 November 2018, the United States Coast Guard, which has long used the .40 caliber SIG P229 as its duty sidearm, announced that it will acquire the SIG Air ProForce P229 airsoft pistol (which was then produced under brand licensing by French airsoft manufacturer CyberGun) as its new training pistol to give cadets and guardsmen the ability to practice gun handling, conduct target practice in various environments, and train in realistic force-on-force scenarios. SIG Air announced that "we are rapidly expanding the SIG AIR business, and it is important to us to assume full control to ensure all SIG Air products are of the highest quality", and they will no longer be licensing the "SIG" brand or trademarks for sale by commercial airsoft manufacturers.

In April 2018 prosecutors in Kiel brought criminal charges against SIG and the executives who had been involved in the illegal arms trafficking to Colombia. Chief Executive Ron Cohen was arrested at Frankfurt Airport.

2019–2022
In April 2019 Cohen and two other executives were convicted of breaking export laws. Cohen was given an 18-month suspended sentence and fined $675,000. The German division of SIG was fined $12 million by the court.

In late 2019, Swiss Arms was renamed SIG Sauer AG.

On 4 June 2020, SIG Sauer GmbH announced it intended to close its factory at Eckernförde by year's end, resulting in losses of about 125 jobs as well as plans to fulfill purchase orders. It blamed "locational handicaps" hindering its sales, claiming "a few other local producers" were preferred in government purchases for the German police forces and the Bundeswehr. According to SIG Sauer GmbH CEO Tim Castagne, "due to its international orientation, SIG Sauer is systematically excluded from tenders [in Germany]."

On 19 April 2022, the US Army, following a 27-month evaluation process, announced it had awarded SIG Sauer a contract for two Next Generation Squad Weapon (NGSW) variations, the XM7 and XM250 automatic rifle, as well as for the 6.8 common cartridge ammunition used by both rifles. The initial value of the award was $20.4 million for the delivery of the weapons, ammunition, and accessories. The XM7 and XM250 are planned to replace the M4 carbine and M249 light machine gun, respectively.

In July 2022, the company opened the SIG Experience Center in Epping, co-located with the SIG Sauer Academy. The Experience Center includes a retail store, indoor shooting range, company museum, conference center, and corporate offices.

2023
In 2023, the most popular handgun for US law enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, the P-320, came under fire for unintentional discharge of the firearm. The semi-automatic pistol is used internationally, and the 80+ cases were limited to North America. The company said the gun is safe, and the cases were due to improper handling and a lack of gun safety standards. According to gun safety officials, the user can avoid such discharge by "keeping the finger outside the trigger guard until the decision is made to shoot".

Semi-automatic pistols

 * Full size
 * P210
 * P220
 * P226
 * P227
 * SIG Sauer P320
 * SIG Pro series (2009, 2022, 2340)
 * GSR
 * Mosquito
 * 1911 Series
 * SIG Sauer M17

 * Compact size
 * P224
 * P225
 * P228 (M11)
 * P229
 * P230/P232
 * P239
 * P245
 * SIG Sauer M18
 * P322

 * Micro Compact
 * P238
 * P290
 * P290RS
 * P365
 * P938

 * Modular
 * P250 Series
 * P320 Series

Submachine guns

 * MPX

Rifles

 * SSG 2000
 * SSG 3000
 * SIGM400
 * SIG516
 * SIG550
 * SIG MCX
 * SIG MCX Spear
 * XM7 rifle
 * CROSS (AR-style bolt-action hybrid "precision hunting" rifle)

Light machine guns

 * MG 338
 * M250

Air pistol

 * SIG Air P226 ASP
 * SIG Air P320 ASP
 * SIG Air P320-M17
 * SIG Air X-Five ASP
 * SIG Air P365
 * SIG Air 1911
 * SIG Air Precision Super Target Air Pistol (single-stroke pneumatic pistol)

Air rifle

 * SIG Air MPX ASP
 * SIG Air MCX ASP
 * SIG Air MCX Virtus PCP
 * SIG Air ASP20 (break barrel gas piston spring air rifle)

Airsoft

 * SIG Air ProForce M17
 * SIG Air ProForce M18
 * SIG Air ProForce P229
 * SIG Air ProForce MCX Virtus AEG

title: SIG Sauer


text:
User talk:Meatman~enwiki

Hi, I'm new at Wikipedia.

XSD is my first Wikipedia-page. Am I doing things right?

Any suggestions for what I could do better in the future are appreciated. Thanks, Meatman

Welcome
Hello Meatman, and welcome to Wikipeida! You seem to be doing much right and here are a few tips for you:

 * Peruse Welcome, newcomers and associated pages
 * Sign talk page entries with ~, which is automatically converted to a name and date
 * Ask questions on Village pump
 * Have fun.

If you want to be insprired;

Feel free to tell us all about you on your userpage :-) — Sverdrup 10:24, 14 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Your account will be renamed
Hello,

The developer team at Wikimedia is making some changes to how accounts work, as part of our on-going efforts to provide new and better tools for our users like cross-wiki notifications. These changes will mean you have the same account name everywhere. This will let us give you new features that will help you edit and discuss better, and allow more flexible user permissions for tools. One of the side-effects of this is that user accounts will now have to be unique across all 900 Wikimedia wikis. See the announcement for more information.

Unfortunately, your account clashes with another account also called Meatman. To make sure that both of you can use all Wikimedia projects in future, we have reserved the name Meatman~enwiki that only you will have. If you like it, you don't have to do anything. If you do not like it, you can pick out a different name. If you think you might own all of the accounts with this name and this message is in error, please visit Special:MergeAccount to check and attach all of your accounts to prevent them from being renamed.

Your account will still work as before, and you will be credited for all your edits made so far, but you will have to use the new account name when you log in.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Yours, Keegan Peterzell Community Liaison, Wikimedia Foundation 01:44, 20 March 2015 (UTC)

Renamed
 This account has been renamed as part of single-user login finalisation. If you own this account you can |log in using your previous username and password for more information. If you do not like this account's new name, you can choose your own using this form after logging in: . -- Keegan (WMF) (talk) 16:11, 22 April 2015 (UTC)

title: User talk:Meatman~enwiki