New South Wales: "But We Never Used to Cycle Here"

New South Wales: "But We Never Used to Cycle Here" - Yeah, right

Thanks to our reader, Tim, for sending us the above photo of Australian sheepshearers on their bicycles. The bicycle is credited rightly with improving the human gene pool in the way that it increased the mobility radius for people not only in cities but also in rural areas. After the invention of the bicycle and the subsequent bicycle boom in the late 1880's, family names that were previously rooted to specific towns or regions started showing up in the registries of (relatively) far-flung parishes in the UK. The same is true for rural America and Australia. The inexpensive independent mobility that the bicycle provided allowed men and women to travel farther further in the search for work and... well... TLC.

These photographs are from the Flickr photostream of the State Library of New South Wales.

Malvern Star Bicycle Competition, Stanmore Theatre (taken for Acme Theatres), 4 May 1946, by Sam Hood

Stanmore, NSW, Australia. May, 1946.

Jim and Nancy Davenport, Albury, NSW, 11 December 1938, by by - J E N Davenport

Albury, NSW, Australia. December, 1938.

Tom Morris, skipping champion (taken for Greater Union Theatres), 28 June 1937, by Sam Hood

NSW, Australia. June 1937. An explanation is probably needed:
"Tom Morris, who will attempt to skip from Sydney to Brisbane, via the Pacific Highway, will set out from the General Post Office at noon to-day. He has already skipped from Melbourne to Adelaide and back (1000 miles) and from Melbourne to Sydney in 28 days."
His friend on the left must be an early member of the Slow Bicycle Movement.

Boys of Hoyts Clovelly Theatre "Spider's Web" Club ride their bikes while "Spiderman" looks on, by Sam Hood

Boys of Hoyts Clovelly Theatre Spider's Web Club ride their bikes while Spiderman looks on. Clovelly, NSW, Australia. n.d.

Jenolan Caves, April 1903, photographed by Edward J. Cooke

Jenolan Caves, NSW, Australia. April, 1903.

Man on bicycle pillioning boy - Bunaloo, NSW, n.d.

Man on bicycle pillioning boy. Bunaloo, NSW, Australia. "Pillioning". There's a word you don't hear every day. I'm assuming that means the boy is standing up. As opposed to that other Australianism, "dinking".

Brownie (Muriel Long) with bicycle decorated for street procession. Deniliquin, NSW. n.d.

Annie Dawson Wallace with her bicycle. NB: Annie is wearing trousers - Sydney, NSW, 1899

Annie Dawson Wallace with her bicycle. NB: Annie is wearing trousers - Sydney, NSW, Australia. 1899

Man on a penny-farthing bicycle being chased by his sister (Maggie & Bob Spiers) - West Wyalong, NSW, C. 1900

Man on a penny-farthing bicycle being chased by his sister (Maggie & Bob Spiers) - West Wyalong, NSW, Australia. Ca. 1900

Waratah Rovers Bicycle Club (WRBC) on tour. Sydney - Campbelltown - Appin - Bulli - South Coast. Photo taken at Picton outside the Royal Hotel - Picton, NSW, October 1900

Waratah Rovers Bicycle Club on tour. Picton, NSW, Australia. October 1900.

[Pedestrians on George St], ca. 1900, from Frederick Danvers Power : photonegatives, 1898-1926 / Frederick Danvers Power

First cars and trains across Sydney Harbour Bridge, March 1932 / Sam Hood

And a couple of street scenes from Sydney. Ca. 1900 and 1932, respectively.

Bike Helmet Protest in Melbourne

I had a brilliant week in Melbourne as a guest of the State of Design Festival . Loads of interviews and events that all culminated with my keynote speech on the Saturday. There was, however, an event on the Saturday morning - July 26, 2010 - that was extremely interesting to be a part of. A group of citizens, rallied together by filmmaker and bicycle advocate Mike Rubbo , decided to go for a bicycle ride together on Melbourne's new bike share system bikes. A splendid idea. Melbourne's bike share system is shiny new, although unlike most cities in the world with a bike share programme, only 70-odd people are using them each day. In Dublin, by contrast, there are over 30,000 subscribers. Not to mention the cracking successes in Paris, Barcelona, Seville and most of the over 100 cities with such systems. So, a group of people, many of them Copenhagenize.com readers, fancy a bike ride. Sounds lovely enough. They met up at the bike racks at Melbourne University. Hired the bikes wi

Head Protection for Motorists

A while back we posted about an Australian 'motoring helmet' designed to protect motorists' heads in car accidents. It was designed in the late 1980's. Then we recieved this tip yesterday. Another head protection device for motorists, this one developed at the University of Adelaide, in Australia. A serious product for the serious of protecting motorists from the dangers of driving. Despite airbags and seatbelts, motorists are victims of alarming head injury rates. Here's what the Centre for Automotive Safety Research [CASR] in Australia says: The Centre has been evaluating the concept of a protective headband for car occupants. In about 44 percent of cases of occupant head injury, a protective headband, such as the one illustrated, would have provided some benefit. One estimate has put the potential benefit of such a device (in terms of reduced societal Harm) as high as $380 million, compared with $123 million for padding the upper interior of the car. Thi

Fear of Cycling 03 - Helmet Promotion Campaigns

Third installment by sociologist Dave Horton, from Lancaster University, as a guest writer. Dave has written a brilliant assessment of Fear of Cycling in an essay and we're well pleased that he fancies the idea of a collaboration. We'll be presenting Dave's essay in five parts. Fear of Cycling - Helmet Promotion Campaigns - by Dave Horton - Part 03 of 05 Like road safety education, campaigns to promote the wearing of cycle helmets effectively construct cycling as a dangerous practice about which to be fearful. Such campaigns, and calls for legislation to make cycle helmets compulsory, have increased over the last decade. In 2004, a Private Members’ Bill was tabled in the UK Parliament, to make it an offence for adults to allow children under the age of 16 to cycle unless wearing a helmet. Also in 2004, the influential British Medical Association, in a policy turnaround , voted to campaign for helmets to be made compulsory for all cyclists (for comprehensive detail on these

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