Time Walks - Townsville and Canberra

Well, after that disastrous TV series we are due for a palette cleanser.  Who would be a better palette cleanser than Tony Robinson?  Tony Robinson explores Australia in his series Time Walks.  I am going to do two episodes of Time Walks.  The first episode is about Townsville and the run time for this episode is 25:33. The second episode is about Canberra and the run time for this episode is 26:15.

Today Tony explores Townsville, a place he feels deserves a better name.  He starts up on Castle Hill and moves his way down and through the town.  Castle Hill overlooks the town and many people have climbed it over the years.  He points out a stick figure that is painted on the mountain.  He meets the man who painted the stick figure on the mountain.  After his trip to Castile Hill, he goes to the beach.

However, he is not able to swim at the beach because of the jellyfish.  There are also green ants at the beach.  The then explores the origins of his name.  The name came from a man Robert Towns.  He had only come to the settlement once and he complained about it.  Tony then goes into public to start a campaign to change the name of the town.  He feels that it should be named after John Melton Black and he was the man who created the town.  He built the first house and brought culture to the settlement.  Tony wants to call it Blackville, however, the locals are not persuaded.  It was the men with the money who got towns named for them.

Tony then learns about Eddie Marbo who fought for aboriginal rights.  He went to court to settle who own Australia before the British.  He won the case but did not live to see his victory.  Tony catches up with Eddie’s friend about the type of man he was.  Then Tony moves on and explores the impact of World War II on Townsville.  He goes into a surviving air raid shelter.  The people of Townsville prepared for war because they felt like the Japanese were going to invade them.  Townsville residents needed to be prepared for war.  So what else does Tony learn about Townsville?  Tune into the rest of this episode to find out more.

In episode two of this review, Tony overlooks Canberra and talks about the origins of the name.  He starts at Red Hill and ends at Mitchell in the north.  Canberra is the capital of Australia and it was designed for political purposes.  How did Australians decide where to put their capital?  The number one thing was that it needed to be New South Wales and there was a need to have cold weather to bring up Australia.  However, there are people who at sneer Canberra.

Tony takes a detour down Canberra Boulevard and notices a funeral home.  Across the street from the funeral home, there is the Russian Embassy.  Next door to the funeral home is where the Australians had their secret service and where the Secret Service would spy on the Russians.  Australians are famous for coming up with nicknames for their Prime Ministers.  The Australian first prime minister was a huge drinker but was a brilliant man.  He was in an advertisement for soap.

Tony visits the National Archives and visits the artifacts of the 17th Prime Minister.  His drowning death shocked the nation.  Tony reflects on the life of this prime minister.  Then he takes off for the art museum and talks about Jackson Pollock’s painting.  It was a painting that caused controversy when it was purchased because it purchased over one million dollars.  Tony encounters children to paint a version of the Jackson Pollock painting.

Tony then moves on to the parliament building.  He talks about the opening of the Parliament building and what a disaster that was.  He then highlights more drama that happened at the Parliament House. So what happened as a result of this drama?  What else does Tony find about Canberra?  Tune into the rest of this episode to find out more.

This is such a nice palette cleanser after watching 24 Hours in the Past.  I would suggest both of these episodes for a geography classroom.