Blog Day 384 - Friday 16 April 2021

Being school holidays there were no school groups at the Shrine yesterday although there were quite a few family groups, parents and/or grandparents accompanying children and grandchildren for a visit.  Naturally enough we are not seeing any international tourists apart from some overseas visitors who are living here.

Being a bit quieter I grabbed the opportunity to take some photos of some parts of the Shrine that you may not be familiar with.

This photo was taken in the Crypt and features the "Father & Son" statue which commemorates the relationship between the fathers who fought in TGW and the sons who fought in the Second World War.  In the background are the regimental colours of various battalions that no longer exist.  When a battalion is disbanded it's regimental colours are "laid up" in a place of commemoration like the Shrine or possibly a cathedral or church, they are very important to the men of the battalion and feature the battalion's battle honours.

This is one of the passageways around the galleries, on the left you can see the original brickwork of the pillars forming the foundations of the Shrine.  As the Shrine was being built through the great depression of the 1930's they had a policy of only employing returned servicemen from TGW, therefore we know that these bricks were laid by men who served in the war.

This stained glass window makes up part of the Shrine's Boer war collection.  It was in a church near Euroa and was a personal memorial by a family to a son who died in the Boer war.  When the church was remodelled in the 1930's this window was removed and stored under the floor of the church and forgotten about.  Sometime much later it was rediscovered (in parts) restored and recently donated to the Shrine.  It is one of my favourite pieces.

This is the pride of the Shrine's collection.  It is called the Devana boat and is a lifeboat off a liner that was being used as a troopship to ferry ANZAC troops to Gallipoli.  Once the troopships arrived the troops were transferred to this boat and others like it to be ferried onto the beach at what is now Anzac Cove.  This boat is on loan to the Shrine by the AWM.  AWM has two boats that were used at Anzac, the other is the Ascot boat and is on display at the AWM.  Their boat has bullet holes, ours doesn't.

This is the newest display in the galleries.  It is a turret from a Beaufort bomber.  Having had a close look at this it would have been terribly cramped and uncomfortable for the gunner and he would have felt remarkably vulnerable, sitting on what looks like a bicycle seat.  The other thing that this demonstrates is the remarkable advances made in Australian industry in the Second World War.  Prior to the war Australia wasn't even manufacturing motor vehicles yet a couple of years into the war we are building sophisticated (for its time) complex aircraft such as the Beaufort bomber.  These aircraft were built at numerous sites around the country and then all the parts were bought together at the Commonwealth Aircraft Factory at Fishermans Bend for assembly.  Another interesting thing about the manufacture of these aircraft is that about 30% of the workforce was female.  Most of these women would not have worked in a manufacturing environment before.  

Enough of history and on to current events, that will become history in due course and will be discussed and analysed in 100 years hence.

Victoria has gone 49 days without a local infection.  Two days ago Victoria recorded 5 new cases in ROTs but nothing further in the last 24 hours.  Australia wide there has been 13 new cases reported, all ROTs.

There are currently 139 active cases Australia wide, 137 of whom are ROTs.  Qld has the only non ROT infections being 2 non ROTs out of 36 infections.

The vaccine program is grinding on incredibly slowly with 11,500 doses administered in the last 24 hours for a total of 1,371,192 doses administered Australia wide.

The world infection and death rates have gone up dramatically.  In the last 24 hours there were 817,000 new infections reported and 780,000 in the 24 hours prior.  However the daily figures back to at least 05/04 have been adjusted and increased by at least 100,000 per day.  Likewise for the daily death figures, in the last 24 hours 13,533 deaths were reported and 13,332 the day prior,

The US figures are increasing again, in the last 24 hours the US reported 75,000 new infections and 78,000 in the previous 24 hours.  They reported 956 deaths in the last 24 hours and 823 in the previous 24.  The recent US figures are regularly amended and adjusted usually upwards.

Although the UK figures are not declining as quickly as they have in the past I daresay that once the figures get down to a certain level it must get harder to maintain the momentum.  Compared to most of the rest of the world the UK figures continue to look good with new infections of 2,500 per day for the last 2 day and 38 and 23 deaths for the same period.

It looks like India is going to hit the list of countries in big trouble.  India reported 201,000 new infections in the last 24 hours.  This daily figure has been increasing since 06/04 when they had 97,000 infections in 24 hours.  India reported 1,038 deaths in the last 24 hours.

Our old favourites Brazil and Turkey are still hanging in the top five.  Brazil reported 74,000 new infections in the last 24 hours and Turkey 63,000.  Brazil reported 3,459 deaths and Turkey 279.  Given the high infection rate in Turkey I am still waiting on their death figures to increase.  Maybe it is not going to happen, lets hope so.

Corona Virus Daily Stats – April 2021 – Covid Normal (for the time being)

Date	Aus Infected	Aus Increase	Aus ROTs Increase	Vic Infected	Vic Increase	Vic ROTS Increase	*Aus Active Infection	*Aus ROTs	Vic Active Infection	Vic ROTs
01/04	29,323	17	11	20,484	0	0	163		1	1
02/04	29,335	8	7	20,484	0	0	159	147	1	1
03/04	29,341	6	5	20,484	0	0	151	143	1	1
04/04	29,348	7	7	20,484	0	0	143		1	1
05/04	29,357	9	9	20,484	0	0	149		1	1
06/04	29,363	7	7	20,484	0	0	148	129	1	1
07/04	29,377	12	12	20,484	0	0	147	128	1	1
08/04	29,385	6	6	20,484	0	0	140		0	0
09/04	29,388	3	3	20,484	0	0	131	113	0	0
10/04	29,396	6	6	20,485	1	1	132	115	1	1
11/04	29,402	6	6	20,485	0	0	122	106	1	1
12/04	29,419	13	13	20,487	2	2	130	117	3	3
13/04	29,437	18	18	20,487	0	0	142	137	3	3
14/04	29,442	5	5	20,487	0	0	138	133	3	3
15/04	29,469	18	18	20,492	5	5	147		8	8
16/04	29,483	13	14	20,492	0	0	139	137	8	8
17/04

Date	World Infection	Daily Increase	World Deaths	Daily Increase
01/04/21	128,822,013	683,042	2,815,151	12,262
02/04/21	129,524,770	711,626	2,827,020	11,861
03/04/21	130,235,782	628,853	2,837,694	10,189
04/04/21	130,768,885	533,103	2,846,114	8,420
05/04/21	131,217,283	448,398	2,852,494	6,380
06/04/21	131,714,949	394,108	2,860,077	7,105
07/04/21	132,418,417	605,501	2,872,438	11,801
08/04/21	132,975,564	684,346	2,886,571	14,825
09/04/21	133,810,021	707,258	2,901,088	13,825
10/04/21	134,544,377	601,764	2,914,575	12,681
11/04/21	135,201,665	511,007	2,926,952	11,567
12/04/21	135,876,628	521,465	2,935,445	7,653
13/04/21	136,500,047	454,145	2,944,756	8,407
14/04/21	137,442,098	779,567	2,959,069	13,332
15/04/21	138,259,088	816,990	2,972,602	13,533

	US & UK Daily New Infections & Death Numbers
Date	US New Infections	US Daily Deaths	UK New Infections	UK Daily Deaths
01/04/21	66,173	1,042	4,115	43
02/04/21	78,445	1,048	4,565	51
03/04/21	69,822	967	3,422	52
04/04/21	62,154	676	3,424	10
05/04/21	34,282	222	2,405	10
06/04/21	78,279	596	2,831	28
07/04/21	61,958	835	2,404	20
08/04/21	74,628	2,563	2,797	45
09/04/21	79,254	974	3,124	53
10/04/21	81,801	942	(4,787)	60
11/04/21	65,914	708	2,713	40
12/04/21	46,016	283	1,730	7
13/04/21	69,486	455	3,686	15
14/04/21	77,878	823	2,505	23
15/04/21	75,340	956	2,529	38