ATTORNEY-GENERAL Michael Atkinson has made a “humiliating” backdown and announced he will retrospectively repeal his law censoring internet comment on the state election.

After a furious reaction on AdelaideNow to The Advertiser’s exclusive report on the new laws, Mr Atkinson at 10pm released this statement: “From the feedback we’ve received through AdelaideNow, the blogging generation believes that the law supported by all MPs and all political parties is unduly restrictive. I have listened.

“I will immediately after the election move to repeal the law retrospectively.”

Mr Atkinson said the law would not be enforced for comments posted on AdelaideNow during the upcoming election campaign, even though it was technically applicable.

“It may be humiliating for me, but that’s politics in a democracy and I’ll take my lumps,” he continued in the statement.

“This way, no one need fear now that they are being censored on the net or in blogs, whether they blog under their own name or anonymously. The law will be repealed retrospectively.

“I call upon all the other political parties who supported this review to also review their position.”

The rest of the article is here.

Last night I was looking for some specific photos on my external hard drive and then went looking through all my other photos too. Here are just a few which reflect our awesome Creator.

Douglas and Jessica about five years ago.

An Easter Sunday morning in Murray Bridge, if you click on these ones you can see the mist on the river better.

Adelaide Railway Station

We used to go on school excursions to various Adelaide events and places – Come Out and the museum.

Parents would drive us to Bridgewater then we’d catch a train to Adelaide. This is where my love for trains began. Getting there was half the fun. The three tunnels were highlights of the trip. I loved the gorgeous scenery too.

This quote from Wikipedia gives you a bit of an idea of the track.

The Bridgewater line had a fairly steep grade for most of the journey, sometimes resulting in derailments due to the tight bends. Services from Adelaide to Bridgewater usually took an average of one hour (stopping all stations), and about 50 minutes (express).

Bridgewater railway line is a very good Wikipedia page detailing the line and all the stations along it.

I found it really hard to find photos for this post. I couldn’t find any photos of Echunga Primary School back in my days, the school logo of a cow, Adelaide Railway Station in the 1970s etc. I’ll have to scan some more of my old photos.

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au Full article here.

SOUTH Australian laws censoring anonymous political comment on the internet have sparked national and international outrage, with readers comparing the “draconian laws” to those in Nazi Germany and China.

More than 600 people have posted comments on the AdelaideNow website – most vehemently against the Rann Government’s legislation which will force internet bloggers and anyone publishing a comment on next month’s state election to supply their real name and postcode.

A poll reveals more than 90 percent of readers are against the laws, which carry a maximum fine of $5,000 for media organisations who do not hand over such information to the Electoral Commissioner.

I really don’t see this having much effect. A lot of blogs aren’t hosted in South Australia, for example Blogger/Google is an American company. For those who host their own blogs I doubt that there’s anything to worry about there either. Is the government going to employ someone to search the net for election comments without a full name and postcode? What a waste of time!!!

To me this is another example of government not understanding how the Internet works. As I’ve taught my students – no one owns the Internet, it isn’t governed by any one government, there are no universal laws for the Internet, people can host their websites in countries which don’t have laws regarding the Internet.

So I say, ‘Don’t worry, be happy’.

Here’s another song for you to download or listen to online. I have many favourite songs and hymns and this is one of them. Hope you like it!

Be Thou My Vision

My Mum’s cousin asked me for some help with researching her Dad’s family. She wanted to know what ship they came to Australia on. I found it really good and challenging to have a new family to research. Having a defined task was good too. I tend to jump all over the place and have to really discipline myself and cut down on distractions to be able to stick to a task. Anyway I wrote her a report myself and annotated it, instead of using a standard report from a genealogy software program or online.

This is what I wrote-

The Wight Family

Charles Wight b circa 1799, England? d 6 Jul 1875, Adelaide
Married
Elizabeth Prior b circa 1802, England? d 4 Sep 1875, Adelaide

Charles and Elizabeth had four children before coming to South Australia.

Margaret Nancy Wight b circa 1832 (not in birth order)
Albert James Wight b circa 1841
Thomas George Wight
male Wight

Passenger List for the ship Brightman, Captain C G Cowley

WIGHT Charles, wife (Elizabeth?), Mgt Nancy, Thos Geo, Albert Jas and son arrived 1850-01-05 on Brightman from London 1849-08-23 via Plymouth

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Albert James Wight b circa 1841

Married on 24 Feb 1867 at St Luke’s church, Adelaide

Annie Scriven b circa 1845

Albert and Annie’s children

Fred Scriven Wight b 1867, Adelaide
Mary Prior Wight b 1869, Adelaide
Bessie Martha Wight b 1871, Adelaide
Kate Annie Wight b 1873, Adelaide
Ellie Alberta Wight b 1876, Adelaide
Daisey Scriven Wight b 1878, Adelaide
Albert Lawson Wight b 18 Sep 1879, d 13 Jan 1880, Adelaide
Ruby Hayward Wight b 1881, Adelaide
Albert Raymond Wight b 31 Dec 1883, d 8 Jul 1973, Adelaide
Harry Castle Wight b 1885, Adelaide

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A Time Line For Albert James Wight

circa 1841 Birth

23 Aug 1849 Departed London, England
8yrs

5 Jan 1850 Arrived South Australia on the Brightman
8yrs

24 Feb 1867 Marriage to Annie Scriven
26yrs

1869 Went into business with William Symons Billin,
Flinders St, Adelaide
28yrs

1881 Moved business to Angas St, Adelaide
40yrs

15 Mar 1883 Sold business to Adelaide
Aerated Water & Brewing Co Ltd
42yrs

1897 Alleged Stealing in dwellings (no further details
found-don’t know if right person)
56yrs

Died 8 Dec 1915, Knightsbridge, Adelaide
74yrs

Annie Wight died circa Jan 1916, Adelaide

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Albert James Wight’s headstone

Albert James Wight’s Ginger Beer business

I hope it may be useful or interesting for others too.