UPDATES to ss-australis.com
A message from your Captain,
Hello all, this link is a great starting point for those that are familiar with the site and just wish to drop in and quickly look at the latest updates to my web site. This page is not designed to be pretty and there will be no duplicating of photos just pure links to the areas of interest that have been updated.
LATEST UPDATE: please use your 'back button' in your browser to return to this page to move to the next links
May 2008
well it's been a long time since the last update - so I decided to have a look through things people had sent me, I apologise for the late update, but work has been hectic - but thats my excuse....
I chucked a few fresh photos on the front page as you can see
Latest photo of the wreck
Retired US Navy Captain John J Gelke spent sometime aboard the ship his story can be seen here.
November 2007
Fred Feddes memories of his trip on both the Ellinis and Australis
March 10th and 20th 2007
Latest photo of the wreck
OCTOBER 2006
Latest photo of the wreck
AUGUST 2006
See my model of the Australis - ex travel agents model
Many of my personal items have been placed on loan at the Sydney Maritime museum, Photos of my items on display can be seen here,
Latest photo of the wreck
MARCH 2006
Latest photo of the wreck taken February 2006 see the photo here
Answer Phill's survey to help him with his Thesis
Many of my items are going on display at the Sydney Maritime museum and will be seen on their website, link and photos will be posted once the display is finished
NOVEMBER 2005
Latest photo of the wreck taken November 2005 this was taken the day after she began her roll into the sea see the photo here
OCTOBER 2005
Latest photo of the wreck taken October 2005 see the photo here
JUNE 2005
Check this out, aerial satelite photos of the wreck thanks to Al Gummerson of New York Follow the link from here
Latest photo of the wreck thanks to John Millet of the UK taken May 2005 see the photos here
May 2005
Paul Looyen has provided some great movies from his trip in Feb - Mar 76, click to view
Chris Preston has updated his crew listing
I have found and reserected a page I had on news clippings of the Australis at Timaru this has been placed in the "interesting items" link.
April 2005 - The move to ww.ss.australis.com
Well its been along time since I have had any updates, I did place the reunion details in haste late Nov 2004, and I did say that I was going for a trip on the Leeuwin, finally that review is now up and running. I have added a few more comments to my Scam page and adjusted a few pages through out the site. Also in my 'about me" I have added 2 links to 2 other webpages I have for my other interests. For those of you that don't know I do 4x4 driver training and I am a member of a bushfire brigade, if your interested you can have a look.... 4x4 Instructor and Bushfire brigade Also in my spare time I play a few computer games but one I do play is a ship simulator, you can view some images here
I guess the biggest update to this site is the "rebuild" of the look of the site and the move to the new address at www.ss-australis.com . The crappy blue background has been stripped away and basically the site has been tidyed up a bit, I think it now looks uncluttered and neater in appearance. Please if you have time do have a look through and report any links or pictures not loading or any other problems you may encounter.
Things to look forward to :
* The Fremantle Maritime museum has just built a wall of "remeberance" and all those immigrants that came through Fremantle have been engraved into a wall. my official notification is that my name appears as DARREN NEIL BYRNE AUSTRALIS 1976, as soon as I get a free piece of time I will head down there and get a photo to post here. Also, I am currently using a ship simulator to sail through different ports, this is created by Ilan Papian and is a great simulator, details and screen shots will come soon.
* I have just been given a copy of a cini film put on CD of the the 4 week trip on the Australis, a fellow passenger Henk Looyen filmed his trip in Feb / Mar of 1976 - how excited am I.......as thats my trip ! Thanks to his son Paul I will soon be able to place some small downloadable footage of the trip.
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January 2004
Latest photo of the wreck thanks to Mark Widdows of UK taken August 2004 see it here
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January 2004
Larry Driscolls wonderful book on the America OUT NOW read my review here
Australis passengers planned reunion 9th October 2004, info here
Latest photo of the wreck thanks to Willi Moellers of Germany taken January 2004 see it here
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11 July 2003
Taking the above photo taken July 2003 - I superimposed myself onto the bridge and the bridge wing of the Australis, just for a bit of fun, - both can be seen here
Latest photo of the wreck thanks to Florian Ebersoldt of Germany, taken 7 July 2003 see it here
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7th June 2003
Latest photo of the wreck thanks again to John Mayne - taken April 2003 see it here
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3rd January 2003
Latest photo of the wreck thanks to John Mayne - taken 29 Dec 2002 - the forward hole seems to have gotten bigger see it here
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1st October 2002
Latest photos courtesy of, Colin Brammer, Ingo Thurtenwald (on the wreck) and Paul Nuttall, all taken Sept 2002 see them here
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28th June 2002
Trip memoirs added by Chris Bird from his 1971 trip aboard Australis read it here
Chandris advertising ITALIS NOT AT SEA :) check it out here :)
Facts and figures of the ship
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15th January 2002
Pedro Batista from Furenventura has sent me some latest photos that he took late October 2001 ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
10th January 2002
Mr Steven Tacey has sent me some salvaged memrobillia from the wreck click here for a look
John and Roselyn Clark, who originally sent me an aladins cave of items, including the flag, have again surprised me by sending another small package, see it all here
I have been requested for some clearer photos of my pennant, so i flew it on a flag pole and updated my flag page with these photos
My model page has been updated as by popular request, i have placed my color scheme and details on how I made the Australis look a like, see it all here
See other peoples attempts at the America and Australis model in the museum section here
Bill Lees open letter has been added to this site, read it here
Memoirs by John Lysaght (ss Australis), Bob Williams (ss Australis), Jim Rider (Uss westpoint),Sofiandas Angelo (crew member SS Australis, who names quite a few crew members),Hugh Gibson (SS America) , , have been added
I have added a register of my memrobillia
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30 th August 2001
The museum is finally - yes finally up and running, although not as I wanted it, as I was hoping on some special effects to traverse the museum. So take this as the museum with better things to come :) click here and enter the museum.
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August 2001
Hi all - well the much awaited and promised website is up and running. There has been so much updated it is impossible to link it all from here.
The History has all been redone, there are some "wave mouse over images" that will display different photos. There has been some additions to the passenger accounts of trips etc.
Have a look through the 'items of interest' button for some of the additions
Please do have a look through the whole site as I am sure you will not be disappointed, please let me know of any faults you find - start here
Darren eeeeeeeeer I mean "your Captain"
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March 2001
Well we have all been very patient with me, the last update was July 2000 and what an embarrassment it has been for me. There are just simply too many updates in this one. As you can see as promised the whole site has been given a face lift. With these you beaut web authoring tools I could make the pages do what I want, I am still learning a lot of it but I don't want to take up oodles of your time though as there is nothing worst than waiting 3 minutes (and it's a long time when staring at your pc isn't it ? ) so I have tried to make the whole site more pleasant, yet keeping download time in mind. OK so other than that what else is new ?
I have decided to use frames and buttons - I hate them but anyway :) I listened to my passengers and they felt the old site was a little awkward to navigate. The history side of the site has more information and fresher photos.
Take a look around - give me your feedback,
Darren
any links listed below do not work and are retained for historical purposes only
Update for 27th July 2000
Picture of Bourdell at work, on one of the murials for the America click here
A fantastic collection of photos from Mr Frank Schouten, of Perth Western Australia,
incorporating photos of her engines and controls, the bridge etc. Most of these
photos have been used within the tour section (Bridge, Engine room, etc) of
my site to enhance those areas, however I have also included his full range
under a separate scrapbook, which can be viewed here
Death of the ship - Insurance scam or honest mistake read here
Museum update - it's on its way but is taking longer than expected :^(
Update for 2 June 2000
Thanks to Dean French of Fuerteventura some great pictures of the wreck taken
1 June 2000
click here
Updates for 10th May 2000
Firstly a whole new look site, it has been given a new look and navigation room
Thanks to Alister Lester, the long lost Timaru photos are back
Marie Lacey was the first person ever born on the SS America, and what an enterance
the crew had to build a humidity crib from cardboard boxes and menus, read the
story here.
New photos of the ss America 1978 courtesy of Marie Lacey
A few new photos added of the SS America United States Lines
Memories from Milton Eisenberg, an ex soldier aboard the USS Westpoint added
Lena Jeffersons memories added
Updates for 20th October 1999 were
Lena Jeffersons memories added - click here
Portraits painted by artist Donald Stoltenberg added - click here
COMING SOON - a totally new look website, amalgamation of cabin 111 and at long
last the photos of my Australis ( 2nd ) model.
Updates for 26th August 1999 were
A Frequently Asked Question page added click here
Memorabilia added on SS America as denoted *** click here
Updates for 7th and 11th August 1999 were
Great shot of Venture Cruises AMERICA added click here
Contact page for WESTPOINT vets added click here
A third scrapbook added of passenger's photos of Australis click here
Small information page added about me
Backgrounds that are relevant to the pages have been added. I ask you all to
please have a look at the backgrounds and advise me if there are any that makes
reading impossible. It is hard for me to see what these are like taking into
account everyone uses different resolutions etc.
Updates for 9th July 1999 were
Courtesy of Ken Ironside some stills from the new Documentary - have a look
Updates for 3rd July 1999 were:
More photos of the wreck today added click here
Updates for 26th June 1999 were:
Memories of passenger RUDI ZANONI added click here
More photos added to the scrapbook on the Australis click
here
Small notation added regarding the new model I have received click here
Updates for 9th June 1999 were:
Pictures of my model of the Australis added click here
Coming soon -
1. Artist Donald Stoltenberg has sent me a slide of his
SS America painting currently hanging in the Merchant Marine Museum, New York.
His permission has been given for a print to be placed on this site.
2. Perhaps a first here, there is a possible 'Virtual Cruise' in the making
Updates for 5th June 1999 were:
An answer to my question on funnels added click here
A second scrapbook added of passenger's photos of Australis - some nice storm
shots click here
Photo added to America scrapbook click here
SS America coaster and postcard added to memorabilia click here
A commercial model of America did exist
click here
Updates for 27th May 1999 were:
New photo of NOGA added click here
Latest Newspaper photo of the wreck click here
Updates for 5th May 1999 were:
New easier to read deckplans click here to view
Brochures of SS Italis added click here to view
Brochure of SS America (Venture Cruises) added, click here to view
A couple of more photos under construction added SS AMERICA - Photo gallery
of the ship under construction
Updates for 30th April were:
A look at the brief history of Chandris Lines and the Australian fleet click
here
Updates for 24th April were:
More photos under construction added SS AMERICA - Photo gallery of the ship
under construction
Updates for 20th April were:
The whole page has undergone a major navigation rehash - gone are some of the
icons that looked nice but were in fact taking up valuable loading time. I am
trying to get more of a professional look. Gone are all the different backgrounds,
the only one in use is the world map, the Australis sailed the world so why
not? The navigation grid I hope will enable you to easily check out the site.
SS AMERICA - Photo gallery of the ship under construction has been created
USS WESTPOINT extra photos added
Memories from Paul Sloot added
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