Re: ODD DESTINATIONS

["Derick Wuen" <cullend@webone.com.au>]

Ron BESDANSKY (formerly Ron BEST) wrote in message ...
snip
>The story I heard was that Mr Harris (as in Harris St etc), who owned much
>of the land in what is now Pyrmont/Ultimo, was on some charge or other.
When
>it got to court, the charge was dismissed because the date of the offence
>was shown as "12th Ultimo" (don't know which actual day of the month, but
it
>doesn't matter), whereas it should have read "12th Instant" (i.e. 12th of
>the current month). So he saved a bundle of money or a jail term because
>someone incorrectly wrote "Ultimo", so he named his estate after the word
>that saved him!

start of nitpick

Knowing the high PQ (pedantry quotient) of contributors to this NG, sources
at my disposal state that it was in fact the 19th ultimo/instant of February
1803 involved in the court case. See "Pyrmont and Ultimo A History", Michael
R. Matthews, Southward Press 1982, page 10. This source draws heavily on
H.V. Evatt's work "The Rum Rebellion" for anyone wanting to research this
subject further. There is a suggestion that Harris bribed the court martial
official to insert the flaw in the charge.

end of nitpick

The Matthews book has some good pictures of Darling Harbour and related rail
infrastucture, inluding a superb aerial "map" type shot of the whole
peninsular. It looks like a "lobe" in a John Armstrong model railway
trackplan. Now there is a Casino and (ugh) trams roll on what was a superb
freight railway.