WE WERE FIRST BACK |
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| 3 MARCH 1995 | ( A short account) On the 3rd March when I fired up the 486 (or was it the Amiga?) and logged on to msn for the first time I found myself in what was to become a popular meeting place the "Chat Garden". This history of the "beta days" (which is recorded elsewhere) is a listing of the new achievements and adventures we were to attain and claim as being "A First Time on line". I must add that we met and became well acquainted with some wonderful people here and - guess what? Most of them didn't come from Australia.. Indeed a multi-cultural bunch, and what a mob! |
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DURING APRIL 1995 |
Although there were
many and varied chat rooms to be found, the Aussies decided we wanted one of our own, one
to which visitors could relate as to being from Down Under. This took a certain
amount of negotiation etc, pursuading and consultations with the higher echelon etc, and
finally the Paris Room was renamed Down Under Chat Room.
(Many thanks to the Forum Manager of msn in accommodating us in this request) This Chat was located under the umbrella of "hospitality" and was easily found. Remember everyone was a "newbie" then and many of them spent their first day "on line" in the Down Under Chat. For once they arrived, we made them so welcome, they never deserted us. What was this? Who were these folk who made everyone so heartily welcome? To make it easier we then renamed this Chat the Down Under Billabong, (to be lovinglyly referred to from then on as The Bong, go word CWDown. |
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APRIL 1995 |
The first on-line Newsletter "The Beta Age" was a great success. It was emailed to about 200 users. After the release of Windows 95 this had a name change to "OZ_Chat", and later again to REALm_AUSTRALIA. This is the current name. Copies of these newsletters are kept in our on_line archives. |
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| . FIRST ON LINE ADOPTION AGENCY . |
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MAY 1995 |
The Wannabees Adoption Agency {Wanna be an Adopted Aussie) was formed in conjunction with the By-Laws of the duly elected Summit Committee, and much time and fun surrounded this venture. After a due and gruelling process, etc, we now have app 60 adopted Aussies, all proudly displaying their Official Order of the GumLeaf Certificates - dated Summer 95 - some even keeping them in the Bank Vault.(see Archives) |
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JUNE 1995 |
Of course, this was bound to happen, eventually. The first Wedding! We had to carefully prepare every detail - this was history. We appointed a vicar (who also undertook the duties of kultural attache), bridesmaids, bestmen, father of the bride, flower girls, caterer, flower arranger, musical ensemble, bridal car, the church, the groomsmen, page boy and girl, mother of the bride - there was a job for everyone. And the invitations, duly sent out, the bride's dress - a perfect match to the flowers. The Enterprise from LA must have been the most beautiful image to grace the portals of a cyber aisle, the groom Kalk from OZ. During the three hour ceremony, in which the guests were all made in spectator mode, many a happy tear was shed. The fun part was when the best man moofed and dropped the wedding ring!! (see archives) We all then retired to the wedding feast - another 2 or 3 hours, - time was limitless in that era..... |
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AUGUST 1 1995 |
DANGER! on
line alert! RELEASE WINDOWS 95 (due
24th August 1995)- the day we were all waiting for! Two weeks prior to this event, FATE
dealt us all a blow! We received the new pricing costs which would be applicable to
everyone, after Windows 95 was on the market. $5 an hour? when we had already been
spending up to 19 hours a day o line, and getting moofed up to 20 times a day - how would
we manage this extraordinary sum? We were all total addicts by now, let me
assure you. And so we commenced our first Committee Meetings on line - one a night for the
next twelve nights. They were held in the Communique Chat Room, go word cwcommunique - by a duly elected committee, headed by Neilo of the ACT, assisted by JabbaHut, and many other faithfuls, who pursued this issue in the way of a Petition to the relevant bodies to give us a "fair go" - that is less costs. BIRD and the BLOND were the secretaries, (Bob from CA our tech assistant - who often stayed up till 6am his time for our interests) And so we recorded and distributed the Minutes every day for those twelve days, - this was no hole in a corner episode, this was run on the Westminster Rules. Following our decisions, emails were sent to every beta tester in Australia - I remember I did Queensland and sent out 3000 emails on one night! There was a BBS set up where members could direct their replies - this was the FIRE part....Aussies speak their minds you know, ...but it seemed to work and certain concessions were then allowed. See how we all HAVE A GO even against the odds. |
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31 DECEMBER 1995 |
This was a party which went on "for ever" The first cab off the rank was New Zealand, seeing in the New Year with the on-line Kiwis, followed by a spontaneous countdown across OZ, Singapore, Italy, Moscow, Holland, the UK, Sth Africa and finally on to the US (EST) Central, Pacific and finally Hawaii. Each country, when their time to celebrate the New Year arrived, joined us in THE BONG, and we all helped them count down to welcome in their New Year! This was indeed a first! As the clock went round, people from across the globe logged in and kept us up to date with running commentaries on the fireworks etc..Some of us stayed on line for as long as it took, some sneaked in a sleep at times. This was a terrific night! By the way, we still have those chats recorded. |
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| . INTERLUDE . |
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AUG 95 - SEPT 96 |
This was a very interesting interlude - friendships forged and bonded, our big shift from the BONG to Rebecca's_Realm. (see archives) |
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| . MOVING TO THE WEB . |
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18 SEPTEMBER 1996 |
From September 1996, being now a domain on the WWW, under the same name BIRDS DOWN UNDER, http://ozbird.com we spent the following two years getting everything ship-shape, and transferring all our wonderful, intriguing data to this 100 meg site, under the watchful eye of Jim Cratty of cpplus.com ( our server) who made our transition from #Rebecca's_Transit_Lounge to a new #Rebecca's Realm in the Rainforest Chat much easier. At last we were ready for more adventures. |
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| . FIRST MELBOURNE CUP SWEEP ON LINE . |
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3 NOVEMBER 1997 |
For a week before this notable annual event, the running of the Melbourne Cup at Flemington Racecourse, Australia, our Melbourne Cup Sweep was under way, tickets being $5 each. This would give first prize of $70 second $30 and third $20. The interest and traffic to the site was fantastic. Everyone was allocated his drawn number on the morning of the race, necessitating much coming and going to our WINGSPAN BBS, where the field was posted. Many punters bought at least two tickets, one for them, one for the lady friend. This year we intend to repeat this event again. If you want to book your tickets in the sweep early, mailto:oz_bird@ozbird.com |
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25 APRIL 1998 |
Many interested observers world wide (as well as here in OZ) attended the very first ever Anzac Day Ceremony live on line. It was held in our Chat Room #Rebecca's_Realm in the Rainforest, and was a very moving and solemn ceremony. Recitations and poems, and the meaning of Anzac were related to the assembled congregation, with the playing of the Last Post and raising of the Flag. Two minutes silence was then observed, and with members from world wide - it being 2am in Africa, and 10pm EST, and others there from Barbados, Holland, the UK, Hawaii and Canada, there was a diversity of hours. After this we marched to our #Brolga_Bar, and in true Aussie style, downed a few drinks, and then demonstrated to our visitors how to play two-ip, the game which is legal only on Anzac Day. That day we had 538 users to our site, about 10000 hits. Many thanks to everyone who attended. At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, we shall remember them. LEST WE FORGET! |
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| . FIRST ELECTRONIC PETITION TO PRIME MINISTER . |
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22 JUNE 1998 |
The very first electronic petition ever was presented to Prime Minister John Howard made on behalf of concerned wool growers in Outback Queensland and elsewhere. Emails from world wide supported this petition, also a live chat between persons from several counties was recorded and printed out constituting the first electronic petition in the history of Australia. The petition was well received. Another first for our domain. |
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18 JULY 1998 |
The first time
ever? Well we can't be sure yet, but maybe it is another first - this site BIRDS
DOWN UNDER is - to all appearances - the only site in Australia to be nominated
and ACCEPTED in THREE categories in the Telstra/Australian Financial Review Web Site
Awards 1998. This prestigious event offers several categories for nomination of
Australian Web sites, and we have been accepted in two of these categories - Arts and
Entertainment and Community. We are asking that you assist us here by
checking out this site and - if you wish - voting at http://www.203.37.209.5/voting.cfm
Remember to enter BIRDS DOWN UNDER url http://ozbird.com
and name Rebecca Bell. etc 1 Sept 98 http://ozbird.com has reached the semi-finalists..... |
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.Designed and recorded by Rebecca Bell http://ozbird.com strictly copyright © 24.8.98 |
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| Please call in here again and find out what is the next Special Event on our site, and again, many thanks for attending now. Hey and ask your mates to vote also! If you have suggestions for any special events you would like to attend -- | |
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