00:00This diary belonged to Tasmanian cosmic ray physicist David Johns.
00:08It was accidentally donated to a tip shop in Hobart when Mr Johns' family was sorting
00:12through his belongings after his death in 2020.
00:16As far as we can work out, the diary was in the bottom of a box that we didn't know
00:21it was there and dropped some stuff off at the Hobart tip shop and I guess them finding
00:26the diary was good because it could have easily gone to the tip face and never been
00:31found.
00:32Mr Johns worked in Antarctica in an important year for science and global relations.
00:37Called the International Geophysical Year, in 1957 many countries worked together to
00:42advance scientific knowledge at the height of the Cold War.
00:45His job there was around observing cosmic rays, so the cosmic ray observing equipment
00:52was all located there and his job was to operate that and to make observations for
00:59the university who had the role of collecting that information.
01:03Once workers at the Hobart tip shop realised the diary's significance, they were determined
01:08to find the right home for it.
01:10The collectibles manager Jason Richards says it was important to find the right home for
01:16the diary.
01:17With the diary, most people don't get to go to Antarctica and most people aren't a physicist
01:21studying cosmic rays, so we really wanted it to be accessible to other people and it
01:26was great that we could relink it back with the family and other stuff that they had of
01:32Dr Johns.
01:33The National Museum of Australia is working on acquiring the diary.
01:37Mr Johns hopes to donate other items his father collected in Antarctica, including polaroids,
01:43cosmic ray observations and polar medals.
01:46We've got a lot of artefacts that Dad brought back from the Antarctic on his trips.
01:54Many of those have been in bags or boxes since we cleaned their house out some years ago
02:00and I think finding this diary has spurred us on that maybe there are other people who'd
02:06like to see some of these artefacts.
02:09The second-hand economy in Australia is valued at over $60 billion, so it's not all trash
02:15that ends up in tip shops like this.
02:17Sometimes you can find treasure.
02:19This is the ultimate goal for us when we find things.
02:22We want to keep it out of landfill and something like this, we want to not only keep it out
02:25of landfill but commemorate it and make sure it's available and it's always kept as something
02:30special because it is.
Comments