A boy running along Stanwell Park beach trying to make a kite fly in little wind might not have seemed significant to onlookers.
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Had they known he was a relative of one of the most famous inventors in history and it was the eve of the 100th anniversary of the death of Lawrence Hargrave, they might have looked again. Especially as a passenger aircraft flew overhead.
Joshua Hargrave's efforts to a fly box kite on the beach were similar - if a little less successful - to those of his famous forebear at the same site more than a century before.
And from that humble beginning came the global aviation industry.
Joshua was one of five members of the Hargrave family at a Centenary Luncheon at the Stanwell Park Surf Club marking the start of celebrations commemorating the life and work of Lawrence Hargrave.
Another family member, Lawrence John Hargrave, whose great-grandfather was Lawrence Hargrave's cousin, said contemporaries had scoffed at his namesake's efforts but he never gave up.
"He had the optimism that was essential for an inventor, and the kind of perseverance that would not allow itself to be dampened by failures," Hargrave said.
"Modest, unassuming and unselfish, he always refused to patent his inventions, and was only anxious that he might succeed in adding to the sum of human knowledge."
While many people at the time scoffed, a few had faith that something would come of his experiments.
In May 1895, Royal Society of NSW president Professor Richard Threlfall spoke of his "strong conviction of the importance of the work which Hargrave had done towards solving the problem of artificial flight".
Threlfall called Hargrave the "inventor of human flight", and of the debt owed to him by the Wright brothers.
Threlfall believed Hargrave would be remembered as an important experimenter and inventor, who "probably did as much to bring about the accomplishment of dynamic flight as any other single individual". Lawrence Hargrave Centre secretary Michael Adams thinks the Lawrence Hargrave Centenary events planned this year will educate a new generation about the work of the former Stanwell Park resident.
The more than 80 people at the Centenary Luncheon were given a model kite to re-enact what happened more than a century ago. A series of activities (see box) to mark the centenary are being held between now and December with the help of $20,000 from the IMB Communication Foundation.
"It is the centenary of his death but we are celebrating a life of one of Illawarra's chief pioneers ... and on the world stage, a great aeronautical pioneer," he said.
The relatives of Hargrave attending the centenary lunch were descendants of other members of his family, including Lawrence Hargrave's cousin Reverend Joshua Hargrave, who witnessed and assisted at the 1894 beach kite-lift.
Hargrave had three daughters, but his only son Geoffrey was killed at Gallipoli.
The family has such respect for the famous inventor that the name Lawrence is given to the first-born sons of each generation.
Lawrence John Hargrave described Hargrave, who was born in January 1850 and died in July 1915, as a great aeronautical engineer, explorer, astronomer, inventor and aviation pioneer.
In addition to his box kite, Hargrave also designed the world's first true radial rotary engine, the world's first-four cylinder engine, a flying machine with flapping wings, adding machines and shoes that could walk on water.
The documentary The Man Who Would Fly revealed how Hargrave made a major contribution to the Wright Brothers' first powered flight in 1903.
It showed Wilbur and Orville Wright's aircraft designs were influenced by Hargrave's box kite structures and curved wing designs and revealed Hargrave's correspondence with United States aviation pioneer Octave Chanute.
In a letter to Hargrave, Chanute said his achievements with box kites were "all new to him". Soon after, Chanute made his own glider based on the Hargrave kite.
The Wright brothers then got their ideas for wings from Chanute.
The high point of Hargrave's aeronautical endeavours occurred when he was lifted four metres into the air by a cellular kite at Stanwell Park Beach in November 1894.
His whole life, however, was one of exploration, adventure and experimentation.
After migrating to Sydney from England with his family in November 1865, he embarked on a number of voyages as an engineer, including a circumnavigation of Australia and and a couple of expeditions to Papua New Guinea.
In 1876 he explored the hinterland of Port Moresby and later that year went on another expedition 600 kilometres up the Fly River. In 1877 he joined the Royal Society of New South Wales and in 1878 became an assistant astronomical observer at Sydney Observatory.
After five years he decided to devote the rest of his life to research and that was where his pioneering work with flight really started to take off.
"Hargrave had been interested in experiments of all kinds from an early age, particularly those with aircraft," Mr Hargrave said.
"He gave particular attention to the flight of birds. He chose to live and experiment with his flying machines in Stanwell Park, a place which offers excellent wind and hang conditions and nowadays is the most famous hang gliding and paragliding venue in Australia."
During his career, Hargrave invented many devices, but never applied for a patent as he was a passionate believer in scientific communication as a key to furthering progress.
Three of Hargrave's inventions were particularly significant.
■ Curved aerofoils, particularly designs with a thicker leading edge.
■ The box kite (1893), which greatly improved the lift to drag ratio of early gliders.
■ The rotary engine, which powered many aircraft up until about 1920.
He made endless experiments and numerous models, and communicated his conclusions in a series of papers to the Royal Society of New South Wales.
In 1893 he moved to Stanwell Park, where he lived at Hillcrest House.
"In that year Hargrave began the investigations which led him to his great invention, the box kite," Mr Hargrave said.
"He was consumed with the prospect of himself flying in one of his machines and, after a number of trials on November 12, 1894 here at Stanwell Park Beach, Hargrave became the first person ever to be lifted off the ground by a heavier than air machine in a vertical take-off, successfully lifting himself off the ground under a train of four of his box kites to a height of 16 feet or 4.8 metres," Mr Hargrave said.
"It was witnessed by Lawrence's first cousin, my great-grandfather.
"The box kite principle was applied to gliders, and in 1906 Alberto Santos-Dumont used the box-kite principle in his aeroplane to make his first flight. Until 1909 the box-kite aeroplane was the usual type in Europe."
Hargrave also inspired Alexander Graham Bell to begin his own experiments with a series of tetrahedral kite designs.He also conducted experiments with a hydroplane, the application of the gyroscopic principle to a 'one-wheeled car', and with 'wave propelled vessels'.
But he refused to entertain the use of flying machines for war.
When hostilities began in 1914, he returned the Bavarian Award he received in recognition of his pioneering aeronautical work.
Hargrave's only son Geoffrey was killed during World War I.
"Not long after his son's death, Lawrence was operated on for appendicitis but suffered peritonitis afterwards and died," Mr Hargrave said. There have been many tributes made to Hargrave during the last century. From 1966 to 1994 the Australian $20 note featured Hargrave on the reverse.
Qantas named its fifth Airbus A380 aircraft (registration VH-OQE) after Lawrence Hargrave.
Lawrence Hargrave Drive is named after him and former NASA astronaut Dr Gregory Chamitoff is presently the Lawrence Hargrave Professor of Aeronautical Engineering at the University of Sydney.
The Illawarra Connection holds an annual lecture in his honour.
And community support has been growing for the new airport in western Sydney to be named Lawrence Hargrave Airport.
"The Wollongong community can help celebrate at a 1900s garden party at the Wollongong Science Centre as part of National Science Week on August 21.
Guests are invited to dress up in late 19th century period costume.
There will also be a screening of a new documentary called The Father of Flight.
""It is great to see Hargrave being honoured here in the Illawarra," he said.
"Particularly the monument up at Stanwell Tops. It's a wonderful thing that the recognition goes on for him as the pioneer of flight."
History will take flight next week when children from across the region come together to celebrate the life and discoveries of Lawrence Hargrave.
The great Australian aviation pioneer, explorer and engineer cemented his place in history when he famously took off 16feet (4.9metres) into the air in an experiment on Stanwell Park Beach in 1894 using box kites, his own invention.
That momentous take-off will be re-created at the Wollongong Science Centre and Planetarium on Friday by members of the Eaton Gorge Theatre Company (EGTC), who will entertain the 300 school children attending on the day.
Science Centre interns will also be on hand to shed light on the principles of flight.
It’s the adults’ turn in the evening with a 1900s-themed garden party embracing the era, complete with 30-piece wind orchestra, interactive activities, theatrical and musical performances, food and drink, and a screening of the documentary The Father of Flight, produced by Geoffrey Sykes.
EGTC theatre director Juliet Scrine said the two events were designed to inspire through the use of performance, scientific facts and the story of one man’s incredible contribution to man-powered flight.
The event was created by the newly formed Illawarra Science Hub, a partnership between the Lawrence Hargrave Centre, EGTC and the Science Centre.
To book visit www.trybooking.com/IRTI or call the Science Centre on 42865000.