The areas around Townsville - most notably the town of Ayr - have been home to several generations of the BIRD family. This article details the town's growth from the period of their arrival in the 19th century until the present day.

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Ayr is a town in northeastern Queensland, Australia, on the delta of the Burdekin River. The settlement was surveyed and gazetted in 1881. Declared a town in 1882 and named after the Scottish birthplace of Sir Thomas McIllwraith, then state premier, it became a shire in 1903.

On the north coast rail line and the Bruce Highway to Townsville (45 miles [70 km] northwest) and Brisbane (657 miles [1,057 km] southeast), it is the centre of the lower Burdekin irrigation area, which produces sugarcane, rice, corn (maize), and beef cattle.

There are several sugar mills in the area. A 3,619-foot (1,103-metre) bridge is part of a road leading 7 miles south to the town of Home Hill. Pop. (2006) 8,616.

Notable Locations (Relating to the Family Tree)

Ayr Cemetery

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We recognise the importance of protecting the privacy of information collected about visitors to our web site, in particular information that is capable of identifying an individual ("personal information"). This Internet Privacy Policy governs the manner in which your personal information, obtained through the web site, will be dealt with. This Internet Privacy Policy should be reviewed periodically so that you are updated on any changes. We welcome your comments and feedback.

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Access to Information

We will endeavour to take all reasonable steps to keep secure any information which we hold about you, and to keep this information accurate and up to date. If, at any time, you discover that information held about you is incorrect, you may contact us to have the information corrected.

In addition, our employees and the contractors who provide services related to our information systems are obliged to respect the confidentiality of any personal information held by us.

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Further Privacy Information

For more information about privacy issues in Australia and protecting your privacy, visit the Australian Federal Privacy Commissioner's web site :

www.privacy.gov.au

This web site is owned and operated by Scott Bird Family Tree (SBFT) and will be referred to as "We", "our" and "us" in this Internet Privacy Policy. By using this site, you agree to the Internet Privacy Policy of this web site ("the web site"), which is set out on this web site page. The Internet Privacy Policy relates to the collection and use of personal information you may supply to us through your conduct on the web site.

We reserve the right, at our discretion, to modify or remove portions of this Internet Privacy Policy at any time. This Internet Privacy Policy is in addition to any other terms and conditions applicable to the web site. We do not make any representations about third party web sites that may be linked to the web site.

We recognise the importance of protecting the privacy of information collected about visitors to our web site, in particular information that is capable of identifying an individual ("personal information"). This Internet Privacy Policy governs the manner in which your personal information, obtained through the web site, will be dealt with. This Internet Privacy Policy should be reviewed periodically so that you are updated on any changes. We welcome your comments and feedback.

Personal Information

Personal information about visitors to our site is collected only when knowingly and voluntarily submitted. For example, we may need to collect such information to provide you with further services or to answer or forward any requests or enquiries. It is our intention that this policy will protect your personal information from being dealt with in any way that is inconsistent with applicable privacy laws in Australia.

Use of Information

Personal information that visitors submit to our site is used only for the purpose for which it is submitted or for such other secondary purposes that are related to the primary purpose, unless we disclose other uses in this Internet Privacy Policy or at the time of collection. Copies of correspondence sent from the web site, that may contain personal information, are stored as archives for record-keeping and back-up purposes only.

Disclosure

Apart from where you have consented or disclosure is necessary to achieve the purpose for which it was submitted, personal information may be disclosed in special situations where we have reason to believe that doing so is necessary to identify, contact or bring legal action against anyone damaging, injuring, or interfering (intentionally or unintentionally) with our rights or property, users, or anyone else who could be harmed by such activities. Also, we may disclose personal information when we believe in good faith that the law requires disclosure.

We may engage third parties to provide you with goods or services on our behalf. In that circumstance, we may disclose your personal information to those third parties in order to meet your request for goods or services.

Security

We strive to ensure the security, integrity and privacy of personal information submitted to our sites, and we review and update our security measures in light of current technologies. Unfortunately, no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be totally secure.

However, we will endeavour to take all reasonable steps to protect the personal information you may transmit to us or from our online products and services. Once we do receive your transmission, we will also make our best efforts to ensure its security on our systems.

In addition, our employees and the contractors who provide services related to our information systems are obliged to respect the confidentiality of any personal information held by us. However, we will not be held responsible for events arising from unauthorised access to your personal information.

Cookies

Cookies are data that a Web site transfers to an individual's hard drive for record-keeping purposes. Cookies, which are industry standard and are used by most Web sites, including those operated by us, can facilitate a user's ongoing access to and use of a site. They allow us to customise the web site to your needs. If you do not want information collected through the use of Cookies, there is a simple procedure in most browsers that allows you to deny or accept the Cookie feature. But you should note that Cookies may be necessary to provide you with some features of our on-line services.

Access to Information

We will endeavour to take all reasonable steps to keep secure any information which we hold about you, and to keep this information accurate and up to date. If, at any time, you discover that information held about you is incorrect, you may contact us to have the information corrected.

In addition, our employees and the contractors who provide services related to our information systems are obliged to respect the confidentiality of any personal information held by us.

Links to other sites

We provide links to Web sites outside of our web sites, as well as to third party Web sites. These linked sites are not under our control, and we cannot accept responsibility for the conduct of companies linked to our website. Before disclosing your personal information on any other website, we advise you to examine the terms and conditions of using that Web site and its privacy statement.

Problems or questions

If we become aware of any ongoing concerns or problems with our web sites, we will take these issues seriously and work to address these concerns. If you have any further queries relating to our Privacy Policy, or you have a problem or complaint, please contact us.

Further Privacy Information

For more information about privacy issues in Australia and protecting your privacy, visit the Australian Federal Privacy Commissioner's web site :

www.privacy.gov.au

This is a fantastic site.

Although I've been researching my family's history since 2002, it wasn't until fairly recently (late 2009) that I began seriously using Ancestry. Once I started, however, the benefits rapidly became clear.

Before using it, my assumption (always a dangerous thing) was that it was an online library of sorts. Massive, yes, but ultimately just a collection of documents like that found in any genealogical society across the globe. Useful, once.

How wrong I was.

There are two aspects to Ancestry that make this an ever-changing, invaluable resource for any genealogist. The first of these is the 'how about this?' element.

Ancestry is constantly scanning all of the records it knows about - itself a growing number - and regularly asks you 'is this likely to be relevant to the person in your tree?'. As your tree grows, and as Ancestry acquires new records, there are new questions all the time.

This alone is superb.

The second aspect relates to other researchers who are tracing some of the people who are in your tree. There are a number of ways to connect with these like-minded genealogists, and share (and benefit from) some or all of the information you've uncovered.

This collaboration is entirely optional - you can keep your tree private (whether that's just parts of it, or the whole thing) - yet it can help you to rapidly fill out your research.

As with the regular questions, the sharing aspect makes Ancestry a brilliant resource.

Want to take a look at Ancestry in action? Certainly - here's my own family tree. And to test it out, just swing by the main page and register for a free trial.

Highly recommended.

This is a fantastic site.

Although I've been researching my family's history since 2002, it wasn't until fairly recently (late 2009) that I began seriously using Ancestry. Once I started, however, the benefits rapidly became clear.

Before using it, my assumption (always a dangerous thing) was that it was an online library of sorts. Massive, yes, but ultimately just a collection of documents like that found in any genealogical society across the globe. Useful, once.

How wrong I was.

There are two aspects to Ancestry that make this an ever-changing, invaluable resource for any genealogist. The first of these is the 'how about this?' element.

Ancestry is constantly scanning all of the records it knows about - itself a growing number - and regularly asks you 'is this likely to be relevant to the person in your tree?'. As your tree grows, and as Ancestry acquires new records, there are new questions all the time.

This alone is superb.

The second aspect relates to other researchers who are tracing some of the people who are in your tree. There are a number of ways to connect with these like-minded genealogists, and share (and benefit from) some or all of the information you've uncovered.

This collaboration is entirely optional - you can keep your tree private (whether that's just parts of it, or the whole thing) - yet it can help you to rapidly fill out your research.

As with the regular questions, the sharing aspect makes Ancestry a brilliant resource.

Want to take a look at Ancestry in action? Certainly - here's my own family tree. And to test it out, just swing by the main page and register for a free trial.

Highly recommended.

This Week on Straight to the Bar

I'm constantly amazed at just how much my training is influenced by the people on this site. Whether you're looking for a new piece of equipment, an unusual exercise variation or just an idea of how others approach things, you'll enjoy these :

• 70 of the Best : 7 Years of Straight to the Bar
  Scott Andrew Bird
  There have been some fantastic articles here over the past 7 years. Thank-you, thank-you, thank-you.
  
• Open Access Journals - Academic Research For All!
  This is a superb list of resources for the health & fitness researcher in all of us. Dive in.
  

Ready to add your own opinion, workout log or training article? Just head over to the Forums, Training Logs, or swing by the Article Submissions page. They're fantastic ways to share your ideas.

NB : if you enjoy the articles, show the authors your appreciation by voting (using the 'Like' button beneath each post). Cheers.

Video : Grappling Ball Drills

Stability balls seem to be unappreciated in a lot of gyms, but they're incredibly versatile tools. Train Fight Win shows just a few ways to put one to use.

Good stuff.

What's This?

A few weeks ago we noted this superb set of dumbbells (pictured). Beautiful things.
Dan Hardisky has graciously been doing a little digging, trying to track down the origin of this equipment. His current thinking is that they were originally steam engine governors (or similar objects), such as the ones shown at right.
What do you think? 19th C governor weights repurposed as training tools? If there are any steam engine historians reading, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Twitterchat 103 - Pinch Grip, Blobs and the U-GO Handles

I'm a huge fan of hand & forearm work in many forms, most notably in the form of grip work. Love it.
This week we're diving in to the world of Pinch Grip Training, in any form, anywhere. Everything from blobs to the brilliant U-GO handles. Helping us explore this fascinating topic is none other than StrongerGrip's Ryan Pitts (@strongergrip). Fantastic.
Details -

Who : Strength-training fans
Topic : Pinch Grip, Blobs and the U-GO Handles
When : Wed Feb 2, 9pm EDT (1am UTC)
How : Include #sbgym in your tweets.

To see when it's on in your timezone, head over to the twitterchat calendar.

See you there.

Quick update on last week's twitterchat : Thanks once again to everyone who took part in the discussion on Odd Object Training. Some superb ideas in there.

For those who missed out on the conversation, I'd love to hear your thoughts. Stones, kegs, machinery - what do you like to lift?

Competition Update : 7 Years

Just a quick reminder that today's the last day to get your competition entry in. If you haven't yet - and honestly, it doesn't get any simpler than this - here's all you need to do to win a superb collection of training gear :

Hop onto twitter, and :

1. Follow our sponsors at twitter.com/scottbird/sttbsponsors. They share some fantastic information.
2. Tell your friends about the contest with a quick tweet :

   'Win $500 worth of fitness gear : 7 Years of Straight to the Bar ( bit.ly/fXDA1g ). Just follow @scottbird/sttbsponsors . #7yearsofSttB'

That's it.

To check out the prize list, swing by the main entry page at :

7 Years of Straight to the Bar

And thank-you. Sincerely.

Checking Out : Iron Nation

This looks great.

I'm currently catching up on a little reading; diving into my 'books I've been meaning to get to' pile. Next up : the superb-looking Iron Nation.

For the uninitiated, just a brief roll-call will tell you everything you need to know about this book. Here are just some of the book's contributors :


'Vic Boff, Stephen Boyd, Matt Brzycki, Dick Conner, Jan Dellinger, Jim Duggan, Clyde Emrich, Fred Hahn, Bill Hinbern, Drew Israel, Osmo Kiiha, Brooks D. Kubik, Jamie Labelle, Dr. Ted Lambrinides, Tom Laputka, Kathy Leistner, Dr. Ken E. Leistner, Ken Mannie, John McKean, Stuart McRobert, Tom Metzger, Bill Pearl, Gregg Pickett, Glenn Pieschke, Steve Pulcinella, Mabel Rader, Ralph Raiola, Dick "Smitty" Smith, Jon Schultheis, Bill Starr, Bradley J. Steiner, Dr. Randall J. Strossen, Mike Thompson, Dennis B. Weis, Bob Whelan, Paul Young'

As you can see, there are some great names there. Really looking forward to this one.

This site - Straight to the Bar - has been around for an incredible 7 years (the first post was on Jan 17th, 2004), and to say I'm grateful is a gross understatement.

Thank you.


There have been some superb articles in that time (my favourites are listed below), as well as training logs, product reviews, forum discussions and of course the twitterchats. It's really been (and continues to be) an incredible ride.

Before we dive in to the list itself, a quick word on the content : while it's quality stuff, there's a lot of it. Feel free to pick out your favourites, bookmark them, add them to Instapaper/Evernote/Pinboard; Stumble them and share them with your friends. Dive in.

This Week on Straight to the Bar

I'm constantly amazed at just how much my training is influenced by the people on this site. Whether you're looking for a new piece of equipment, an unusual exercise variation or just an idea of how others approach things, you'll enjoy these :

• Odd Object Training
  by Kevin 'Sgt Sweaty' Miller
  Use whatever you've got.
  
• Review : NSD Powerball
  by Scott Latella
  Love training your hands and forearms? Grab one of these. Superb.
  

Ready to add your own opinion, workout log or training article? Just head over to the Forums, Training Logs, or swing by the Article Submissions page. They're fantastic ways to share your ideas.

NB : if you enjoy the articles, show the authors your appreciation by voting (using the 'Like' button beneath each post). Cheers.

Video : Increase Your Push-up Volume

Smitty, there are some superb tips in this video. Nice one.

Twitterchat 102 - Odd Object Training

Heavy, awkward, off-centre : this is my kind of training. Good fun.

This week we're taking a close look at Odd Object Training, in any form, anywhere. Everything from 'what it is' to 'filling kegs with sand, water and other fun things'. Helping us explore this fascinating topic is none other than Kevin 'Sgt Sweaty' Miller (@SgtSweaty). Fantastic.


Details -

Who : Strength-training fans
Topic : Odd Object Training
When : Wed Jan 26, 9pm EDT (1am UTC)
How : Include #sbgym in your tweets.

To see when it's on in your timezone, head over to the twitterchat calendar.

See you there.

Quick update on last week's twitterchat : Thanks once again to everyone who took part in the discussion on Auxiliary Olympic Lifts for Core Strength. Some superb ideas in there.

For those who missed out on the conversation, I'd love to hear your thoughts. How do you learn Olympic Lifting? Can you teach yourself, or would you recommend hiring a trainer or joining a group?

Looking Forward To : The Body in Motion

This looks great.

In The Body in Motion: Its Evolution and Design, Theodore Dimon takes a look at our incredible construction. Much more than a humble anatomy book, this examines not only how various body systems work but combine to accomplish whatever task is required.

If you've ever wondered just what happens when you lift/drag/carry something - and how to refine that process as much as possible - this book will show you precisely.

Available tomorrow.

This Week on Straight to the Bar

I'm constantly amazed at just how much my training is influenced by the people on this site. Whether you're looking for a new piece of equipment, an unusual exercise variation or just an idea of how others approach things, you'll enjoy these :

• How to Build Your Own Sandbag
  Ready to build your own sandbag? Derek shows just how quick and simple it can be.
  
• One-Handed Deadlifting (515lb)
  I love this lift - the One-Hand Deadlift. Nice one Mike.
  

Ready to add your own opinion, workout log or training article? Just head over to the Forums, Training Logs, or swing by the Article Submissions page. They're fantastic ways to share your ideas.

NB : if you enjoy the articles, show the authors your appreciation by voting (using the 'Like' button beneath each post). Cheers.

Video : Sandbag Squatting Variations

Whether you build your own sandbags or buy something like the Ultimate Sandbag, here are a few great ways to put it to use. Sandbag Squatting Variations.

Twitterchat 101 - Auxiliary Olympic Lifts for Core Strength

If the idea of core training doesn't exactly get you excited, make sure you join this discussion. Whether you're working out at home or in a commercial facility, we've got a few ideas to share.

This week we're taking a close look at Auxiliary Olympic Lifts for Core Strength, in any form, anywhere. Everything from the prerequisite strength and skills to testing and measurement. Helping us explore this fascinating topic is bodybuilder, serious lifter and fitness writer Kat 'The Mighty Kat' Ricker (@themightykat). Fantastic.


Details -

Who : Strength-training fans
Topic : Auxiliary Olympic Lifts for Core Strength
When : Wed Jan 19, 9pm EDT (1am UTC)
How : Include #sbgym in your tweets.

To see when it's on in your timezone, head over to the twitterchat calendar.

See you there.

Quick update on last week's twitterchat : Thanks once again to everyone who took part in the discussion on Fitness for Beginners. Some superb ideas in there.

For those who missed out on the conversation, I'd love to hear your thoughts. Is it important to set goals when you're just starting, or dive in and see what you enjoy?

Looking Forward To : U-GO Grip Handles

Ryan, these look superb.

If you've ever used any of the StrongerGrip gear, you'll appreciate just how good this stuff is. Hand-made (by someone who actually uses it), perfectly shaped and beautifully finished. It's top-quality equipment.

The U-GO Handles are similar to a small blob in shape, together with a swivelling loop that's ready for a loading pin/sled/cables and so on.

Love it.

Sandbags are incredibly versatile tools; and loyal readers of Straight to the Bar know how much we love our versatile tools! We like our tools simple, portable, and easy to repair. And if the tool looks right at home among tractor tires and sledgehammers, it's a sure winner. Not only do sandbags meet all the above criteria, but they are easy to incorporate into any program. If you're not using sandbags in your training, you should.

In this half of a two-part series, I'm going to look at some simple ways to build yourself a sandbag using cheap supplies and an afternoon of labor. Part two of the series will discuss training philosophy, technique and program design.

Stuffing Options

What you fill your sandbag with will determine its final weight and dimensions. I recommend sticking with the Big 3: Sand, Stones, and Shot.
Lead shot and small stones or pebbles will produce a very dense bag. Small bags are great for speed and power development, so this is definitely an option to look into. Plus, if the bag breaks, cleaning up lead shot or small stones is much easier than cleaning up sand.

Sand is still the classic option for filling a bag, and it is easy to find when you need more. The trade off is clean up, which can be a hassle if the bag breaks. You will need a large volume of sand to make a very heavy bag, but that's not a big deal. When I built my home-made sandbag, all I did was go down to the beach and swipe some. Didn't spend a dime.

Shell Options

You should always have two shells: an inner shell (or multiple inner shells) to hold the sand and an outer shell designed to take a beating. The outer shell should also have handles or grips of some sort. For my project, I used old duffel bags I had lying around.
Individually, each duffel bag was flimsy, so I placed one inside the other to minimize escaping sand. Ignore the sack of cocaine duct taped at the center of the photo; we'll discuss that later.