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Defining Moments of the Baby Boomer Years 1949: Woomera Rocket & Missile Testing Begins
Right: Woomera Rocket, Woomera, South Australia Such was the case when Britain was looking for somewhere to test its new nuclear weapons systems. Various sites were considered, including one in Canada. In the end, Australia's vast and virtually unpopulated inland won the day, and the Woomera rocket range came into existence as a joint project between Britain and Australia. The facility was named Woomera, being the name of a spear-launcher that Aboriginals used. Woomera's history is one of weapons testing, satellite launches, and tracking of early lunar and planetary spacecraft, as well as the Mercury manned spacecraft. The first missile was launched from Woomera on 22nd March 1949. The first Skylark rocket was launched on 13th February 1957 followed by the first Black Knight on 7th September 1958 and the first Europa on 5th June 1964. Blue Streak rockets were also launched at Woomera as well as Bloodhound and Thunderbird missiles. In April 1969, a decision was made to build US Nurrungar, a defence satellite monitoring station, near Woomera. A British Prospero satellite, launched into orbit from a Black Arrow launch vehicle on 27th October 1971, was the last launch performed at Woomera. The monitoring station remained operational until October 1999 when it was closed down.
By 1952, when Britain came to Australia looking for sites to test its nuclear weapons, Australia had had a change of government but not a change of attitude towards Britain. The new Prime Minister, Robert Gordon Menzies, co-operated fully with the British and offered large tracks of relatively unpopulated outback Australia to the British. The sites chosen were Maralinga, a remote desert area in the north of South Australia, and the Monte Bello Islands off the north-west coast of Western Australia. Right: Buffalo 1 nuclear test, Maralinga, South Australia The Aborigines of the Maralinga area were simply rounded up and relocated at Yalata, 150 km west of Ceduna. Many slipped through the net and were left to face the consequences of the bomb. Little concern was shown towards the damage the tests would do to the environment and the people conducting the tests, either because no one really knew what the extent of the damage might be, or they knew and weren't saying. The first test - Operation Hurricane - took place off Trimouille Island near Monte Bello Island on 3rd October 1952. Its purpose was to test the effects of exploding a ship-smuggled nuclear bomb on a harbour and surrounding areas. 1955: The Birth of Rock'n'Roll Rock'n'roll music (also spelt rock and roll) started back in the mid-fifties. This strange new synergy of rhythm & blues, soul, jazz, harmony, black & white gospel, and country & western music took hold of the younger generation. This music snared their senses with a rhythm, back beat, energy and tribal passion they had never before encountered. It's initial appeal was to middle class white American teenagers, but within a few short years Baby Boomer teens the world over had embraced it as their own. Chuck Berry established the ground rules. Jerry Lee Lewis (Whole Lotta Shakin' Going On, 1957) and Carl Perkins (Blue Suede Shoes, 1956) contributed its country and western feel with Little Richard topping it all off in a dynamo of showmanship. Depending on who you listen to, either Chuck Berry or Little Richard was the first exponent of Rock'n'roll music. Irrespective of which artist was first, the year in which they did it was 1955; both recorded their first hit in that year, actually releasing their singles within 5 weeks of each other, and amazingly, without any knowledge of the music or activities of the other.
Though Little Richard claims to have invented rock'n'roll, Chuck Berry seems more deserving of the honour, as his first hit, "Maybellene", is, in the words of Rolling Stone magazine, "the first instance of the complete rock and roll package - youthful subject matter, small guitar-driven combo, clear diction, and an atmosphere of unrelenting excitement ... Rock & roll guitar starts here." In the early 1950s, St Louis-born Charles Edward Anderson "Chuck" Berry worked on an assembly line at General Motors' Fisher car body stamping plant in Detroit, Michigan. He attended night classes at the Poro School of Beauty Culture, where he obtained a degree in Cosmetology, the science of makeup. Berry had also heard the call of blues music emanating from Chicago's South Side. There he met Muddy Waters who let him sit in on a set. Impressed, Waters walked Berry around the block to the late Leonard Chess, founder of Chess Records. By this time, Berry had left G-M and was working full time in the hair dressing business. Chess released Berry's first record, "Maybellene", in May 1955 (six weeks before Little Richard's "Tutti Frutti" single was released) and sent Berry out on tour after it became a hit in July of that year. The song "Maybellene" had evolved out of "Ida Red," a traditional 19th century fiddle and banjo folk song recorded by Bob Wills in 1938. Folksong collector John Lomax classified it as a song about "Negro Bad Men". Thanks to Wills, this widespread dance tune with lyrics became the quintessential Texas two step that has become a required addition to any dance in Texas, Oklahoma, and southern California. "Ida Red" was featured in later years by Woody Guthrie's uncle, Jack Guthrie, a popular radio entertainer in the 1940s. 1956: The Introduction of Television
Right: Television cameras catch the action at the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games The Menzies Government quickly decided that television services would initially consist of a national service (ABC) in Sydney with expansion to follow into other areas as funding allowed - and a commercial station in each of Sydney and Melbourne and 'any other capital city where it is felt that the applicant's capacity to provide a service justifies the issue of a licence'. Nothing further happened until 1953 when the Government, seeking re-election for its third term of office in a few month's time, bowed to public pressure and appointed a Royal Commission into the introduction of television. The Royal Commission's conclusion was similar to that reached by Menzies four years earlier - that television services should be introduced gradually; initially with an ABC station and two commercial stations in each of Sydney and Melbourne, with other areas to follow. As the City of Melbourne had won the right to host the 1956 Olympic Games, Menzies decided there was no better event to commence television broadcasts in Australia with; the timetable was set and a mad scamble to get an industry up and running by the opening ceremony began. The Australian Broadcasting Control Board conducted public hearings into the allocation of commercial television licences for Sydney and Melbourne. Consequently, the first commercial television licences were issued to Herald and Weekly Times (Melbourne), General Television Corporation (Melbourne), Amalgamated Television Services (Sydney) and Television Corporation (Sydney). TCN9 Sydney became the first TV station to begin regular transmission, on Sunday 16th September 1956 at 7.00pm. Station announcer John Godson introduced the station on-air, then Bruce Gyngell introduces the first programme, This Is Television. More ...
1956: Melbourne Hosts The Olympic Games The staging of the Olympic Games in Melbourne in 1956 is often viewed as a turning point in the social, cultural and architectural development of that city. Olympic fever enveloped Melbourne and Australia, leaving countless collective memories and arguably a more mature, sophisticated nation. The Olympics was an event of such magnitude in Melbourne that homes became family archives for the ephemera of Olympic experiences and memories. Olympic-mania spread like wildfire, and the market was soon flooded with souvenirs. In their desire to present a uniquely Australian imagery to the international public, designers incorporated indigenous motifs into both modern and more traditional graphic styles. The Olympic Games was the largest event ever staged in Australia up to that time, and coincided with the introduction of television. The Postmaster- General’s Department played a major role providing postal and telecommunications facilities at various Olympic venues in Melbourne and Ballarat. Collectors enjoyed the novelty of buying the first full-colour stamps issued by Australia for the Olympic Games, as well as seeking impressions of the 52 Olympic pictorial postmarks used at the temporary post offices established for the Games. The Opening Ceremony was held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on 22nd November 1956. 3,314 athletes (376 women, 2 938 men) from 72 nations competed in a total of 145 events in the 17 sports represented. 1957: The Space Race begins
Right: Sputnik 1 in the laboratory Sputnik caught the world's attention and the American public off-guard. The people of the West feared that the Soviets' ability to launch satellites also translated into the capability to launch ballistic missiles that could carry nuclear weapons from Europe to the U.S. Then the Soviets struck again; on 3rd November, Sputnik II was launched, carrying a much heavier payload, including a dog named Laika. The two Sputnik launches led directly to the creation of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The beginning of the space age brought with it a total change in focus in the world at large. Young boys who once played and dressed as cowboys began playing astronauts and dreamed of flying to the moon. Car designers drew inspiration from spacecraft; their 1958 models sprouted fins and taillamps shaped like rocket boosters. Even the Australian supermarket chain Coles got in on the act, naming their new supermarkets 'Coles New World' and adopted a rocket as their symbol. 1959: Australia Enters The Jet Age
Right: City of Canberra passes through Sydney on its way to the Qantas Museum in Longreach, Qld Qantas had been the first non-US airline to order the 707, the American four-engine commercial passenger jet airliner developed by Boeing that first took to the skies in 1956. The 707 went on to dominate passenger air transport in the 1960s and was largely responsible for the shift from sea travel to air travel between Australia and the rest of the world. The 707 became Qantas' mainstay on the Kangaroo Route (England to Australia), bringing many migrants to Australia and holidaymaker between the two counties. All of the 707 turbojet aircraft in the Qantas fleet were converted to upgraded turbofan engines in 1961 and were rebranded as V-Jets from the Latin 'vannus' meaning fan. City of Canberra returned to Australia as VH-XBA in December 2006 for display in the Qantas Founders Outback Museum at Longreach, Queensland, where it is on permanent display. 1960: Graeme Thorne Is Kidnapped and Murdered
Right: Stephen Bradley is taken into custody in Colombo, Ceylon (Sri Lanka) In 1960 the construction of the incomplete Sydney Opera House was proving expensive and so the New South Wales Government initiated a lottery to help raise money to pay for it. The £100,000 prize in the first lottery draw on 1st June 1960 was won by Basil Thorne, of the Sydney suburb of Bondi. There was no option of privacy for lottery winners at the time and so the details of the Thornes' lottery win were published on the front pages of Sydney's newspapers. 1961: The Berlin Wall is Erected
Right: Building the Berlin Wall When, after several weeks of civil unrest, the East German government announced on 9th November 1989 that entering West Berlin from East Berlin would be permitted, crowds of East Germans climbed onto and crossed the wall, joined by West Germans on the other side in a celebratory atmosphere. Over the next few weeks, parts of the wall were chipped away by a euphoric public and by souvenir hunters; industrial equipment was later used to remove the rest of it. The fall of the Berlin Wall paved the way for German reunification, which was formally concluded on 3rd October 1990. 1962: The Cuban Missile Crisis T Right: A missile launcher that downed a plane during the Cuban missile crisis Throughout the period, the rivalry between the two superpowers was played out in multiple arenas and had a number of distinguishing characteristics:
The Cuban Missile Crisis was a military confrontation between the United States, the Soviet Union, and Cuba which brought the world closer to an all-out nuclear war between the superpowers than any other incident before or since. The Russians call it the "Caribbean Crisis," while the Cubans call it the "October Crisis." Like the Berlin Blockade, it was one of the major confrontations of the Cold War. The confrontation began on 14th October 1962, when U.S. reconnaissance photographs taken by an American U-2 spy plane revealed missile bases being built in Cuba, in response to similar U.S. bases built at the Turkish-Soviet border. More ... 1963 - The Bogle/Chandler Case
Right: Dr Gilbert Bogle and Mrs Margaret Chandler When the police arrived, they also discovered the body of Mrs Margaret Chandler, lying some metres away. Both Dr Bogle and Mrs Chandler had been at a New Year's Eve Party, the latter with her husband, Mr Geoffrey Chandler. The party had been at the home of Ken and Ruth Nash, in Chatswood, several kilometres from the Lane Cove River. 1963: The Assassination of US President John F. Kennedy
Right: The Kennedys drive through Dallas minutes before JFK's assassination The enduring fascination for Kennedy’s very brief administration, his violent death, and the poignant image that was seared into our memories of his son standing to attention at his father's funeral, saluting as the coffin drove passed, is not an accident. Both the man and his political career expressed, in a concentrated form, the intense social and political contradictions of the era. Much has been written about Kennedy’s personal history and behavior in recent years. One is left almost with a sense of two lives. His public image was the personification of noblesse oblige, a wholesome and vigorous young president with a beautiful wife and young children. Even to Australians who lived a world away, there was something undeniably attractive in his personality, a self-deprecating humour and sense of personal fatalism that was born both of tragedy in his own life and the searing experience of the Second World War. Hidden from view was a man wracked by disease, dependent upon pain killers and engulfed in a frenetic sex life with prostitutes supplied by the Mafia. 1964: The Beatles tour Australia
Right: The Beatles play the didgeridoos they were given during their visit to Australia A major impact of the tour was that The Beatles brought with them their evolving English culture, which had as enormous an impact on Australia's youth as it did on Americans where they visited there. Even bands like The Bealtles didn't have great equipment in those days and the thousands of screaming girls at their concerts often drowned out their music completely. The crazed tears and fainting displayed by pop music enthusiasts was a relatively new phenomenon; the modern ‘fan’ was born! Just as the band were getting ready to leave for Australia, Ringo collapsed with tonsillitis and was rushed to hospital. George Martin, the producer of all of the Beatles records except for Let It Be, rang session drummer Jimmy Nichol and asked if he would mind playing on the Beatles tour. Jimmy naturally said yes and was dragged out at midnight to learn all their songs before flying to Australia. Thrust into the hysteria, and loving every minute of it, Jimmy played their Adelaide shows. Ringo was well enough to join the others when the tour reached Melbourne, and Jimmy was sent home. At that time very few artists had toured overseas because flights were very expensive, so when the band returned home, all of Britain crammed around their television sets to see what Australia was like. A Personal Recollection 1965: The Wanda Beach Murders
Right: Pigface still grows on the sandhills of Wanda Beach, Cronulla, NSW The mystery continues to exercise the minds of some NSW homicide squad detectives even though most were not born on 11th January 1965 when two gruesome killings occurred. Christine Sharrock, her best friend and neighbour Marianne Schmidt, both 15, and four of Marianne's six siblings - Norbert, 6, Wolfgang, 7, Trixie, 9, and Peter, 10 - took the train to Cronulla Beach, more than 20km from the suburb of Ryde where they lived. After a picnic lunch on the rocks, the children walked north through the sand hills of an adjoining area known as Wanda Beach. When the weather turned overcast and windy, Marianne and Christine left the younger children in a relatively protected spot to retrieve their bags. The two girls never returned. The following morning, a man walking through the barren sand hills of Wanda Beach saw what he thought was a store mannequin's head sticking out of the sand. It turned out to be one of the sexually assaulted and mutilated bodies of the teenage girls. Despite there being two potential suspects and the throwing of every resource available at the investigation, detectives hit a brick wall, a wall that remains to this day. 1966: The Disappearance of the Beaumont Children
1966: Australia's Currency Goes decimal
1967: Indigenous Australians given equal rights and recognition
Right: Wharfies march for equal rights for Aborigines One change approved so-called 'race powers' for the Federal Government and was seen as opening the way for Commonwealth laws to specifically benefit Indigenous people. The second amendment changed a clause which excluded Aboriginal people when tallying the population. This could impact on the allocation of seats in Parliament and per capita Commonwealth grants. The 'Yes' votes came as awareness of Aboriginal issues grew, amid increasing demands by the Indigenous population for equal rights and recognition. It is frequently stated that the 1967 referendum gave Aboriginal people Australian citizenship and that it gave them the right to vote in federal elections. Neither of these statements is correct. Aboriginal people became Australian citizens in 1948, when a separate Australian citizenship was created for the first time (before that time all Australians, including Aboringines, were "British subjects"). Aboriginal people from Queensland and Western Australia gained the vote in Commonwealth territories in 1962. However, the Commonwealth voting right of Aborigines from other states was confirmed by a Commonwealth Act in 1949 (the constitution already gave them that right but it was often interpreted differently prior to 1949). They got the vote in WA state election in 1962 and Queensland state election in 1965. 1969: Man Landing On The Moon
1969: Woodstock Music Festival "The baffling history of mankind is full of obvious turning points and significant events: battles won, treaties signed, rulers elected or disposed, and now seemingly, planets conquered. Equally important are the great groundswells of popular movements that affect the minds and values of a generation or more, not all of which can be neatly tied to a time or place. Looking back upon the America of the' 60s, future historians may well search for the meaning of one such movement. It drew the public's notice on the days and nights of Aug.15 through 17, 1969, on the 600-acre farm of Max Yasgur in Bethel, N.Y." So begins the essay, "The Message of History's Biggest Happening," Time magazine's four-page coverage of the Woodstock Music and Art Fair in vol. 94, (29th August 1969). 1972: Ending the Vietnam War
Right: The most memorable photo from the Vietnam War - Phan Thi Kim Phúc and others fleeing a napalm bombing By the time of the Moratorium Marches in 1970, public opinion was increasingly turning against the war. But it was the publication of what became a Pulitzer Prize winning photograph taken on 8th June 1972 by Associated Press photographer Nick Út that changed public opinion beyond the point of no return. The photograph depicted a young Vietnamse girl, Phan Thi Kim Phúc, also known as Kim Phuc, about age nine running naked on the street after being severely burned on her back by a US napalm attack. After taking the photograph, Út promptly took Kim Phúc and the other children seen in his photograph to a hospital in Saigon where it was determined that her burns were so severe that she would not survive. However, after a 14 month hospital stay and 17 surgical procedures, she returned home. Út continued to visit until the fall of Saigon three years later when he was evacuated. Út's photograph led many who had been fence-sitters in the Vietnam War debate to stand up and say 'enough is enough', or in the words of the then-opposition leader, Gough Whitlam, who was promising a fuill withdrawal from Vietnam if he won office (he did) - 'it's time'. 1974: Cyclone Tracy
Early in December 1974, Cyclone Selma had hovered around Darwin before changing course and disappearing. There was a widespread belief that Tracy, which began building up a few weeks later, would behave similarly. Darwin residents for the most part went about the serious business of celebrating Christmas, and preparing for the holiday break. However, it must be put on record that many individuals, businesses, and government departments prepared to meet the threat of Cyclone Tracy in exemplary fashion. Had they not done so, the impact of the most desvastating cyclone in Australia's history would have been even more severe, and the chaotic aftermath would have been even more difficult. On 24th December 1974, Tracy rounded Cape Fourcroy, Bathurst Island's western tip, and then moved along an east-south-easterly course toward Darwin. By late afternoon on 24th December 1974 Darwin was cloaked by heavy, low cloud and was experiencing ever stronger rain squalls and wind gusts. By about 10 pm the winds were causing physical damage. By midnight the damage was becoming serious, and it was apparent that Cyclone Tracy was about to pass across the city. Over the next six hours Tracy substantially destroyed Darwin and killed 65 people - 49 on land, and 16 at sea. Cyclone Tracy | Darwin and the aftermath of Tracy 1975: The Whitlam Government Dismissal
Right: Gough Whitlam responding to news of his dismissal as Prime Minister The crisis began in the upper house of the Federal Parliament, the Senate, where the opposition Liberal-National Country Party coalition had a majority. The Senate deferred voting on the annual Budget bills that appropriated funds for government expenditure, attempting to force the Prime Minister to call an election. The Whitlam Government simultaneously dismissed the calls and attempted to pressure Liberal Senators to support the bills while also exploring alternative means to fund government expenditure. The impasse extended into weeks, the threat of the government failing to meet its financial obligations being ever present. On 11th November 1975, the Governor-General dismissed Whitlam as Prime Minister and appointed his Liberal opponent Malcolm Fraser as caretaker Prime Minister; coalition Senators then approved the appropriation bills and Fraser subsequently called the 1975 federal election which saw the coalition win a majority in the House of Representatives, thus resolving the crisis. 1977: World Series Cricket
1978: The White Australia Policy Abandoned
1980: The Disappearance of Azaria Chamberlain
Right: Michael and Lindy hold up a photogrph of Lindy and Azaria An initial inquest, highly critical of the police investigation, supported this assertion. The findings of the inquest were broadcast live on television - a first in Australia. Subsequently, after a further investigation and second inquest, Azaria's mother, Lindy Chamberlain, was tried and convicted of Azaria's murder, on 29th October 1982 and sentenced to life imprisonment. Azaria's father, Michael Chamberlain, was convicted as an accessory after the fact and given a suspended sentence. An appeal was made to the High Court in November 1983. Asked in February 1984 to quash the convictions on the ground that the verdicts were unsafe and unsatisfactory, the High Court refused the appeal by majority. In early 1986 the crucial missing piece of evidence from the Chamberlain case - Azaria's matinée jacket - was found at the base of Uluru. The NT Chief Minister ordered Lindy's immediate release, the case was reopened and all convictions against the Chamberlains were quickly overturned. 1981: The Grubber Ball Incident
Right: Trevor Chappell bowls the offending last ball of the game, depriving New Zealand the chance to hit the winning runs New Zealand needed six runs to tie the match from the final ball, with eight wickets down. The Australian captain (Greg Chappell) ordered the bowler (his brother, Trevor) to bowl underarm: rolling the ball along the ground, denying the New Zealand batsman, Brian McKechnie, the opportunity to score a six from the last ball and tie the match. Australia won the game, but the New Zealand batsmen marched off in disgust, and since that day the underarm bowling incident has been a source of discussion, both heated and jocular, between Australians and New Zealanders. It was described as "the most disgusting incident I can recall in the history of cricket" by the then Prime Minister of New Zealand, Rob Muldoon, who also observed that "It was an act of cowardice and I consider it appropriate that the Australian team were wearing yellow". Even the Australian Prime Minister, Malcolm Fraser, called the act "contrary to the traditions of the game". Brian McKechnie bears no ill will over the incident, but both Chappell brothers have publicly stated their embarrassment over the incident and to this day aren't too keen to discuss it. As a direct result of the incident, underarm bowling was banned in limited overs cricket by the International Cricket Council as being not within the spirit of the game. 1983: Australia II Wins The America's Cup
Right: Australia II crosses the line to win the America's Cup No one had ever wrested it from the Americans; not until 1983. Western Australian businessman Alan Bond had tried unsuccessfully to win the Cup with three challenges. In 1983, representing the Royal Perth Yacht Club, he teamed up for a fourth attempt with designer Ben Lexcen and skipper John Bertand. Together they took ‘Australia II’, with its radical winged keel, through the challenger series and earned the right to challenge the Americans. The final was a best of seven race series fought off the coast of Newport, Rhode Island. Defending the Cup for the New York Yacht Club was 'Liberty', skippered by Denis Conner. ‘Liberty’ won the first two races and looked certain to successfully defend the Cup when it won the fourth race to take a 3-1 lead. The Cup challenger had never won more than two races in the final, but John Bertrand led ‘Australia II’ to victory in the next two races, setting up a thrilling decider. Of all the comments Bob Hawke made while he was Prime Minister, the one he will be remembered for the most was uttered on 3rd September 1983 after the nation had stayed up all night watching the historic win on television: "I tell you what, any boss who sacks anyone for not turning up today is a bum". 1983: Saving the Franklin River
1983: Operation Able Archer brings the Cold War back to boiling point
Right: test firing of a US Pershing II IRBM. Photo: US Army / Public domain In September 1983, the Soviet military, under pressure from the Kremlin for responding lackadaisically to US incursions, shot down Korean Air Lines flight 007, which had strayed into Russian airspace and been misidentified as a spy plane; all 269 aboard were killed. The US condemned the attack as evidence of Soviet barbarism. Russian leaders, by now thoroughly paranoid, argued (and probably genuinely believed) that the incident was a purposeful provocation. Further complicating matters in October were the US invasion of Grenada and a suicide bombing that killed 241 American military personnel in Lebanon. Just weeks later, Operation Able Archer was swung into action. Soviet officials actually believed it was a rehearsal for a planned US nuclear first strike, causing the Soviets to ready their own nuclear forces while putting its troups in East Germany on high alert. The Soviets waited expectantly, but no attack was forthcoming; after 10 days, Operation Able Archer ended and everyone went home, thus opening the way for the Soviet Union to eventually destroy itself instead. More ... 1985: Australia Launches Its First Communications Satellite
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The life and times of Australia's Baby Boomer generation
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In the 1960s, Australia's Prime Minister Harold Holt pledged Australia's allegiance to the United States and its policy of intervention in the Vietnam conflict by declaring "All The Way With LBJ" (US President Lyndon B. Johnson). In the decade after World War II ended, Prime Minister Ben Chifley had sung a different tune. Australia was still firmly tied to the apron strings of Mother England, and when she said "jump", Chifley said, "How high?". 
1952 - 1963: British Nuclear Testing in Australia
The decision to introduce television into Australia was made before World War II after favourable demonstrations in 1934, but two decades were to pass before it became a reality. Robert Gordon Menzies' Liberal Party was voted into Government in 1949 on a policy platform in which the introduction of television was a priority. 
History changed on 4th October 1957 when the Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik I, the world's first artificial satellite. It was about the size of a basketball, weighed only 83 kg, and took about 98 minutes to orbit the Earth on its elliptical path. That launch ushered in new political, military, technological and scientific developments, and marked both the start of the space age and the space race between the Soviet Union and the United States of America that was used for propaganda purposes by both sides in the Cold War between East and West ideologies. 
The first jet aircraft on the Australian register - a Qantas Boeing 707 (it was the 29th 707 built) - was registered VH-EBA and named City of Canberra. The first jet service operated by Qantas left Sydnry's Mascot Airport on 29th July 1959 for San Francisco via Nadi and Honolulu. Six weeks later, Qantas became the third airline to fly jets across the Atlantic - after BOAC and Pan Am, operating between London and New York as part of the service from Sydney. 
A crime which caused massive shock at the time and gathered huge publicity was the kidnap and murder of Sydney schoolboy Graeme Thorne. It was the first known kidnapping for ransom in Australian history. The police investigation that led to the capture and conviction of his murderer, Stephen Bradley, is justly regarded as a textbook example of forensic investigation. 
An iconic symbol of the Cold War between the Communist and Free Worlds, the Berlin Wall
he Cold War was a period of conflict, tension and competition between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies that bubbled as a disturbing political undercurrent from the mid-1940s to the early 1990s. 
The assassination of John F. Kennedy, the thirty-fifth President of the United States, on Friday, 22nd November 1963, in Dallas, Texas, USA at 12:30 p.m., graphically demonstrated how a man could be removed from a position of power by conspiratorial means. Decades after Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas, the real facts of the killing have yet to be established and the official version of events is broadly regarded as a cover-up. 
On 11th June 1964, The Beatles arrived for what turned out to be their one and only tour Down Under. The tour was probably the biggest cultural event in Australia in the 1960s. Literally half the population of Adelaide turned out in the streets to catch a glimpse of the glamorous visitors when they passed through the South Australian capital. But the Brits were equally intrigued. 
What really happened in January 1965 in the sandhills behind the rolling surf of Wanda Beach in Sydney's southern suburbs is one of Australia's most infamous criminal mysteries and, for over 40 years has been the regular subject of books, media reports and now a television documentary. 
If America left behind the innocence of the 1950s with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in November 1963, then it could be said - and often is - that Australia potently lost its innocence two years later on Australia Day, 1966. It was on that scorchingly hot, mid-summer day that three youngsters - Jane (9), Arnna (7) and Grant Beaumont (4) (right) - went missing from a busy park at Adelaide's Glenelg Beach, never to be seen again. Their disappearance is one of Australia's most famous and puzzling unsolved mysteries. None can truly understand what Nancy and Jim Beaumont must have felt in those first days immediately after their three young children disappeared, nor, for that matter, what they must have suffered through all the subsequent years. For those of us who remember the drama as it unfolded, it is hard to believe such a long period of time has passed without a conviction or even anything that came remotely close to bringing closure to this case. Harder still to accept is that the mystery will probably now never be solved.
On 14th February 1966 Australia's currency went decimal. Out went pounds, shillings and pence in favour of dollars and cents: each pound being exchanged for two dollars. Prime Minister Menzies had promised back in 1958 to look into Australia's decimal conversion. The practicalities required to get there took a few more years – a name for the new currency, designs, enough coins minted, an information campaign, and so on. Australians came very close to getting the ‘Royal’, before it was decided to adopt the dollar. The tune from the ballad ‘Click go the Shears’ was used to publicise the new currency and came to symbolise this major step for a whole generation. The new currency was introduced by a cartoon character appropriately named Dollar Bill (right). 
Australians have traditionally voted 'No' in referendums to change the constitution. But one such referendum - on 27th May 1967, to make two amendments relating to Indigenous Australians - saw a break from tradition and the matters being voted on overwhelmingly endorsed. 
While unmanned Soviet probes did reach the moon before any U.S. craft, American Neil Armstrong became the first person to walk on the lunar surface, after landing on 20th July 1969. Commander of the Apollo 11 mission, Armstrong received backup from command module pilot Michael Collins and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin in an event watched by over 500 million people around the world. Buzz Aldrin posed on the moon, allowing Neil Armstrong to photograph both of them using the visor reflection. Social commentators widely recognize the lunar landing as one of the defining moments of human history, and Armstrong's words on his first stepping onto the Moon's surface became similarly memorable. Despite Armstrong meaning: That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind, due to radio difficulties, the "A" was lost, and his words as heard on Earth were: That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. The astronauts set up an American flag, and Aldrin was photographed saluting it. They also unveiled an inscribed plaque and left it affixed to the lunar lander which remained on the Moon. The sentiment expressed set forth America's attitude about the event and subsequent landings. Signed by Richard Nixon, President of the United States, the plaque reads: "Here men from the planet earth first set foot upon the Moon July 1969 AD. We came in peace for all mankind" (the plaque is also signed by Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Buzz Aldrin).
One of the most divisive issues in Australian history was the country's role in the Vietnam War in the 1960s. At first, opinion polls showed a majority of the population supported involvement, though conscription was always contentious. Lyndon B. Johnson, the first serving American President to visit Australia, was greeted by both enthusiastic crowds and protesters when he came here. 
The Australian constitutional crisis of 1975, commonly called The Dismissal, culminated with the removal by Governor-General Sir John Kerr of Australia's then Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam and appointing the Leader of the Opposition Malcolm Fraser as caretaker Prime Minister. It has been described as the greatest political and constitutional crisis in Australia's history. 
In 1976, Media entrepreneur Kerry Packer made a $500,000, five-year bid for the exclusive rights to televise international cricket played in Australia on his Channel 9 television network. The Australian Cricket Board fobbed him off and sold the rights to the ABC for considerably less money. Justifiably, Packer was furious that he had not even been given the right to negotiate. Meanwhile, the Australian players were becoming increasingly strident in their complaints about low salaries, especially as their time commitment increased. However in response to the player's grievances, the ACB secretary, Alan Barnes, remarked: "They are not professionals ... they were invited to play and if they don't like the conditions there are 500,000 other cricketers in Australia who would love to take their places."
The legal end of the White Australia policy is usually dated to 1973, when the Whitlam Labor government implemented a series of amendments preventing the enforcement of racial aspects of the immigration law. The 1975 Racial Discrimination Act made the use of racial criteria for any official purpose illegal. However it was not until the Fraser Liberal government's review of immigration law in 1978, that all selection of prospective migrants based on country of origin was entirely removed from official policy.
The Azaria Chamberlain affair, as it became known, divided the nation like nothing had since the Vietnam War. The sad, tragic sequence of events began when nine-week-old Azaria Chamberlain disappeared on the night of 17th August 1980 on a camping trip to the Northern Territory with her family. Her parents, Lindy and Michael Chamberlain, reported that she had been taken from their tent near Uluru (then known as Ayers Rock) by a dingo. 
In the eyes of many on both sides of the Tasman Sea, Australia lurched towards outright war with its neighbour, New Zealand, non 1st February 1981, when cricketer Australian Trevor Chappell bowled the most infamous ball in the history of the game of cricket. Australia was playing New Zealand in a One-Day International, the third of five cricket matches in the final of the Benson & Hedges World Series Cup at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. 
The America’s Cup was so named after the first yacht to win it; ‘America’ and not because the USA held the trophy for a record 132 years. The oldest contested sporting trophy in the world was literally and figuratively bolted into its cabinet in the New York Yacht Club and come hell and high water, that is where it was going to stay. 
"Could you vote for a party that would destroy this?" That was a question asked in a headline on a full-page colour advertisement in the Melbourne newspaper, The Herald, on 3rd March 1983, two days before a Federal election. Below the headline, across the breadth of page five, was Peter Dombrovskis's (1945-1996) now famous photograph, Morning Mist, Rock Island Bend, Franklin River (right). The River was at the centre of Australia's largest conservation battle ever. Whether or not Robin Gray's Liberal Government should be stopped from damming Australia's last wild river in Tasmania's south-west wilderness area had become a hot election issue. Eric Reece, the Premier of Tasmania in the 1970s who first proposed the dam, once said of the area, "There was a National Park out there, but I can't remember exactly where it was ... at least, it wasn't of substantial significance in the scheme of things." Dombrovskis's photograph painted a different picture.
Operation Able Archer, run by the USA and NATO in November 1983 as an exercise which simulated a coordinated nuclear strike against the USSR, was misread by the Soviet leadership as preparations for an actual strike against them, pre-empting the biggest nuclear scare since the Cuban Missile Crisis 21 years earlier. After a decade of detente between East and West during which the Cold War thawed somewhat during the 1970s, the US arms build-up during the Carter administration (1977 to 1981) helped increase tensions between the USA and the Soviet Union again. The build-up to the Able Archer scare started with the election of US President Ronald Reagan in January 1981. Reagan, who strongly opposed the ideals of socialism and communism, denounced the USSR as an "evil empire". In March 1983, Reagan unveiled the Strategic Defence Initiative, often referred to as 'Star Wars' due to its then-futuristic nature. The plan involved the use of various space and ground-based defence systems to protect the USA from an all-out nuclear attack. Although Reagan thought the scheme to be a deterrent against nuclear war, in a classic case of misunderstanding through mistrust, it was seen in a totally different light by the Soviet Union. Former KGB chairman Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov, who had now become leader of the USSR, simply saw it as a move by the USA towards a one-sided situation. Fear gripped the Kremlin, which became convinced Reagan was planning a nuclear attack to wipe of the Soviet Union.
Australia's national satellite company, AUSSAT Proprietary Ltd., selected Hughes Communications International, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hughes Aircraft Company, to develop the country's first satellite programme in May 1982. Under the contract, Hughes Space and Communications Group (SCG) has built three satellites and two telemetry, tracking, command and monitoring (TTC&M) stations. Also provided are launch and operational services and ground support. Both Hughes units are today a part of Boeing Satellite Systems, Inc. (BSS). The first satellite, Aussat 1, was launched successfully from the payload bay of the US Space Shuttle Discovery on 27th August 1985. Within three days Australia's first Communications Satellite was operational. The Aussat (now Optus) satellite is positioned successfully 36,000 km above the equator to the north of the Solomon Islands. Used by the Mobilesat communications service to cover mainland Australia, it was based on the Hughes HS-601 satellite, the company's first 3-axis design, accommodating three bands simultaneously for high power services such as land mobile, large area DBS (Direct Broadcast Service) and HDTV (High Definition Television). Aussat provides a wide range of domestic services to the entire continent, its offshore islands, and Papua New Guinea. This includes direct television broadcast to homesteads and remote communities, high quality television relays between major cities, digital data transmission for both telecommunications and business use, voice applications for urban and remote areas, centralized air traffic control services, and maritime radio coverage. The satellite was designed to have a 10 to 15-year life.
Baby Boomer Central is published by Australia On CD. © Stephen Yarrow, 2010.