To mark the 30th anniversary of “CityNews”, social historian and journalist NICHOLE OVERALL has written an eclectic history of Canberra and beyond over the past three decades. Here is 2017.
“FERRY McFerryface”, a perfectly reasonable name for a new Sydney ferry according to the hoi polloi (to the consternation of NSW Transport who were doing their best to be super consultative)…
And almost 62 per cent of us (versus 38.4 per cent) vote “yes” for everyone to have the equal opportunity of being hitched to one other for the duration of their days.
History-changing moments include the discovery of artefacts inside a WA cave providing the earliest known evidence of Aboriginal inhabitants of Australia, dating back some 50,000 years.
On the world stage, it’s victory lap time for suave Frenchman Macron while Theresa May achieves the opposite of the other lady who resided in No. 10, squandering a majority for a hung parliament.
Over in the La-La Land of LA Land, somehow they wind up giving their big red-carpet moment award to the wrong moment (because there’d be any way to confuse one of the most popular filmic songfests since “Mary Poppins” and “Moonlight” – the actual winner).
More seriously distressing, Las Vegas is subjected to the worst mass-shooting in modern US; a true towering inferno rips through a London housing unit complex with 72 dead; and a rash of terror-inducing acts around the world, including the UK and Melbourne.
Shockingly, also Queanbeyan: two teenagers fatally stab a man and injure another in a local service station.
In one of Australia’s most sensational drug cases, Schapelle Corby had most definitely been to Bali, too – home 13 years after being accused of using her boogie board bag for something other than transporting surf gear.
And while not widely known as a gangland cesspit, downtown Canberra experiences a notable spike in bikie-related incidents (and we’re not talking the e-scooter kind).
In gang warfare of a different kind …
Not so long ago he was setting social media a-twitter doing stuff all the hip kids say rates, like arriving at work (that is, the oldest Parliament in the country) in a DeLorean. But #MagicMikeBaird’s 15 minutes of the fame game is up. After only three years in the top job, he’ll end his political career as “one of the worst-polling premiers in Australian history”.
If only that car really was a time-machine…
And just like that, “Great Scott, it’s Gladys!”.
Over the other side of this vast brown land, a bloke who’ll become even more popular in the hashtag stakes (#IStandWithMarkMcGowan) wins a supermajority in Westralia for Labor (NB: March 11, 2023, announcing he’ll go out on top).
Hot air in Canberra of a different kind: a giant hummingbird from the US and a Belgian Smurf fly high over the capital in the Canberra Balloon Spectacular.
Pizza worthy of “Don Corleone” himself, Trecento in Manuka ranks in “CityNews” fine dining reviewer Wendy Johnson’s Top 5 for 2017 (as does Wamboin’s Contentious Character – wines, wonderful posi and locally-sourced provisions).
Sports-wise, the first women’s AFL game is played; giant interest in Canberra from the outset thanks to the GWS Giants.
Skirted around since 2013, the Raiders finally make the decision to axe their scantily-clad cheerleaders, the Raiderettes.
And how about the significant Braidwood connection to that race that stops a nation?
Not only did the heritage town produce the winner of the inaugural 1861 fixture, the legendary Archer, it apparently has one of the top records with as many as five others.
It’s been a fair time between gallops from the last – Just A Dash in 1981 – (Queanbeyan jockey Brent Stanley rode Arctic Scent in ‘96) but Canberra-trained Single Gaze makes it to this year’s Melbourne Cup.
Saying goodbye to 2017, Canberra also makes final farewells to passionate locals, Val Jeffrey (oldest to sit in the ACT Assembly at 81 and shortest term of two weeks) and Steve Doszpot (while still a member for Kurrajong).
The full collection of Nichole Overall’s “CityNews” anniversary columns can be seen here.
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