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 1995.
“I’ll kneecap anyone undermining John” says gaffe-prone Alexander Downer in clearing out for Howard’s second attempt to take the Big House.
In NSW’s older House, Bob Carr squeezes Labor over the line, replacing the seven-year Liberal Greiner/Fahey government. The Nationals Peter Cochran is returned for Monaro, the bellwether electorate’s first opposition member in 65 years (and the last since).
As for the still newish self-governing ACT, the minority Labor government led by Rosemary Follett – the territory’s first Chief Minister (1989) and first woman to serve as an Australian head honcho – are replaced by a minority Liberal, Kate Carnell-led outfit.
During the election countdown, “The Canberra Times” dreams up “The Smith Poll”: “A random sample of 50 Smiths, taken from the about 900 Smith phone-book listings in Canberra”. Along with suggesting politicians should try listening to the people or “bugger off”, top of mind for most was the “chaos” of the health system; unhappy staff, poor maintenance, a lack of hospital beds and lengthy waiting lists (did we mention this was 1995?).
FAIL TO PLAN …
When has planning not been an issue for Canberra? New Minister Gary Humphries makes clear to the new chief of the National Capital
Planning Authority (NCPA without a permanent head for two years) “our wish [is] to see one planning authority in control of planning in the ACT”.
On the agenda: should the ACT annex Goulburn? Arising from water supply issues in the old regional city, former Premier John Fahey even weighed in: “no logic in having a government the size of the ACT’s for such a limited population” (still hovering around 300,000 despite early aspirations it would reach at least a half a mill by the 1980s).
On the other side of the boundary fence, an ACT government report says population growth should be contained to protect habitats from urban sprawl.
CAPITAL CRIMES
Revelations that a “Canberra-based right-wing extremist group” had “penetrated the ranks” of the Department of Defence sparks security breach fears. Concerns crystallised given the recent gas attack on the Tokyo subway by a doomsday cult that killed a dozen and injured 5000 and the Oklahoma City bombing, the domestic terrorism resulting in 168 dead, 680 injured.
A spike in heroin overdoses sees Canberrans warned they’re “dicing with death”. Chief Minister Carnell says her government “would keep an open mind” on the potential of a controlled drug trial.
And in one of the most high-profile, controversial crimes to ever burden Canberra, former public servant David Eastman is convicted of the assassination of AFP Assistant Commissioner Colin Winchester in 1989.
ENVIRONMENTALLY SOUND
Thousands of timber industry workers descend on Canberra in protest of major changes to native-forest logging, some 300 trucks blockading entrances to Parliament House.
On the other side of the world, the French get cross with a call to boycott their products by the ACT in objection to nuclear bomb tests in the South Pacific (while the US announce plans for two upcoming tests).
A SPORTING LIFE
The much championed Canberra Cosmos Football Club makes it to the National Soccer League. Struggles on the field and off means the dream is done in six years.
The future of the Raiders is also in peril, threatened with expulsion from the ARL 1995 premiership after a generous rump of players, Laurie Daley and Ricky Stuart among them, sign multi-million deals with Rupert Murdoch’s contentious new Superleague. When the Australian World Cup squads are announced, a number of them aren’t on the list.
Meanwhile, three-times Australian rally champion and Tuggeranong mechanic Neal Bates wins the Rally of Canberra on his seventh attempt.
SOCIALS
“[Canberra] looked like a pretty boring place – until you guys turned up”, Eddie Vedder, of peak ‘90s band Pearl Jam, to 18,000 fans, belying research by the NCPA on Australia’s thoughts on the First City: “It should be livened up” and “Canberrans were snobs”…
Livening up the night sky, mid-autumn, multiple witnesses report seeing unidentified bright lights over the capital. It’s not the first time UFOs are spotted locally: recorded as early as 1954, most recently, 2018. More on all that here.
If you grew up as a Canberran, you’ll probably have memories of Rehwinkel’s Animal Park and its Kodak koala moments; opened around the time of Steve Irwin’s Australia Zoo, after 21 years the family closes the gates and farewells its menagerie.
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