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 2020.
January 1 – The death toll from bushfires on the south coast rises to seven. Eden will be evacuated. 176 properties are destroyed.
January 2 – Victorian premier Daniel Andrews declares a state of disaster. Two people die in eastern Victoria with 28 missing.
January 5 – Qantas cancels flights in and out of Canberra and ACT facilities and institutions close due to “hazardous smoke conditions”.
January 19 – A vast, fast-moving dust storm blankets towns in central NSW, stretching for miles and obliterating the sun.
January 20 – Hail the size of golf balls and “ferocious winds” wreak havoc on the ACT. Emergency services personnel are pulled away from fire fronts to assist in the face of localised flooding, power outages and extensive damage.
January 25 – First confirmed Australian case of COVID-19.
January 30 – Bushfire and flood damage sees Namadgi National Park’s Orroral Valley close (and it won’t reopen for three years).
February 17 – After 72 years, General Motors declares the Australian Holden will no longer be Australian.
February 24 – Queanbeyan identities Don Furner, coach of the first Raiders team (and father of David and Don Jr), and David Madew, first ever popularly-elected mayor (1980), pass away.
“Foreign interference in Australia is higher than it has ever been”, declares the head of Australia’s spy agency.
March 1 – First Australian death attributed to COVID-19. Government declares a human biosecurity emergency.
The country goes into overdrive on hoarding toilet paper, social distancing, cancellation of public events and indoor gatherings. A nationwide shutdown of venues and working from home is followed by border closures, full lockdowns and vaccine passports.
March 22 – “Ruby Princess” cruise ship passengers displaying covid symptoms cause furore on disembarking in Sydney.
March 23 – Centrelink and myGov websites crash with an overload of online benefit applications. Hoardes of “newly unemployed” line up at Centrelink offices, including Belconnen.
April 8 – Almost 40 years in circulation and community newspaper “The Canberra Chronicle” is no more.
April 9 – One-time Canberra Liberal Opposition leader (briefly) Bill Stefaniak puts his hand up (again) for the upcoming ACT election as head of the newly formed “Belco Party”.
June 5 – 2000 march on Parliament House protesting the May 25 death of African-American man George Floyd during an arrest by Minneapolis police.
June 10 – A “knife-wielding man” threatens people on the streets of Calwell.
June 25 – ACT Emergency Services Minister Mick Gentleman commits to 99 new firefighters over the next four years.
July 4 – Eden-Monaro by-election brought on with Labor’s Mike Kelly stepping aside and the bellwether, marginal federal seat gets its first female member in Kristy McBain.
July 16 – ACT Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith announces an online screening tool to restrict the sick from physically visiting Canberra health facilities.
July 30 – A $30 million commitment to tackle the ACT’s “backlog in elective surgery”, waiting times “significantly higher than the national average”.
August 5 – 80th commemoration of the 1940 Canberra Air Disaster in which 10 died, including three senior government ministers with claims the tragedy ended Menzies’ wartime leadership.
September 22 – the ACT government plans to bring back “mid-risk events” (101 to 500 people).
October 17 – Despite a ClubsACT survey suggesting the Canberra Liberals were up and there was a “high level of dislike” for Chief Minister Andrew Barr, the 19-year-old Labor government is returned for a further four years. The ACT Greens secure a record six seats and three Cabinet positions.
November 13 – Canberra becomes a tip with waste collection workers on strike for three weeks.
December 19 – Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race is cancelled for the first time ever. The Australian Grand Prix also didn’t go ahead.December 31 – Australia reports about 28,500 cases of COVID-19 in two waves (March/April – June/September) and around 900 deaths.
The full collection of Nichole Overall’s “CityNews” anniversary columns can be seen here.
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