2025 – that was the year that was… and here it is, month by month, over the next 12 days, through the bright eyes of the CityNews columnists – a quirky, serious, funny and sad look at the 12 months just gone. Editor IAN MEIKLE gets the year rolling with January…

“From this day forward, our country will flourish and be respected again all over the world.” Who’s that then? 

Clue: it’s January 20 in cold, old Washington. 

“We will be the envy of every nation, and we will not allow ourselves to be taken advantage of any longer.” Yep, he’s back. 

“During every single day of the Trump administration, I will, very simply, put America first.” Boom!

And there was the ideological bowling ball that started rolling and hasn’t stopped skittling conventions, compassion and tariffs all around the world. Donald Trump 2.0 was in full flight and, astonishingly, he hasn’t stopped since.

Not that should have come as a surprise to CityNews readers. The week before, astrologer Joanne Madeline Moore, in her annual look at the upcoming year in the stars, gave us fair warning.

“With Saturn and Neptune both shifting into Aries, expect some individuals and nations to demand more independence; the rise of strong, new political leaders [Sussan Ley?]; and the restructuring of religious institutions [that would be the new pope].”

But no-one in summer Down Under much cared. It’s January, the month that the nation aches not to come back to work. The month when getting a park in the soon-to-be warzone of Civic is a doddle and getting over the soon-to-be refurbished Commonwealth Avenue Bridge, easy peasy.

In fact, thousands flee the town for ABC holidays (anywhere but Canberra), where the south coast becomes Canberra by Sea.

But Clyde Mountain inevitably calls and the long, reluctant procession away from the beach, family fun and doin’ nuthin’ fades into the digital picture library for another year, unless there’s the chance of a quick sortie south on the Australia Day weekend. 

Like all “silly season” media, the year’s first couple of editions are more recreational (Health & Wellbeing and Modern Living), illustrating the lack of acerbic news and the pressing need to get the editor out of the office!

Nonetheless, there were interesting insights. Early in January we learnt of the rebranding of the Hall and District Axemen’s Club to the more inclusive Capital Country Woodchopping. 

Under the heading, “Cheyanne swings the axe to cut down barriers”, president Cheyanne Girvan said: “We didn’t want to be exclusively a Canberra association and we deliberately left any gender-specific wording out in the new name.” 

She said that nearly 50 per cent of its 43 members were female. 

Whimsy columnist Clive Williams caused an office stir on his piece that asked: “What if the hokey cokey really is what it’s all about?” Staff members (from certain parts of Australia, mostly Geelong) upbraided the editor for using “cokey” instead of “hokey pokey”, invoking The Wiggles to prove their point.

Elsewhere we wondered if weighted blankets help you sleep any better, did stretching before exercise matter, does stress really turn hair grey and offered seven ways to extend the life of your smile.

But Modern Living loomed. Before we asked the big questions, former MLA Deepak-Raj Gupta shared the news that he was “hungry” to see stronger connections in his new role as national chair of the Australia-India Business Council.

Carla Rodeghiero, owner of Canberra Region winery Sapling Yard, told us that when she entered The Extrovert, her blended red 2023 wine (mourvèdre, shiraz and touriga), into the Australian and NZ Boutique Wine Awards, she knew “it would probably get something”. And it did, winning the show’s best red-blend award. 

A year’s a long time in modern living. We ran an expert piece that suggested that Australia’s love affair with electric cars was running flat. Maybe not so much now.

But we also, sensibly, reflected on the science of making dogs happy, wondered why reading rates in Australia were falling and urged readers to measure their blood pressure properly, intoning that one in three Australian adults have high blood pressure (hypertension) which is when your blood pressure is at or above 140/90.

Rounding out the month, columnists Jon Stanhope and Khalid Ahmed revealed three graphs from the ABS that confirmed the statistical reality that we are the nation-leading community for locking up Aboriginals.

“In 2014, before Andrew Barr was appointed chief minister, the incarceration rate ratio of Aboriginal men and women in the ACT was lower than the Australian average,” they wrote. 

“This begs the question: how could this occur in a progressive jurisdiction under the most progressive government in Australia?”

A year on, it’s a question that shamefully remains unanswered.

Ian Meikle is editor of CityNews.