Today’s Post entitled Buffalo Nickel asks us to dig through our couch cushions, purse or the floor of our car and look at the year printed on the first coin we find, and then write about what we were doing that year.
Hahahaha well the first coin I pulled out of my wallet was a twenty cent piece from 1967.
I wasn’t born in 1967; in fact my mother was only 9 years old and would have still been attending Toronto Primary School. My mother, my Aunt Sharon and my Grandparents would have only recently moved from their small flat in Victory parade above the Workshop that was owned by my great grandfather at the time, to their first real family home, which is where my grandparents still live in Carey Bay. So 1967 was probably a very good year for my mother.
My father, well he would have been 9 years old also, but I’ve never heard any particular stories about that year. Most of his childhood stories are along the line of catching snakes in the bush. He tells stories of getting bitten and getting sick, stories of putting the captured snakes in his dad’s bird cages, then getting in trouble when all his dads birds started to disappear, but none of the stories have a date.
So I thought I’d see that was happening in Australia in 1967 – Here are the things I found interesting:
On the 7th February Massive bushfires devastate much of the Tasmanian capital of Hobart and surrounding areas. Well nothing much has changed there we are and will always be a country ravaged by fire.
On the 1st March the Royal Australian Navy replaced the British White Ensign flag on all its ships with the Australian White Ensign. Woo Hoo we’re Aussie and proud.
On the 4th April the Australian government announces it will not ban the oral contraceptive pill, maintaining that the risk of thrombosis is “very slight”. THANK GOODNESS FOR THAT!!
On the 27th May Indigenous Australians are given the right to be counted in the national census after a national referendum and legislation changing citizenship laws. IT’S ABOUT BLOODY TIME!!!!!
On the 1st July the postcode system of postal address coding is introduced throughout Australia. Wow I’d never thought of a time when it didn’t exist! How on earth did they get the mail to the right people?
On the 1st August Qantas Airways drops the word ‘Empire’ from its name.
On the 1st October the NSW National Parks & Wildlife Service is established.
DRAMA!! Our Prime Minister was Harold Holt in 1967 until 19th December, when Holt disappears while swimming in heavy surf at Cheviot Beach in Victoria. Following the disappearance of Holt, Country Party leader John McEwen is sworn in as interim Prime Minister pending the election of a new government leader by the Coalition parties. BUT 20th December John McEwen announced he will not serve in a government led by Liberal Party deputy leader William McMahon, Harold Holt’s presumed successor, triggering a leadership crisis for the Coalition.
AND the most important thing that happened in 1967 and my ‘Tory’ loving daddy will agree: General Motors Holden exports its 100,000th car and launches its first compact sedan, the Torana! Yeah Baby!!!
Post 52 of 365 Writing Prompts 2014 (M29)
RIOT’S REDEMPTION 