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1969

In 1969 Peakhurst High School could now boast all 6 forms enrolled at the school and we would have our first students sitting for the Higher School Certificate.

 

Our leaders in 1969

  • Prime Minister – John Gorton

  • Governor General – Lord Casey (until 30 April), then Sir Paul Hasluck

  • Premier of New South Wales – Robert Askin

  • Premier of South Australia – Steele Hall

  • Premier of Queensland – Joh Bjelke Petersen

  • Premier of Tasmania – Eric Reece (until 26 May), then Angus Bethune

  • Premier of Western Australia – David Brand

  • Premier of Victoria – Henry Bolte

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Major Events in 1969

January

  • Governor General of Australia, Richard Gardiner Casey, is named Australian of the Year

  • Boxer Johnny Famechon becomes world featherweight champion, when he defeats Cuban Jose Legra in a bout at the Albert Hall in London

  • Australian media baron Rupert Murdoch purchases the largest selling British Sunday newspaper, The News of the World

  • Richard Milhous Nixon succeeds Lyndon Baines Johnson as the 37th President of the United States of America.

February

  • The Violet Town railway disaster: the passenger train Southern Aurora collides head-on with a freight train on the new Melbourne to Sydney train line. Nine people are killed

  • The Boeing 747 makes its maiden flight

March

  • Police procedural drama series Division 4 makes its debut on the Nine Network

May

  • An Australian production of the rock musical Hair opens in Sydney. Produced by Harry M. Miller, it features the debut of young American singer Marcia Hines.

June

  • Melbourne-Evans collision – The Royal Australian Navy aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne collides with the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Frank E. Evans in theSouth China Sea. Frank E. Evans is cut in half and sinks, killing 74 crew.

  • The Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Commission rules that equal pay for women doing the same work as men must be phased in by 1972

July

  • NASA switches the main transmission feed of the Apollo 11 moon landing to Honeysuckle Creek Tracking Station in Canberra, then Parkes Observatoryin New South Wales, which then broadcasts the mission to the world

August

  • The Manson Family kills Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, wealthy Los Angeles businesspeople

  • The Woodstock Festival is held in upstate New York, featuring some of the top rock musicians of the era

September

  • The Poseidon bubble begins when the small mining company Poseidon NL discovers a large nickel deposit in Laverton, Western Australia

  • The Balmain Tigers defeated South Sydney Rabbitohs in the NSWRL Rugby League Grand Final at the Sydney Cricket Ground

November

  • The rebuilding of the Indian Pacific rail line between Sydney and Perth to standard gauge is completed

December

  • Prime Minister John Gorton announces that a withdrawal of Australian Army troops from the Vietnam War would begin in 1970.

 

 

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