THE 80s TIMELINE

1980
20 January

Melbournes ATV0 changes to ATV10. The 0-10 Network

changes its name to Network Ten

26 January

Australian historian Manning Clark, best known for his

epic six-volume A History of Australia, named Australian
of the Year

19 February

AC/DC singer Bon Scott dies

February

ATV10 relaunches its one-hour Eyewitness News service

21 March

US announces boycott of Moscow Olympic Games to

protest USSR invasion of Afghanistan

23 June

Candice Reed, Australias first IVF baby, born

26 June

US-based architects Mitchell/Giurgola and Thorp win the

design competition for the new Parliament House in
Canberra

28 June

Sydney Gay Mardi Gras holds its first post-parade party

for 700 people at Paddington Town Hall

5 July

Australias Evonne Cawley wins her second Womens

Singles tennis title at Wimbledon

8 July

Queensland defeat NSW 2010 in first State of Origin

rugby league match

26 July

Rubiks Cube launched

1 August

Radio station Double Jay becomes 2JJJ-FM

17 August

10-week old baby Azaria Chamberlain disappears from a

camp at Uluru

19 September

Iraqi forces under command of Saddam Hussein invade

Iran

22 September

The independent trade union Solidarity established in

Poland

18 October

Malcolm Frasers government re-elected

24 October

SBS launches multicultural television with Channel 0/28

in Sydney and Melbourne

27 October

Great Barrier Reef becomes World Heritage listed

8 December

Former Beatle John Lennon fatally shot in New York

1980

Number of Vietnamese refugees accepted by Fraser

government reaches 56,000

1980

Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs) introduced by most

Australian banks

Some of the objects on display

Dole blitz poster, produced by the Unemployed Workers Union
Azaria Chamberlains black dress and booties from the National
Museum of Australia

From top: Bon Scott, image

Newspix; Michael and Lindy
Chamberlain, image Newspix;
Queensland State of Origin
rugby league win, image
Newspix; ATM promotion

THE 80s TIMELINE

1981
20 January

US President Ronald Reagan inaugurated, aged 69

20 January

52 American hostages released after 443 days captivity

in Iran

26 January

Sir John Crawford, agricultural economist and regarded

as the architect of Australias post-war growth, named
Australian of the Year

1 February

Trevor Chappell bowls underarm to New Zealands Brian

McKechnie

30 March

John Hinkley Jr shoots US President Reagan

12 April

First launch of the space shuttle, Columbia

11 May

Jamaican reggae singer Bob Marley dies

13 May

Pope John Paul II shot in St Peters Square, Rome

29 July

Royal wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer

watched by millions around the world

August

IBM introduces its first personal computer, using

Microsofts MS-DOS operating system

27 September

Parramatta wins the rugby league premiership for the first

time, defeating Newtown 2011

12 November

Federal government declares the Cairns section of the

Great Barrier Reef a marine park, overriding Queensland
government

1981

The first 186 microprocessor becomes available

1981

Italian designer Ettore Sottsass and writer Barbara Radice

launch the Memphis group in Milan

1981

The Cochlear company is established to advance the

bionic ear developed by Dr Graeme Clarke and
colleagues in Australia

1981

The mobile network Mobile Telephone System 007

(PAMPS) starts operating in Australia

Some of the objects on display

Festival of Sydney poster: the fifth annual Festival of Sydney
Dont be caught in the sun poster: the Slip slop slap campaign began
in 1981
Columbia badge: space shuttle Columbia first launched in April 1981
From top: US hostages freed,
image Fairfax Photos; the
underarm bowling incident,
image Newspix; the royal
wedding, image Newspix;
Parramatta rugby league
premiership win, image
Fairfax Photos

THE 80s TIMELINE

1982
26 January

Sir Edward Williams, Brisbane Commonwealth Games

Chairman, named Australian of the Year

29 January

Tasmanian State Labor government gives go ahead to

dam the Franklin River

20 March

Thousands walk across Sydney Harbour Bridge to mark

its 50th anniversary

29 March

Sydney Swans, the first VFL club outside Victoria, play

their first home game at the Sydney Cricket Ground

2 April

Argentina invades the Falkland Islands. Britain sends

troops in response.

May

Eddie Mabo launches historic land rights case in High

Court

6 June

Israel invades Lebanon, forcing the withdrawal of

Palestine Liberation Army forces

14 June

British troops force Argentinas withdrawal from Falkland

Islands

21 June

Birth of Prince William in the United Kingdom

7 July

Australian Labor Party relaxes its anti-uranium policy

30 September

Commonwealth Games open in Brisbane

1 October

Billy Joels 52nd Street is the first album to be released

on CD

October

Chinas population reaches one billion

30 November

Michael Jackson releases Thriller, the biggest selling

album ever

17 December

Random breath testing begins in NSW

1982

First 286 microprocessor launched

1982

Commodore 64 home computer released, proving a

commercial success within the year

1982

Australian company Caroma develops the dual flush

toilet, funded by a Commonwealth government grant and
saving 32,000 litres of water per household a year

1982

Phillips and Sony launch compact discs (CD) on market

One of the objects on display

Commemorative plate: marking the 50th anniversary of the opening of
the Sydney Harbour Bridge

From top: Powerhouse Museum

collection; British naval
blockade, image Newspix;
Brisbane Commonwealth
Games, image courtesy
Brisbane City Council
Archives; Sydney Swans
promotion, image Newspix

THE 80s TIMELINE

1983
3 January

Time magazine names the computer Machine of the

Year

26 January

Marathon runner Robert De Castella, named Australian

of the Year

8 February

Severe dust storm sweeps through Melbourne and

deposits an estimated 1000 tonnes of topsoil on the city

16 February

Ash Wednesday bushfires in Victoria and South Australia

result in destruction of more than 2000 houses and loss
of 72 lives

6 March

Australian Labor Partys Bob Hawke elected Prime

Minister

23 March

President Reagan proposes Strategic Defense Initiative

(Star Wars)

1 May

Sydney Entertainment Centre officially opens

3 May

Cliff Young, a 61 year-old potato farmer, wins a Sydney

to Melbourne foot race

9 June

Margaret Thatchers Conservative Party re-elected in

Britain

18 June

Sally Ride becomes first American woman in space

1 July

The High Court of Australia rules that the Franklin Rivers

World Heritage listing means the Federal Labor
Government has the obligation to protect the site and the
power to stop the dam construction, reversing the
Tasmanian state governments early decision

27 September

Alan Bonds yacht Australia II wins the Americas Cup

25 October

USA invades the tiny Caribbean island nation of Grenada

25 October

Joh Bjelke-Petersens National Party forms government in

Queensland without the Liberal Party

9 December

Australian government floats the dollar

28 December

Pat Cash clinches Davis Cup tennis win for Australia over
Sweden

1983

The CSIROs Dr Peter Colman announces that his team

has identified the structure of the flu virus protein
neuraminidase, leading to the development of anti-flu
drugs Relenza and Tamiflu.

Some of the objects on display

Bringing Australia Together badge: from the 1983 Federal election
Souvenir medal: celebrating the victory of Australia II

From top: Robert De Castella,

image Newspix; Ash
Wednesday bushfires, image
Newspix; Bob Hawke
celebrates the Australia II
victory, image Fairfax
Photos; Australia II wins the
Americas Cup, image
Newspix

THE 80s TIMELINE

1984
24 January

Apple Computer releases the Macintosh, the first

successful PC to have a mouse and a graphic user
interface

26 January

Aboriginal leader Lowitja (Lois) ODonoghue becomes

Australian of the Year

2730 January

Final Narara Music Festival at Central Coast, NSW,

features INXS, Simple Minds, Pretenders, Talking Heads,
Eurythmics and Def Leppard.

1 February

Medicare introduced

9 February

Konstantin Chernenko becomes leader of USSR after

death of Yuri Andropov

14 February

Elton John marries Renate Blauel in Sydney

26 March

$100 note introduced

12 May

USSR announces boycott of Los Angles Olympics

August

National Advisory Council on AIDS appointed

31 October

Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi assassinated

6 November

US President Reagan re-elected

November

The British and Irish supergroup Band-Aid releases Do

They Know Its Christmas? (Feed the World) to raise
money for famine relief in Ethiopia

1 December

Hawke government re-elected in Australia

3 December

Accidental toxic gas leak from Union Carbide pesticide

plant in Bhopal, India, kills 4000

1984

Phillip Hercus and Robert Clifford of Incat in Tasmania

develop high speed wave-piercing catamarans

1984

Paul Scully-Power becomes first Australian-born person to

fly in space, as a payload specialist on Challenger

One of the objects on display

$1 note: withdrawn from circulation in May 1984 and replaced by the
$1 coin

From top: Apple Macintosh,

Powerhouse Museum collection;
Lowitja ODonohue, image
Newspix; Elton John and
Renate Blauel, image
Newspix; Narara 84 poster,
Powerhouse Museum collection

THE 80s TIMELINE

1985
26 January

Actor Paul Hogan named Australian of the Year

31 March

Palm Sunday anti-nuclear rallies attended by more than

300,000 people across Australia

March

ABC TV launches the ill-fated hour long national news

bulletin, The National

March

Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer

adopted

11 March

Mikhail Gorbachev becomes Soviet leader after the death

of Konstantin Chernenko

26 April

Jeff Fenech wins World Bantamweight title

5 July

High Court judge Lionel Murphy convicted of attempting

to pervert the course of justice; he is later acquitted

10 July

Greenpeace boat Rainbow Warrior is sunk by French

intelligence agents in Auckland Harbour

27 August

AUSSAT launches its first domestic satellite from NASAs

space shuttle, allowing radio and TV broadcasts to
remote areas in rural Australia

4 September

Media magnate Rupert Murdoch becomes a US citizen

2 October

Film star Rock Hudson dies from AIDS-related illness

26 October

Uluru National Park is handed back to the Mutijulu

Aboriginal community

3 November

Adelaide hosts the first Australian Grand Prix as part of

the Formula One championship

1921 November Reagan and Gorbachev meet for historic Geneva summit
1985

38% of Australian households own a video cassette

recorder

1985

Release of Sun City by Artists United Against Apartheid

1985

Hole in ozone layer is observed by scientists of the British

Antarctic Survey

Some of the objects on display

Dulmont Magnum laptop computer: one of the first laptops produced in
Australia, it came with 96 KB of RAM and cost $2995
Poster, National Aborigines Week: illustrating the struggle by Indigenous
people for land rights, the poster was based on a photograph taken by
Elaine Pelot Kitchener
BUGA UP poster: part of the Billboard Utilising Graffitists Against
Unhealthy Promotions campaign

From top: Jeff Fenech wins

title, image Newspix;
Rainbow Warrior, image
Newspix; AUSSAT launch,
image courtesy NASA; Reagan
and Gorbachev, image
courtesy Ronald Reagan
Library

THE 80s TIMELINE

1986
26 January

Adventurer and entrepreneur Dick Smith becomes

Australian of the Year

28 January

Space shuttle Challenger explodes after take-off

7 February

Lindy Chamberlain released after three years in jail

11 February

Joan Child becomes first woman speaker at the

Australian House of Representatives

19 February

Soviet Union launches MIR space station into orbit

25 February

Corazon Aquino sworn in as President of Philippines,

ending corrupt Marcos regime

FebruaryMarch Return of Halleys Comet fails to achieve the brightness

of previous sightings
March

Nike releases Air Jordan shoes in Australia

26 April

Chernobyl nuclear reactor in USSR explodes, radioactive

fallout across Europe

14 May

Treasurer Paul Keating warns of Australia becoming a

banana republic

321 June

Sydney designer Marc Newson exhibits the commercial

version of the Lockheed Lounge in a Sydney gallery and
attracts international attention

29 June

Argentina wins soccer World Cup in Mexico

24 July

Commonwealth Games open in Edinburgh

26 September

Paul Hogans comedy film Crocodile Dundee released

November

US Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North is sacked over Iran

Contra affair

1986

First 386 microprocessor launched

1986

First laptop computer launched by IBM

Some of the objects on display

Space shuttle model: a 1:100 scale model of Columbia with external tank
and solid rocket boosters
Halleys Comet boomerang: the comets keenly anticipated return was to
prove a disappointment

From top: Challenger

explodes, image courtesy
NASA; treasurer Paul Keating,
image Newspix; Paul Hogan
in Crocodile Dundee, image
Newspix; Lieutenant
Colonel Oliver North, image
AAP/AP

THE 80s TIMELINE

1987
26 January

Singer John Farnham named Australian of the Year

February

Telecom establishes first analogue mobile phone network

in Australia

27 March

Australian population passes 16 million

2 April

Senate rejects Labors proposed identity card, the

Australia Card

11 June

Margaret Thatcher re-elected as British Prime Minister

June

Mikhail Gorbachev declares a policy of perestroika

(restructuring) for USSR

5 July

Pat Cash defeats Ivan Lendl to win Wimbledon Mens

Singles tennis title

11 July

Hawke Labor government re-elected for third term

27 July

Fitzgerald Inquiry into police corruption in Queensland

begins

10 August

Bob Hawke announces Royal Commission into Aboriginal

Deaths in Custody

September

Christopher Skases Ointex group purchases Channel

Seven from Fairfax and aims to revive the Melbourne
Station

September

Sydney Swans player Warwick Capper totals 103 goals

for the season

3 October

Over 25,000 Vietnam veterans participate in belated

Welcome Home parade

19 October

Stock markets around the world crash with Wall Street

suffering the largest drop in history

8 December

Reagan and Gorbachev sign the first USSoviet treaty to

reduce nuclear arsenals

1987

The new mobile network Advanced Mobile Phone Service

(AMPS) launched, replacing the old limited mobile
network Mobile Telephone System 007 (PAMPS)

1987

World population reaches 5 billion

One of the objects on display

Multiculturalism poster: produced by the Office of Multicultural Affairs,
established in 1987 to promote multiculturalism, a policy fostered by the
Hawke government
From top: John Farnham,
image Newspix; Pat Cash,
image Newspix; Vietnam
vets welcome home parade,
image Newspix; stock
market crash headline, image
Newspix

THE 80s TIMELINE

1988
26 January

Solo yachtswoman Kay Cottee becomes Australian of the

Year

26 January

Aboriginal people lead huge Invasion Day rally in

Sydney

26 January

Prince Charles and Princess Diana attend official

celebrations for bicentenary of European settlement in
Australia

January

Australia issues the worlds first polymer currency, a $10

note, to commemorative the bicentenary.

14 March

Last edition of Sydney afternoon tabloid The Sun

19 March

NSW coalition government led by Nick Greiner elected

after 12 years of State Labor government

30 April

Six-month World Expo opens in Brisbane with theme of

Leisure in the Age of Technology

May

Queen Elizabeth II visits Australia, opening Darling

Harbour precinct and new Parliament House in Canberra

15 May

USSR begins withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan

1 June

Legal challenges force British government to lift ban on

MI5 expos Spycatcher

6 August

End of IranIraq war after almost eight years

8 November

George Bush Snr elected President of USA

November

Bob Hawke agrees to hand over job of prime minister to

Paul Keating after the 1990 general election

1 December

Pakistans Benazir Bhutto becomes the first woman to lead

an Islamic nation

21 December

Pan Am Flight 103 explodes over Lockerbie, Scotland

1988

486 microprocessor launched

1988

Inaugural Clean Up Sydney Harbour Day held with 5000

tonnes of waste collected by 40,000 Sydneysiders.

1988

International Panel on Climate Change formed

One of the objects on display

$10 note: the $10 note introduced, depicting an Indigenous person with
Captain Cook looking over his shoulder

From top: Kay Cottee, image

Newspix; Bicentennial
protest rally, image
Newspix; Nick Greiner, image
Newspix; Benazir Bhutto,
image Newspix

THE 80s TIMELINE

1989
January

Prime Minister Bob Hawke introduces the idea of APEC

(Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation), Later in the same
year, leaders of 12 Asia-Pacific countries meet in
Canberra to establish APEC

26 January

Test cricket captain Allan Border named Australian of the

Year

24 March

Supertanker Exxon Valdez spills 240,000 barrels of oil in

Alaskas Prince William Sound

9 April

Wayne Gardner wins inaugural Australian Motorcycle

Grand Prix at Phillip Island

3 June

Chinese army attacks students protesting in Tiananmen

Square

18 June

Solidarity wins election in Poland

June

Standard variable interest rate hits 17%

1 August

Allan Borders Australian cricket team regains the Ashes

in England

1 September

The golden wattle is proclaimed Australias Floral

Emblem

24 September

Canberra Raiders win their first rugby league grand final,

defeating Balmain 1914

18 October

Launch of Galileo, the Jupiter probe, by space shuttle

Atlantis

9 November

Berlin Wall falls, marking the end of the Cold War

30 November

Czechoslovakias Communist party announces it will

relinquish power

15 December

Romanian uprising overthrows communist government

20 December

US invades Panama

28 December

Newcastle earthquake leaves 13 dead and 150 injured

One of the objects on display

Windfailed Cup poster: activists from the BUGA UP campaign created this
poster to lampoon the sponsorship of rugby league by a brand of cigarettes

From top: the Exxon Valdez,

image Newspix; student
protest in Tiananmen Square,
image Newspix; Canberra
Raiders Mal Meninga, image
courtesy ACT Heritage Library;
Berlin Wall falls, image
Newspix