The year 2018 in sharp relief
It’s official. The year that ends on Monday gave us another rollercoaster ride. We pick over the remains of the year that was.
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IT’S official. The year that ends on Monday gave us another rollercoaster ride. Marg Wenham reports on the royal births and marriages and Harry and Megs Down Under. And our cricketers’ shame but our netballers’ triumph. And a racehorse called Winx and our fabulous Commonwealth Games. And Barnaby’s fall and Malcolm’s ousting. And our droughts, wildfires and flooding rain. And killer tsunamis. And one amazing, heart-lifting cave rescue in Thailand ... and everything in between.
JANUARY
IN Queensland, the New Year dawns to reports of an estimated 200,000 happy Brisbanites and tens of thousands more around the state turning out for a bumper burn of fireworks to see the old year out and the new in.
No such good news in Sydney, where six people, including a child, die as a New Year’s Eve joy flight turns to tragedy when their seaplane plunges into waters off Sydney.
No messages of hope from North Korea either, with Kim Jong-un declaring the country “must mass-produce nuclear warheads and ballistic missiles and speed up their deployment”.
Back home politicians of all stripes join community leaders, family and friends to pay their respects at the Kingaroy funeral of Lady Florence Bjelke-Petersen, who died on December 20, 2017, aged 97.
The #MeToo movement here maintains momentum with allegations of sexual misconduct by Australian actor Craig McLachlan rocking the entertainment industry. McLachlan denies the allegations and shortly after commences defamation proceedings.
Australia smashes the Poms in the Ashes series 4-0 and exuberant comparisons are made between legendary cricketers Don Bradman and Gary Sobers and Aussie captain Steve Smith, whose dramatic fall from grace later in the year will rock the sporting world.
Meanwhile, courtside at the Brisbane International, Nick Kyrgios holds up the trophy after winning his first ATP title on Australian soil, defeating American Ryan Harrison in straight sets.
The BOM confirms what we suspected all along – that Queenslanders roasted through our hottest year ever, with meteorologists revealing 2017 set scorching new highs from Brisbane to Birdsville. Speaking of scorching highs, 36-year-old tennis champ Roger Federer wins the men’s singles at the Australian Open to claim a record 20th men’s major title after a five-set battle with Croatian sixth seed Marin Cilic.
Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki takes out the women’s singles title after a three-set win over Simona Halep of Romania.
FEBRUARY
Anti-bullying charities use a powerful parliamentary inquiry to call for the criminalisation of trolling as part of the response to the death of 14-year-old Queensland girl Amy “Dolly” Everett, who took her own life on January 3 after being targeted by bullies online.
For all the wrong reasons, Deputy PM Barnaby Joyce is back in the headlines again, this time involving revelations he is expecting a child with a former staffer, Vikki Campion.
Just days later, Joyce is swept up in explosive allegations about being drunk and behaving sexually inappropriately at an event in 2011. With the Coalition Government feeling the heat over Joyce’s relationship with Campion, PM Malcolm Turnbull issues a bonk ban on ministers, prohibiting them from having sex with their staff, and calls on his deputy to “consider his own position”. Joyce takes personal leave.
Queensland’s favourite footy son, Johnathan Thurston, confirms the 2018 season is his last as league fans fume about the NRL’s sell off of yet another State of Origin game, this time to Adelaide in 2020.
In the local courts, former Surfers Paradise police sergeant and whistleblower Rick Flori is cleared of misconduct.
Another mass school shooting in America, this one at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida. Seventeen students and staff die and another 17 are injured by a former student at the school, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz who is arrested shortly after escaping the scene.
Students who survive the shooting announce plans to march on Washington in a bid to shame politicians into reforming US gun laws.
The carnage continues in Syria with more than 250 civilians, including children, killed in Syrian and Russian air strikes on the rebel-held Eastern Ghouta enclave.
MARCH
Over in Blighty, former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter are poisoned with a nerve gas agent in the town of Salisbury, and Westminster points an accusing finger at the Kremlin.
As the Brits shiver through the worst snowstorms in a quarter of a century, outback Queensland finally enjoys some rain with some record-busting – but still not drought-busting – falls of up to 400mm in parts.
Cairns is rocked by news a young father of two, Matthew Ross White, is charged with murdering Cooktown mother of two Donna Steele, missing since August last year.
Over in South Africa, storm clouds build over Test cricket after David Warner and Saffa Quinton de Kock have an ugly altercation during the first Test, which we win.
Kim Jong-un also has a win, with American President Donald Trump agreeing to a historic summit. But, as the year plays out, international hopes of North Korea scaling down its nuclear ambitions as a result of the much propagandised confab, which is held in Singapore in June, fizzle out.
What doesn’t fizzle is the Coalition Government-resisted banking royal commission with revelations on the first hearing day including banks being forced to repay more than $250 million in the past 10 years to customers ripped off, overcharged or wronged.
Social media giant Facebook is in damage control after news a British political consulting firm, Cambridge Analytica, has used the data of millions of users without their consent.
Tensions between the Aussie and South African cricket teams boil over following the vile sledging of our players’ spouses, notably Candice Warner, during the second Test which we ultimately lose.
But the world as we know it ends during the third Test when our captain Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft are sent home following a ball-tampering incident. A proper uproar ensues with, ultimately, one year bans slapped on Smith and Warner. Bancroft is given nine-months off. Coach Darren “Boof” Lehmann quits. We lose the third and fourth Tests and so the series.
APRIL
With promoters tipping 1.5 billion worldwide will be watching, the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games get under way with 35,000 attending a 140-minute, $26 million, glittering opening ceremony featuring Aboriginal themes and a 30m inflatable Migaloo (the white whale).
Cheers for Mighty Mack Horton and our women’s relay team who immediately kick off our gold medal count in the pool – Horton by winning the 400m freestyle final while the Sunshine Girls win the 4x100m relay final in world record-breaking time.
But there’s tears down in Victoria at Bells Beach, as triple world champion surfer Mick Fanning bows out of the Rip Curl Pro beaten in his last world tour event.
Over for the Games – his seventh visit to Queensland – Prince Charles delivers a speech at Government House warning against the rise of robotics and artificial intelligence.
Meanwhile, our own homegrown machine, Cate Campbell, swims for the gold in the 50m freestyle and then the 50m butterfly but she’s pipped by her sister Bronte in the 100m freestyle who takes the gold gong.
All up Aussie athletes smash the Commonwealth Games, netting 80 gold, 59 silver and 59 bronze medals and, apart from some transport and opening and closing ceremony hiccups, the smooth running of the event prompts the question: should we bid for 2032 Olympics?
Stateside, Facebook’s chief executive Mark Zuckerberg is sweating through heated questioning by the US Congress and admits he was among the 87 million users whose personal data was scraped and sold off to a controversial firm trying to sway elections.
Champion mare Winx barely raises a sweat in her 25th consecutive win in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Randwick in Sydney – unlike the Queensland Reds at Suncorp, who play, and lose, their 1000th game.
Still on the sporting field, Broncos coach Wayne Bennett battens down the media hatches as speculation about his coaching future intensifies (and keeps going all year) as the Brisbane Roar’s season is ended by Melbourne City.
From Blighty comes news of the birth of Wills and Kate’s third child – a boy, Prince Louis Arthur Charles of Cambridge. Little Louis is fifth in line to the throne.
On the last day of the month, Terry Mackenroth, former Labor deputy premier and treasurer in the Beattie government, loses his short fight with lung cancer.
MAY
Fourteen years on from the Palm Island riots and two years since a Federal Court ruling, the Queensland Government announces a $30 million settlement with almost 450 of the island’s residents who had bought a class action against police.
Justin Langer is handed a four-year contract to coach and counsel what’s left of our cricket team. In Malaysia, voters hand back 92-year-old Mohamad Mahathir the prime ministership.
Australia mourns as, over in WA, four children and three adults from the same family are killed in the worst mass shooting since the Port Arthur massacre. And Indonesia is in mourning following two suicide bombing attacks in Surabaya carried out by members of two families, including a bomb-carrying eight-year-old child. Thirteen innocent people are killed and nearly 50 injured.
Queensland’s ultimate Origin ironman, Cam Smith, announces his retirement from representative footy and with JT and Cooper Cronk having also hung up their rep playing boots, coach Kevin Walters is facing a nightmare. And so is Meghan Markle as her dad drops off the royal wedding invite list. But on May 19, our favourite prince and his screen-star US beauty tie the knot in St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle in front of a massive global TV audience.
Across the channel in Brussels, Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg apologises to the European Parliament for a raft of wrongs, including his social media giant being used to spread fake news.
Justice is meted out in the heartbreaking Tiahleigh Palmer murder case. In the Supreme Court in Brisbane, Rick Thorburn gets life for killing his 12-year-old foster-daughter.
JUNE
Nearly two years after the Thunder River Rapids ride tragedy at Dreamworld, the coronial inquest into the deaths of four people begins with revelations the ride operators didn’t know there was an emergency stop button.
The inquest attracts international attention but is overshadowed by the “poo jogger”, which goes viral when 64-year-old corporate high-flyer Andrew Douglas Macintosh is photographed with his pants down while habitually defecating on a Greenslopes pathway. The Aveo manager quits his job after being charged with public nuisance and becoming the butt of jokes around the world.
Also attracting international mirth is Logan woman Charmaine Maguire, 51, who is charged with drunk riding after taking her trusty steed into a drive-through bottle shop to top up supplies.
It’s a welcome distraction from Trump’s summit with Kim in Singapore following months of escalating threats. After much backslapping, the two leaders emerge with plenty of platitudes and mutual love but little detail.
Barnaby Joyce is also spreading the love with a paid TV interview with his now partner Vikki Campion and their newborn son Sebastian.
There’s pain in the sporting world, with former Brisbane schoolteacher Jeff Horn losing his welterweight boxing world title to Terence Crawford in a bruising nine-round encounter in Las Vegas. Queensland also lose in Origin, with NSW taking the title after a 22-12 win in Melbourne and a 18-14 victory in Sydney, denying retiring Billy Slater a fairytale finish.
Hopes are high for Socceroos World Cup success but are soon dashed when France scores a 2-1 win followed by a 1-1 draw with Denmark before Peru downs Australia 2-0.
Meanwhile the countdown is on to two of the year’s most anticipated events – the ban on single-use plastic bags and the Logies on the Gold Coast, both widely rubbished.
JULY
The world collectively holds its breath as we watch one of the most courageous and extraordinary rescue attempts unfold in northern Thailand, after 12 young soccer players and their coach are trapped by a rising flood in a network of caves.
After more than two weeks underground, all 13 are safely extracted after being anaesthetised by Australian Dr Richard “Harry” Harris and swum out by divers, including another Aussie Craig Challen, with the support of hundreds of international volunteers. Sadly a Thai Navy SEAL dies during the operation.
Back in Australia, all eyes are on a rescue attempt of a different kind as political foes line up for the federal by-election in the Queensland seat of Longman.
Police capture Zlatko Sikorsky, 34, after a 27-hour siege on the Sunshine Coast following the discovery of the body of his 16-year-old girlfriend Larissa Beilby in a barrel on the back of a ute south of Brisbane.
Meanwhile, the coronial inquest into the tragic death of four people on a ride at Gold Coast theme park Dreamworld continues. The CEO of Ardent Leisure – owners of Dreamworld – Craig Davidson resigns as visitors abandon the park during the school holidays.
Overseas, Prince William and wife Kate continue their work to raise awareness about mental health but take time out to celebrate the christening of their youngest son Louis as well as the fifth birthday of future king Prince George.
It is a welcome distraction in Britain from the Brexit debacle, which claims yet another head with the departure of Boris Johnson as foreign secretary over his opposition to the “soft” deal being negotiated by embattled PM Theresa May.
Wildfires are burning out of control in California where a series of infernos kill seven people, including two young children. The situation is even worse in Greece where fires race through holiday resorts near Athens killing at least 76 people and injuring more than 180 as well as razing more than 1000 homes.
The final of the Soccer World Cup sparks mayhem on the streets of Paris after France claims a 4-2 victory over Croatia, sending fans into a frenzy that shuts down the capital.
AUGUST
In the Supreme Court in Brisbane, extremist Agim Kruezi, 25, from Logan, is given 17 years for plotting a public terror attack against police.
Maroons legend Mal Meninga, on the other hand, is given the ultimate honour of being named an Immortal as the NRL Women’s Premiership launches with four teams.
To our north, authorities on the Indonesian island of Lombok are counting the cost of a sequence of earthquakes. The death toll eventually reaches 563 and the number of injured more than 1000.
In Italy, a motorway bridge collapses killing 39 and injuring dozens more.
Out west, more than half of Queensland remains drought-declared, with some of the 23 local council areas having gone without rain since 2013. California is also continuing to experience terrible weather conditions, with firefighters battling the US state’s biggest ever wildfire.
Meanwhile in Washington, the Trump administration calls for a “thorough” investigation by Saudi Arabia into a strike on a Yemeni school bus that kills 29 children, which adds to the estimated 10,000 who have so far died in the war in Yemen since 2015. The move comes as the US ramps up its trade war with China.
Back home, the situation in Canberra reaches high farce as Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull survives a clumsy leadership challenge by Queensland MP Peter Dutton. This is quickly followed by a three-way spill, which Turnbull does not contest, and from which his erstwhile supporter Scott Morrison emerges as prime minister. Turnbull says he’s quitting Parliament.
Also under fire – as usual – are the Wallabies, who lose the first two Bledisloe Cup matches to the All Blacks who, in October, make it a three-Test clean sweep.
Better news is provided by our Sunshine Coast Lightening netball team winning back-to-back Suncorp Super Netball titles, and Winx’s record-breaking streak continues with the mare’s 26th consecutive win at Royal Randwick in Sydney.
But there’s sad news from Detroit where legendary soul singer Aretha Franklin loses her battle with pancreatic cancer aged 76.
SEPTEMBER
The Broncos women’s team wins the inaugural NRL women’s premiership as their male counterparts briefly snatch victory from the jaws of a pretty ordinary season and make the finals. But only until they’re knocked out in the second elimination final by St George-Illawarra.
Tokyo braces for Typhoon Jebi while Washington steels itself for another tell-all book, Fear: Trump in the White House, this one by reporter Bob Woodward who helped bring down Richard Nixon.
In the US Open, our Ash Barty celebrates her win with American CoCo Vandeweghe in the women’s doubles title.
Over the pond in London, tongues are wagging. Meghan Markle, aka the Duchess of Sussex, is pregnant. Prince Harry stays mum, but confirms the couple will visit Queensland the next month.
In Perth, there’s heartbreak at yet another mass family killing. Anthony Robert Harvey, 24, is charged with murdering his three daughters, aged under four, his wife and the children’s grandmother.
Back home in Brisbane, there’s outrage at the sentencing of William Andrew O’Sullivan who’s pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of little Mason Lee. O’Sullivan gets nine years, with parole eligibility after six, with the prospect of being out of prison in just four.
Then news breaks of sewing needles being found in Queensland-grown strawberries. Consumers in three states are urged to throw out punnets from producers Berry Licious and Berry Obsession and the hunt is on for the saboteur.
The UN’s secretary-general appeals to Russia, Iran and Turkey to avert a humanitarian crisis in the Syrian city of Idlib, the last major stronghold of active opposition to Bashar al-Assad’s regime, while in a Philadelphia court, Bill Cosby, 81, is charged with three counts of aggravated indecent assault.
Back in Indonesia, the death toll from an earthquake and 3m tsunami that slams into the island of Sulawesi soars and there’s horror in our Whitsunday paradise as a woman and a young girl are mauled in separate shark attacks in 24 hours.
Our AFL and NRL footy seasons conclude, with the Collingwood Magpies losing to the West Coast Eagles, while the Sydney Roosters beat the Melbourne Storm in the league grand final.
OCTOBER
Queenslanders learn Australia is set to be the first country to all but eradicate cervical cancer within the next 20 years thanks to the state’s Gardasil vaccination.
Craig Lowndes conquers the mountain for the seventh time, and the woeful Wallabies manage a win against the Pumas in Argentina, giving them just two wins in 2018. They lose to Wales and England in the Spring Tour.
Donald Trump crows as his most recent and most controversial US Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is finally sworn in just as the first reports are filtering through about the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Istanbul.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s new report warns of the impacts and costs of 1.5 degrees of global warming and says that may now be reached within 11 years.
Almost $50 billion is wiped of the value of ASX200 companies following a vicious sell-off on Wall Street – a portent for further massive stock market falls before the end of the year as the chaos in Trump’s administration worsens.
But ah ha! We knew it! Meghan and Harry are expecting. Kensington Palace announces the baby news just hours after the royal couple touch down in Australia on their first major international tour together to coincide with the Invictus Games in Sydney. As part of their nine-day tour, they visit Queensland’s Fraser Island.
In Central America, a caravan of migrants advancing towards Mexico’s border with the US is estimated to number 5000. Just north in the US, a manhunt is under way for a serial bomber who is targeting prominent Democrats and the CNN TV network with crude pipe bombs. Then anti-Semitism turns deadly when Robert Bowers, 46, storms the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. He shoots dead 11 and injures another six.
Back home, the Liberals are in turmoil and denial after losing Malcolm Turnbull’s erstwhile blue ribbon Sydney seat to independent Kerryn Phelps in the Wentworth by-election.
Another tragedy for Indonesia as Lion Air flight JT610 plunges into the ocean off Bali, 13 minutes after taking off from Jakarta, killing all 189 on board.
Our Diamonds clinch the Constellation Cup (for the eighth time) in Wellington, and Winx wins the Cox Plate for a record fourth time and racks up her 29th consecutive win.
NOVEMBER
There’s another shark attack in the Whitsundays’ Cid Harbour, this time a fatal one as 33-year-old Victorian doctor Daniel Christidis dies after being mauled.
Cross Counter wins the Melbourne Cup, but celebrations are muted as The Cliffsofmoher breaks down during the race and is later euthanased. This makes six Cup deaths in six years.
Scott Morrison begins his bus tour of Queensland while, in the US, the midterms deliver Congress to the Democrats and Trump fires another senior official, Attorney-General Jeff Sessions.
More heartache for Melburnians when knife-wielding Somali-born Islamist Hassan Khalif Shire Ali, detonates his Holden Rodeo in Bourke St before going on a stabbing rampage. He is shot by police and later dies but not before he kills local restaurant identity Sisto Malaspina.
Yet another mass killing in America, this one in Thousand Oakes, California, where a former marine guns down 12 and injures scores more. As the massacre plays out, the most destructive and deadly wildfires on record are tearing through the Golden State.
On November 11, the world marks 100 years since the World War I armistice.
Is there trouble in royal paradise? Because the first rumours have begun circulating about a rift between Duchess Meghan and other members of the royal family.
There’s certainly trouble in Downing St, where the British PM is hanging on for grim death after a barrage of resignations over her Brexit plan. Queenslanders are heartbroken by the discovery of a dead baby on the beach at Surfers Paradise and then the body of 24-year-old Toyah Cordingley on Wangetti Beach in north Queensland.
A move to lift our cricket team’s performance by doing the same to the punishing, ball-tampering bans on Steve Smith and Dave Warner fails, but our women’s team restores some Aussie cricketing pride taking out the T20 World Cup.
The month draws to a close with tributes for former US president George H.W. Bush passing away aged 94, and with the worst bushfires in modern history raging across our state as temperature records tumble again.
DECEMBER
The Broncos coaching brouhaha finally ends with Wayne Bennett given his marching orders. He and Rabbitohs coach Anthony Seibold change ends.
Rioting in Paris, however, continues as the “yellow vest” rebellion against President Emmanuel Macron’s tax increases escalates.
There are dramatic developments in the high-profile cold case of missing mother of two Lyn Dawson, with her former husband Chris’s extradition from Queensland to NSW where he is charged with her murder. Dawson intends to plead not guilty and is released on bail.
Meanwhile, the six-week inquest into the Dreamworld tragedy winds up with the Coroner expected to hand down findings in the New Year.
Still no good news for Donald Trump, with his long-time legal “fixer” Michael Cohen facing prison for a range of alleged offences including paying off an adult film star and a former Playboy model at his boss’s behest. And in another US court, a judge blasts Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn, saying he’d “arguably sold your country out” by lying to the FBI about Russian contacts.
And nothing positive for Theresa May either, whose Brexit plan all but collapses. The embattled May suspends House of Commons voting on her Brexit deal after conceding it would be rejected by a significant margin.
Back home, and while we lose the first Test to India in Adelaide, our XI even things up in Perth, making for an exciting Boxing Day Test in Melbourne.
In Canberra, there’s another blow for the Coalition as the Nationals’ Andrew Broad quits Parliament following a string of revelations of adultery and sleazy online behaviour.
America’s allies cop another Trump blindside when he declares victory over ISIS and tweets he’s pulling US troops out of still war-torn Syria.
And, almost unbelievably, there is more misery for Indonesia as yet another tsunami hits, this time in the Sunda Strait as the Mount Anak Krakatau volcano erupts sparking a massive landslide. As of yesterday, the death toll had neared 400.
Now, can the Aussie cricketers win the third Test?
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