Australians remember how, when and where they watched the 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing

Fifty years on, Aussies recall where they were at the time of the Apollo 11 moon landing, how they came to watch it — or in one case, miss it — and how the big event made them feel.

Page 3 of The Advertiser, July 22, 1969, showing locals watching the moon landing.

If you’re celebrating the 50th anniversary of the moon landing on Saturday July 20, you’re not doing it the Australian way.

The big moment when Neil Armstrong took his first step on to the lunar surface came just after 1pm on July 21 for Australian viewers. It was a Sunday night TV event in America, but in Australia it happened during lunchtime on the Monday, which explains why so many Australians recall seeing the event at school.

It was the world’s biggest TV event at that time — but not quite a worldwide event, given the historic occasion was not broadcast in China.

For Aussies who saw the telecast, which was hosted by GTV-9 Melbourne and relayed around the country, the moon landing remains one of those touchpoint moments, when the news of the day becomes enmeshed with our lives, and is forevermore imprinted on our memories.

While some other major news events — before and since — have been steeped in tragedy, the moon landing evoked emotions of sheer wonder, joy and amazement.

“Every time I hear about the landing on the moon, it takes me back to that time, and the excitement I felt,” says Kathy Baklan, who remembers watching the event at her Adelaide primary school.

“We all gathered in the assembly room to watch the landing on a little black and white TV. I remember sitting on the floor and thinking (even at the age of six) and saying to myself to remember this when I grow up, as I had the heightened sense of the importance of this moment.”

AMP Society staff watch the moon landing on Australian TV on July 21, 1969. Picture: The Advertiser

Back then, TV ownership was far from ubiquitous in Australia, and many readers who shared their moon landing memories with News Corp recall watching the broadcast in a big group.

“I can remember all the kids in our street sitting on our lounge room floor staring at the test pattern on the screen waiting for footage of the moon landing to be screened,” says former Darwin resident Sonya Porter.

“Not many families had a television in those days … we only had two channels to watch.”

Many of those readers also recall subsequent school excursions to see exhibitions of the Apollo 11 space suits and capsule, as well as the crew themselves, who toured Perth and Sydney in October that year.

For others, newspapers kept up the excitement surrounding America’s space program.

“Every day leading up to and during the Apollo 11 mission I cut out the images printed in The News newspaper in Adelaide and carefully glued them into my Lunar Logbook, which I have kept all these years,” remembers Glyn Lehmann.

“After the successful moon landing I sent away for a certificate, made available by the same newspaper, that confirms that I ‘...was on Earth when man first set foot on the moon...’ I still have this as well.”

The News newspaper in Adelaide produced this Lunar Logbook for readers. Picture: Glyn Lehmann

The memories of the landing remain incredibly vivid for many readers, many of whom related funny or unusual moments from the day.

“As a six year old boy I remember we were given a half day holiday from school, so at lunch time we raced home to watch the moon landing on television. I remember as a small boy it felt like it was taking forever for Neil Armstrong to step off the spacecraft on to the moon, so I went outside and looking up at a clear blue winter sky saw the moon clearly visible and thinking there were people up there for the first time. I recall my elderly uncle saying at the time ‘They shouldn’t be up there. They’re playing with God.’ One of the great moments in world history,” recalls Brenton Faggotter from South Australia.

Karen Joncour from Queensland says she would have missed the big moment if it were not for the kindness of a stranger.

“I was in second grade and the school said we could all go home to watch the moon landing. We didn’t know how to get home and were sitting outside the school crying and an unknown lady stopped her car and drove my friend and I home,” she says. “I remember sitting in front of the TV and mum saying this was a moment in history.”

“Myself aged 4 and my brother Glenn aged 6 showing off the big news of the day.” -Picture: Ian Harrop, Victoria

But some were not so lucky. Seventy-five-year-old Sydney resident Bill Christie has what might just be the most galling memory of the moon landing ever.

“I was managing a shoe shop in Whyalla,” he recalls. “Having borrowed a TV, I said to staff we will take turns to serve any customers — and sure enough it was my turn as he stepped from the lander so I missed the moment.”

Fortunately he is not bitter about the incident.

“(The customer was) somebody I knew, so I couldn’t get mad at her,” he says with a laugh.

But it was not something that new mum Karen Keeble was ever going to miss, despite nursing a new baby at the time.

“My son was born on the 5th June 1969, so was seven weeks old at the time,” she says.

“My vivid memory was holding him up to our very grainy black and white TV so he could always say in his lifetime to come that he had seen man walk on the moon.”

In this July 20, 1969 file photo, people sit on the lawn of the home of Stephen Armstrong in Wapakoneta, Ohio, to watch astronaut Neil Armstrong walk on the moon. The event happened on Sunday evening for American viewers, but Monday lunchtime for Australians. Picture: AP Photo/Bill Sauro

Originally published as Australians remember how, when and where they watched the 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing