Triumph and tragedy: A front-page view of history
23 ImagesAs The Age celebrates 170 years, we look back on some of the most notable major events featuring on our front pages over the decades.
1/23
On May 9, 1901, the Duke of Cornwall and York opened the first Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia, on behalf of King Edward VII. The Age reported on Australians’ excitement and adoration for the duke and duchess - who later became King George V and Queen Mary - as they travelled through Melbourne to the Exhibition Building. “It was certainly a reception which in every way gladdened his heart, and must have confirmed his previous impression – that the people of the new Commonwealth, the great last-made Dominion of the King, are as loyal, as brave and as frankly affectionate as the people of London itself,” The Age wrote.Credit:The Age archives
2/23
The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand on June 28, 1914 (European time) sent shockwaves around the world. The Age’s front page on June 30 detailed how the archduke and his wife, Duchess Sophie, were killed in the second of two assassination attempts while travelling to Sarajevo Town Hall, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and now in Bosnia and Herzegovina. “As the car passed through the dense crowds lining the streets, a Serbian student at the high school, named Gavrilo [Princip], dashed forward and fired two shots with a Browning automatic revolver at the royal pair,” The Age reported. The story detailed the shock, grief and confusion swirling around Austria-Hungary, hinting at the inevitable conflict to follow. The archduke’s assassination is widely understood as the trigger for World War I.Credit:The Age archives
3/23
On November 5, 1930, a New Zealand-born wonder horse was immortalised in Flemington Racecourse history books and Australian folklore. Phar Lap and jockey Ken Pike won the Melbourne Cup on November 4, 1930, inspiring forlorn Australians in the early years of the Great Depression. “This beautiful horse has found a cherished place in the imagination of the people,” The Age reported on the front page the following day. Phar Lap paved the way for future racing legends, including 2000s thoroughbred champion Makybe Diva, the only horse to win three Melbourne Cups. Australian Racing Hall of Fame veteran Archer won back-to-back cups in the early 1860s.Credit:The Age
4/23
In this front-page photo, US General Douglas MacArthur accepts the Instrument of Surrender, from then Japanese foreign minister Mamoru Shigemitsu on September 2, 1945, ending WWII. “Thus came the restoration of peace to a war-ravaged world,” The Age’s special correspondent wrote. “The ceremony, which marked the first defeat in Japan’s 2600-year-old semi-legendary history, was carried out with 12 signatures, requiring only a few minutes to affix to the articles of surrender.”Credit:The Age archives
5/23
“Melbourne had its greatest day in history yesterday,” The Age declared on February 25, 1954, reporting on Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip’s triumphant visit to Victoria during their 58-day tour of Australia. Nearly a million people lined the streets of Melbourne from Essendon Airport to Government House to give the royals a “joyous, sincere and fervent” welcome, The Age reported. “After a wet and unsettled morning, the afternoon saw perfect sunshine tempered by a cool wind – a fitting atmosphere in which to welcome a happy, smiling Queen.” Credit:The Age archives
6/23
The Olympic flame burnt bright in Melbourne on November 22, 1956, during the opening ceremony of the “Friendly Games”. Thousands watched the ceremony on television screens and listened to vivid narrations on radio, as Prince Philip declared the games open. The Age’s front page captured the excitement of the nation, labelling the ceremony a “triumph of organisation and efficient execution”. “There were times of wild cheering and times of silence,” The Age reported. “When young Melbourne athlete Ron Clarke came on to the arena at 4.37 with the Olympic flame carried high, the great crowd stormed a welcome.”Credit:The Age archives
7/23
Sixty years before American superstar Taylor Swift brought her lucrative Eras tour to Melbourne, Beatlemania was sweeping Australia. On June 14, 1964, 20,000 fans waited outside Southern Cross Hotel in Melbourne to welcome The Beatles. Decoy cars and police escorts on horseback tried to contain the “human tide”, with about 50 fans hospitalised and 200 needing treatment. “Between Bourke and Little Collins streets, there was one solid swaying, chanting mass of humanity,” The Age reported. “Mob hysteria was never far away.” One casualty was 14-year-old Marilyn Arthur, who burst a blood vessel in her throat screaming at drummer Ringo Starr when he arrived at Melbourne Airport.Credit:The Age archives
8/23
Newspapers around the world documented the last legal execution in Australia. Ronald Ryan was executed by hanging on a gallows in D Division cell block in Pentridge Prison, Coburg, after being found guilty of murder. According to The Age’s front page, Ryan made “no statement on the gallows”. The Age “was represented at the execution”, but elected not to publish an account, as it had campaigned against capital punishment, along with other newspapers. The then premier, Sir Henry Bolte, tried to persuade The Age’s board to tone down its editorials on the subject. The build-up had been headline news, but Melbourne newspapers chose to report the hanging in a few paragraphs.Credit:The Age archives
9/23
Millions of Australians huddled around their television screens on July 21, 1969 (local time) to witness one of mankind’s greatest achievements. Australians watched a grainy black-and-white broadcast as American astronaut Neil Armstrong stepped out of the Apollo 11 Lunar Module. Armstrong, who featured on The Age’s front page, radioed, “‘A very quiet ride’, as the roar of the lunar module’s rocket engines came loudly over the Moon-to-Earth radio,” The Age reported. “In America, the wives of the spacemen whooped, hollered, laughed and cried.” It reported then president Richard Nixon was expected to announce a mission to Mars within 60 days.Credit:The Age archives
10/23
Cries of “peace” and “stop the war” reverberated around Melbourne’s CBD on May 8, 1970, as 70,000 people gathered to protest against the Vietnam War. On the front page, The Age documented the heavy police presence and protesters’ passion, but noted that “hardly a punch was thrown”. “White-helmeted police watched impassively as the march — massive, colourful, peaceful — flooded central Melbourne in autumn sunshine like a tidal wave,” reporter Max Beattie wrote. In his analysis, reporter John Hamilton wrote the peaceful protest “proved democracy works”. “Melbourne made you proud to be an Australian yesterday,” he wrote. “Because it showed that in this country we can still make democracy work by turning out in the streets to exercise the right of dissent.” Credit:The Age archives
11/23
Carlton’s miraculous victory over Collingwood in the 1970 VFL grand final is etched in footy folklore as one of the best in history. A clash of titans initially looked to be one-sided, with the Magpies leading by 44 points at half-time. But Carlton stormed home to win by 10 points, claiming the club’s 10th premiership in front of a record 121,696 spectators at the MCG. The victory was largely attributed to coach Ron Barassi, whose “split-second decision” to put Ted Hopkins in at the expense of Bert Thornley changed the game. Within three minutes of the third quarter Hopkins kicked two goals, spearheading the Blues’ triumphant blitz. “The victory belonged to Barassi ... and his change of mind,” reporter Percy Beames wrote. “I cannot find any excuses for Collingwood. Never have I seen a premiership tossed away so blatantly.”Credit:The Age archives
12/23
On October 15, 1970, two years into construction, a section of Melbourne’s West Gate Bridge collapsed, plummeting into the Yarra Bank and killing 35 workers. Eyewitnesses told The Age the bridge collapsed “with a roar into clouds of dust and smoke” and “crumbled into a V shape”. An Age reporter flew over the wreckage 45 minutes later and said it looked like “a child had had a tantrum with his construction set and bashed it down”. The following day, The Age published the names of the dead and injured. The bridge opened for traffic in 1978.Credit:The Age archives
13/23
On February 17, 1972, Melbourne’s CBD was swallowed by extreme flash floods, with 7.6 centimetres of rain recorded in an hour. The downpour swept shoppers off their feet, overturned vehicles and caused thousands of dollars’ damage to shops and stock, The Age reported. “Drenched shoppers huddled in doorways and stood on council seats to escape the floods. They saw: Floating cars nudge stationary trams; A motorist in Flinders Street discard his trousers and set out to recover his floating car in his underpants; A case of bananas from an Elizabeth Street fruit barrow rush towards Flinders Street station,” reporter Sally White wrote. “In St Kilda Road, a youth ‘hung five’ on his surfboard in the service lane.” Photographer Neville Bowler won a Walkley award, the nation’s highest journalism honour, for his eerie image of an abandoned car in floodwaters on Elizabeth Street.Credit:The Age archives
14/23
When governor-general Sir John Kerr sacked Labor prime minister Gough Whitlam, making Australian political history, The Age’s opposition to the move was firm. “The decision of the governor-general was, we believe, a triumph of narrow legalism over common sense and popular feeling. We believe he was wrong,” read a quote from the editorial published on the front page. The Age, led by a young Les Carlyon – legendary editor Graham Perkin had died suddenly a month earlier – was the first newspaper to argue such a case. Reporter John Jost wrote from Canberra that Kerr’s “unprecedented actions were taken without any warning to government or Mr Whitlam”. “Asked how he felt about being the prime minister sacked by the Crown, Mr Whitlam laughed and said: ‘I’m the first in 200 years – Since George the Third sacked Lord North’.”Credit:The Age archives
15/23
The shattered remains of a car wreck were splashed across The Age’s front page on March 29, 1986 – a haunting image of the Russell Street bombing two days earlier. (There was no issue on Good Friday, the day after the bombing.) A car bomb hidden in a car parked outside Russell Street police headquarters had exploded, injuring 23 people. Constable Angela Taylor died in hospital 24 days later. “Members of a paramilitary-style crime gang have been targeted as prime suspects … the group believed responsible for the bombing is basically a local criminal gang wanted for a series of armed robberies, burglaries and thefts of arms and explosives from munitions stores in Melbourne,” The Age reported.Credit:The Age archives
16/23
On the evening of August 9, 1987, former army cadet Julian Knight opened fire on unsuspecting motorists on Hoddle Street, Clifton Hill, killing seven people and injuring 19 others, in Australia’s deadliest mass shooting at the time. Witness Adam Martello, 13, of Queens Parade, told The Age: “It was about 9.30 when we first heard little bangs. There were more than about 30 coming from the railway line. Although most were single shots, they changed to automatic fire then changed to single again.” A policewoman told an Age reporter: “Get out of the way ... someone has just tried to blow my head off, get out of the way.” Knight, who was arrested after a lengthy police chase, is serving seven concurrent life terms.Credit:The Age archives
17/23
In one of her first moves as Victoria’s first female premier, Joan Kirner declared Labor would deliver a “fair and caring” budget. Her choice of adjectives was highlighted on The Age’s front page of August 10, 1990. Under the headline “Feminine article enters the language,” reporter Martin Flanagan reflected on Kirner’s ascent to power and her place in politics “as a male game”. “In her first news conference as premier-elect, Joan Kirner used a very different language, one that some men would interpret as weakness,” he wrote. “The moment when anyone obtains power is telling. That is what made her performance a winning one: she appeared to be herself.” Credit:The Age archives
18/23
Australians awoke to international headlines of coordinated terror attacks on major landmarks in New York and Washington which killed 2977 people. The Age published a special daytime edition. The front-page picture showed billowing smoke around New York’s World Trade Centre, after two aircraft had slammed into the 100-storey twin towers in which up to 50,000 people worked. “‘There were people jumping out of the World Trade Centre,’ said New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani. ‘It was a horrible, horrible situation’,” The Age reported. Then prime minister John Howard and his entourage, who were in Washington at the time, were evacuated from their hotel to the Australian embassy, the report said.Credit:The Age
19/23
Photographer Angela Wylie was driving through Port Melbourne on November 17, 2003 when she spotted detectives arresting Carl Williams, then a major suspect in Melbourne’s bloody underworld war. Williams was arrested after allegedly threatening to kill a Purana taskforce detective investigating him over underworld murders and the investigator’s wife. “Last night senior officers were implementing a Threats Against Serving Members emergency plan (THASM) to protect the couple,” chief crime reporter John Silvester wrote. “Williams was kept under surveillance as he had lunch at a St Kilda cafe yesterday and the SOG [Special Operations Group] grabbed him as he drove down Beaconsfield Parade.” In 2006, Williams was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum of 35 years over three murders and one conspiracy to murder. He was bludgeoned to death in prison in 2010.Credit:The Age archives
20/23
“We say sorry.” Three words uttered by prime minister Kevin Rudd during the long-awaited apology to Indigenous Australians over the stolen generations captivated the nation on February 13, 2008. Special writer Tony Wright guided readers through the historic speech. “Never, perhaps, has a deeper silence descended upon a prime ministerial speech in the House of Representatives,” Wright began. “In the crowded galleries above the gathered representatives, a handkerchief fluttered here, a hand moved to brush away a tear there ... Eyes were drawn to each of these small stirrings because all else was still, as if the whole place was holding its breath.” After Rudd finished his 25-minute speech, Wright described an eruption of “whistles, cheers, foot stamping and hand clapping, an outburst of emotion echoing across the land”. He detailed Rudd’s plan to build a bipartisan agreement to recognise Indigenous Australians in the constitution. Credit:The Age archives
21/23
Haunting pictures of charred townships and raging flames featured on The Sunday Age’s front page on February 8, 2009, as Victorians grappled with the greatest bushfire catastrophe since Ash Wednesday. The Black Saturday bushfires killed 173 people and left thousands displaced. As hundreds of Kinglake residents sheltered at the CFA station, firefighter Kevin Davey spoke to The Age of his horror as flames rushed over his crew’s truck while they were trying to save a house near Whittlesea. “It swept up the hill in a second. There was nothing we could do,” he said. “I’m still not sure how we made it out. Two of the blokes didn’t even have time to get into the cabin, they were on the blind side of the truck. If I hadn’t screamed out, they wouldn’t have made it out alive.” Credit:The Age
22/23
After weeks of turmoil in the Labor Party in June 2010, Julia Gillard successfully challenged Kevin Rudd and won leadership uncontested, becoming Australia’s first female prime minister. The Age’s special-edition front page documented the whirlwind 24-hour succession, detailing Gillard’s moves in the caucus meeting through to her first day in office. In her first press conference as prime minister, Gillard promised to “fight with every ounce of my being” to take Labor to victory, The Age reported. In an analysis piece, Michelle Grattan, The Age’s first female Canberra bureau chief, wrote Gillard “would learn from Rudd’s mistakes”, but had “some intractable issues to confront”. “Just as in 2006 Labor MPs took a gamble on Mr Rudd, so they are throwing the dice again in embracing Julia Gillard,” Grattan wrote. “Australian voters are, in the end, quite a tough-minded lot. When they scratch below the surface, they will be demanding to know the substance the competing leaders are offering.”Credit:The Age archives
23/23
A haunting picture of an overturned, smashed stroller on The Age’s front page on January 21, 2017 depicted the aftermath of the Bourke Street massacre. About 1.30pm the previous day, James Gargasoulas drove onto Bourke Street, mowing down pedestrians, killing six people and critically injuring 27 others. His victims included three-month-old Zachary Bryant. Veteran Age crime reporter John Silvester wrote of the horrific act of “vile madness” by a known offender with a history of drug abuse. Then police chief commissioner Graham Ashton said Gargasoulas was on bail and was considered dangerous and erratic, Silvester wrote. The 26-year-old had been the subject of a manhunt after he allegedly stabbed his brother in the chest and head in a Windsor home, Ashton said. “There will be outrage and calls for major reforms,” Silvester wrote. “And this time the lawmakers will be forced to listen.” In 2020, a coronial inquest found a litany of failures by Victorian authorities to stop the massacre, including poor police planning and inadequate resources and communication. Gargasoulas is serving a life term in prison.Credit:The Age
