The Sun-Herald is turning 70. Credit: Sydney Morning Herald
When The Sun-Herald was first published on October 11, 1953, Robert Menzies was the prime minister, Joe Cahill was NSW premier and Souths had just slayed the Dragons (31-12) to win the NSW rugby league premiership for the third time in four years, with superstar Clive Churchill scoring the first penalty goal.
The London to Christchurch air race was the front page story in that first edition – created by the merger of The Sun and the Sunday Herald – and it cost sixpence, Australia still being more than a decade from using decimal currency at the time. Here we take a look at some major news events that The Sun-Herald has covered in the 70 years since.
Our political history
“Massive swing puts Labor in”: Front page of the Sun-Herald on December 3, 1972Credit: SMH Archives
With Saturday traditionally the day Australians head to the polls, The Sun-Herald has charted our political history, recording the outcomes of federal and state elections for the past 70 years.
Notable front pages have included when Menzies’ long tenure as Australia’s prime minister came to an end in 1966, the massive swing to the ALP in 1972 ushering in Gough Whitlam, Bob Hawke’s 1983 victory, “Howard’s massacre” in 1996 and the “Seismic shift” to Anthony Albanese and the Labor Party in 2022.
We have also faithfully reported the results of NSW elections, from the “Wranslide” era to marking milestones such as Gladys Berejiklian making history as the first woman to be elected NSW premier in 2019, and most recently, covering the March state election when Labor and leader Chris Minns were chosen to lead the state.
Major moments in sport
Celebrating our sporting successes has always been a huge part of the fabric of The Sun-Herald, right from its earliest days when Melbourne hosted the Summer Olympics in 1956.
“Golden Girl” Betty Cuthbert beamed with pride as her victory hug was captured on our December 2 front page after she won the first of her four gold medals. We’ve covered countless Olympic moments since, captivated by the sporting prowess of the Dream Machine (our 4x100 metre freestyle relay men winning gold in 2000) and the Oarsome Foursome (the coxless four rowing crew who won gold in Barcelona and Atlanta), to Ian Thorpe’s record-breaking performance in Athens in 2004.
We have revelled in the highs, such as when Sydney sailor Kay Cottee became the first woman to perform a single-handed, non-stop and unassisted circumnavigation of the world. Her triumphant return home through the heads of Sydney Harbour in 1988 featured on the front page. And when tragedy struck the sporting world in 2022 we said goodbye to our favourite spin bowler, Shane Warne, in a tribute edition.
We’ve also played our part in NRL history. The Sun-Herald photographer John O’Gready’s photo of rugby league players Norm Provan and Arthur Summons after a muddy 1963 grand final has become an iconic image of the game. Taken after the Dragons’ 8-3 victory over Wests, the photograph of the two captains was long considered a depiction of mateship. Summons later revealed, however, that it actually showed a moment of bitterness, when he refused to swap jumpers with Provan amidst talk that the officiating referee had bet £600 on a St George win. The photo, since dubbed “The Gladiators”, later became the inspiration for the NRL premiership trophy.
The royals
The Sun-Herald front page for February 7, 1954 page 1, during Queen Elizabeth II’s visit to Sydney.Credit: Fairfax Archive
The newly crowned Queen Elizabeth II became the first reigning monarch to visit Australia in 1954 – just months after The Sun-Herald’s inception.
Our team followed her first Saturday in Australia to Bondi, where she and the Duke of Edinburgh witnessed the spectacle of a surf carnival. “They enjoyed the display so much, they overstayed their half-hour visit by 45 minutes … [and] sat forward in their seats to witness the march-past and tense boat race,” noted our reporter, one of the 40,000 people crowding the beach, with a further 100,000 on vantage points around Bondi.
The Queen’s visit was the start of 70 years documenting the British royal family, which included a special eight-page souvenir edition on July 26, 1981 to mark the marriage of Prince Charles to Lady Diana Spencer, through to Diana’s September 1997 funeral after her tragic death in a car crash, as well as the weddings of their two children, Princes William and Harry. Bookending the historic first visit of the Queen in 1954 was our coverage last year of the global news event of her death, followed by King Charles III’s coronation earlier this year in May.
World events
The Sun-Herald front page for November 24, 1963 reports on the shooting of John F. Kennedy. Credit: Fairfax Photographic
When US president John F. Kennedy was shot dead on a Friday afternoon in Texas in November 22, 1963, The Sun-Herald was the first Australian paper to publish photos of the assassination that shocked the world, and news that Lee Harvey Oswald had been arrested.
We also brought you the first photos of the moon’s craters, taken before the US spacecraft Ranger 7 crashed onto its surface in August 1964, with the subheading noting there were “No green men”.
Four years later, when Apollo 11 hovered near the lunar surface, there were pictures of the three astronauts awaiting their small step – and a giant leap for mankind – under the headline “Tomorrow, the big day”.
When British wartime prime minister Winston Churchill died in 1965, the January 31 edition page featured photos of his funeral in a four-page supplement.
We honoured those who lost their lives when Britain went to war with the Falklands in 1982, and in 2015, a century after the Gallipoli landings, with commemorative editions. When Pope Benedict XVI apologised in 2008 to victims of sexual abuse by clergy in Australia, we brought you that with a dramatic front-page photo.
Social affairs
The heroin crisis plagued Sydney at the end of the 20th century. In 1985, we featured a front page ‘New heroin horror’ where we reported on the emergence of a form of synthetic heroin.
One of The Sun-Herald’s most controversial front pages was when we featured a photo that showed the extent of the heroin problem, which had escalated through the 1990s.
The image of a teenage boy injecting in a Redfern laneway under the headline “It’s wrong” in 1999 led to then NSW premier Bob Carr holding a drug summit which resulted in the city’s first medically supervised injecting room.
The evolution of the women’s movement has also been well documented by The Sun-Herald, beginning with our 1975 front page “Women on the march”, which covered the momentum of second-wave feminism and “the city’s biggest show of women’s rights”.
Natural disasters and national news events
The Sun-Herald, February 9, 1986 reports on Lindy Chamberlain being freed from jail. Credit: Fairfax Photographic
We followed the saga of the Chamberlain family from the 1980 disappearance of baby Azaria, mother Lindy’s 1982 murder trial and jailing, and her release in February 1986, before her conviction was quashed in 1988.
The front page of the Sun-Herald, September 6, 1987.Credit: Fairfax Photographic
The Hawke government’s Australia Card plan sparked early concerns about privacy. In 1987, we revealed the timetable of the legislation to introduce the card from a cabinet document leaked to our political correspondent.
In 1997, we exclusively recorded Stuart Diver’s account of his ordeal in the Thredbo landslide, and we covered the funeral of the Lin family, murdered in their North Epping home in 2009.
Floods in the Hunter in 1955, northern NSW in 2012 and 2013, and in Lismore in 2022, devastating fires in 2013 and the summer of 2019 and 2020, the earthquake that shook Sydney in 1994, shark attacks in 1960 and 1963, and lotto winners lost at sea in 1990 have all been featured in The Sun-Herald.
Telling the stories of Sydney and our state
From its inception, The Sun-Herald has aimed to record the moments that matter in Sydney and our state as well as cover the issues that resonate with our readers.
When the Sydney Opera House opened on Saturday, October 20, 1973, a team of our reporters and photographers descended on Bennelong Point among the red ribbons and royalty, to relay the news back to our Broadway newsroom for several Sunday special editions.
More recently we have followed the evolution of the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on our lives, starting with our January 26, 2020 edition which recorded the arrival of COVID on our shores – “Fatal virus spreads to Australia” – and continuing with our coverage of state border closures, lockdowns, home schooling, Zoom culture, the vaccination rollout and mask mandates.
From the switch to the four-term school year in NSW in the 1980s, the disquiet over airport noise due to the third runway in 1993, through to the changing fortunes in real estate value, we have conscientiously reported on the history of this city and our state.
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