Bushfires to bombings remembered in 2017
* 40th anniversary of Granville disaster, January 18
With the 40th anniversary of the Granville train disaster approaching, the man who played a key role in marking the event each year won't be there. John Hennessey, a former deputy mayor of Campbelltown, was instrumental in organising memorial events during the past four decades to ensure no one forgot the 83 people who died in Australia's worst rail disaster. But following his death from cancer in May 2016, Mr Hennessey will be sorely missed as friends and family of the rail disaster's victims gather to pay tribute to their loved ones. The accident happened when a crowded eight-carriage commuter train, travelling from Mt Victoria in the Blue Mountains to the city, jumped the tracks on a curve and knocked down the 170-tonne concrete Bold Street bridge shortly after 8am on January 18, 1977. Hundreds of rescuers worked for hours to pull bodies from the wreckage and help the 220 people who were injured.
* 50th anniversary of final execution in Australia, February 3
Plea after plea and widespread opposition failed to spare Ronald Ryan from the death penalty. The robber and petty thief was hanged on February 3, 1967, the last person to be executed by the state in Australia. Victoria had commuted the death penalty for every other death row prisoner since 1951. Despite widespread protests, then-premier Henry Bolte refused to commute Ryan's death sentence for the murder of a prison officer shot dead during an escape from Melbourne's Pentridge Prison. Ryan's lawyer Dr Philip Opas QC, who died in 2008, still believed his client was innocent. "Until my last breath I'll be convinced he didn't do it," he said in 2007. Ryan's remains were exhumed from an unmarked grave at Pentridge Prison in 2007 and returned to his family.
* 50th anniversary of Tasmania's Black Tuesday bushfires, February 7
It took less than five hours on February 7, 1967 for bushfires to ravage southern Tasmania in an unprecedented disaster for Australia. Sixty-two people died, more than 900 were injured and about 1400 homes were lost as about 110 fires blazed. On the day that would become known as Black Tuesday, the temperature hit 39C and the fire index was categorised as catastrophic. Entire communities were destroyed as the estimated damage bill reached $40 million. It sparked insurance claims totalling more than $10 million which set an Australian record for payouts linked to a single event. Some of the fires were deemed accidental, some deliberately lit, and others stemmed from previous burn offs. Farmers spent subsequent days and weeks shooting burnt livestock and wildlife. In the lead-up to the 50-year anniversary of Black Tuesday, survivors have shared their story as part of a Tasmania Fire Service commemoration.
* 75th anniversary of the bombing of Darwin, February 19
More than 235 people died and about 400 were injured when 188 Japanese planes bombed Darwin in two air raids in what was the largest single attack by a foreign country on Australia. In the attack that began on February 19, 1942, 30 allied aircraft were destroyed, 11 ships sunk, and many civil and military facilities heavily damaged. There was also widespread panic with about half of Darwin's civilian population fleeing south in the immediate aftermath. The raids, which were not a precursor to an invasion, were planned and led by the Japanese commander responsible for the attack on Pearl Harbour 10 weeks earlier. The Japanese lost four aircraft to a spirited defence, which grew steadily within a few months to involve counter strike from bombers largely manned by US forces. One Japanese plane crash-landed on Melville Island to Darwin's north, and its pilot was captured by a local Aboriginal man to become the first prisoner of war taken on Australian soil. The city was bombed 64 times over 18 months until November 1943. Other northern Australian targets were Townsville, Katherine, Wyndham, Derby, Broome and Port Hedland.
* 20th anniversary of Princess Diana's death, August 31
The world stopped when news broke that Diana, Princess of Wales, had died after a late-night car crash in Paris on August 31, 1997. The 36-year-old "People's Princess", her partner Dodi Fayed and their driver Henri Paul lost their lives after their Mercedes sedan crashed in the Pont de l'Alma tunnel during a high-speed chase by paparazzi photographers. Six days later millions of people watched live TV images of Diana's two young sons Prince William and Prince Harry along with their father and heir to the throne Prince Charles leading mourners at her funeral in London's Westminster Abbey. Conspiracy theories have always surrounded the car crash, with Dodi Fayed's father billionaire Mohamed Al Fayed claiming his son and Diana were murdered as part of a wide-ranging conspiracy involving spy agencies and her former father-in-law the Duke of Edinburgh. However following a six-month coronial inquest, a British jury in 2008 returned a verdict of unlawful killing, blaming the driving of Henri Paul and the paparazzi. Plans have been drawn up to open a memorial garden in London dedicated to Diana this year. If it goes ahead, it will be the city's fourth memorial to the princess.
* 15th anniversary of first Bali bombing, October 12
As the world continues to confront the threat of terrorism, Australia and Indonesia are preparing to mark 15 years since the first Bali bombings which claimed 202 lives. On the evening of October 12, 2002 the popular tourist area of Kuta was irrecoverably changed when a suicide bomber detonated a backpack loaded with explosives inside Paddy's Bar. Twenty seconds later, across the road, a 700kg bomb loaded into a white van went off outside the Sari Club. The co-ordinated attacks killed 202 people, including 88 Australians, and injured scores more. Three weeks after police finished sifting through the rubble, they identified the extremist group Jemaah Islamiah (JI) as being behind the attack. But it wouldn't be until 10 years later that the last member of the plot - Umar Patek - also known as the Demolition Man - would be sentenced for his role in the country's deadliest terror attack. Indonesia continues to tackle extremism and the rise of pro-ISIS support within the archipelago but nothing has come close to the scale of Bali. In January 2016 the country's capital Jakarta was rocked when bombings and shootings killed eight people, including the four assailants.
* 99th anniversary of the end of WWI, November 11
A century ago, Australian soldiers on the Western Front of France perhaps wondered if what was ahead could be worse than bloody battles of 1916 which in weeks had claimed more lives than in eight months on Gallipoli. As it turned out, 1917 was far far worse, starting with two battles of Bullecourt (April 11 and May 3-17) resulting in more than 12,000 dead, wounded and prisoners. Then the diggers moved to southern Flanders in Belgium, for a series of battles, starting with Messines (June 7) and culminating in the vast Third Ypres campaign, better known as Passchendaele. Australian troops participated in a succession of attacks initially successful but ultimately disastrous as rain waterlogged the battlefield. By year's end casualties totalled 76,836 dead and wounded, with the 40,000 dead from 1917 accounting for 40 per cent of all Australian war dead ever. Australia had far better fortunes in the campaign in Palestine with the famous mounted charge on October 31 in which Australian Light Horsemen seized Beersheba from Turkish forces.
* 20th anniversary of Michael Hutchence's death, November 22
The music world was stunned when INXS frontman Michael Hutchence was found dead at the age of 37 in his Ritz-Carlton hotel room in Sydney's Double Bay. His death on November 22, 1997 was ruled a suicide by NSW coroner Derrick Hand due to depression while under the influence of drugs and alcohol. He left behind his partner, English TV star and journalist Paula Yates, and their 16-month-old daughter Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily. Following Yates' death from a heroin overdose just three years later, Tiger, was brought up by her mother's ex-husband, Boomtown Rats frontman and political activist Bob Geldof, alongside her three half-sisters in London. This year not one but two documentaries on Hutchence's life are reported to be in the works: one with INXS video director Richard Lowenstein at the helm, in conjunction with Universal Music Group and former INXS manager Chris "CM" Murphy. Sydney businessman Ron Creevey is reportedly behind the other project. Creevey has said he also plans this year to release 15 previously unheard tracks Hutchence recorded shortly before he died. Meanwhile, Hutchence's sister Tina is keen for a statue to be erected in her brother's honour at Sydney's new Entertainment Theatre in the ICC precinct and is supporting an online campaign to commission the statue.
