Remember this? - Sydney Newspaper coverage of the moon landing (1969)

As a teacher librarian, I have created a display to mark fifty years since the Apollo 11 mission to the moon.

Apart from promoting books relating to space travel and astronomy, I have been sharing newspaper front pages from the mission to show students how Sydney's newspapers covered each day of the mission.

This week, I am going to share some newspaper front pages from this occasion which I have shared with the students.

Below are the front pages of the evening newspapers - The Daily Mirror and The Sun from July 21 1969.

Below are the front pages of the morning newspapers - The Australian, The Daily Telegraph and The Sydney Morning Herald from July 22 1969.

Update on proposed Westfield Miranda Series: I will have to defer this a little longer, but hopefully before the year is out. The material is great but have been short on time to collate it.

1963: First live major TV News Event Broadcast between Sydney and Melbourne

On Saturday the entire nation is off to the polls. Recently, I came across advertisements from TCN9 which were published in The Daily Telegraph to promote its election coverage for the 1963 Federal Election.

The Coaxial Cable was actually switched on between Sydney and Melbourne in April 1962. This allowed for live transmission of television programs between the two cities and Canberra and could carry telecommunications traffic. In the first year, it generally relayed sporting events between the cities.

In November 1963, Australia went to the polls. The National Television Network (comprising of TCN9 Sydney and GTV9 Melbourne) was owned by Sir Frank Packer. He had entered into a two-year lease of one hundred thousand pounds a year.

Election Day was November 30, 1963, just seven days after the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy (JFK) in Dallas. As part of election coverage, the first major broadcast of a news event across major Australia cities occurred, drawing on the coaxial link. TCN9 published these advertisements to promote the landmark coverage.

1.

2.

Sources:

1.  TCN-9. 1963. "TCN 9 Electoral Telecast Map Viewing Area" (Advertisement). The Daily Telegraph, November 29: 8

2.  TCN-9. 1963. "TCN 9 Electoral Telecast Map Metropolitan Area" (Advertisement). The Daily Telegraph, November 30: 8

Coverage would be anchored from the TCN9 studios at Willoughby with live crosses to the GTV9 studios in Melbourne, Canberra and The Sunday Telegraph Newsroom in Park Street, Sydney. Here is advertising material sourced from The Daily Telegraph in relation to its election broadcast. TCN9's viewing area stretched well beyond the boundaries that it is allowed to transmit into. Those in Newcastle, Wollongong and the Southern Highlands could also receive the broadcast.

It would set a precedent for the way we watched television. Programming could be instantly relayed from city to city. No longer would there be delays in having to wait for shows aired in other capital cities. A show recorded in Sydney could be relayed to Melbourne at the same time and vice versa. Programming in Australia tends to follow a common schedule these days.

Source: Southern Star (Firm) & John Edwards Production & National Nine Network (Australia). 2013. Power games : the Packer-Murdoch story.  

The mini-series Power Games (2013) takes a look at that election coverage from TCN9, though you might not want to take what you see seriously, especially Alan Reid's announcement that Menzies was back in power at 8:35pm, only 35 minutes after the close of polls.  In the film, Sir Frank Packer tells his son Clyde to "Sack the Computer" which had been bought in to predict the result. The computer itself was also a key feature in the promotion broadcast in order to predict the winner.

I also noticed that the front page of The Sunday Telegraph (December 1, 1963) was actually read out by Reid in the film. Need confirmation if Reid did actually say it. I may contact Channel Nine to follow up.

The way we watched news changed as a result because Australians could be informed of events happening across the country in real time and that information could be relayed instantly. It reflected the changing landscape in the relay of news in the 1960s as Satellites placed into orbit around the Earth, allowing events to be transmitted from one part of the world to another. The assassination of JFK one week earlier showed that.

And finally, it is believed (by some) that Sir Frank Packer decided to cause a fault in the coaxial cable in July 1964, so young media baron Rupert Murdoch could not relay the pages for the first edition of The Australian Newspaper from Canberra to Sydney. He had to fly the plates to Sydney for printing, which he managed to do despite heavy fog in Canberra.

For the record, Sir Robert Menzies Liberal/Country Coalition won the election with an increased majority winning 72 seats out of 122 seats. This was 10 seats more than in 1961. There was no Senate election in 1963.

There will be wall to wall coverage this Saturday on Channel Nine along with is competition at ATN7 (Seven Network ), ABC & Sky News. Yours truly won't be watching as he has to count the votes at a booth in southern Sydney and the networks will be dependent on me for the results.

1966: Introduction of decimal currency in Sydney

To mark fifty years since the introduction of decimal currency in Australia, I've got some clippings from The Daily Telegraph to share, as they reported on the changeover from the pound to the dollar in Sydney. They also had to assume the role of educator, with pages dedicated to explaining how the dollar worked including conversion rates from the pound.

  

People do like to be strict in terms of any changeover, but some decided to jump the gun. Railway ticket offices were issuing change in dollars and cents at 10pm the night before. When Sydneysiders woke up the next morning, life continued on as if nothing had happened. Banks were permitted to reopen after being closed for four days to prepare for the changeover, and while busy, experienced few problems.

There were some difficulties associated with the transition. For some, it was an opportunity to profit. The Sydney Morning Herald on February 15 reported that a shop had increased the cost of sandwiches from 12 cents to 17 cents.

The transition period went through to 1968. Regulars to this site would note how some real estate advertisements from the remainder of 1966 and 1967 list prices in pounds. This was allowed under the transition. Stores also listed prices in pounds, shillings alongside dollars and cents.

The major newspapers were generally positive. I've included the editorial from The Daily Telegraph on February 14. It was seen as a "new age" for Australia and that it would bring long-term benefit to the nation. The Sydney Morning Herald adopting the conservative view wondered if the conversion would be worth it given the impact of decimalisation like the need to carry two currencies in the interim, supply of new currency and inflation. 

Over the years, there were changes to coins and notes. In 1969, the shape of the fifty cent coin was changed as it caused some confusion with twenty cent coins along with the cost of producing the coins itself. In 1984, the one dollar note was replaced with a coin, followed by the two dollar coin in 1988.  During the early 1990s, one and two cent coins were taken out of circulation, though can still be accepted for payment. There were some additions to banknote denominations. The $5 banknote was introduced in 1967, $50 banknote in 1973 and the $100 banknote in 1984

Between 1992 and 1996, new polymer banknotes were issued for all denominations to remove counterfeiting. This was pioneered by the Reserve Bank of Australia who created the banknotes in conjunction with the CSIRO and the University of Melbourne. The Reserve Bank is planning to update banknotes over the next few years.

On a global level, the Australian Dollar has grown to be one of the world's reserve currencies and one of the most actively traded, due to the stable nature of the economy.

And as a bonus, why not include two television advertisements including the famous Dollar Bill and Company.