A Brief Guide to Australia in the 1980s

Australian News................intense international and Australian media surrounds disappearance of baby Azaria Chamberlain at a Uluru - Ayer's Rock Campsite - parents Lindy and Michael Chamberlain state that the baby was taken by a dingo, but the child is not found................Australian Olympic Committee votes to send team for Moscow '80 Olympic Games, despite pressure from Australian PM Malcolm Fraser. Some decline to take part................Australian Royal Commission into the Federated Ship Painters and Dockers Union, leading to criminal convictions of 11 Union members, concludes...............Multicultural Television Broadcasts S.B.S. (Special Broadcasting Service) begin in Sydney and Melbourne................Tidbinbilla Space Tracking Station officially opened near Canberra................International News................Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi assassinated................Mount St Helens volcano in Washington erupts................Polish Independent Trade Union 'Solidarity' formed by Lech Walesa................Beatle John Lennon shot................Soviet troops enter Afghanistan to support Moscow-backed government in Kabul................Bid to free 53 hostages from the U.S. Embassy in Tehran fails................'Who shot J.R.?' episode in TV-soap 'Dallas' becomes most watched TV program in history................

Top 10 Australian Singles........I Got You - Split Enz.....Turning Japanese - The Vapors.....Crazy Little Thing Called Love - Queen.....Another Brick in the Wall Part II - Pink Floyd.....Brass in Pocket - The Pretenders.....Can't Stop the Music - Village People.....Space Invaders - Player.....More Than I Can Say - Leo Sayer.....Funkytown - Lipps, Inc......Please Don't Go - KC & The Sunshine Band................Sport Australia Awards - Male Athlete of the Year - Alan Jones (Victoria) Motor Racing................Prime Minister - Malcolm Fraser MP.....Leader of the Opposition - Bill Hayden MP......Governor-General - Sir Zelman Cowan.....Australian Country Music Awards Top Selling Record - Slim Dusty - 'Walk a Country Mile'................Archibald Prize Winner - No Award................Australian Film Institute Award Winners Best Film of the Year - Breaker Morant [Producer Matt Carroll/Director Bruce Beresford]................Australian of the Year...........Professor Manning Clark [Historian].........Young Australian of the Year........Peter Hill [Quadriplegic swimmer]................Olympic Gold........1980 Moscow - Michelle Ford - 800 metres freestyle swimming........Men's 4 x 100 metres medley swimming relay (Mark Kerry, Neil Brooks, Peter Evans, Mark Tonelli)................Academy Awards........David Bradbury: Nominated for Best Documentary Feature: Frontline........Anna Senior: Nominated for Best Costume Design: My Brilliant Career........Jonathan Hardy, David Stevens, Bruce Beresford: Nominated for Best Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium - Breaker Morant................Cannes........Jack Thompson for Best Supprting Actor, Break Morant [Director: Bruce Beresford]........Venice Film Festival........no presentation................Gold Logies Winner.................Mike Walsh