[Jan] [Feb] [Mar] [Apr] [May] [Jun] [Jul] [Aug] [Sep] [Oct] [Nov] [Dec]

  • Australia's population = 11, 505, 408

    Visual Art
  • Clifton Pugh's portrait of R.A. Henderson wins the Archibald Prize

    Performing Arts
  • Larry Sitsky's opera The Fall Of The House of Usher
  • Peter Sculthorpe's Sun Music I
  • Joan Sutherland returns to perform in Australia after 14 years overseas
  • Canberra School of Music established
  • Ballet In A Nutshell (later the Sydney Dance Company) and the Australian Dance Theatre form
  • South Australian Theatre Company formed
  • Sydney's Philip St Theatre stages its famous comedy revue A Cup Of Tea, A Bex and A Good Lie Down. The production runs for twelve months, and the title passes into common usage.

    Literature
  • Thea Astley's The Slow Natives wins the Miles Franklin Award
  • Morris West's The Ambassador
  • Randolf Stow's The Merry Go Round In The Sea

    Film & Television
  • Faces In The Sun wins the AFI Best Film award
  • Jimmy Hannan wins the Gold Logie

    Society
  • Siding Spring Observatory opens
  • Australian Conservation Foundation formed
  • Australian Foundation of National Trusts formed
  • NT patrol officers forcibly "bring in" the last groups of the Pintubi people still living an independent traditional lifestyle, and "resettle" them on the Papunya and Yuendumu missions
  • Sir Robert Helpmann is named Australian Of The Year

Sir Robert Helpmann CBE (1909-1986) - Australian of the Year 1965
Actor, dancer, producer and choreographer

Helpmann was born and trained in South Australia. In 1933 he joined London's Vic Wells Ballet (now the Royal Ballet) as their premier dancer and began his 27 year partnership with Margot Fonteyn. He co-directed the Australian Ballet with Peggy Van Praagh, 1965-74, and was sole director, 1975-76. He launched the company's international reputation and created several ballets for it, including The Display (1964), based on the dance of the lyrebird. His first acting role was as Oberon in A Midsummer Night's Dream (1937) with Vivien Leigh and Ralph Richardson. He also appeared in 1947 in the Michael Powell classic The Red Shoes, which he choreographed. Although he retired from dancing in 1950, he returned to dance his last role in 1986, at 77 years of age, as the Red King in Checkmate, a ballet he had created for the Sadler's Wells Company in 1937.

On the occasion of his award, he praised Australia on its changing attitude to the arts. In giving him this award, he said, his countrymen had declared the value they now set on the national culture. But only three years later he said: "I don't despair about the cultural scene here in Australia because there isn't one here to despair about."

 

 

January 1965

2nd I Feel Fine
The Beatles

9th I Feel Fine
The Beatles

16th I Feel Fine
The Beatles

23rd Over The Rainbow
Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs

30th Over The Rainbow
Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs

The Kinks, Manfred Mann and The Honeycombs tour Australia, supported by Tony Worsley & The Fabulous Blue Jays

The Rolling Stones, Roy Orbison and The Newbeats tour Australia, supported by Australian groups including Chris Hall & The Torquays, Ray Columbus & The Invaders, and The Flies.

Major overseas releases:
The Animals - Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood
The Beach Boys - Dance Dance Dance
The Beatles - If I Fell
Marvin Gaye - How Sweet It Is To Be Loved By You
The Kinks - Tired Of Waiting, Kinksize Hits EP
The Rolling Stones - The Rolling Stones No. 2

2 The first Dutch Top 40 is launched. The most popular single, Zorba's Dance by Trio Hellenique, spends 37 consecutive weeks on the new chart.

4 The death of world-famous poet T. S. Eliot.

- American recording and broadcasting giant CBS purchases the Fender musical instrument company for US$13 million. Founded in 1947 by Leo Fender, the company revolutionised popular music with its legendary electric guitars, the Telecaster and the Stratocaster (made famous by Buddy Holly and Jimi Hendrix), the Precision Bass (the world's first electric bass) and its instrument amplifiers, and also exerted a huge influence on the sound of jazz and R&B music with its famous Fender Rhodes electric piano.

7 The first hydrofoil service begins on Sydney Harbour

- Notorious London gangsters Ronnie and Reggie Kray are arrested on suspicion of murder.

10 Rising tennis star Evonne Goolagong wins the NSW junior hard-court title.

11 The bodies of two 15-year-old girls, Christine Sharrock and Marianne Schmidt, are found at Wanda Beach in Sydney. In spite of an unprecedented £10,000 reward, the case is never solved.

- American singing duo The Righteous Brothers arrive in Britain for a promotional visit and appear on three TV shows, Ready Steady Go!, Scene At 6.30. and Discs A Go-Go.

12 The US Government denies visas to The Nashville Teens and The Zombies (already in New York) forcing the groups to cancel their planned tours.

15 The new American music program Hullaballoo premieres on NBC, opening with Beatles manager Brian Epstein introducing top British group The Zombies. The series, produced by Jack Good, has a strong influence on Australian pop shows The Go!! Show and Kommotion.

16 The car ferry Empress Of Australia begins operating between Sydney and Hobart

21 The Rolling Stones and Roy Orbison arrive for their tour of Australia; in Melbourne they are supported by The Flies.

22-23 The Rolling Stones and Roy Orbison play at the Sydney Showground. The original support band was to have been Sydney's legendary The Missing Links, but during a soundcheck on the night before the first show, promoter Harry M. Miller turns up. According to Links' guitarist Dave Boyne, Miller exclaimed: "There's no way these long-haired animals are going to play tomorrow!" and he sacks them on the spot. The Easybeats are reportedly also auditioned and rejected, suggesting that Miller was anxious not to allow The Stones to be upstaged.

24 Former British PM Sir Winston Churchill dies.

25-26 The Rolling Stones perform in Brisbane

27 Queensland police are given the power to arrest without warrant and ban anyone aiding the Mt Isa Mines strikers. Union leader Pat Mackie is banned from the site.

- The Rolling Stones perform their third Sydney concert

28 The Rolling Stones arrive in Melbourne and perform two shows at the Palais Theatre, St Kilda, supported by Ray Columbus & The Invaders, and The Flies.

29 The filming of "The Rolling Stones Special" for ATVO - Channel 10 (broadcast on 12 February), followed by 3 more shows at the Palais Theatre

30 The Rolling Stones are interviewed for radio 3KZ by Neville Wragg and Stan Rofe, and later record New Zealand TV ads and radio plugs for the New Zealand-shows.

31 The Rolling Stones begin the New Zealand leg of their tour.

20 Miles / Devoted To You
Ray Brown & The Whispers

House Without Windows / And I'll Be Happy
Trevor Gordon & The Bee Gees

I Sure Know A Lot About Love / Me You Gotta Teach 
Tony Worsley & The Fabulous Blue Jays

 

 

February 1965

6th Under The Boardwalk
The Rolling Stones

13th Under The Boardwalk
The Rolling Stones

20th Ferry 'Cross The Mersey
Gerry & The Pacemakers

27th 20 Miles
Ray Brown & The Whispers

Appeal Judge Aaron Levine overturns the obscenity conviction of the editors of OZ

Student Charles Perkins leads The Freedom Ride, which travels through country NSW, protesting the racial discrimination against Aboriginal people. In 1966 Perkins becomes the first Aboriginal Australian to graduate from university.

John Lennon and George Harrison of The Beatles experience their first LSD trip when their drinks are spiked at a party hosted by their dentist.

London session guitarist and future Led Zeppelin leader Jimmy Page turns down his first invitation to replace Eric Clapton as lead guitarist of The Yardbirds, preferring to stay working on the lucrative London session scene. Page recommends his friend Jeff Beck. Blues purist Clapton had quit the group because he objected to the pop direction of their new single For Your Love (written by Graham Gouldman, later a member of 10CC).

Major overseas releases:
The Beach Boys - Beach Boys' Concert; Do You Wanna Dance
The Supremes - Stop! In The Name Of Love
The Rolling Stones - The Last Time
The Yardbirds - For Your Love


1 Margaret Smith (later Court) wins the Australian women's singles title for the sixth consecutive year

- Dr Martin Luther King is arrested during a civil rights protest in Selma, Alabama.

5 Cigarette advertising is banned from commercial television in the UK.

10 The Rolling Stones return to Australia for a press conference and 2 more shows at the Palais Theatre, Melbourne

11  US President Lyndon Johnson orders the first sustained bombing campaign against North Vietnamese forces

- Ringo Starr marries his girlfriend, Liverpool hairdresser Maureen Cox

12 The Rolling Stones perform two shows at Centennial Hall, Adelaide

13 The Rolling Stones conclude their Australian tour with 3 shows ar the Capitol Theatre, Perth.

15 Renowned pianist, composer, singer and TV star Nat "King" Cole dies in Los Angeles from lung cancer, aged 46. Cole started out in jazz, achieving widespread popularity with the song Sweet Lorraine in 1940. The King Cole Trio signed with the fledgling Capitol label in the early 1940s and Cole stayed with the company throughout his career. By the 1950s, his popularity was so great that the famous circular Capitol Records tower on Hollywood and Vine was sometimes referred to as "The House that Nat Built". Virtually unique at the time, Cole crossed over to mainstream audiences with the #1 hit Mona Lisa in 1950, beginning a new phase in his career as a pop balladeer, although he never totally ignored his roots in jazz. As well as his great musical talent, Cole was a crucially important figure in American entertainment. In the 1940s he was the first African-American to have his own radio program, and he repeated that success in the late 1950s with the first national television show starring and hosted by an African-American. In 1948 Cole purchased a house in the all-white Hancock Park neighbourhood in Los Angeles, California. The local property owners' association confronted Cole and told him that they didn't want any undesirables moving in, to which he brilliantly replied: "Neither do I. And if I see anybody undesirable coming in here, I'll be the first to complain." (Wikipedia)

18 Esso-BHP strikes gas, and later oil, at the Barracouta well in Bass Strait

20 Freedom Ride members including Charles Perkins are ejected from Moree's municipal swimming baths after protesting against its policy of not admitting Aborigines.


21 Radical African-American civil rights activist Malcolm X is assassinated in front of his family and hundreds of followers while addressing a political rally at the Audubon Ballroom in New York. He is shot 15 times at close range by three assailants. The three men, all presumed to be members of the Nation of Islam (from which Malcolm had split in March 1964) are convicted of first-degree murder in March 1966. An alleged FBI memo uncovered during investigations into his death credits the Bureau's COINTELPRO anti-dissident program for fomenting the factional dispute within the Nation of Islam that led to Malcolm X's assassination. The exact role of the FBI in Malcolm X's death has never been made clear although it is known that at least one of his bodyguards was an NYPD officer who reported to the FBI.

22 Prince Philip opens the Royal Australian Mint in Canberra

23 Bus driver Ernie Albrecht is flown to Grafton to replace original driver Bill Packenham, who has quit the Freedom Ride on the grounds that it is too dangerous.

- Beloved screen comedian Stan Laurel dies.

26 Talbot Duckmanton succeeds Sir Charles Moses as chairman of The Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC)

27 The Seekers' single I'll Never Find Another You reaches #1 in the UK charts. It becomes the first Australian record to sell more than 1 million copies and eventually sells more than 1.75 million

Watch What You Say / I'm Going To Make You Cry
Bryan Davies

I'll Come Running Over/ Hold Me
Lynne Randell

Just A Little Bit / If I
Tony Worsley & The Fabulous Blue Jays

 

 

March 1965

6th 20 Miles
Ray Brown & The Whispers

13th I'll Never Find Another You
The Seekers

20th I'll Never Find Another You
The Seekers

27th I'll Never Find Another You
The Seekers

17-year-old apprentice plumber John Farnham becomes lead singer of Melbourne band Strings Unlimited.

The Bee Gees perform at the Royal Easter Show in Sydney

Major overseas releases:
The Beach Boys - All Summer Long
Donovan - Catch The Wind
Bob Dylan - Bringin' It All Back Home
The Kinks - Everybody's Gonna Be Happy, Kinda Kinks


1 The Australian Amateur Swimming Union stuns the nation with its decision that Olympic champion and 1964 Australian of the Year Dawn Fraser is to be banned from all amateur competition for ten years. The decision follows an inquiry into Fraser's alleged misbehaviour during the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.

6 Labor wins power in South Australian for the first time in 32 years. Labour leader Frank Walsh becomes Premier, replacing Liberal leader Sir Thomas Playford, Australia's longest-serving premier, who had held office for 26 years, 4 months.

- The US Defence Department announces that 3500 marines will be sent to Vietnam.

10 The first drawing of the national service birthday lottery.

17 The Queensland government introduces legislation banning picketing and restricting pamphlets and banners at the Mt Isa mine. The strikers workers return to work later in the month.

21 The children's series THE MAGIC BOOMERANG premieres on the ABC

28 After protests are banned, Martin Luther King leads 25,000 civil rights protesters in Montgomery, Alabama.

30 George Johnston wins the Miles Franklin Award for his novel My Brother Jack.

Baby I'm losing you / His lips get in the way
Noelene Batley

Every day I have to cry / You wouldn't know
Barry Gibb & The Bee Gees

I Belong With You / Trouble In Mind
Bobby & Laurie

Little Miss Rhythm and Blues/Here I Am
Trevor Gordon

We 2 Should Live / Untrue
The Missing Links

 

 

April 1965

3rd Rock And Roll Music / Honey Don't
The Beatles

10th Rock And Roll Music / Honey Don't
The Beatles

17th Rock And Roll Music / Honey Don't
The Beatles

24th Rock And Roll Music / Honey Don't
The Beatles

The Seekers second hit A World Of Our Own reaches #2 in Australia, #3 in the UK and #19 in the USA.

US President Lyndon Johnson orders the deployment of US marines to protect airbases in Vietnam, and Prime Minister Robert Menzies announces his intention to send the 1st Battalion RAR to assist.

Major overseas releases:
The Beatles - Ticket To Ride
The Byrds - Mr. Tambourine Man
The Supremes - Back In My Arms Again
Otis Redding - I've Been Loving You Too Long

5  The ABC premieres a new two-part children's sci-fi drama, THE STRANGER, starring Ron Haddrick and Ben Gabriel

6  Julie Andrews wins an Oscar for her role in the film Mary Poppins.

21  The second season of the New York World's Fair opens at Flushing Meadow, Queens, New York [21/10/65 -->]

22  The 2SM Sound Spectacular is held at the Sydney Stadium. The first prize in this "battle of the bands" comprises £100 pounds cash, a support spot on the upcoming Dave Clark Five tour, a record contract and a (possible) deal with Brian Epstein's NEMS organisation. Almost 60 local bands compete in the show, attended by 9000 fans. The Missing Links perform as special guests during the judging, and the eventual winners are The Showmen.

27  Police raid Melbourne's Austral Bookshop and seize copies of The Trial of Lady Chatterley, an account of the British legal proceedings that exonerated author of Lady Chatterley's Lover, D.H. Lawrence, of charges of obscenity.

29  PM Robert Menzies announces that an Australian combat force will be sent to Vietnam in response to a request for military aid from the South Vietnamese government.

Pride / Say It Again
Ray Brown & The Whispers

I Should Have Stayed In Bed / Skinny Minnie
Bryan Davies

It Ain't Necessarily So / Gonna Leave This Town
Normie Rowe & The Playboys

Talking About You / I Dream Of You
Tony Worsley & The Fabulous Blue Jays:

 

 

May 1965

1st Ticket To Ride
The Beatles

8th Ticket To Ride
The Beatles

15th Mrs Brown You've Got A Lovely Daughter
Herman's Hermits

22nd Mrs Brown You've Got A Lovely Daughter
Herman's Hermits

29th Mrs Brown You've Got A Lovely Daughter
Herman's Hermits

Major overseas releases:
The Animals - Animal Tracks
The Beach Boys - Help Me Rhonda
Donovan - Colours
The Hollies - I'm Alive
The Kinks - Set Me Free
The Rolling Stones - (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction


1  The ALP  is defeated in the NSW state election after 24 years in government and the Liberal Party, led by Robin (later Sir Robert) Askin takes power.

7  The White Nationalist Party wins the Rhodesian elections. Within weeks a state of emergency is declared.

26  Kenn Brodziak's "The Big Show" tour starring top British beat group The Dave Clark Five kicks off in Perth. The ten-concert tour also features UK singer Tommy Quickly, returning local heroes The Seekers, Bobby & Laurie and various other local groups supporting in each capital city.

27  The 1st Battalion Royal Australian regiment leaves for Vietnam on the HMAS Sydney.

29  The Captain Cook Bridge spanning the Cook's River, opens in Sydney's southern suburbs.

A Love Like You / Summertime
Lynne Randell

Louie Louie / Got Love If You Want It
The Pink Finks

I Told The Brook / Funny Face
Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs

 

 

June 1965

5th Mrs Brown You've Got A Lovely Daughter
Herman's Hermits

12th Pride / Say It Again
Ray Brown & The Whispers

19th Crying In The Chapel
Elvis Presley

26th Crying In The Chapel
Elvis Presley

The Beatles make their last live recordings for the BBC

Major overseas releases:
James Brown - Papa's Got A Brand New Bag
The Yardbirds - Heart Full Of Soul
The Rolling Stones - Got Live If You Want It! (EP)
The Byrds - All I Really Want To Do
The Byrds - Mr. Tambourine Man
The Beach Boys - Summer Days (And Summer Nights)

3  Ed White becomes the first American to walk in space.

11 Athlete Betty Cuthbert is awarded an MBE.

- In Melbourne students demonstrate against the all-white South African Springbok Rugby team's visit to Australia

- Poets Of The World/Poets Of Our Time is held at the Royal Albert Hall, London. Now regarded as the 'official' start of the UK psychedelic/underground scene, the star-studded poetry reading brings together 18 leading poets including Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Gregory Corso. The audience are handed flowers as they arrive and many are reportedly 'high' on LSD.

12 The Queen awards MBEs to The Beatles, prompting many people to return their own medals in protest

14 Variety show In Melbourne Tonight celebrates its 2000th performance. Since its premiere in 1957 the show has earned the Nine Network over £4 million in advertising revenue and has attracted more viewers per capita than any other television show in the world. Nine is rumoured to be paying host Graham Kennedy more than £20,000 per year.

17 Dame Joan Sutherland returns to Australia for a season of grand opera after 14 years overseas.

21 The Charlatans (who later change their name to The Grateful Dead) play at the Red Dog Saloon, Virginia City, California. The event is a landmark in the West Coast music scene and the promotional poster for the event, "The Seed", is the first in a legendary series of West Coast psychedelic poster art.

30 At a speech to the Australian Club in London, PM Sir Robert Menzies declares that Australia is in a state of war in Vietnam.

Someone / You Are Gone
Bobby & Laurie

Fool, Fool, Fool / Go To Him
Ray Brown & The Whispers

Doin' The Mod / Ain't That Just Like Me
The Flies

I wanna tell the world / Everybody's talkin'
Michelle Rae

 

 

July 1965

3rd I Told The Brook
Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs

10th I Told The Brook
Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs

17th She's So Fine
The Easybeats

24th She's So Fine
The Easybeats

31st Fool, Fool, Fool
Ray Brown & The Whispers

The Seekers LP A World Of Our Own reaches #5 on the UK charts.

Major overseas releases:
The Animals - We Gotta Get Out Of This Place
The Beatles - Help!
The Kinks - See My Friends

2 Victorian secondary school teachers go on strike, marking the first such industrial action by teachers in Australia since 1920.

7 The "Gala Night Of Stars" at the Sydney Stadium, starring Bobby and Laurie (from Melbourne), Johnny O'Keefe, Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs, Col Joye & The Joye Boys, The De Kroo Brothers, Tony Worsley & The Blue Jays, Judy Stone, Little Pattie, The Showmen, Jay Justin, Pam Oakley, Johnny Devlin & The Devils, The Rajahs, The Bee Gees, Johnny Rebb, Max Merritt, The Easybeats, Marlene Atcheson, Brian Witting, Tony Brady and Sharon Black.

10 The Rolling Stones' Satisfaction reaches #1 in the US charts

21 The US government dramatically increases its troop commitment to the conflict in Vietnam, doubling the number of troops in the region to 50,000 in less than a week. This action sets the stage for full-scale military involvement.

25 Bob Dylan creates rock history when he plays plays at the Newtport Folk Festival, backed by an electric band including organist Al Kooper, guitarist Mike Bloomfield and two members of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. Dylan's electric debut outrages festival-goers and organisers (including Alan Lomax and Pete Seeger) and he is booed by many of the audience, although many were not offended by the electric set, but rather by the brevity of Dylan's three-song, 15-minute set -- which was all they had rehearsed.

28 Former external affairs minister Lord Casey, 74, is named as the new Governor General of Australia

29 The Beatles' second film Help! premieres in London .

Who's Been Writing On The Wall Again / Chubby
Jenny Bradley

Zip A Dee Doo Dah / I've Been Trying
Max Merritt & The Meteors

Forever / Be Sure
Lynne Randell

Twilight Time / My Girl Josephine
Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs

 

 

August 1965

7th Fool, Fool, Fool
Ray Brown & The Whispers

14th A Walk In The Black Forest
Horst Jankowski

21st A Walk In The Black Forest
Horst Jankowski

28th A Walk In The Black Forest
Horst Jankowski

The Missing Links record their first (and only) LP at the Philips studios in Clarence St, Sydney.

Ronnie Burns leaves The Flies

Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters begin their "Acid Test" LSD experiments in California.

Major overseas releases:
The Beach Boys - California Girls
The Beatles - Help!
The Hollies - Look Through Any Window
The Small Faces - What'cha Gonna Do About It
Otis Redding - Respect
Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited

2  The ALP finally deletes the racist "White Australia" platform from its immigration policy

11-15  Major race riots break out in Los Angeles' predominantly black Watts district. 34 people are killed during five days of violence and the damage bill exceeds US$200 million.

13  Marty Balin opens the new San Francisco venue, The Matrix, and Jefferson Airplane play their first gig there.

15  The Beatles play to 55,000 in the Shea Stadium, New York

18  British celebrity photographer David Bailey marries French actress Catherine Deneuve, with Mick Jagger as best man

21  The ABC premieres a TV adaptation of George Johnston's award-winning book My Brother Jack

22  Lord Casey is appointed Governor General

30  Bob Dylan's groundbreaking LP Bringin' It All Back Home is released in the US.

You're Driving Me Insane / Something Else
The Missing Links

Que Sera Sera / Shakin' All Over
Normie Rowe

 

 

September 1965

4th Help!
The Beatles

11th Help!
The Beatles

18th Help!
The Beatles

25th Il Silenzio
Nino Rosso

St George win their tenth consecutive Rugby League Grand Final

Essendon wins the VFL Grand Final

Michael Hollingshead opens The World Psychedelic Centre in Pont St, London. Hollingshead spreads the new psychedelic 'gospel', selling copies of 'The Psychedelic Experience' and 'The Psychedelic Reader', recently published by Timothy Leary's Millbrook Centre in New York. Hollingshead, who had introduced Leary to LSD four years earlier, has also brought with him 5000 doses of LSD, planning to 'turn on' London. Visitors to the centre include William Burroughs, Roman Polanski and Paul McCartney. Hollingshead is arrested four months later and gaoled for 21 months on a minor narcotics charge, in an attempt to curtail the spread of LSD use.

Major overseas releases:
The Hollies - The Hollies
The Rolling Stones - Get Off My Cloud
Simon & Garfunkel - The Sound Of Silence
The Temptations - My Baby
The Rolling Stones - Out Of Our Heads
The Beatles - Yesterday
Otis Redding - Otis Blue


7 The Sydney Symphony Orchestra performs to sell-out audiences in Tokyo

23 Pioneering lawyer Roma Mitchell is appointed to the Supreme Court of South Australia, becoming Australia's first woman judge. In later years she is made a Dame of the British Empire and becomes Australia's first woman state governor (of South Australia).

25 The Missing Links perform on the program Ten On The Town, hosted by Mike Walsh, on Channel 10, Sydney.

30 The Communist Party attempts to seize power in Indonesia. The abortive coup leads to a brutal crackdown on left-wing and dissident groups; tens of thousands are rounded up by security forces and detained without trial, and countless thousands are tortured and killed in the ensuing months. A right-wing faction of the the army led by General Suharto takes control in the wake of the coup, deposing President Sukarno and taking control of the government and military. The ABC's Jakarta correspondent Philip Koch is trapped in the Presidential palace overnight during the communist attack and his experiences in the attempted coup later become the inspiration for his brother Christopher's novel "The Year Of Living Dangerously".

Wine and women / Follow the wind
Barry Gibb & The Bee Gees

Judy Green / Mojo Queen
Bobby & Laurie

Can't You Feel? / I'll Pass On By
The Flies

Wild About You / Nervous Breakdown
The Missing Links

Hallelujah I Love Her So / Baby Hold Me Close
Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs

Velvet Waters / Rock A Billy
Tony Worsley & The Fabulous Blue Jays


October 1965

2nd Il Silenzio
Nino Rosso

9th Que Sera Sera
Normie Rowe & The Playboys

16th Que Sera Sera
Normie Rowe & The Playboys

23rd Que Sera Sera
Normie Rowe & The Playboys

30th Que Sera Sera
Normie Rowe & The Playboys

The Loved Ones forms in Melbourne

Filming begins in Sydney for a new Anglo-Australian production, They're A Weird Mob. It is based on the comic novel by Nino Culotta (the pseudonym of author John O'Grady) and directed by leading British filmaker Michael Powell. It stars Italian actor Walter Chiari and an Australian supporting cast including Chips Rafferty, Ed Devereaux, Slim DeGrey, John Meillon, Anne Haddy, Tony Bonner, Gloria Dawn, Jeannie Drynan, Barry Creighton, Noel Brophy and Graham Kennedy

Major overseas releases:
The Animals - It's My Life
The Byrds - Turn! Turn! Turn!
The Kinks - Kwyet Kinks (EP)
John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers - I'm Your Witchdoctor

1 The Australian Ballet takes 49 curtain calls after its international debut in London

6 The report of a Victorian enquiry into the Church of Scientology, headed by Mr Kevin Anderson QC, declares that Scientology is "an evil practice with evil techniques"

- Manchester police break one of the most shocking cases in British history when Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, the so-called "Moors Murderers", are arrested at Brady's house in Manchester and charged with the axe murder of local teenager Edward Evans, 17. The pair had been betrayed by Hindley's brother-in-law David Smith, whom they were grooming to become a third member of their murder "club" but Smith had panicked when, on the night of October 6, he arrived at Brady's house to find him in the proccess of killing Evans with an axe. The arrests end Brady and Hindley's terrifying two-year killing spree, during which they kidnapped, tortured, sexually assaulted and murdered at least four other Manchester children. The bodies of two victims, Lesley Ann Downey, 10 and John Kilbride, 12 are later recovered from graves on Saddleworth Moor, but although police suspect Brady and Hindley of also killing missing children Pauline Reade, 16, and Keith Bennett,12, they have no bodies and no other evidence. The pair go on trial on 27 April 1966 and both received life sentences. Reade's body was not recovered until July 1987, by which time Hindley had abandoned her 20-year-long pretence of innocence, confessing to the killings and guiding police to Reade's grave in hopes of gaining her release. John Kilbride's body has never been found. Hindley died in prison in

7  Sir Robert Menzies is awarded the honorific English title Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports

16  The first Family Dog acid rock dance is held in San Francisco

17  The second season of the 1964-65 New York World's Fair [<-- 22/4/64] closes. The Fair's two year run is a moderate public relations success but a financial flop. It is predicted that the fair will attract 70 million people over its two seasons, but at the end of the first season, attendance is 25% below projections and the budget is US$10 million in the red. After the fair's bland and dull fun zone fails to attract patrons, better entertainment is added, but it does little to help. Fortunately a surge of attendance, 7 million people during the final three weeks, boosts attendance to 51 million -- a new record for international expositions. The Fair, however, did not generate enough money to pay back creditors and to finish Flushing Meadow Park in the ambitious style that Robert Moses hoped.

26  The Beatles go to Buckingham Palace to recieve their MBE. The Queen asks them how long they had been together, and Ringo replies "40 years". A persistent myth claims that the group blew a joint in the palace toilets before the ceremony, but the band have always denied this.

28  Pope Paul VI proclaims "Nostra Aetate" (The Declaration On The Relation Of The Church To Non-Christian Religions)  which finally exonerates the Jews for their alleged role in the death of Jesus. The racist doctrine of the historical guilt of the Jews was the basis for two millennia of persecution against Jews all over the world.

Padre / Watching the hours go by
Noelene Batley

In The Midnight Hour/Now Is The Time
Ray Brown & The Whispers

Bad girl / They say
Dennis & The Delawares

H'tuom Tuhs Part 1 / H'tuom Tuhs Part 2
The Missing Links

Poison Ivy / Blue Day (re-release)
Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs

 

November 1965

6th Que Sera Sera
Normie Rowe & The Playboys

13th Que Sera Sera
Normie Rowe & The Playboys

20th Que Sera Sera
Normie Rowe & The Playboys

27th Que Sera Sera
Normie Rowe & The Playboys

Churchill Fellowships are awarded for the first time

The Mills Cross radio-telescope opens near Hoskinstown, NSW

Two Cambridge (UK) bands, the Pink Floyd Sound and Jokers Wild (which includes David Gilmour on guitar) perform together for the first time at a local birthday party; Jokers Wild also back an unknown American singer called Paul Simon. The meeting eventually leads to Gilmour being recruited to replace Floyd founder Syd Barrett in 1968.

Major overseas releases:
The Beach Boys - Party!
Spencer Davis Group - Keep On Running
The Yardbirds - Having A Rave Up

2  Distinguished politician and jurist Dr Herbert Vere Evatt dies

- Light Fingers wins the Melbourne Cup

7  An underground fire kills four miners at the Bulli colliery near Wollongong

8  The Murder Bill (the abolition of the death penalty) and the Race Relations Bill pass into UK Law

11  Rhodesia announces UDI -- the Unilateral Declaration of Independence

13 Warrant Officers Kevin A. "Dasher" Wheatley and Ronald J. Swanton are killed in action at Tra Bong in Vietnam. At approximately 1pm that day, a Vietnamese Civil Irregular Defence Group company commence a search and destroy operation in the Tra Bong valley, 15 kilometres east of Tra Bong Special Forces camp in Quang Ngai Province. Accompanying the force are Captain F. Fazekas, senior Australian adviser, with the centre platoon, and Wheatley and Swanton with the right-hand platoon. At about 13:40, Wheatley reports contact with Viet Cong forces and resistance increases until Wheatley calls for assistance. Captain Fazekas immediately organizes the centre platoon to help and personally leads the troops, fighting his way towards the action. While moving towards the area he receives a second radio message from Wheatley to say that Swanton has been hit in the chest; Wheatley requests an air strike and an aircraft for the evacuation of casualties. At about this time the right platoon breaks in the face of heavy Vietcong fire and begins to scatter.

Although told by the medical assistant that Swanton is dying,  Wheatley refuses to abandon him. He discards his radio to allow him to half drag, half carry Swanton, under heavy machine-gun and automatic rifle fire, out of the open rice paddies into the comparative safety of a wooded area, some 200 metres away. He is assisted by a Civil Irregular Defense Group member, Private Dinh Do, but when the Viet Cong are only some ten metres away, Dinh urges Wheatley to leave his dying comrade. Again he refuses, and he is last seen pulling the pins from two grenades and calmly awaiting the approaching VietCong, holding one grenade in each hand. Shortly afterwards, two grenade explosions are heard, followed by several bursts of small arms fire. Warrant Officer Wheatley displayed exemplary courage in the face of an overwhelming Viet Cong force that was later estimated at more than a company. He had the clear choice of abandoning a wounded comrade and saving himself by escaping through the dense timber or of staying with Warrant Officer Swanton and thereby facing certain death. He deliberately chose the latter course.

Captain Fazekas led the search party that found the bodies next morning. From their final position it was judged that Wheatley was dragging and carrying Swanton from the open area to the thicket and stayed there with him trying to help him and defend him, without a weapon, after the CIDG abandoned them. Wheatley was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross, and in addition to memorials in Australia, his citation and photograph are also displayed in the Hall of Heroes, John F. Kennedy Center for Military Assistance at Fort Bragg, NC. The United States government also awarded him the Silver Star.

- British critic and writer Kenneth Tynan stuns viewers and sparks a storm of controversy when he says the word "fuck" on live TV in the UK.

16  Australia imposes economic sanctions on Rhodesia in the wake of its Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) from Britain.

27  The first Acid Test is held by Ken Kesey in Santa Cruz, California.

28  In Britain, Ian Brady and Myra Hindley are formally charged with the horrific kidnapping, torture and murder of several Manchester children in the so-called Moors Murders case. At the committal hearing, police are forced to use decoy tactics to sneak the pair past the hostile crowd outside the court.

 

The Bee Gees Sing and Play 14 Barry Gibb Songs
The Bee Gees

I was a lover, a leader of men / And the children laughing
The Bee Gees

Love Letters / Dancing In The Street
Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs

 

December 1965

4th Que Sera Sera
Normie Rowe & The Playboys

11th Que Sera Sera
Normie Rowe & The Playboys

18th Que Sera Sera
Normie Rowe & The Playboys

25th The Carnival Is Over
The Seekers

The first section of the Sydney-Newcastle expressway is opened

Principal shooting of They're A Weird Mob wraps in Sydney

Sydney magistrate Mr C. Rodgers rejects an appeal against his conscription by conscientious objector William White.

Sydney yacht Freya wins the Sydney To Hobart Yacht Race for the third consecutive year.

Jefferson Airplane record their first LP.

Major overseas releases:
The Beach Boys - The Little Girl I Once Knew
The Beatles - We Can Work It Out/Day Tripper, Rubber Soul
The Byrds - Turn! Turn! Turn!
The Kinks - Til The End Of The Day
The Rolling Stones - As Tears Go By
The Who - My Generation
Stevie Wonder - Uptight
The Yardbirds - Sonny Boy Williamson And The Yardbirds

3 The Beatles release their groundbreaking fifth LP Rubber Soul.

4 The second Acid Test is held in San Jose after invitations saying "Can You Pass The Acid Test" are distributed at a Rolling Stones concert. An estimated 400 people turn up to the San Jose house, where The Grateful Dead perform.

8 Martin Sharp's first exhibition of paintings opens at the Clune Galleries in Potts Point, Sydney. Sharp is the main illustrator and co-editor of Oz magazine. One of the paintings from this exhibition also featured in Albie Thoms' satirical short Blunderball, completed in March 1966.

15 Harry Chan becomes the first elected president of the Northern Territory Legislative Council.

18 The Missing Links perform on the roof of the newly-opened Roselands Shopping Centre in Sydney, followed by their second performance on the Channel 10 Sydney variety show Ten On The Town.

Crazy Country Hop / It Ain't Fair
Bobby & Laurie

You do your loving with me / In my book
Lynne Fletcher

You Deserve What You Got / I Want So MuchTo Know You
Max Merritt & The Meteors

The Missing Links (LP)
The Missing Links

Missing You / Lonely City
Tony Worsley & The Fabulous Blue Jays

Chart information courtesy Oz Net Music Chart © 1997