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1974
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5th
Leave Me Alone (Ruby Red Dress)
Helen Reddy
12th
Leave Me Alone (Ruby Red Dress)
Helen Reddy
19th
48 Crash
Suzi Quatro
26th Photograph
Ringo Starr
|
The third Sunbury
Festival is held.
Festival Records releases a pop
arrangement of The Lord's Prayer sung by Adelaide nun
Sister Janet Mead. It becomes
a surprise Top 5 hit in Australia and America and goes on to become
the most successful Australian single to date and one of the biggest
selling US singles of the year, with worldwide sales of over two
million.
Farewell Aunty Jack, the theme from the hit ABC comedy
The Aunty Jack Show goes to #1. Australia's first-ever
picture disc, the single goes on to sell more than 100,000 copies.
Major overseas releases:
The Allman Brothers - Jessica
Bob Dylan - Planet Waves
The Faces - Coast To Coast: Overture And Beginners
The Hollies - The Air That I Breathe
Kraftwerk - Ralf & Florian
Yes - Tales From Topographic Oceans
Paul McCartney and Wings - Jet
1
The federal government takes over the states' financial responsibilities
for tertiary education and university fees are abolished.
1
Pioneering country musician Tex Ritter, "The Singing Cowboy", dies
in Nashville, Tennessee, aged 68.
3
Bob Dylan emerges from his long seclusion and opens his first
full-scale concert tour in more than eight years with a show in Chicago,
the first in a 25-city, 39-day tour in which he performs with his former
backing group, now known as The Band. Much of the tour is recorded and
the best tracks are subsequently released on the 2LP live set Before
The Flood.
American singer-songwriter
Jim Croce is awarded a Gold Record for his LP Time In A Bottle
4
South Vietnam's President Nguyen Van Thieu declares that war has begun again,
following the collapse of the Paris Peace Talks.
- Elton's John's LP Goodbye Yellow
Brick Road is certified gold in the USA.
13 Conductor
Sir Bernard Heinze is named Australian Of The Year.
26 - 28
Jim Keays comperes the third Sunbury Festival over
the Australia Day long weekend. Local heroes Daddy Cool
(who have reformed especially for the occasion) The Aztecs and
The La De Das go down a storm, but guest UK act Queen
and Melbourne band Skyhooks are both booed offstage. Skyhooks lead
singer Steve Hill leaves the band after watching the video replay of their
performance and is replaced by Graham "Shirley" Strahan.
27-30
Cyclone Wanda lashes Queensland, putting an estimated
three-quarters of the state under water, killing fourteen and
making thousands homeless. The Brisbane and Gold Coast areas
are heavily hit by floods with the Brisbane River breaking its banks
and flooding the city and low-lying suburbs. Over 7000 houses
have to be evacuated, many of which are in new developments built
on flood-prone land. The damage bill is estimated at $200 million.
Many other parts of the country, including NSW and Victoria are
also hit by some of the worst floods of the century. Over the following
weeks floodwaters fill the normally arid Lake Eyre basin to its
highest level in recorded history.
|
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The
Lord's Prayer
Sister Janet Mead |
|
1974
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2nd Sorrow
David Bowie
9th Sorrow
David Bowie
16th Farewell
Aunty Jack
Grahame Bond
23rd Farewell
Aunty Jack
Grahame Bond |
Drummer Colin Burgess and
bassist Larry Van Kriedt are sacked from AC/DC
Major overseas releases:
David Bowie - Rebel, Rebel
Eno - Here Come The Warm Jets
Elton John - Candle In The Wind / Bennie And The Jets
King Crimson - Starless & Bible Black
Van Morrison - It's Too Late To Stop Now
Lou Reed - Rock 'n' Roll Animal
3
A major riot erupts at Bathurst
Gaol in central NSW, involving almost all of its 350 inmates.
Three of the four main buildings are destroyed in a six-hour
rampage and ten prisoners are shot while attempting to set the
guard tower on fire. Conditions at the infamous maximum security prison,
long reputed to be the most brutal in the state, are the principal cause
of the riot.
11
Patricia Hearst, 19-year-old daughter of publisher Randolph Hearst, is
kidnapped by members of an urban terror group calling themselves the Symbionese
Liberation Army.
11
Crawford's adults-only TV satire The Box
premieres on the 0-10 Network.
12
In another highly controversial move, the federal government ends the $12/tonne
superphosphate bounty for farmers, a move greatly resented by
the rural sector.
- renowned Soviet author and Nobel Prize winner Alexander Solzhenitsyn is
arrested at his Moscow flat and exiled from the USSR the following day.
23 Australia
Post discontinues Saturday mail deliveries.
26
Australian prehistory is given a radical shakeup by the news that
the skeleton of an adult male Aborigine found at Lake Mungo in South
Australia has been dated to over 35,000 BP, confirming that Aborigines had
occupied Australia thousands of years longer than had previously been thought.
27
Sir John Kerr, Chief Justice of NSW, is announced as the new
Governor General of Australia, to succeed Sir Paul Hasluck in July.
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1974
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2nd
Farewell Aunty Jack
Grahame Bond
9th My
Coo Ca Choo
Alvin Stardust
16th My
Coo Ca Choo
Alvin Stardust
23rd
My Coo Ca Choo
Alvin Stardust
30th
My Coo Ca Choo
Alvin Stardust
|
Graham "Shirley"
Strachan replaces Steve Hill as lead singer of Skyhooks.
The report of the McLean
Independent Inquiry into FM broadcasting is tabled in federal parliament.
It finds that the Broadcasting Control Board's decision to put
FM radio in the UHF band was based on innaccurate and oudated
information, and recommends that the VHF band be expanded for
FM radio, that the ABC develop an FM network and that public
access stations should be established.
Major overseas releases:
Stevie Wonder - "Don't You Worry 'Bout A Thing"
Frank Zappa - Apostrophe'
On Australian TV this month:
Class of '74 (7), $25,000 Great Temptation (7),
Kung Fu (7), Ironside (9), The Ernie Sigley Show (9),
Matlock Police (10), Number 96 (10), Monty Python's
Flying Circus (ABC), Homicide (7), Callan (ABC),
The Box (10), M*A*S*H (10), Boney (7),
Barnaby Jones (9), Division 4 (9),
The Streets of San Franciso (7),
The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour (7)
4 Edward Heath resigns as British Prime Minister and Labour Party
leader Harold Wilson forms a new government.
9 The Country Party changes its name to The National
Party.
10
Japanese soldier Hiroo Onoda surrenders to authorities on
an island in the Philippines. Onoda had remained in hiding for 29 years, unaware
that WWII had ended in 1945.
18 Grundy's
high-school soapie Class Of '74
premieres on the 7 Network, with theme music by former Groop member
Brian Cadd.
18
A gunman fails in a bid to kidnap Princess Anne in London.
26
Ruth Dobson is appointed as Australia's envoy to Denmark, becoming
Australia's first woman ambassador.
|
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 1974
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6th
My Coo Ca Choo
Alvin Stardust
13th
My Coo Ca Choo
Alvin Stardust
20th
My Coo Ca Choo
Alvin Stardust
27th
Seasons In The Sun
Terry Jacks
|
Skyhooks sign
a recording contract with Mushroom Records
Guitarist Tim Gaze and drummer
Nigel Macara leave Ariel.
AC/DC's Angus Young
wears his famous schoolboy outfit on stage for the first time
at a concert in Sydney's Victoria Park.
The Australian alternative
press is dealt a double blow with the closure of two leading
underground papers. Publisher Gordon Barton closes The Living
Daylights, and incorporates it into the Nation Review.
Meanwhile The Digger is found guilty of obscenity, due
to an article by Beatrice Faust, found to have been accompanied
by "obscene" illustrations, and an article on sex education
by school teacher and future novelist Helen Garner. The fine of
$1350 cripples The Digger, which had operated on a financial knife edge,
forcing it to close.
Major overseas releases:
ABBA - Waterloo
Joni Mitchell - Court And Spark
Paul McCartney and Wings - Band On The Run
8
PM Gough Whitlam announces that "Advance
Australia Fair" will become the new national anthem,
replacing the British anthem "God Save The Queen"
15 The
Australian production of The Rocky Horror Show
premieres in Sydney at the New Arts Cinema, Glebe, NSW.
|
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Butterfly
Farm
Madder Lake |
 1974
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4th
Seasons In The Sun
Terry Jacks
11th
Seasons In The Sun
Terry Jacks
18th Seasons
In The Sun
Terry Jacks
25th
Devil Gate Drive
Suzi Quatro
|
John Lee (ex-Blackfeather,
Dingoes) joins Ariel as their new drummer.
Geoff Chunn and Rob Gillies
leave Split
Enz
Major overseas releases:
David Bowie - Diamond Dogs
Ry Cooder - Paradise And Lunch
Elton John - Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me,
1 Media
baron Sir Frank Packer dies in Sydney, aged 67. Packer's
built his Consolidated Press empire around the perennial Australian
Women's Weekly, founded in the 1920's, and by the time of
his death it included the Sydney Daily Telegraph, the
Sunday Telegraph, The Bulletin and TV stations
GTV-9 in Melbourne and TCN-9 in Sydney. Packer was also a keen
yachtsman who unsuccessfully contested the America's Cup in his
yachts Gretel and Gretel II. Packer's elder son
Clyde had been groomed to take over from his father but he soon
grew disenchanted with his role as a tycoon, and after a bitter
public split with his father, Clyde left the country in the early
'70s. On Sir Frank's death, control of the company passes to
Clyde's younger brother Kerry, in spite of the fact that Sir Frank
once reportedly described him as "the family idiot".
18
Labor scrapes back into power after a snap federal election. It fails to
gain the Senate majority it desperately needs and its House of
Representatives majority is slashed from 13 to 5.
26 Stevie
Wright headlines a huge free concert on the steps of the
Sydney Opera House, with AC/DC supporting. The concert marks
Wright's first live appearance with his former Easybeats bandmates
Harry Vanda and George Young since 1969.
|
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Changes / Mix Me Another Drink
Ronnie Burns
The Place/No Law (Against Having Fun
The La De Das
|
 1974
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1st
Devil Gate Drive
Suzi Quatro
8th
Devil Gate Drive
Suzi Quatro
15th Billy,
Don't Be A Hero
Paper Lace
22nd Billy,
Don't Be A Hero
Paper Lace
29th
Billy, Don't Be A Hero
Paper Lace
|
Skyhooks record Living
In The Seventies at Melbourne's TCS Studios, with Ross
Wilson producing. Two live Skyhooks tracks recorded at Sunbury in
January (Hey What's The Matter and Love On The Radio) are
released on the Highlights Of Sunbury '74 LP.
The NSW Builders Labourers
Federation is deregistered
Major overseas releases:
David Bowie - Diamond Dogs
Elton John - Caribou
The Kinks - Preservation Act II
Billy Preston - Nothing From Nothing
4 The
federal government announces a settlement of $1.7 million for
17 children who suffered catastrophic birth defects when their
mothers took the anti-morning sickness drug Thalidomide
while pregnant in the 1960s.
14 Opera
diva Joan Sutherland is made a Dame of the British Empire.
|
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Booze Blues / One Star, The Moon
Madder Lake
Too Pooped To Pop / She Tell Me What To
Do
The La De Das
Highlights of Sunbury '74 (LP)
Various Artists |
|
 1974
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6th
Billy, Don't Be A Hero
Paper Lace
13th
Billy, Don't Be A Hero
Paper Lace
20th Billy,
Don't Be A Hero
Paper Lace
27th
Billy, Don't Be A Hero
Paper Lace
|
Guitarist Harvey James
(ex-Mississippi) joins Ariel.
Glam rocker Gary Glitter
tours Australia, supported by The La De Das
The quota for Australian
content on radio is increased to 12.5%
Major overseas releases:
Eric Clapton - I Shot The Sheriff
The Rolling Stones - It's Only Rock 'n' Roll
Stevie Wonder - You Haven't Done Nothing
Neil Young - On The Beach
1
Argentina's fascist dictator Juan Peron
dies in office.
5
Northern Territory Aborigines reject
a $3.3 million compensation offer from the company wanting to
mine uranium at Nabarlek.
11 Singer
Frank Sinatra falls foul of Australian unions and
the media after he makes on-stage remarks about Australian journalists
during his Melbourne concert, branding them as "pimps"
and "hookers". Sinatra's comments, and alleged heavy-handed
behaviour by his bodyguards, result in the singer being effectively
black-banned by unions -- airport workers refuse to service any
plane that carries him, and Sydney hotel employees also refuse
to serve Sinatra and his entourage unless he apologises for his
remarks.
- Sir John Kerr succeeds Paul Hasluck as Governor
General
13
Tensions between Greece and Turkey rise to
boiling point, threatening all-out war between the two nations over the long-disputed
question of sovereignty over Cyprus. Acting on orders from the Greek military junta,
the Cyprus National Guard attacks the presidential palace and deposes the
administration of the Cypriot president, Archbishop Makarios, who narrowly escapes
death in the attack. Makarios flees and goes to Paphos, then a British helicopter
takes him to the Sovereign Base Area at Akrotiri and on to London. Several days
later, Makarios addresses a meeting of the UN Security Council, where he is accepted
as the legal president of the Republic of Cyprus.
20
Turkey invades Cyprus in response to the Greek-led
overthrow of Archbishop Makarios.
23
The Greek military junta, in power since the early
1960s, collapses in the wake of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. Konstantinos Karamanlis,
who has lived in exile in France since 1963, is called back, to head the Greek
government and Clerides is sworn in as acting president of the Republic of Cyprus.
|
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On The Road Back
/ Uptown 'n' Down
The Executives |
|
 1974
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3rd
Billy, Don't Be A Hero
Paper Lace
10th Evie
(Part 1)
Stevie Wright
17th
Evie (Part 1)
Stevie Wright
24th Evie
(Part 1)
Stevie Wright
31st
Evie (Part 1)
Stevie Wright
|
The departure of long-serving
staffer Michele O'Driscoll (known to readers as "Mitch")
precipitates the closure of Go-Set. The legendary weekly
music paper, founded in Melbourne in 1966 by Philip Frazer and Tony Schauble, had
been Australia's pop/rock bible for almost a decade.
Two major international acts
visit this month: Lou Reed brings his Rock & Roll
Animal tour, which coincides with the tour by former Turtles
and Mothers singers Flo & Eddie (Howard Kaylan and
Mark Volman). Reed and Flo & Eddie also make guest appearances
at each others concerts in Sydney. Reed's tour is supported by
AC/DC, and at the Adelaide concert Bon Scott is introduced
to the members of AC/DC for the first time.
The first televised session
of federal parliament is broadcast from Canberra.
Australia becomes one of the first
nations to ratify the UNESCO's International Convention for the Protection
of the World's Cultural and Natural Heritage -- the World Heritage Convention.
In the years that follow, many threatened areas of unique importance, including
Kakadu National Park and The Great Barrier Reef are listed as World Heritage areas.
Major overseas releases:
Eric Clapton - 461 Ocean Boulevard
Leonard Cohen - New Skin For The Old Ceremony
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - So Far
Elton John - The Bitch Is Back
Lou Reed - Sally Can't Dance
Stevie Wonder - Fulfillingness' First Finale
3 The
first Reefer Cabaret show at the Dallas Brooks Hall, with
Dingoes, Skylight, Wind and Skyhooks.
8
Fearing a looming impeachment motion against him, Richard Milhous Nixon
finally bows to overwhelming pressure and resigns as President of the
United States in the wake of the damning revelations in the Watergate
scandal. Vice President Gerald Ford is sworn in as President, and
immediately stirs up a massive controversy by issuing presidential pardons
to several major protagonists involved the scandal, including Nixon.
14
The second phase of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus begins after the
failure of talks between the warring parties.
16
After having seized 37 percent of the island above what the Turkish called the
"Atilla Line," that runs from Morphou Bay in the northwest to Famagusta
(Gazimagusa) in the east, the Turkish government orders a ceasefire. The
de facto partition of Cyprus resulting from the Turkish invasion causes
great suffering, in addition to the thousands killed, many of whom remain
unaccounted for years later. An estimated one third of the population of
each ethnic community is forced to flee their homes and the island's economy
-- which is largely dependent on tourism -- is devastated.
|
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Yeah Tonight/I Am The Laughing Man (For
Leo)
Ariel
Honky Tonkin' / Temple Shuffle
The La De Das Living
In The 70's / You're a Broken Gin Bottle Baby
Skyhooks |
|
 1974
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7th
Evie (Part 1)
Stevie Wright
14th
Evie (Part 1)
Stevie Wright
21st
The Night Chicago Died
Paper Lace
28th
The Night Chicago Died
Paper Lace
|
AC/DC original lead singer Dave Evans is replaced by Bon
Scott, former lead singer of The Valentines and Fraternity.
Skyhooks play
their first major headlining concert at Melbourne Festival Hall with
Sherbet and Buster Brown.
Ayers Rock record their debut LP Big Red
Rock live before an invited audience at Armstrong's Studios
in Melbourne.
Australia's economic status
worsens, with the trade deficit hitting its its highest point
for 23 years, inflation at 20% and unemployment at 1.85% of the
workforce.
Australian journalist Neil
Sharman and his American travelleing companion Charles Dean are reported missing
while travelling in south-east Asia. Their fate remained unknown until 8 Novermber 2003 when
their remains were discovered in a grave in central Laos. It is believed the two men
were taken prisoner by Laotian communist forces near the Mekong River. Accused
of espionage, they were held in a POW camp and were believed to have been killed in
December 1974 while being transported to Vietnam.
Major overseas releases:
David Bowie - Knock On Wood (live)
Jethro Tull - War Child
Traffic - Where The Eagle Flies
John Lennon - Walls And Bridges
1
Radio and TV licence fees are abolished. The annual fees, which
were previously charged for all TV and radio sets, had been a major
source of the ABC's budget. The federal government switches to direct
funding of the ABC.
12
Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie is deposed in a military coup.
21 Eastern Suburbs defeat Canterbury-Bankstown in the NSW Rugby League
Grand Final
28
Richmond defeats North Melbourne in the VFL Grand Final.
30 Trading
in property developer Cambridge Credit is suspended on
Australian stock exchanges after its shares plunge from 48 to
10 cents.
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 1974
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5th
The Night Chicago Died
Paper Lace
12th
The Night Chicago Died
Paper Lace
19th
The Night Chicago Died
Paper Lace
26th
The Night Chicago Died
Paper Lace
|
Ariel leave for concerts and recording in England.
Expatriate Australian vocalist
Olivia Newton-John scores a US #1 single with I Honestly
Love You, a song specially written for her by fellow Aussie
musician Peter Allen.
Major overseas releases:
David Bowie - David Live
Eric Clapton - Willie And The Hand Jive
King Crimson - Red
John Lennon - Whatever Gets You Through The Night
Van Morrison - Veedon Fleece
Randy Newman - Gold Old Boys
The Rolling Stones - Ain't Too Proud To Beg, It's
Only Rock 'n' Roll
Rod Stewart - Smiler
1
Mushroom Records releases Skyhooks'
debut LP Living In The 70s. Produced by Daddy
Cool's Ross Wilson, it quickly smashes all previous sales
records and becomes the biggest selling Australian LP to date,
despite the fact that by unanimous vote the Federation of Australian
Commercial Broadcasters (FACB) places an "A" classification (recommended
absolutely banned) on six of the ten album tracks. The success
of the album single-handedly saves the struggling Mushroom
label from ruin.
- Australian stock exchanges are
plunged into turmoil when property developer Cambridge Credit
is placed into receivership after defaulting on $2 million in interest payments
to creditors. The failure of the company, which had claimed assets
of $213 million but has debts totalling over $100 million, becomes
the largest collapse in Australian corporate history.
4 Questions
are asked on both sides of federal parliament about an incident
involving an ABC-TV Four Corners reporting team. The crew allegedly
pursued Mrs Edvokia Petrov, the wife of the Soviet defector
at the centre of the "Petrov Affair" spy scandal of
the 1950s, after the Nation Review disclosed her home address.
Attorney-General Lionel Murphy describes as "an outrage"
a letter written by Four Corners reporter Allan Hogan, telling
Mrs Petrov that Four Corners will not leave her alone until she
agrees to an interview.
7
The federal Builders Labourers Federation, led by notoriously
corrupt Victorian union boss Norm Gallagher, takes over the NSW branch,
expels Jack Mundey and other officials, and lifts Green Bans
on building projects including the controversial Victoria St development
in Kings Cross controlled by property developer Frank Theeman. The overthrow
of Mundey and his colleagues is seen by many as an overt attempt to thwart
the NSW BLF's strong opposition to destructive development projects in Sydney, and
to overturn their radical reforms of the BLF bureaucracy.
9 Double
Jay coordinator Marius Webb becomes the first staff-elected
Commissioner of the ABC
- John Entwhistle, bassist with The
Who, turns 30
16 The
3.9m Anglo-Australian telescope at Siding Springs is officially
opened
18 ABC-TV
(Melbourne) screens the first of four new episodes of the new
bushranger spoof Flash Nick From
Jindivik.
19 The
ABC makes its first test transmissions of colour TV from
Melbourne.
20 ABC-TV
(Sydney) screens the first of four new episodes of
Flash Nick From Jindivik.
29
Mohammed Ali regains his world heavyweight title at the
"Rumble in the Jungle" title fight against George Foreman in Zaire.
|
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Living In
The 70s (LP)
Skyhooks |
|
 1974
|
|
|
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|
2nd
The Night Chicago Died
Paper Lace
9th The
Night Chicago Died
Paper Lace
16th
I Honestly Love You
Olivia Newton-John
23rd
I Honestly Love You
Olivia Newton-John
30th
I Honestly Love You
Olivia Newton-John
|
Countdown premieres on ABC-TV. The new music
show is the broadcast nationally, initially for half an hour
every Saturday evening, later moving to its familiar one-hour
timeslot at 6pm Sundays. Based on BBC's Top of the Pops
and the 60s Australian pop show Kommotion, it was
created and coordinated by Michael Shrimpton and former GO-SET
writer and record producer Ian "Molly" Meldrum.
During its 14-year run it became Australia's most influential
showcase for popular music.
Skyhooks
appear on the premiere of Countdown. The band tours SA, WA,
Sydney and Canberra. Bassist Greg Macainsh contacts hepatitis on tour,
and is temporarily replaced by female bassist Marnie Martin. Bob Starkie
also contracts the disease but continues playing.
Major overseas releases:
Eno - Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy
Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway
Elton John/John Lennon - Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds
Kraftwerk - Autobahn
Joni Mitchell - Miles Of Aisles
Ringo Starr - Goodnight Vienna
Stevie Wonder - Boogie On Reggae Woman
Paul McCartney and Wings - Junior's Farm
5
Think Big wins
the Melbourne Cup
-
US nuclear industry worker Karen Silkwood dies in a mysterious car
crash. Although officially ruled an accident, the incident leads to
considerable speculation that her demise may have been connected to
her safety investigations into the nuclear facility where she was employed.
Silkwood was a chemical technician at the Kerr-McGee's plutonium fuels
production plant in Crescent, Oklahoma. She was also an active member
of the Oil, Chemical, and Atomic Workers' Union; she was critical of plant
safety, and during the week prior to her death, Silkwood was reportedly
gathering evidence for her union in support of her claim that Kerr-McGee
was negligent in maintaining plant safety, and that the company was
responsible for a number of unexplained exposures to plutonium. Post-mortem
tests showed that Silkwood had herself received significant exposure to
plutonium within thirty days before her death.
12
British aristocrat Lord Lucan goes missing after the murder of his
children's nanny and the attempted murder of his wife.
12
Twenty-one people die after IRA terrorists set bombs in two
Birmingham pubs.
|
|
|
It's All In Your
Head / Slack Alice
Madder Lake |
|
 1974
|
|
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|
|
7th
I Honestly Love You
Olivia Newton-John
14th
Kung Fu Fighting
Carl Douglas
21st
Kung Fu Fighting
Carl Douglas
28th
Kung Fu Fighting
Carl Douglas
|
In a poll conducted by Melbourne's
Sunday Observer, Skyhooks are voted the group fans would most
like to see in concert (by a landslide) and are also voted the hottest
new stars of 1974.
Ariel record their Rock & Roll Scars
LP at Abbey Rd Studios
Helen Reddy scores her third US #1 single, Angie
Baby
Love & War wins the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race
Major overseas releases:
George Harrison - Dark Horse
Yes - Relayer
5 The Whitlam
Labor government
is again beset by political controversy besets the Labor over the appointment of
Juni Morosi
to the staff of federal Treasurer Dr Jim Cairns. The controversy
stems from revelations that Ms Morosi and her husband David Ditchburn
are former directors of two failed travel companies, and that
Mr Ditchburn employs the wife of federal Attorney General Lionel
Murphy.
15 Sydney
community radio co-operative 2MBS-FM becomes the first
Australian FM station to commence regular FM broadcasts.
24 A French
paleontological team
led by Dr Yves Coppens discovers fossilised skeletal remains of an ancient hominid
ape at Hadar in Ethiopia.
The fossils, those of a young female Australopithecus afarensis nicknamed
"Lucy" (after The Beatles' song Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds) are
estimated to be at least 3.2 million years old, providing indisputable evidence that
bipedalism and upright posture had evolved in
hominids at least one million years earlier than previously thought.
25 Darwin is virtually destroyed by Cyclone
Tracy, Australia's worst modern natural disaster. Between 2am and
5.30am winds of up to 217 kph blast the city, killing 62 people
and injuring over 1,000. Over 90% of homes are destroyed, 25,000
of the city population of 48,000 are made homeless and damage
is estimated at $400 million.
30 The Darwin Reconstruction Commission is established
to oversee the rebuilding of the shattered city.
31 AC/DC play a New Year's Eve show at Melbourne's
Festival Hall. |
|
|
Lady Montego/
Goin' Home
Ayers Rock |
