Before John could say “Happy New Year!” it was already 1975. Things got off to a busy start at the offices of John Hutchinson Solicitor and rarely slowed down, an office trait that remains to this day. But while John got used to being a one man band in a new town, the world around him continued to move and shake as 1975 saw:
– The last toll paid through the Hornibrook Highway by Russ Hinze, Transport Minister, at 6pm on Saturday 4 October;
– The second Redcliffe Historical Society Museum opens at Suttons Beach bathing pavilion;
– The completion of Warwick Tower at 51 Marine Pde sees the height limit in the area changed to eight stories on the Redcliffe Waterfront;
– Prime Minister Gough Whitlam is dismissed by Governor-General John Kerr on 11 November and Malcolm Fraser is voted in as Prime Minister in the ensuing Federal Election on 13 December;
– South Australia becomes the first state in Australia to legalise homosexuality between consenting adults in private;
– The Balibo Five are assassinated by Indonesian troops in Portuguese Timor;
– Medibank (later to be renamed Medicare) is introduced;
– The Vietnam war ends on 30 April with the Fall of Saigon;
– Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge take over Cambodia;
– Andrei Dmitriyevich Sakharov becomes the first Soviet citizen to receive the Nobel Peace Prize; and
– The films One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Jaws, Nashville, Dog Day Afternoon, Barry Lyndon and the Australian landmark Picnic at Hanging Rock are released;
Births: Anthony Mundine 21 May, Andrew Symonds 9 June, Loretta Harrop 17 July;
Deaths: Jack Lang 27 September, Aristotle Onassis.
