In 1995, just as Dan was heading off to begin his high school career at Nudgee College, one of Australia’s most loved sports, Rugby League, found itself at the centre of a bitter dispute that would split the fanbase, players and clubs, cracking the game to its foundations.
Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp had begun offering overly inflated contracts to star players in a bid to lure them to a rival competition. This started a bidding war where the prize was the signatures of the highest profile players but at stake was the soul of a sport. This was an event from which the game has yet to fully recover.
This was also the year that saw:
– Redcliffe City Council calls for expressions of interest for the construction and design of a new Redcliffe Jetty, while the Department of Transport calls for boats to be banned from mooring on the Jetty due to safety concerns
– State Government gives the Wallum Project (now known as the Redcliffe Botanical Gardens) to the Redcliffe City Council
– WWII Remembrance Plaque unveiled in Anzac Place
– The inaugural Kitefest is held on the Redcliffe waterfront
– A momentous year in domestic politics sees John Howard become Federal Opposition Leader, Bob Carr become Premier of NSW AND Wayne Goss’ incumbent government reduced to a one seat majority in QLD
– Qantas is privatised
– Telecom Australia becomes Telstra
– Pay TV arrives in Australia with Foxtel and Optus Vision competing in metropolitan areas and Galaxy and Austar regionally
– The Russian space station Mir welcomes its first US shuttle
– France begins a program of nuclear testing in the Pacific to widespread condemnation
– Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin is assassinated by a right wing fanatic
– OJ Simpson is found Not Guilty in his wife’s murder trial
– Steve Fossett becomes the first person to travel the Pacific Ocean in a balloon
– The Usual Suspects, Casino, Heat, Seven, Braveheart, Toy Story and the Australian classic Babe are released
Births: Nick Kyrgios (27 April)
Deaths: Howard Cosell (23 April), Ginger Rogers (25 April), Terry Southern (29 October), Andrew Olle (12 December)
