Birth was registered on 22 Nov and that date was mistakenly used as the date of birth. Actual DOB 13 Nov 1936.

The last Thylacine dies

The radio series Dad and Dave begins

Sydney hosts the Empire Games, the forerunner to the Commonwealth Games

(April) Prime Minister Lyons dies in office and is replaced by Robert Menzies and the first Menzies Government

A team of scientists, under Howard Florey, develops penicillin

3 Divisions of the 2nd Australian Imperial Force join operations in the Mediterranean. After initial successes against Italy, 2nd AIF suffered defeat against the Germans in Greece, Crete, and North Africa.

Feb, Fall of Singapore. 15,000 Australians become Prisoners of War of the Japanese

Australia wins its first Oscar, with cinematographer Damien Parer honoured for Kokoda Front Line! documentary.

Cowra breakout, mass escape of Japanese prisoners of war occurs in NSW.

the Liberal Party of Australia is established with Robert Menzies as its first leader.

Minister for Immigration Arthur Calwell introduces the major post-war immigration scheme

Minister for External Affairs, Dr. H.V. Evatt is elected President of the United Nations General Assembly.

Construction of the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme begins

1950-53 - Australian troops are sent to the Korean War to assist South Korea.

Australia signs the ANZUS treaty with the United States and New Zealand

First nuclear test conducted in Australian territory by the United Kingdom off the coast of Western Australia.

Elizabeth II and Prince Philip make a royal visit; the Soviet diplomat Vladimir Petrov defects, leading to the Petrov Affair and another split in the Labor Party

Democratic Labor Party splits from Australian Labor Party over concerns of Communist influence in the labour movement

Television in Australia is launched.

The song 'Wild One' makes Johnny O'Keefe the first Australian rock'n'roller to reach the national charts.

Robert Menzies' Commonwealth Electoral Act provided that all Indigenous Australians should have the right to enrol and vote at federal elections, removing remaining restrictions applying in QLD, WA and NT.

The Beatles tour Australia;

Indigenous Australians gain right to vote in state of Queensland

The ban on the employment of married women in the Commonwealth Public Service is lifted;

Decimalisation; on 14 February the Australian currency is changed to dollars and cents, with the Australian Dollar replacing the Australian pound.

Large areas of Hobart and south-eastern Tasmania are devastated by bushfires on 7 February that kill 62 people;

Australia signs the nuclear non-proliferation treaty; Aboriginal boxing champion Lionel Rose defeats Masahiko 'Fighting' Harada in Japan to become the world bantamweight champion; Australia's first liver transplant operation is performed in Sydney;

French conceptual artist Christo 'wraps' Little Bay in Sydney;

More than 200,000 people participate in the largest demonstrations in Australian history, against the Vietnam War

Neville Bonner becomes the first Aborigine to become an Australian Member of Parliament;

The Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Commission rules that women doing the same job as men have the right to be paid the same wage.

The Sydney Opera House is opened

Darwin is devastated by Cyclone Tracy

(November) A constitutional crisis occurs when Malcolm Fraser blocks supply, bringing the nation to a standstill until Governor-General John Kerr dismisses Prime Minister Gough Whitlam on the 11.11.75. Fraser wins elections and becomes Prime Minister

The Australian Capital Territory legalises homosexuality between consenting adults in private.

Advance Australia Fair becomes Australia's official national anthem

The First Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras kicks off in Sydney

Australian women win the right to maternity leave

Baby Azaria Chamberlain disappears from a campsite at Uluru (Ayers Rock), reportedly taken by a dingo. The Coalition wins the 1980 Australian federal election.

A referendum is held in Tasmania to vote for whether or not the Franklin Dam should be built.

Commonwealth Games held in Brisbane. The National Gallery of Australia is opened.

Australia wins the America's Cup;

Advance Australia Fair is proclaimed as Australia's national anthem.

The government grants the freehold title of a large area of land in central Australia, including prominent landmarks Uluru and Kata Tjuta, to the Mutitjulu people, who in turn give them a 99-year lease.

The Australia Act removes the right of appeal from State courts to the British Privy Council, making the High Court the final court of appeal in Australia. The Act also removes all remaining rights of the UK parliament to pass law for Australia. Anita Cobby murder in Sydney. Russell Street Bombing in Melbourne. Crocodile Dundee is released in Australia.

Hoddle Street Massacre kills 7 victims and injures 19,

Australia celebrates its bicentenary, with large celebrations and major funding for capital works projects. The new Parliament House opens. Federal referendums on 4-year parliamentary terms, recognition of local government and other issues are defeated. Brisbane hosts World Expo '88.

Newcastle Earthquake kills 13 people.

Royal Australian Navy deployed in preparation for the First Gulf War.

Prime Minister Bob Hawke is replaced by Paul Keating.

The High Court delivers the Mabo Decision, which rules that indigenous native title does exist. This effectively extinguishes the concept of terra nullius.

Keating defeats John Hewson in the 1993 federal election;

The Northern Territory legalises voluntary euthanasia, but it is overruled by the federal government when Liberal MP Kevin Andrews proposes the Euthanasia Laws Bill 1996

The High Court hands down the Wik Decision, which holds that indigenous native title can survive the granting of pastoral leases.

Expelled Liberal MP Pauline Hanson forms the One Nation Party

A major strike results when Patrick Stevedores attempt to introduce non-union labour to reduce the influence of the Maritime Union of Australia

Both houses of the federal parliament pass a motion signifying both recognition of and regret at past treatment of indigenous Australians.

27th Olympic Games held in Sydney.

Australia celebrates centenary of Federation;

2002 Bali bombings, the deadliest act of terrorism in the history of Indonesia, killing 202 people, (including 88 Australians.

Australian military deployed to Iraq War to oust the Saddam Hussein regime for serial non-compliance with the 1991 Gulf War Peace Treaty.

A bomb explodes outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, Asia.

Sydney beachside suburb of Cronulla sees a protest against the alleged bashing of a beach lifeguard, developing into an alcohol-fuelled, racially-charged riot.

The Commonwealth Games are held in Melbourne.

Sydney hosts APEC summit.

Kevin Rudd leads bi-partisan Parliamentary apology to the Stolen Generation.

Black Saturday: Massive bushfires swept across Victoria, resulting in 173 fatalities.

Kevin Rudd challenged and replaced as leader of the Labor Party by Julia Gillard;

State of Queensland affected by major flooding followed by Cyclone Yasi.

Eulogy Mum was born, the first child to Jim and Kitty Madill, on November 13th, 1936 at the Cooinda Private Hospital in Victoria Street, Warragul. She would become the eldest sister to her brothers Alan, Ian, and Noel and her sisters Elaine and Marlene. She was, with her siblings, raised by their parents on their dairy farm on the Buln Buln road at Drouin East. Mum attended Warragul High School until she was fourteen years old, at which time she left school and remained at home to help with work on the farm with her Mum and Dad. On this very day, February 12th, sixty-nine years ago, her Mum asked Annette (then only sixteen years old), to go up to the schoolhouse at Drouin East and to deliver two drink containers of orange juice for her younger siblings Noel and Elaine, drinks that they had forgotten to take with them when they had left for school earlier in the morning. And so began the legendary story of the Great Orange Juice Affair that has been retold, through the generations of our family since that very day. A young and slightly audacious Headmaster responded to a knock on the schoolhouse door and was met with what he would later describe as, "a vision of beauty". The younger Madill's sister, the young girl who would later become our Mum, stood before him, with her sibling's orange juice drinks. Without missing a beat, and with a generous smile, his first words to her were, "Where's mine?" Needless to say, the following day Mrs. Madill made certain that the children went to school with an extra container of orange juice! The flame was lit! A fire of love that burned unquenched for almost seventy years. Mum moved from home on the farm, to live and work in Melbourne when she was eighteen years of age, boarding at the YWCA Hostel in Toorak. It was while there that she met her lifelong friend Julie Stanford, a friendship forged in their eager and aspirational teenage years, a friendship that endured for a lifetime. She married her life's love, Lyle in 1957 at the Saint Theodore's Church of England, Wattle Park. The arrival of a bouncing baby boy in 1958 was to be followed by the delight of a daughter born in 1960. Ultimately, she would have a family of five boys, Warwick, Nigel, Jason, Bradley, Aaron, and one very special daughter and sister to them all, Bronwyn. Life as the wife of a school teacher and Headmaster meant that a procession of towns and schools for those first years of marriage became the norm. From Woorigee just out of Beechworth to Blackburn South in Melbourne's eastern suburbs, from Omeo in Victoria's alpine region to Eagle Point on the Gippsland lakes, from Bendigo in the central Victorian goldfields to Moe in the Latrobe Valley. The family moved and grew over the following ten years. Whilst Dad was teaching in some of these then, far-flung locations, Mum, along with making a home, would often teach needlecraft and other home-based skills to the older girls in the schools. Mum and Dad always had a strong awareness of God in their lives: they lived their faith and the values it extolled by always worshipping at, and supporting the local Anglican church where ever they found themselves living. Their home seemed to always provide a place of support and sanctuary for people who found themselves in need of help. From my youngest years, I recall the continuous flow of people who would live with us because their circumstances were such that they had nowhere to lay their head and no one to tend their wounds. Mum was always able to add an extra place setting at the table and to have a bed made up for them. In 1966, just months after the birth of Jason, we began attending the Christian Revival Crusade church in Bendigo. The events that precipitated this change from our Anglican past, conspired to change all of our lives forever. Mum and Dad had a spiritual encounter that served to amplify and enlarge their already diligent and demonstrated Christian enthusiasm. They experienced a spiritual renewal much in the same way as the disciples of old had done on the Day of Pentecost. Imbued with a new fire and passion, Dad wanted to be a full-time minister in the church; he wrote his letter of resignation from the Education Department, annulling his long-service leave, his superannuation, and the security of his teaching career. Handing the sealed envelope to Mum, he said, “When you’re comfortable with the decision, you post the letter.” Unwavering in her trust in God and her support and dedication to Dad, Mum walked from the house to the nearest mailbox and slipped the letter through the slot. A new chapter in her life was about to be written. In 1969, just months after the birth of Bradley, we moved to Moe, it was here that the foundations of this very church we are gathered in today were laid. A constant flurry of activity ensued with many people coming into the new church fellowship, starting with Bible studies held at Barry and Pauline Potts’ home, people enjoined themselves to Mum and Dad and the grand vision for a Christian revival to take place in Gippsland. Auntie Julie, Barrie and Lynn Ryan, Bruce and Dorothy Gilding, and the names of so many other dedicated men and women of God, who shared the same faith and vision, are too numerous to recount. In 1977, Mum and Dad made a journey through Israel, Europe, and the United States. One memorable experience of that trip, recorded on Super8 film by Dad, was when they visited the site of the tomb of Jesus, in Jerusalem. The overwhelming awe and emotion of the moment were captured, as Mum stood at the entrance, and through tears of joy and gratitude, declared, as did the Archangel Gabriel, “He is not here, He is risen!” In 1978 a move to the National Capital, Canberra took the family to a new location where Mum and Dad settled in to start a new church in the same way they had in Moe. By this time, with the family getting older, daughters were welcomed into the family as some of the boys began to choose their life partners. And, of course, not far behind the marriages of her children came the arrival of her first grandchildren. She became a grandmother in 1981 and eventually was Nanna to twenty-three grandchildren which in time ensued with her becoming Great Nanna to a further thirty-five great-grandchildren, a total of sixty-four descendants. In 1985 Mum moved with Dad and the youngest members of the family to Burnie, Tasmania. Here she took up the role of Matron at the Hellyer College Student Residences where her caring and nurturing nature was enjoyed by the many apprentices and students who had to live away from home to complete their studies. She undertook this role along with her active and supportive role in a newly established church. Her return to Moe in 1999 saw her move into retirement with Dad, allowing her to devote her time to her ever-growing family. She planned trips with her grand-daughters to holiday everywhere from Alice Springs to Hobart to the United States, also visiting her grand-daughters and their families in America. Holidays with Auntie Julie to Norfolk Island, and a cruise to New Zealand, Mum never seemed to tire of the chance to hop on a plane, train, bus, ship, or any other form of transport to see and experience new places and people. Now, there was one group of people she ardently referred to as “her boys”, her beloved Hawks. A financial member of the Hawthorne Football Club, the word ‘supporter’ probably doesn’t do her justice; Mum was a fierce and unashamed, maybe even fanatical Hawks fan, taking every opportunity she could to go and see them play, in rain, hail or sunshine, sometimes turning the television off in the third quarter, unable to contain her concern, if it was going to be a close game. It was impossible to walk through her house without seeing the evidence of her Hawks fandom everywhere. Settled in her home at Francis Street in Moe, it was in the August of 2008 that she said her final goodbye to her soulmate and the love of her life, Lyle. Her anguish, grief, and loss were overwhelming. Ever devoted to her family she said, “It would be so easy for me to go now, to be with my sweetheart wherever he is, but, I know I need to be here, to stay and be a support for my children and their families.” Mum worked diligently to navigate her journey through her mourning and all of its vagaries to emerge in her characteristic strength and demure disposition. For many years she held a modest but much loved Bible study each week at her home, she continued with the same passion she had from earlier days when she was younger and integral to that team of two who had pioneered and had touched and made a difference in so many lives. Sadly, loss, grief, and mourning were once again going to inhabit her life, with the death of her cherished son, Bradley, in 2015. This was a tragedy she had not anticipated, and it hit her hard, the last thing any parent envisions is having to bury one of their children. Again, Mum rallied her inner strength, combined with her faith in God and her acceptance of His will and plan, and remained faithful to her calling as a mother, grandmother, great grandmother, and friend. Mum gained much enjoyment and pleasure from her rose garden, a variety of blooms, each with their special name, many of the rose bushes were gifts to mum from loved ones like Auntie Elaine, in loving memory of those who had already passed on. She tended her garden with great care and pride. Mum made it her business to learn as much as she possibly could about as many things as she possibly could, she embraced technology using things like YouTube and social media, staying in touch with family and friends on Facebook, using Zoom to video-call her far-off grandchildren and their children. She was a voracious reader, developing a command of knowledge in a broad range of subjects, some of her favourites were history and the Royal family. Her recall of names, dates, locations, relationships, and all other manner of detail was unmatched. This same partiality for detail was present in her knowledge of her family members, whether Potts, Madill, Starritt, or others, and not for just those who were living, but for generations back through the years. Mum constantly stayed in touch with family and friends calling them on the phone or visiting them regularly. In the closing months of 2018, after tests and investigation, Mum received a diagnosis that she had developed second stage cancer of the lungs; she immediately sought and received treatment from the oncology unit of the Latrobe Regional Hospital. Over the next two years, Mum affirmed her faith while continuing to seek out whatever medical options were available to her. Eventually, she was unable to attend church, and combined with the circumstances of 2020 and the modified rules for visiting during the year of COVID-19, the Bible study was placed into abeyance. In the early morning hours of Tuesday the 2nd, Mum made her journey from this world to the next, reunited with those whom she loved who had gone before. Even in the difficulty of those last days and hours of her life she kept her optimism, talking to those around her, about the future, her plans, and all the things she yet still wanted to do. Mum was devout, devoted and dignified, loyal and loving, curious and classy, generous and gracious, and so much more than these alone; in the end, Mum was dearly loved, and now she will be forever missed, by all of those who had the unique privilege of having her weave some of the threads of her life into the tapestry of their lives. For everything that you have been to all of us, thank you Mum, we will love you forever.