Oh! The humanity!

From 21 September 1987

Well, so long as the are professionals they must know what they're doing.  I'm sure they'll tell us if there's any trouble around the corner.

From 9 March 1989

Okay, I took a bath on the '87 crash, but I'm back!  Now where can I put my savings?  16% looks pretty good.  And they are "a division of the $2.2 billion Farrow Corporation".

Oh, it's so hard to choose!  This lot are offering 18.5% and they have a picture of a giraffe!  Maybe trust closes June 23 should have been a hint?

Tasmania will get pulp mill

From 20 March 1989

One thing about Graham Richardson: he's tenacious.  Even after Labor lost government, he just kept working on that pulp mill freelance.  He'll get that bastard built eventually...

The end of poverty

From 1 January 1970

Not a lot of people realise that Gorton actually succeeded in eliminating poverty by the time he was ousted from leadership in March 1971.  Unfortunately it was immediately reinstated by his successor Billy McMahon.

 

P.S.  When the hell did we stop calling Tullamarine a "jetport"?  That's awesome.

A New Century

From 1 January 1901

Yes, apart from the wars, the nuclear arms races, the depression, the epidemics, the famines and apartheid, the twentieth century is going to be freaking awesome.  

Evans casts doubt on SBS future

From 1 September 1987

Gareth Evans couldn't do much about East Timor, so the plan was to ensure Australians never heard about foreign countries by folding SBS into the ABC.  Plan B was to keep SBS intact but replace all the ethnic crap with South Park, the World Cup and Big Love, which is ultimately what happened.

Welcome

Hello.  Not a lot of people know that Google has a huge archive of scanned newspapers available to browse at http://news.google.com.au/newspapers.  In particular, they have The Age from 1851 to 1989.  The premise of this blog is simple: I find articles and other bits and pieces from old copies of The Age that in 2012 are interesting, funny or poignant and make smart-arsed comments about them. Let's get clipping.