1970s: The clock was briefly turned back when St George District Cricket Club greats Sir Donald Bradman and Bill “Tiger” O’Reilly were reunited during the re-opening of Bradman Oval at Bowral.
Bradman lived at Rockdale while playing for the club from 1926 until 1932-33, while O’Reilly, who lived at Hurstville and Blakehurst, was with St George for 15 seasons until 1948-49.
In a poignant moment, O’Reilly, 70, bowled to Bradman, two years his junior, for the last time.
1960s: “Hurstville once was one of the most attractive stations on the Illawarra line,” but by 1961 it was dilapidated, the Leader reported.
Demolition work began in 1959 as part of the Hurstville Super Centre project, but stopped when the developer ran into financial problems.
Conceived in 1956, the super centre was initially to be a five-storey development, but the plans became more ambitious to make it eight storeys and then 10 storeys.
The first stage was to include railway station access and shopping concourse, with more shops, professional offices and home units to be added in two further stages
However, it never grew any higher than the building which, after prolonged interruptions, finally opened in 1965.
1980s: A wounded leopard seal, with two shark bites in his side was “sick, sore and sorry” when he beached himself at the northern end of Bate Bay in 1989, the Leader reported.
However, staff from Taronga Zoo, who nicknamed him Henry, came to his aid and were confident of a full recovery.
1990s: Shire resident and cartoonist Jim Russell, 82, who had been drawing The Potts comic strip for 51 years, was chosen in 1992 as an ambassador for a government campaign to promote the productivity and creativity of seniors. He died in 2001.
2000s: A troupe of baby ballerinas won a lot of hearts.
The Leader pictured the girls, from the Noble Dance Centre at Kogarah, rehearsing for their dancing debut at a 2008 Christmas concert at the Hurstville Civic Centre.
