1960s: North Cronulla Surf Life Saving Club, which was founded in 1925, hosted the Australian championships on the Easter weekend in 1968.
Guest of honour, Prime Minister John Gorton, displayed his well-known larrikin streak by giving his security men the slip and going for a surf with federal MP Don Dobie.
Mr Gorton wore a suit to the beach, “but slipped from a side entrance of the clubhouse and, wearing a pair of trunks he had brought with him, went for a swim with Mr Dobie,” the Leader reported.
1970s: Wearing a bonnet, coach Harry Bath celebrated with players after the youthful St George team dubbed Bath’s Babes defeated Canterbury 17-13 in the 1979 grand final.
It was their second premiership in three years. In 1977 St George defeated Parramatta 22-0 in a grand final replay after the league’s first drawn grand final.
1980s: In 1982, Sutherland Shire president (mayor) Kevin Skinner said state government inquiry commissioners had thrown away the chance to save the Kurnell sand hills when sand mining areas were exempted from a new regional environmental plan.
During the 1980s, mining reached below ground level, and lakes formed.
1990s: John Hargreaves, who grew up at Oatley and became one of Australia’s finest actors, was only 50 when he died from AIDS in 1996.
Born in Murwillumbah in 1945, his family moved to Sydney in the 1960s and he attended Marist College Kogarah.
He initially worked as a teacher in the country before deciding on a career change, graduating from the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) in 1970.
Hargreaves appeared in movies, including Don’s Party, The Removalists, Mad Dog Morgan, The Odd Angry Shot, Emerald City, Country Life, Hotel Sorrento, My First Wife, Careful He Might Hear You, Malcolm, A Good Thing Going, Lust and Revenge, and Cry Freedom..
He portrayed Jim Cairns in TV series The Dismissal and also appeared in The Leaving Of Liverpool, Scales Of Justice and Power Without Glory.
Hargreaves also had roles in police dramas Matlock, Division 4 and Homicide.
2000s: Ivan, India, Issy, Imran, Ivor and Ira were “earmarked” for big things at Heathcote-based Assistance Dogs Australia in 2005. The cross labrador and golden retriever puppies began training to assist people with disabilities live more independently
