Menzies reflects, Australia matures

Posted in Decades

Sir Robert Menzies

1977 Queen Elizabeth presents the Order of Australia to Sir Robert

Completes the final revision of his second book of memoirs The Measure of the Years. The book is launched by Sir Paul Hasluck in October 1970. On November 30, 1971: suffers a severe stroke which disables Sir Robert, paralysing him on one side. Sir Robert is invested as Knight of the Order of Australia by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth. The presentation takes place in the Long Room of the Melbourne Cricket Ground at the centenary cricket test in March 1977. Sir Robert dies on May 15, 1978 in Melbourne, aged 83.

Australian Events

1973 Queen Elizabeth opens Sydney Opera House Neville Bonner is the first Aboriginal member of Parliament and the first Australian census to fully include all Aborigines is conducted in 1971. Voting age is lowered from 21 to 18 and the Sydney Opera House is opened by Queen Elizabeth II during 1973. Commonwealth Racial Discrimination Act comes into force in 1975 and the Family Law Court is established. January 18, 1977: 82 people killed in the Granville train disaster, NSW. Sir Robert Menzies Memorial Trust is formed in 1978.

World Events

1978 test tube baby Boeing 747 airliner (the Jumbo Jet) goes into service in 1970. Vietnam Peace Agreement is formally signed in Paris in 1973. Papua New Guinea gains independence and Indonesia occupies East Timor in 1975. South Africa's apartheid policy leads to tighter controls in 1977 over black people. World's first test tube baby is born in Britain in 1978.