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Australian Events

Posted in 1959

  • Jack BrabhamPopulation reaches 10 million.
  • The first power from the Snowy Mountains scheme becomes available. Prime Minister Menzies opens the scheme by switching on the turbines:

MENZIES: "I've been told that I'm to move a switch here, and as usual when I move a switch nothing happens for a little while. It takes apparently a couple of minutes for the turbines to warm up to their work. And so I shall move the switch and then we'll wait to see whether it really is beginning."

NARRATOR: By the time the first dam, Guthega, was finished in 1955 Menzies was completely behind the project. Not only was it popular but he saw that the modern consumer society he hoped to promote would need the cheap electricity provided by the scheme.
Film Australia Ltd

† Prime Minister Menzies opens the scheme

  • Japan becomes Australia's largest buyer of coal and second-largest buyer of wool.
  • Jack Brabham is the new world champion motor racing driver.