We might have done okay at the Olympic Games and better at the Commonwealth Games… but it seems we still had to have a Games to call our own.
The inaugural Australia Games were held in Melbourne in 1985. The competition was timed to feature in Victoria’s 150th anniversary celebrations. But despite the name it wasn’t purely an Australian event. Over 2000 competitors from 25 countries took part in 23 sports over the ten days of competition.
And then the Australia Games were seemingly never heard from again?
The Opening Ceremony of the Australia Games took place 30 years ago, Saturday 26 January 1985, at the Melbourne Sports And Entertainment Centre and features in the latest batch added to the Classic TV Guides.
- Thursday 31 December 1964 — VICTORIA
- Friday 27 March 1970 — VICTORIA Royal Children’s Hospital Good Friday Appeal
- Friday 27 March 1970 — SOUTH AUSTRALIA Adelaide’s Good Friday Appeal
- Friday 22 November 1971 — MELBOURNE A Current Affair begins
- Tuesday 5 November 1974 — MELBOURNE The Melbourne Cup is broadcast in colour for the first time, but Melbourne viewers still had to accept a delayed TV coverage of the ‘race that stops a nation’.
- Monday 23 February 1976 — SYDNEY
- Friday 14 March 1980 — VICTORIA TV Week Logie Awards
- Friday 25 December 1981 — MELBOURNE
- Thursday 31 December 1981 — VICTORIA
- Saturday 26 January 1985 — VICTORIA Australia Games Opening Ceremony
Picture: Museum Victoria
