Friday, April 28, 2017

Australia Day 1975 PM Gough Whitlam opens "Old Sydney Town"

It's sadly very closed now, but on Australia Day 1975, PM Gough Whitlam (with wife Margaret on his right, holding a hat) opened "Old Sydney Town" at Somersby, north of Sydney. Well I was there, and I took a few pictures. This one survives. Amazing how close you could get to the Prime Minister back then, eh? 




(Somersby was then in contention as a site for Sydney's "2nd" airport, of course.) Whitlam later joked with some irony (whilst opening the Lachlan Vintage Village at Forbes) that "somehow people have got the idea that I like history and ruins", or words to that effect.