Launceston, July 1969: a time when the Valiant, Kingswood and Monaro ruled the roads, big ideas of casinos and Bass Strait hovercrafts appeared in the public debate, and impending news of a moon landing gave the sense that anything was possible.
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An editorial in The Examiner stated "undreamed of advances in knowledge will come from this voyage", not necessarily for space travel, but for life back on earth.
Launceston astronomer Martin George described the marvel of the moon landing as unmatched - but reading the views of school children at the time, it really did appear to be just one small step on the way to a boundless future.
For the elderly, it allowed them to reflect on the other great discoveries of their lifetimes, both big and small.
We have trawled editions of The Examiner of July 1969 to discover a snapshot of life when time appeared to stand still.
Impatience builds suspense
A child's imagination is boundless, so it was of little surprise that the youngsters at Riverside primary took the moon landing in their stride, only aware of the significance because "you grown-ups had told us so".
They sat and sat through delay after delay, playing games and waiting for lunch before the moment finally arrived at 12.56pm.
Eight-year-old Robert called it "beaut", and so did Donna.
"The beaut part was when the astronauts were jumping around like kangaroos," she said.
Jamie, 9, believed the astronauts were brave, but he would not be frightened to visit the moon because it would be safe by the time he was a grown-up.
Over at Cosgrove Park, residents had plenty of time to muse before the landing.
One bloke compared it to the arrival of the push-bike in Branxholm, "a great day".
But when the moment arrived, they couldn't help but be impressed.
All who witnessed it remember what they were doing at the time - so what was Launceston like in July 1969?
Casinos and hovercraft
With Wrest Point approved in Hobart the previous year following a controversial vote in Parliament, Launceston appeared desperate to get its piece of the casino pie.
Mayor Frank King had several discussions with Premier Angus Bethune and developer Stock and Holdings Ltd.
The Gorge quarry was the "first choice" for the site, according to council.
But why did Launceston need a casino? According to The Examiner, a casino was "the net to catch visitors of modest means". The paper thought the North-West should have a casino too.
"A number of smaller casinos strategically sited would attract more tourists and more tourist money than a palace ostensibly built for the jet-set, a set more amply catered for in centres more likely to attract them than Tasmania," the editorial reads.
It would be another 13 years before Launceston Federal Country Club Casino was opened.
During one of those visits to Launceston in July, Premier Bethune was asked his opinion on a hovercraft service across the Bass Strait.
"If the proposal is practicable, it would have considerable merit," he said.
The idea, evidently, did not have merit.
Changes were also afoot in Launceston pubs. Barmaids had just been granted equal pay, prompting the Liquor Trades Union of Tasmania to warn publicans against sacking their barmaids as a result.
One such case had already been suspected at a prominent Launceston hotel.
There was good news for trainee teachers with the opening of the Teachers' College at Newnham, which students described as a "palace" compared to the old college in Charles Street.
The main features? The heating system and the "big windows".
Troubling times
In between casino discussions, Mayor King headed to Victoria to take part in a "civil defence course".
Perhaps reflective of global politics, the course included instruction on defence against nuclear attack.
Crime - particularly against women - appeared to be endemic. A man degraded and killed his wife on the West Coast, and another man tried to drag a woman, 19, into Windmill Hill park.
The sudden increase in homicides in Tasmania attracted much concern, resulting in a study by a university lecturer to get to the root cause.
Water supply also appeared to be a major issue. George Town's domestic water included an unknown sediment, and was responsible for "an up-surge in gastro-intestinal disorders in recent weeks".
The solution? Draining and cleaning the Agnes Street reservoir.
Master builders were concerned at unemployment in the building industry in Launceston, which was "probably worse than at any time since the end of World War II" and that "first-class tradesmen are walking the streets looking for work and cannot get it".
Football umpires went on strike in the NWFU in an attempt to stop the league from bringing umpires in from Victoria.
Timeless headlines
The more things change, the more they appear to stay the same.
"Govt to spend less on LGH" a July 5 headline reads, stating that the government's "financial difficulties" had cast doubt over a $450,000 operating theatre and ICU project.
The Liberal Government later stated the price had been set "too high" by the former Labour Government.
Launceston was also grappling with an apparent teenage drinking crisis with the headline, "Teenage drinks alarm police". Ten teenagers were fined for drinking-related offences in one day in court.
They included a range of $10 and $20 fines for individuals, aged around 18 (the legal drinking age was 20), for having liquor in a public place, being in a bar under age and having liquor in the vicinity of a dance hall.
Northern Tasmanian headmasters held a meeting to discuss "deterioration in community standards" and believed they had found the culprit: parents.
Schools had become concerned about "excessive under-age drinking, excessive necking and petting, party gate-crashing and a general lack of parent control at teenage functions".
It was a seemingly unanimous view that parents needed to take greater responsibility of, what one headmaster described as, "an explosive situation".
What next? Ideas abound
Perhaps in a rhetorical flourish, Attorney-General Max Bingham suggested reintroducing capital punishment to deal with the rising murder rate, including whipping in "extreme cases".
"If the present incidence of cases involving personal violence continues, I shall be forced to consider the promulgation of regulations under the criminal code to enable the use of whipping as a penalty in such cases," he was quoted as saying.
It drew criticism from his Labour predecessor.
There was also a growing trend against cigarette advertising, despite Page 2 of the July 1 edition featuring a full-page Peter Stuyvesant ad. Seventy per cent were in favour of reducing advertising and the government was developing a policy.
The discussion in Tasmanian Parliament came a day after four Australian cigarette manufacturers announced a five-year, $1 million research project into smoking.
Tasmanian University was pushing boundaries, with police seizing 500 copies of the student magazine Togatus for featuring a "semi-naked couple embracing" on the cover.
The women were covered from the hips down by a union jack.
The saga made the front page of The Examiner on July 7, and the printer was summonsed to the Hobart Magistrate's Court to explain why the magazines should not be destroyed.