Why do I argue 1989 was when Australia's last Awakening ended, well the national mood was euphoric throughout the 1980s and only soured with the 'Recession we had to have' which started in 1990. The 'Recession we had to have' was actually said by then Treasurer and future Prime Minister Paul Keating. Throughout much of the 1980s Australia had a Federal Labor government, who was led by Bob Hawke (1930-2019) and Paul Keating (1944), both belonged to the Builder generation or version of the Silents. Bob Hawke is seen as our version of Teddy Roosevelt and Paul Keating can be seen as a Woodrow Wilson sort of figure.
Also there were events in Tasmania which indicate as well, that Australia's last Awakening ended in 1989. Tasmania was the state that I born and grew up in, in the 1980s Tasmania featured some of the fiercest battle of the last Awakening in Australia. Since there were legendary disputes over the building of Hydro-electric dams and logging of native forests.
This activism involved stuff as for example;
People going on canoes and boats on rivers where dams were being constructed and people chaining themselves to trees to prevent them being cut down. I actually have personally have known some Boomer's of the "New Age Missionary" type, who were involved in this activism. They described it as their own Woodstock moment, does that remind you of some American Missionaries anyone? Not to say there were other controversial issues in Tasmania at this time, there was also the Gay Rights issue and the campaign to legalize male homosexual sex (which was not achieved until 1996).
These issues dominated the state's politics for the whole decade, so much that it was often the main issue in state elections. Also a Conservative government which rallied against the Environmentalist counterculture ruled the state for much of the 1980s.
The last state election where environmental issues dominated, was the 1989 Tasmanian State Election. The issue which totally dominated the election, was a proposed pulp mill, near a place called Wesley Vale in Northern Tasmania. This issue was do dominant that a mass movement was formed to protest against the proposed Pulp mill. Indeed it gotten so big, that the predecessors of the Tasmanian Greens party won 17% of the vote and 5 out of 35 members of the state's House of Assembly, this led to the formation of a minority Labor government with Greens support and the pulp mill never got built.
Therefore; the Tasmanian State election of 1989, much like the Second Summer of Love in Britain and especially the fall of the Berlin wall in Europe. So, the Tasmanian State Election of 1989 was the swansong of our last 2T. It marked the end of a profound social revolution, where the counterculture ultimately won.
Anyway this is an article about the most legendary of these disputes, that of the proposed Franklin below Gordon dam in South-west Tasmania.
https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/...the-greens
Also there were events in Tasmania which indicate as well, that Australia's last Awakening ended in 1989. Tasmania was the state that I born and grew up in, in the 1980s Tasmania featured some of the fiercest battle of the last Awakening in Australia. Since there were legendary disputes over the building of Hydro-electric dams and logging of native forests.
This activism involved stuff as for example;
People going on canoes and boats on rivers where dams were being constructed and people chaining themselves to trees to prevent them being cut down. I actually have personally have known some Boomer's of the "New Age Missionary" type, who were involved in this activism. They described it as their own Woodstock moment, does that remind you of some American Missionaries anyone? Not to say there were other controversial issues in Tasmania at this time, there was also the Gay Rights issue and the campaign to legalize male homosexual sex (which was not achieved until 1996).
These issues dominated the state's politics for the whole decade, so much that it was often the main issue in state elections. Also a Conservative government which rallied against the Environmentalist counterculture ruled the state for much of the 1980s.
The last state election where environmental issues dominated, was the 1989 Tasmanian State Election. The issue which totally dominated the election, was a proposed pulp mill, near a place called Wesley Vale in Northern Tasmania. This issue was do dominant that a mass movement was formed to protest against the proposed Pulp mill. Indeed it gotten so big, that the predecessors of the Tasmanian Greens party won 17% of the vote and 5 out of 35 members of the state's House of Assembly, this led to the formation of a minority Labor government with Greens support and the pulp mill never got built.
Therefore; the Tasmanian State election of 1989, much like the Second Summer of Love in Britain and especially the fall of the Berlin wall in Europe. So, the Tasmanian State Election of 1989 was the swansong of our last 2T. It marked the end of a profound social revolution, where the counterculture ultimately won.
Anyway this is an article about the most legendary of these disputes, that of the proposed Franklin below Gordon dam in South-west Tasmania.
https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/...the-greens