Born in 1985

If you were born in 1985, INXS were becoming one of the biggest bands in the world and Australians were following their rise with the particular pride of a small country that has unexpectedly produced something the world wants. Michael Hutchence was the most glamorous Australian since Errol Flynn, and the music — *Listen Like Thieves* this year — was genuinely great. Midnight Oil were becoming politically formidable as well as musically: Peter Garrett was running for the Senate.

Paul Hogan's Winfield cigarette ads had made him a national figure, and *Crocodile Dundee* was still a year away but the image of the sun-tanned, laconic Australian was forming. The Hawke government's economic reforms were continuing — Medicare had been introduced, the Accord was holding wages, the reforms were building. But interest rates were still high and the suburban mortgage was a real strain.

The Flying Doctors aired on television and was an immediate hit — the outback, the drama, the capable Australian characters. The MCG Grand Final had Essendon and Hawthorn, the two great powers of the era, contesting. The school tuck shop still sold a sausage roll and a carton of chocolate milk for under a dollar.

The milk bar was nearly gone now, replaced by the 7-Eleven, but the nostalgia for it was already beginning.