Born in 1996

If you were born in 1996, the year began with optimism and was marked, in April, by tragedy that changed the country permanently. The Port Arthur massacre — 35 people killed by a lone gunman at a historic tourist site in Tasmania on April 28th — was the worst mass shooting in Australian history, and the country's response was swift and serious. John Howard, barely six weeks into his Prime Ministership, legislated a national gun buyback scheme and sweeping firearms restrictions, pushing through opposition from his own political base.

It was, by any measure, a political act of genuine courage, and Australia has not had a mass shooting of that kind since. Howard had won the March election, ending thirteen years of Labor government, and his quiet suburban manner was a deliberate contrast to Keating's combative brilliance. Pauline Hanson gave her first speech to parliament and the country argued about it.

The Backstreet Boys were on every radio. Savage Garden released "I Want You" and were immediately enormous. The Sydney Olympics were four years away and the preparations were visible everywhere in the city.

The barbie, the footy, the cricket, the beach — the rhythms held. But something had happened at Port Arthur that made the country look at itself and choose, deliberately, to be different.