Born in 1999

If you were born in 1999, the republic referendum in November was the political event of the year, and it failed — narrowly, controversially, because the question was a minimalist republic (parliament choosing the president) rather than a directly elected one, and many republicans voted no alongside the monarchists, believing they'd get another chance with a better question. They haven't yet. It was one of the great might-have-beens of Australian political history.

The year 2000 was one year away and the Sydney Olympics were twelve months away and the country was twitching with anticipation. Y2K — the millennium computer bug — was the subject of enormous preparation and mild panic that would prove comprehensively overblown. Australians stockpiled water and tinned food and then felt slightly foolish on January 1.

The music was good: something for kate, Gersey, the Whitlams, magic dirt — Australian alternative had its particular character. Powderfinger's *Internationalist* was one of the albums of the year. The cricket team was still imperious.

The footy was expanding. The café had replaced the milk bar as the morning social institution and the coffee was very good. The beach at Christmas was exactly what it had always been, and the children running into the surf and the cold beer in the shade and the smell of sunscreen were precisely as they should be.