Born in 2001

If you were born in 2001, Australia's year contained two events that would shape its politics for a decade. In August, the Norwegian container ship Tampa rescued 438 asylum seekers from a sinking boat in the Indian Ocean and sought to land them in Australia. The Howard government refused, boarding the ship with SAS troops, and the subsequent political battle defined "stopping the boats" as the central wedge issue of Australian politics.

Then September 11, and the footage of the Twin Towers on every television in every home and office, over and over, and Australians watching with the mixture of horror and the knowledge that the world had changed. John Howard was in Washington when it happened — the only foreign leader in the city — and his commitment of Australian forces to the subsequent war in Afghanistan was made quickly. The Tampa and September 11 together produced a political climate that Howard navigated with great skill, winning the November election decisively.

But Australian everyday life continued its particular texture: the AFL Grand Final, the summer cricket (Australia still dominant), the beach, the barbie, the flat white, the Sunday morning sport with the kids. Daniel Johns of Silverchair married Natalie Imbruglia. The country was changed, and the change had just begun.