Born in 2005

If you were born in 2005, the Cronulla riots in December were a confronting and disturbing end to the year — days of racial violence on a Sydney beach, young men in Australian flags attacking people of Middle Eastern background, the ugliness that had been building since Tampa and September 11 finding a particular form on the sand. The images were disturbing and widely condemned, and the arguments about what Australia was and who belonged here were urgent and necessary. Before December, the year had been eventful: Australian cricket was producing Ricky Ponting's magnificent team — though England regained the Ashes in a series that had the whole of Britain and a good part of Australia gripped from June to September.

Steve Irwin — the Crocodile Hunter — was at the height of his international fame, his boisterous enthusiasm for Australia's wildlife making him the most-watched Australian on the planet. Missy Higgins' debut album was the year's Australian album. The café had completely replaced the milk bar.

The housing market was still climbing. Petrol prices were climbing. The flat white before work, the AFL Grand Final on television, the summer cricket, the Christmas beach — the constants held.

But the country was having a harder argument with itself than it usually admitted.