Sails, Sacks, and Space Junk Trivia Quiz

Captain James Cook's first voyage aboard HMS Endeavour from 1768 to 1771 was pivotal in Australian history. A joint expedition between the Royal Navy and Royal Society, the primary goal of the expedition was to observe the 1769 transit of Venus from Tahiti.

By comparing the transit time from two distant points on Earth, the distance from Earth to the Sun could be deduced for the first time. Transits of Venus occur in pairs eight years apart, with over 100 years separating each pair, thus this would be the last opportunity in a lifetime to gain this valuable data. Combined with other data from across the world, scientists were able to estimate a distance of 153 ± 1 million kilometres (95.07 ± 0.62 million miles), stunningly close to the modern accepted value of 149.60 million kilometres (92.96 million miles).

Having achieved their primary goal, attention moved to the secondary goal of
finding "Terra Australis Incognita", the undiscovered southern land. It had long been reasoned that there must exist in the Southern Hemisphere an equally massive landmass, in the unexplored region at latitudes greater than 40 degrees south, to balance out the land-heavy Northern Hemisphere. Britain was hoping to discover and claim it before any other European rival.

After spending some time exploring Pacific islands around Tahiti, Cook's expedition traveled south towards the 40 degrees south latitude, what we now know is open ocean roughly halfway between the east coast of Australia and the west coast of South America. Having not found the fabled southern continent, he turned west to circumnavigate New Zealand, which had previously been discovered by Dutchman Abel Tasman in 1642.

From there, Cook set a course to travel back home. Due to the cold of winter, he was unable to take his preferred route back eastward via Cape Horn (the southern tip of South America), where he could have traveled at higher latitudes to continue searching for Terra Australis Incognita. Thus he set off westward instead, expecting to reach the previously discovered southern tip of Tasmania, then sail up to New Guinea, where there were established ports for resupply and a well-travelled route back to England. However, prevailing winds forced the expedition further north than hoped.

On 19 April 1770, land was sighted in the south-eastern coast of the Australian continent, and was named Point Hicks. Realising that Tasmania would be well south from here and perhaps not even connected to this landmass, Cook continued north along the coast, reaching Botany Bay in present-day Sydney about a week later. Here they landed, spending a week collecting water and supplies, exploring the area, and making first contact with the local Aboriginal people.

Continuing onwards past Port Jackson (home to Sydney Harbour today and noted to be an inlet "wherein there appeared to be safe anchorage" by Cook), they made further stops in modern-day Queensland at Bustard Bay (now Seventeen Seventy), the Endeavour River at Cooktown, and Possession Island. Finally, they reached Batavia (present-day Jakarta) and returned home in 1771.

While Captain Cook's voyage claims most glory in the retelling of the discovery of Australia, the continent had in fact been explored, mapped and visited on numerous occasions by Dutch navigators since at least 1606, and to a lesser extent by French and English seafarers. However these expeditions only reached the southern, western and northern coastlines, marked mostly by desert and barrenness, with no suitable trading ports, and one expedition had skimmed the southern tip of Tasmania. Thus there was little interest in further exploration at the time.

Of course, people of Maritime Southeast Asia had already discovered the continent some 50,000 to 65,000 years ago, rapidly spreading through the landmass as ancestors of modern Aboriginal Australians. By the time Europeans reached Australian shores, Aboriginal people had learned to survive throughout the harsh landscapes of the continent, including the island of Tasmania. Cook's legacy is controversial amongst their modern-day descendants. It is reported that Cook made efforts to establish friendly relations with Indigenous people wherever he went, and was even treated with respect and veneration by some. However, he would have certainly made many transgressions of their cultural norms, and was an unwitting harbinger of disease, dispossession and death. Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians continue to grapple with how to commemorate his legacy to this day.

At the mouth of the Tweed River, near the New South Wales and Queensland border, lies the undeveloped Ukerebagh Island. Until the 1960s, here existed an Aboriginal reserve, used to segregate Indigenous families from the general population. Aboriginal woman Julia Bell came there pregnant and destitute when the father of her child, an English immigrant, abandoned her. In 1922, under a palm tree on the island, she gave birth to Neville Bonner, who was later joined by another son.

Bonner experienced much adversity during his childhood, as the family moved around the Northern Rivers region, living on the land. His mother had three more children with a new partner, with Bonner witnessing the violence he perpetrated as violence against her. After his mother died when he was 10 years old, he went into the care of his grandmother in Queensland, who died just 3 years later. He entered adulthood with just one year of formal education, finding work as a ring barker, cane cutter, and stockman.

Relocating to Palm Island near Townsville in 1945, Bonner became a foundation member of the Palm Island Social and Welfare Association. His activism and political interest grew from here, joining the Liberal Party and campaigning for the "yes" vote in the 1967 referendum on constitutional recognition of Indigenous Australians. He was also president of the One People of Australia League from 1968 to 1974, an organisation advocating for assimilation of Aboriginal people into the mainstream white culture, which stood in opposition to the alternative and now mainstream position of self-determination.

In 1970, Bonner was pre-selected by the Queensland Liberal Party for the half-Senate election, but was unsuccessful at the election. His breakthrough came a year later, when Liberal senator Annabelle Rankin resigned. This opened up a casual vacancy to which he was appointed, thus becoming the first Indigenous parliamentarian. He was subsequently re-elected to his position on multiple occasions, ultimately serving as Senator for 12 years before being failing to regain election in 1983.

Bonner's appointment took place less than a decade after Indigenous Australians gained the universal right to vote in Australian federal elections at the rather late date of 1962. He advocated strongly for Indigenous land rights and legislation to compensate the dispossession of original Indigenous land owners. Yet he was often accused of being too moderate and sympathetic to white views, attracting the pejorative label of "Uncle Tom". He certainly had a difficult tightrope to walk; there could be no advocacy for Indigenous rights without compromising by playing politics the "white" way. Had he been more militant in his advocacy, he likely would not have remained in parliament for as long as he did, and would not have been as powerful an advocate. As the first Indigenous parliamentarian, he left a significant legacy and paved the way for future generations to continue fighting for Indigenous rights.

Bonner passed away from lung cancer in 1999, aged 76. He is commemorated by, amongst other things, a Queensland federal electorate named Bonner, the suburb of Bonner in Canberra, and a statue on the grounds of Old Parliament House memorialising his boomerang throwing demonstration.

On Australia Day, 26 January 1972, Prime Minister William McMahon issued a new policy on Aboriginal land rights, offering them 50 year leases conditional on their "intention and ability to make reasonable economic and social use of land", while the Government retained the rights to minerals and forestry. This was cold comfort for Indigenous Australians seeking more robust land rights and native title.

The same day, four Aboriginal men traveled from Sydney to Canberra to establish a protest on the lawn opposite Parliament House. Planting a beach umbrella and a few placards, they declared the protest an Aboriginal Embassy. This highlighted that Aboriginal people had never ceded their sovereignty, nor negotiated any form of treaty with the Crown, and were being treated like "aliens in their own land".

The protest quickly gathered more activists and tents, remaining permanently occupied. Soon, prominent political figures including opposition leader Gough Whitlam spoke at the Embassy. Eventually it became known as the Aboriginal Tent Embassy. Frustration with the protest also grew, culminating in multiple attempts by police to dismantle the tents and move the protestors on, only for the Embassy to be re-established soon after by even more protestors. Eventually it was allowed to remain, moving around Canberra from time to time as the need arose. It was ultimately relocated back to its original location in 1992, on the lawns outside what had now become Old Parliament House, where it remains to this day.

Several demands were presented to Parliament from the Embassy, including full Aboriginal control and sovereignty over the Northern Territory, native title and mining rights in all other Aboriginal reserves and settlements, preservation of all sacred sites throughout Australia, and annual compensation for all lands not returnable (those occupied by non-Indigenous infrastructure and settlement).

None of these requests have been met to this day, and it is still not considered an official embassy by the Australian government. Yet the Aboriginal Tent Embassy has become a powerful symbol and focal point for ongoing Indigenous rights campaigns, including land rights, but also Aboriginal deaths in custody, self-determination and sovereignty. It has become the longest continuous Indigenous land rights protest in the world.

Sydney Opera House occupies Bennelong Point, a peninsula on the eastern arm of Sydney Cove. This point was initially a small tidal island called Tubowgule by local Aboriginal people, and it was cut off from the mainland at high tide. It was home to a small beach on the western side, and discarded oyster shells left behind by gatherings of Aboriginal women.

Upon European arrival, it was referred to as Cattle Point when the cattle and horses of the first fleet were confined here in 1788, and later Limeburners' Point when convict women burnt the oyster shells to make lime for cement mortar. It attracted its modern day name from Woollarawarre Bennelong, an Aboriginal man of the Eora nation who was kidnapped from the Parramatta River in the 1790s, and lodged in a hut on the point to act as a cultural interlocutor.

Between 1818 and 1821, the Bennelong Point Peninsula was leveled and the tidal area filled in, to create a permanent platform to house Fort Macquarie. This was a square castellated battlement fort serving as a naval defence site. When the fort had become obsolete by the early 20th century, it was replaced with the Fort Macquarie Tram Depot, built with castellated ramparts to continue the architectural legacy of the fort it replaced. As trams fell out of favour in Sydney in the 1950s, the depot was closed in 1955.

Meanwhile, steam had been building since the late 1940s behind a plan to build a grand new opera house in Sydney. Eugene Goossens, an English conductor and composer, was credited as the main driving force for this project. Citing a lack of suitable performance venues in the city, he eventually gained support from New South Wales Premier Joseph Cahill to build one at Bennelong Point.

An international design competition was launched, attracting 233 designs from 32 countries. It was unexpectedly won by Danish architect Jorn Utzon, who had submitted some preliminary drawings with no engineering consideration or specifications. Inspired by natural shapes of clouds, shells, and other natural objects, it was a striking vision. Construction of the podium started in 1959, before the design had even been finalised. After three years of experimentation with parabolic and ellipsoid geometries, engineers still could not find a solution that would be structurally sound but also economically feasible to construct.

Finally, Utzon realised that making all of the shells triangular sections of a single sphere of diameter approximately 150 metres (164 yards) would solve these issues. This created uniformity in the ribs and arches used to support the roof, and the pattern of the tiles required to cover them. This allowed mass prefabrication of all the required parts, drastically reducing the cost of construction. The spherical geometry is a surprise to most people who analyse the shape of the sails, with the triangular cuts still giving them the illusion of having a more parabolic shape.

Once the exterior had been completed, attention turned to the interiors in 1963. Utzon had innovative and spectacular plans for this too, however in 1965 he ran into conflict with Davis Hughes, the newly elected Minister for Public Works. Hughes had many criticisms regarding the costs, time frames, and complexity. He put up many barriers that eventually led to Utzon resigning from his design role in 1966 and departing back to Europe to live out the rest of his life.

Construction of the Sydney Opera House was finally completed in 1973, ten years late and thirteen times over budget. It was formally opened by Queen Elizabeth II, with a televised firework show and performance of Beethoven's "Symphony No. 9". Utzon was invited, but declined to attend. In fact, he never returned to Australia to see the completed Opera House in person.

Today, the Sydney Opera House, along with the Sydney Harbour Bridge, dominates the iconic skyline of Sydney Harbour known across the world. It continues to host over 1000 shows annually, across opera, theatre, orchestra and other live music acts, and other performances. The sails are frequently lit up with projected light shows during the Vivid Sydney festival and to commemorate important events. Events are hosted on the steps outside, such as the finish line of the world major Sydney Marathon. The Sydney Opera House remains a treasured cultural hub of Sydney.

Cyclone Tracy was first detected on 20 December, 1974, as a tropical low about 370 km northeast of Darwin. By the next day, it had intensified into a tropical cyclone. It was tracking towards the southwest over the next few days, and was expected to miss Darwin. Mood on the ground was largely unconcerned, with even news reports downplaying the threat. Another storm, Cyclone Selma, had been predicted to impact Darwin earlier in the month, but had subsequently turned away and fizzled out over open water, which added to the false sense of security. There were several official warnings, but most people did not evacuate or prepare, with Christmas preparations and parties continuing.

Unfortunately, Cyclone Tracy took an unexpected turn in the morning of Christmas Eve, 24 December, heading straight towards Darwin. Rain and wind gusts started to pick up, but no worse than the usual annual wet season storms, and still no cause for panic. However, by evening the full strength of the Cyclone began to hit, by which time it was too late for residents to react. Gusts up to 240 km/h (150 mph) battered the town over Christmas Day, 25 December, before dissipating on Boxing Day, 26 December.

At the time, Darwin was home to around 43,500 residents living in 12,000 houses. Very few of these dwellings were built to withstand a cyclone. 80% of the city was completely destroyed, and 94% of housing was uninhabitable. There still exist some striking videos showing the rubble and devastation with next to nothing left standing, street after street, evoking comparisons to an atomic bomb going off. Somehow there had only been 66 deaths, but many more injuries.

The disaster was only, however, just beginning. Darwin lies in Australia's Northern Territory, and is a remote outpost in the middle of the northern coast, hours to days drive from the nearest population centres elsewhere on the continent. The cyclone had taken out virtually all the communication equipment of the city, delaying reporting of the event. Eventually, small radio contact was made with the outside world, and the news slowly spread through the country. The Australian government and defence forces flew into the city to begin disaster relief. Still, the lack of communications hampered these efforts.

With no suitable shelter for tens of thousands of residents, the first priority was evacuation. By road and by air, over 35,000 people were evacuated over 5 days. For those who remained, the lack of water, electricity and basic sanitation threatened disease. Thus a mass immunisation campaign was commenced for typhoid and cholera. Houses needed to be cleaned of rotting kitchen contents. The city was sprayed with anti-mosquito chemicals.

Darwin is no stranger to such devastation. It had been rebuilt three times prior, after cyclones in 1897 and 1937, and Japanese air raids in WWII. This was, however, the most widespread destruction, with the population having grown significantly since the last rebuild. Now, in the aftermath of Cyclone Tracy, half of the population had left, never to return. Over the next few years, Darwin was rebuilt, with building codes for cyclone resilience enforced.

Today the population of Darwin has once again recovered, with well over 100,000 residents. It remains a small outpost, but an important hub for Northern Territory residents and a gateway to Southeast Asia. The traumatic memories and legacy of Cyclone Tracy persist to this day.

Gough Whitlam became prime minister in 1972, with his Labor Party winning the federal election and ending 23 years of Liberal-Country Coalition rule. He brought forward a very progressive agenda. He introduced universal health insurance with Medibank, the precursor to today's Medicare system. University education was made free, and legal aid programs were established. He ended conscription and Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War. The death penalty was abolished for federal crimes. Federal programs and grants connected urban homes to sewage facilities, and upgraded interstate highways and standard-gauge railways. The Order of Australia was introduced to replace the British honours system, and the process to replace the British national anthem with "Advance Australia Fair" began.

Yet troubles plagued his fledgling government. The oil crisis of 1973 and the global recession of the 1970s put strain on a budget that was already being stretched by the social programs he had instated. Rather than reining in spending, he pushed forward with spending and introduced tax cuts. Sensing opportunity, the opposition under Malcolm Fraser used their control of the Senate to block the passage of appropriation bills from the House of Representatives that would be required to finance government expenditure. They would continue this until Whitlam met their demand to call a new election for the House of Representatives. Whitlam's government held a safe majority in the House, and so he held firm in denying this demand.

And so enters the governor-general, a curious vestigial remnant of Australia's colonial history and ongoing reminder of its position under the boot of the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom. Appointed by the reigning monarch, they serve a non-fixed term, and they can also be dismissed by the monarch before their term ends. While convention dictates that the governor-general is selected and dismissed on the advice of the Australian prime minister, constitutionally the monarch is free to do as they please. While the governor-general is considered to be a largely ceremonial role, they are a critical part of the constitution of Australia. They act as the monarch's representative, exercising their will within the constitution. Their powers include the discretion to select a prime minister when no party gains a clear majority in an election, the power to dismiss a prime minister, and to refuse to dissolve the House of Representatives. It is only by convention that these powers are seldom exercised.

In the midst of the Senate blockade, Fraser urged the governor-general John Kerr to dismiss Whitlam. Whitlam was undeterred, as he did not believe that Kerr would dismiss him. Meanwhile, Kerr was growing increasingly worried by the crisis, yet he did not signpost his concern, for fear of Whitlam appealing to the Queen and having Kerr dismissed himself. After some negotiation, Fraser accepted Kerr's offer to be appointed as caretaker prime minister in order to pass the blocked supply bills, after which Fraser would request that a double dissolution election would be called. Kerr called Whitlam into his office to inform him of his dismissal.

As the news was broken to the public gathered outside Parliament House, Whitlam delivered his now immortal line - "Well may we say 'God save the Queen', because nothing will save the Governor-General!" Whitlam stayed on as leader of the Labor Party, but lost resoundingly to Fraser's Coalition government in the election 1 month later. He remained opposition leader for three more years before his resignation in 1978.

The affair is now referred to as the "1975 Australian constitutional crisis", or simply "the dismissal". It remains the only time a governor-general has exercised their dismissal power in the 125 years since Australia's Federation. The constitutional legality and appropriateness of the dismissal remains controversial and debated to this day. The event forms a strong argument in support of abolishing the monarchy in favour of an Australian republic.

As for Whitlam's legacy, the dismissal perhaps secured his generally positive reputation for generational change, still felt to this day. For all his skill as a politician and all of his achievements in government, there is a general consensus that his economic management was naive and unsustainable - too much too quickly. Having done so much to build the nation and social programs in just three years, he was able to exit before the economic fallout could drag down his reputation. For me, Whitlam remains a symbol of hope that governments can radically advance the interests of their constituents.

The Nullarbor Plain, named after the Latin "nulla arbor" meaning "no tree", is a vast arid and nearly treeless limestone bedrock plain covering 200,000 square kilometres (77,000 square miles) between South Australia and Western Australia. It was seasonally occupied by several Aboriginal clans, who named it "Oondiri", meaning "the waterless". Even these hardy inhabitants of the harsh interior of the continent recognised the Nullarbor's extreme barrenness and inhospitable nature.

Unsurprisingly, the interior of the Nullarbor remained uncharted territory for Europeans for over two centuries after its coast was first charted by Dutch sailors in 1626. From 1840 to 1841, Edward John Eyre became the first European to cross the Nullarbor Plain by land, a journey of around 3200km (2000 miles) from Adelaide, South Australia, to Albany, Western Australia. Eyre did not refer to the Nullarbor by its modern name, as the name was not coined until 1866 when surveyor Edmund Delisser traveled across it.

Development on the Nullarbor did not occur until 1875 to 1877 when the East-West Telegraph line was constructed across the plain, accompanied by a harsh and poorly maintained track. Few travelers dared to take this interstate route as the harsh conditions and lack of services made for a perilous journey. There was initially little appetite to build a more suitable road given the vast distances between populated areas on either side. However, as automobiles grew in prevalence and war threatened to break out in the Pacific, construction of a national East-West highway took place from 1941 to 1942.

The new road was dubbed the Eyre Highway, connecting Western Australia to South Australia over a stretch of 1,664 km (1,034 miles). Yet road conditions remained poor, maintenance was infrequent, and only fourteen vehicles would pass per day. Work to seal the road finally started in the 1960s, concluding with the last section from the border to Penong in South Australia in 1976. This marked the first time Australians could drive from the east to the west coast along fully sealed roads, a significant milestone in connecting the vast continent.

The Eyre Highway remains an extremely remote road, with very few intersections and few inhabitants along its route. Most services are provided by roadhouses established specifically to serve road users. It features the longest straight section of road in the country at 146.6 km (91.1 miles) long, and has specially marked sections that serve as emergency airstrips for the Royal Flying Doctor Service. It remains one of only two sealed interstate roads connecting Western Australia to the rest of the country; the other being the Victoria Highway into the Northern Territory.

Cricket dates back to at least the 16th century in England. It is thought to have been a children's game in Saxon or Norman times, eventually being taken up by adults. Growing over the centuries, it became an established and respectable sport in England before being introduced in the 17th to 18th centuries to English colonies in North America, the West Indies, the Indian subcontinent and Australia.

Eventually the first international representative match was held between the United States and Canada in 1844, a fact that surprises most present-day cricket fans, given that neither country has a significant presence in modern international cricket. Several more international matches took place over the next few decades, involving teams from England, the United States, Canada, and Australia. Keep in mind that any international trip would require weeks to months travel via sea, and teams were often a hodgepodge of available players without a proper national selection process.

Against this background, England sent a team to tour the Australian colonies during the Austral summer of 1876-1877. One particular match took place at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) in 1877, with Australia coming out 45 runs ahead. It is only in hindsight that cricket historians consider this to be the first Test match. It earned this distinction by being the first match to follow rules similar to the modern day Test format - two teams of 11, national-level representative sides, two innings per team and appropriate record keeping.

To celebrate 100 years of Test cricket, a special one-off Test between Australia and England was held at the MCG in 1977. Australia came out 45 runs ahead again, just as they did a hundred years earlier. The Ashes were not contested, as would usually be the case when Australia and England play Test cricket.

The first Test match played in England took place in 1880 at The Oval, with England beating Australia by 5 wickets. Thus a second Centenary test was played at The Oval in 1980, with Australia again winning by 45 runs, for a remarkable third time out of the four original and Centenary Tests played.

In the early morning of 28 June, 1969, police raided the Stonewall Inn in Manhattan, New York City. Owned by the Genovese Mafia family, Stonewall was a gritty venue with no running water behind the bar, poor glassware hygiene, no fire exits, and overrun toilets. It had become an unauthorised gathering point for people we would now consider as part of the LGBTQIA+ community - gay and lesbian people, drag queens, transgender people, and other queer people.

This was not the first such police raid, but rather than choosing a quiet weekday as was the usual approach, it took place on a busy Friday night. As patrons were lined up, searched, and ejected from the premises, sometimes with excessive force, crowds gathered outside. Unrest soon followed, with hundreds of people in the local community coming together to overwhelm the police response. Violence broke out, with the police barricading themselves inside the Stonewall Inn, and the incensed crowd smashing the windows and threatening the police inside. The police had not expected the down-trodden and mistreated community to fight back, and had to be rescued by Tactial Police from the NYPD. Emboldened by success, thousands gathered over the next few nights to continue demonstrating and rioting.

The Stonewall riots were a tipping point in the growing movement for LGBTQIA+ rights, with activists sensing a newfound urgency across the world. In 1978, the Gay Freedom Day Committee from San Francisco, USA, asked activists around the world to commemorate the anniversary of the Stonewall riots. The Gay Solidarity Group in Sydney took up the challenge, organising a parade down Oxford Street.

Conceived as a street party and celebration, they labelled it "Mardi Gras", a term that had become synonymous with street festivals, far from its origins as a Christian holiday in the Easter period. Hundreds gathered, becoming thousands as patrons of Oxford Street bars and clubs joined the march. Though they had obtained permission for the march from authorities, this was revoked during the event. Police arrested dozens, dispersing the crowd. As with Stonewall, it was this police intervention that turned a small local protest into a national event, accelerating LGBTQIA+ rights activism across the country.

The next year in 1979, 3,000 people marched again despite increased public opposition. No arrests were made, partly thanks to relaxation of street protest laws earlier that year. Each subsequent year, the parade grew in popularity and national significance, soon attracting hundreds of thousands of revelers. As LGBTQIA+ rights have advanced, the focus has shifted more towards celebration and revelry, though there still remain inequities the community faces and fights against.

Today, the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade is a mainstream event, backed by large corporations and government representatives. Even the NSW Police Force marches in the parade, though this is not without controversy within the community. The event is a large tourism draw card for Sydney, and is attended by a wide range of both queer and non-queer people.

Skylab was the United States' first space station, launched by NASA on 14 May, 1973. It was launched uncrewed in the Skylab 1 mission. Severe damage was sustained during the launch, when air got under the micrometeroid shield / sunshade and ripped it off. Shield fragments then tore off one of the two solar panels, while the other was prevented from deploying properly as a piece of debris blocked the opening mechanism. These events left Skylab with a critical power deficit, and the missing sun shield caused internal temperatures to soar to 52°C (126°F), threatening to release toxic gases from the plastics and destroy on-board food supplies and photographic film.

Three crewed missions followed this inauspicious start. Skylab 2 was planned to launch the day after Skylab 1, however the damage sustained by Skylab forced a delay of the launch for a further 10 days, as engineers and crew scrambled to develop and practice repair techniques. Thankfully Skylab 2 launched without any major issues, and the crew was able to repair the damage to make Skylab suitable for human habitation. They conducted 392 hours of experiments, gathered solar and Earth science data, and filmed a large solar flare. After 28 days in space, the astronauts safely landed back on Earth on 22 June, 1973.

Skylab 3 launched on 28 July, 1973, with the crew spending 59 days in space. They continued the science experiments of Skylab 2, and also repaired the space station further. Skylab 4 was the final mission, launching on 16 November, 1973, and lasting 84 days. Throughout the mission, there were tensions between the crew and ground control. The crew felt overworked, while ground control felt they were not productive enough in completing their tasks. Six weeks in, this culminated in a communications break, where the crew did not attend their daily briefing. Eventually, the crew and ground control agreed on a modified schedule, which actually increased their productivity beyond the mission's original plan. These events have become a case study in space medicine, team management and psychology, and have led to increased awareness of the importance of managing psychological well being in long-term space missions.

With the cancellation of Skylab 5, Skylab was left to orbit freely around Earth, with no future human missions to greet it. In 1979, after a further six years, its orbit decayed to the point that re-entry into the atmosphere was imminent, earlier than initially anticipated. NASA adjusted Skylab's orientation, hoping to aim it into the Indian Ocean to avoid any populated areas. However, the space station took longer to burn up than anticipated, with debris eventually scattering over a 150 km (93 mile) radius in a remote region of Western Australia near Esperance. Thankfully, no injuries were reported.

When NASA representatives traveled to Australia to collect the debris for analysis, the Shire of Esperance jokingly presented them with a $400 fine for littering. NASA declined to pay the fine, which in my opinion is poor form; it's the least they could do as a token of goodwill after endangering local lives. Nevertheless, the fine was written off by the Shire. In 2009, after hearing about the historic unpaid fine, Californian radio presenter Scott Barley set out to make things right. He collected $400 from listeners' donations, and posted a cheque to the Shire. His hometown of Barstow, California has now become a twin city with Esperance, leaving a nice legacy from this curious affair. I, however, won't forgive NASA so easily!