29 April 1963: New TV Station — ABEV1, Bendigo, Victoria.
29 April 1970: The 200th anniversary reenactment of Captain James Cook’s arrival at the east coast of Australia is telecast by ABC, and relayed via all three commercial networks and watched by an estimated two million viewers.
29 April 1979: The first of 13 episodes of test programs from the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) broadcast on ABC. The programs were the precursor to the establishment of a permanent multicultural television service from SBS:
8am Ethnic Television (SBS): Introduction, Fatti And Fattacci (Italian), Prime Minister’s Message, Another Viewpoint, Ethnic Magazine, Teacher In The Sky, Greek Singing, Melbourne’s National Gallery, Music And Radio, Korean Ballet.
29 April 1985: The Nine Network debuts mini-series The Flying Doctors, starring Andrew McFarlane, Lorna Patterson, Maurie Fields, Val Jellay, Vikki Hammond, Steve Bisley and Max Cullen. The success of the mini-series leads to an ongoing series of the same name that runs for seven years. The Flying Doctors was produced by Crawfords Australia and sold well overseas.
29 April 1991: ABC presents the debut of The Life And Death Of Sandy Stone, featuring the suburbanite character portrayed by Barry Humphries, talking about life in Glen Iris in a series of touching and witty monologues.
29 April 1993: Alan Dale, one of the original Neighbours cast members, makes his final appearance in the series as his character Jim Robinson dies from a heart attack.
29 April 1995: Sydney’s TEN10 presents a one-hour special to celebrate its 30th anniversary. The actual anniversary was actually three weeks beforehand, and the special was buried in a Saturday afternoon timeslot — much like its Melbourne counterpart did a year earlier for its 30th. Later, on Seven, the much-anticipated sports game show Gladiators finally makes its debut — featuring four contestants (two male, two female) up against the super-fit squad of gladiators in a series of survival of the fittest events.
29 April 1996: Andrew Daddo hosts the special 40 Years Of Comedy (Seven), looking at the history of comedy on Australian television, featuring The Mavis Bramston Show, Fast Forward, Dame Edna Everage and The Naked Vicar Show.
29 April 2011: The wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton is broadcast across the ABC, Seven, Nine and Ten networks as well as pay-TV channels Sky News Australia, BBC World News, E!, Fox News, UKTV and CNN.
