RAYGUN AT THE OLYMPICS
It’s hard to believe that before August, very few of us knew the name Raygun.
Before her performance at the Paris Olympics, Rachael Gun was a relatively unknown university lecturer and B-girl, or break dancer. But by the time we woke on August 10, Raygun’s efforts at breaking’s Olympic debut was going very, very viral.
From her green and gold get-up to her unorthodox moves — which included the sprinkler and a kangaroo hop — combined with her failure to win a single point in three contests, Gunn became the subject of global attention, much of it ridicule.
Gunn secured her Paris berth by winning the QMS Oceania Championships but said she knew she couldn’t compete on athleticism and strength, so “decided to move differently, be artistic and creative”.
Debate raged about whether she was a gutsy underdog having a crack, or a national embarrassment making a mockery of the sport. Either way, Gunn insisted she would continue to dance.
GIRRAWHEEN HOME INVASION
A couple in their 70s continue to live in fear after they were bound and bashed inside their own home in April.
Ninette and Philip Simons heard knocks on their door from three people posing as police officers before their lives were changed forever.
Mr Simons was tied up before Ms Simons was allegedly brutally bashed, leaving her with significant facial injuries.
The couple have criticised the Federal Government’s handling of the High Court’s ruling that released more than 100 detainees last year after one of their alleged attackers was revealed as former immigration detainee Majid Jamshidi Doukoshkan.
Mr Doukoshkan was not wearing an ankle bracelet at the time of the alleged home invasion. Commonwealth prosecutors had not opposed his bail when he breached his curfew in February.
TROYE SIVAN BECOMES ONE OF THE BIGGEST POPSTARS IN THE WORLD
Fast becoming an icon of the colourful dance-pop genre, Perth-raised music star Troye Sivan punctuated a busy 2024 by scoring a hat-trick of ARIA wins — best pop release, best solo artist, and album of the year.
But the Dianella boy’s domestic recognition feels like the cream atop his global exploits, with the 29-year-old’s year highlighted by his high-energy Sweat tour of the US with resident ‘brat’ Charli XCX.
Telling Perth fans to “chill on me for a sec” in July when announcing an Aussie tour sans West Coast shows, locals were ultimately reunited with the sexually charged singer in November at Spilt Milk House Party.
REBELS BIKIES IMPLODE
Bikie street battles between the Rebels and Mongols had come to an embarrassing end in October 2023 when carloads of Rebels attempted a drive-by shooting aimed at a senior member of the Mongols’ Roc City chapter.
The comically-botched crime was lampooned by police and the Mongols alike and was a major embarrassment for east coast Rebels, who refused to come to the aid of their under-siege chapters on the west coast. That snub led to a mass resignation in May this year, with close to 40 Rebels handing in their patches in protest.
The gang, once WA’s biggest, was reduced to a few die-hards serving time in jail, with figurehead Karl Labrook defecting with many others to the Comanchero club.
THE RISE OF TRADWIVES
In 2024 the 1950s housewife got a glow-up as tradwives took over social media, showing off their picture-perfect lifestyles and families in a series of day-in-the-life, or cooking videos and gaining massive followings in the process.
The major players were Hannah Neeleman of Ballerina Farm fame — with close to 20 million followers on Instagram and TikTok — as well as Nara Smith, known for wearing elaborate designer gowns while making everything from sunscreen to cereal from scratch for her family.
WWE ELIMINATION CHAMBER AT OPTUS STADIUM
World Wrestling Entertainment produced an incredible show at Optus Stadium in February with more than 52,000 fans screaming their lungs out.
The event had everything. Australian Rhea Ripley retained her WWE championship in the main event and celebrated with her family who were sitting in the front row.
Superstars such as Cody Rhodes, Seth Rollins and Logan Paul were all in Perth as the show set up the key storylines for the annual Wrestlemania extravaganza, including Rhodes’ and Rollins’ impending battle with The Rock and Roman Reigns.
Wrestling’s biggest names toured Perth and met fans as WWE fever took over the city.
CELEB BREAK-UPS
We bid farewell to a handful of Hollywood’s hottest couples as a slew of long-term lovers moved to splitsville in 2024.
There’s no forgetting the unusual break-up announcement from a tennis-clad Isla Fisher and Sacha Baron Cohen who revealed:“After a long tennis match lasting over twenty years, we are finally putting our racquets down”.
In August, everyone’s favourite on-and-off couple Bennifer (Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck) called it quits, again, as JLo filed for divorce.
And perhaps the most shocking of them all, Hugh Jackman and Deborra-Lee Furness separated after 27 years of marriage.
THE OMBUDSMAN REPORT
“The visit included a private guided tour of the truly stunning Schloss Eggenberg; attending the opening night of Il Cappelo di paglia di Firenze in the Baroque masterpiece that is the Graz Opera House; and a private guided tour by the director of the modern art museum, the Kunsthaus Graz.”
That effusive description of a taxpayer-funded trip to Austria, recounted last year in an official annual report tabled in State Parliament, set the clock ticking on the WA Ombudsman’s tenure.
Chris Field had held his $450,000-a-year job since 2008. Despite having the power of a standing royal commission, Field ruffled few feathers. But that changed when he took a side-hustle gig at president of the International Ombudsman Institute.
His globe-trotting agenda, realised on the public purse, put him in the cross-hairs of the Corruption and Crime Commission.
In October Field quit after the CCC found he engaged in “serious misconduct” by clocking up thousands of dollars in taxpayer-funded travel bills.
DEADLY SINGAPORE AIRLINES FLIGHT
There were scenes of “absolute terror” on Singapore Airlines flight SQ321 when it was hit with severe turbulence, killing one passenger and injuring dozens more.
More than 140 passengers and crew — including 56 Australians — were onboard the flight, travelling from London to Singapore, when it plunged about 11 hours after take-off.
Passengers recalled how those not wearing seatbelts were “launched immediately into the ceiling”, while others who were walking around ended up doing “somersaults”.
Singapore Airlines said it would offer compensation to those injured, but that is little consolation for nervous flyers who will no doubt be more tense during bumps.
BALI NINE MEMBERS FREED
One of Australia’s most controversial prisoner releases was the Prime Minister’s intervention to free five remaining Bali Nine drug traffickers after 19 years in an Indonesia jail.
Mr Albanese brokered a deal with Indonesia’s President to release Matthew Norman, 38, Scott Rush, 39, Martin Stephens, 48, Si Yi Chen, 39 and Michael Czugaj, 38, on humanitarian grounds.
The drug traffickers were convicted in April 2005 of trying to smuggle 8.3kg of heroin, valued at $4 million, from Indonesia to Australia. The ringleaders, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, were executed in 2015.
The only female member of the group, Renae Lawrence, 47, was released in 2018. Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen died of cancer in 2018 at the age of 34 while still imprisoned.
Mr Albanese discussed the freeing of the remaining prisoners with new President Prabowo Subianto on the sidelines of the APEC summit on November 15 in Peru. They are expected to continue their rehabilitation in Australia. The men said they were “relieved and happy” to be back home.