Impact on Melbourne 2010 Impact on Melbourne 2010

These are the events and people who made an impact on MELBOURNE in 2010..

These events and people are either Melburnians or the event took place in Melbourne.

Mary MacKillop

Was there anything bigger in 2010 than the Canonisation of Australia's First Saint, Melburnian Mary MacKillop.

Mary MacKillop (15 January 1842 - 8 August 1909) now known as Saint Mary of the Cross was a Roman Catholic nun who founded the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart and a number of schools and welfare institutions concentrating on education for the poor.

Saint Mary MacKillop was Canonised on October 24 at St Peter's Basilica, Rome. Pope Benedict XVI proclaimed Mary's sainthood during the Canonisation Mass.

Mary MacKillop was born in Brunswick St Fitzroy, a suburb of Melbourne.

CINDY GAMBINO

It has been five years since Cindy Gambino's first husband, Robert Farquharson, deliberately drove the couple's sons Jai, 10, Tyler, 7, and Bailey, 2, into a dam near Winchelsea on Father's Day.

Farquharson was sentenced to life without parole in 2007, but won an appeal last year and was granted a retrial. After 11 weeks of evidence and three days of deliberation, a second jury again found him guilty of murder.

In October he was given the lighter sentence of life with a non-parole period of 33 years.

'I haven't celebrated a single birthday, Mother's Day, Father's Day or Christmas since losing my boys,' Gambino told a women's magazine.

GEORGETTE FISHLOCK

Sincec being diagnosed with a rare form of eye cancer as a toddler, courageous eight-year-old Tyler Fishlock has endured operations that sacrificed his sight to save his life - as well as cruel schoolyard bullies.

His plight has captured the hearts of Victorians since he first appeared in the Herald Sun almost five years ago, but this year his mum, Georgette, told her story.

Her inspirational book, Tyler: Perfect in My Eyes, details her son's sickness, her own dark depression and a family working towards recovery.

JIM STYNES

AFL hero Jim Stynes revealed in April his cancer had returned. Three days later he was under the knife having five brain tumours removed.

The father of two was followed by cameras during the ordeal for his documentary Every Heart Beats True, which aired in September. It showed what a man is prepared to do to win the toughest battle of his life.

He supplemented conventional medicine such as radiotherapy with alternative techniques, including drinking his own urine, which he believes boosted his immune system, and a coffee enema to clean out toxins.

Stynes, 44, describes himself as a better person, a better husband and a better father since discovering he had cancer.

MEL RAFTER

Mel isn't a real person. She was actor Zoe Ventoura's much-loved character on Channel 7's Packed to the Rafters, but Mel Rafter's shock car-crash death while using her mobile phone rocked TV-loving Australia to the core.

After a much-hyped teaser campaign, the episode aired on Melbourne Cup night attracting 2.3 million viewers, slightly less than those who tuned in to the race that stops the nation.

There was a prime-time encore screening the following week. But there was fallout. Distraught fans elt betrayed by the shock departure and flooded internet chat rooms with calls for a boycott.

Psychologists even gave advice on how to cope with the TV tragedy, which singlehandedly did more for awareness of the dangers of using mobiles while driving than any TV advertising campaign ever could have.

BEN RUSSELL AND MICHELLE ERRICHIELLO

Their worlds collided three years ago during a horror car crash that left Michelle an amputee. Not only have they formed a close bond since, this year they won Pride of Australia medals - Ben for heroism, Michelle for courage.

Michelle was putting out the rubbish at her Ascot Vale office when an out-of-control car jumped the kerb and slammed her into a brick wall.

Off-duty firefighter Ben, who was lunching nearby, rushed to the scene to find Michelle bleeding and sprawled on the car bonnet. The impact had torn her lower leg off.

He clamped the artery of her leg with his bare hands to minimise more blood loss - a move that saved her life - until she was rushed to hospital.

Michelle has become one of Australia's top sprinting hopes for the 2012 London Paralympic Games.

CAMERON LOWE'S PARENTS

AFTER being assaulted while walking home last month, the Pakenham teen posted Facebook messages expressing his pain and confusion.

'Dunno what happened but my jaw hurts . . . all I wanna do is cry.'

In his final post at 2.12am, he wrote: 'Sore :'('

When Cameron failed to wake the next morning, his older brother phoned paramedics and performed CPR until they arrived.

By then his heart had stopped and his brain had swollen, having lapsed into a coma from a hit to the head on the road during the altercation.

His grief-stricken parents, Rikki and Gavin, fronted the press, saying while something must be done to curb the violence on Melbourne's streets, Cameron's death wasn't all in vain as his organs were donated for transplants after he was declared brain dead.

BRYAN COUSINS

SUCH is Life wasn't just Ben Cousin's drug confessional, it was a portrait of a loving father in utter despair.

Bryan feared his football star son would die at the peak of his drug abuse and berated himself for not seeing the signs of Ben's downward spiral into addiction.

Bryan also revealed in the documentary, which aired in August, that he was so concerned for his son's safety he accompanied him on a drug run, huddling in a Perth bus shelter in his pyjamas with no shoes and no mobile phone while the deal went down.

'I heard him get up at 3.30am and said, 'You're not going anywhere, mate',' Bryan said.

'It was the closest we ever came (to a physical confrontation). He said, 'If I want to go, you can't stop me'. I traded off and said that I would go with him.'

MIKAYLA FRANCIS

JUST days after celebrating her seventh birthday, little Mikayla this week lost her battle with a rare liver cancer.

Her birthday served as an inspiration to her family, friends, schoolmates and the community of Cockatoo, in Melbourne's outer suburbs, where she lived.

Among the cards she received was one from Prime Minister Julia Gillard, saying: 'I hope you have the world's best birthday. You deserve it.''

Mikayla's dad, Andrew, said he'd been astonished by the grace and selflessness with which she had fought her illness. When he asked her if she was scared, she said, 'No, Dad, I'm kind of excited, I just reckon heaven's going to be awesome'.

ANIMALS

A SHOUT-OUT to our four-legged friends who bought smiles to our dials.

Melbourne Zoo enjoyed a baby elephant boom this year, welcoming Mali in January and Ongard in September, the first jumbos born in the zoo's 148-year history.

Mersina Halvagis
We watched TRAGIC father George Halvagis and his family daily battle to bring to justice the killer of his daughter, Mersina Halvagis who was stabbed to death in Fawkner cemetery in 1997.

Serial killer Peter Norris Dupas has been convicted twice of murdering Mersina Halvagis. Dupas was first convicted of the murder in 2007 and sentenced to life in prison. But last year, a majority ruling of the Court of Appeal quashed the conviction after finding that Supreme Court judge Philip Cummins had failed to warn the jury adequately about matters specific to the case that could have undermined the account of three witnesses who placed Dupas at the cemetery on the day of the murder.

Also Remember
Collingwood Football Club
Collingwood defeated St. Kilda by a club-record margin of 56 points in the 2010 AFL Grand Final replay after drawing with St. Kilda on the previous Saturday and finishing the home-and-away season as minor premiers.

Those Photos
Nude photos of AFL St Kilda captain Nick Riewoldt and Nick Del Santo were posted on Facebook by a 17 year old girl.

2010 Melbourne Cup
The 150th Melbourne Cup was won by Americain with runner-up Maluckyday and So You Think finishing third.

2010 Australian Open
The singles winners of the 2010 Australian Open at Melbourne Park were in 2010 were Roger Federer and Serena Williams.

Carl Williams
Notorious killer and jailed druglord Carl Williams was brutally bashed to death in jail on April 19, 2010.

Victorian State Election 2010
The 2010 Victorian state election was held on 27 November. The incumbent Labor Party led by John Brumby, was defeated by a Liberal/National Coalition led by Ted Baillieu.

Julia Gillard
Julia Gillard became the first female and 27th Prime Minister of Australia, in the Victorian seat of Lalor for the Australian Labor Party in the first hung Federal Parliament for generations after a bloodless coup against Kevin Rudd in June.

Julian Assange
One of the biggest stories on the planet was about WikiLeaks founder, Melburian Julian Assange. As the embarrassing revelations uncovered about 200,000 leaked US diplomatic cables continued to mount, furious governments called for him to be arrested or assassinated. Ironically, the WikiLeaks files are stored on servers in a Swedish cold war nuclear bunker 30m underground.

Melbourne Victoria

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➼ Impact on Melbourne 2010 

➼ Source information: heraldsun.com.au






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