During the eighties the new statewide league concept of football
in Tasmania signalled the end of the influence of regional football. It started
in 1984. Intrastate representative football between the three main bodies the NTFA, NWFU and the TANFL
was downgraded in favour of state representative matches. The only tri series of
the decade was held in 1984 while in other years each body would take on only
one of the others.
Visiting interstate rep sides and club teams still visited
regularly during this decade with Victoria, ACT, Western Australia, South
Australia, Queensland, NSW, an Australian Amateurs side and VFL side Footscray all travelling to Tasmania to play representative football.
By the end of the decade the governing bodies and clubs became
bloated by success. Clubs had overspent on players and coaches. The game started
losing favour as a spectator sport due to the live VFL/AFL product beamed into
suburban Tasmanian loungerooms.
EIGHTIES FOOTBALL LEGENDS
Some of the other significant events in Tasmanian history during
the decade are displayed below;
1980 - Australian Antarctic Division headquarters
completed at Kingston
1980 - Labor MHA Gillian James becomes first woman to become State Government
minister
1980 - Australian Maritime College opens at Beauty Point
1980 - Australian Heritage Commission includes Tasmania on National Estate
register
1981 - Plebiscite on preferred new hydro-electric scheme shows 47% of voters
favour Gordon-below-Franklin development, 8% prefer Gordon-above-Olga, with 45
per cent casting informal votes, including 'no dams' write-ins.
1981 - Devonport proclaimed city
1981 - Bushfires destroy 40 Zeehan homes
1982 - Proclamation of Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, including
South-West, Franklin-Lower Gordon Wild Rivers and Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair
national parks; conservationists blockade Gordon-below-Franklin hydro-electric
dam work
1982 - Tasmanian's elect Liberals as government in their own right for first
time in state's history
1983 - Federal regulations block Franklin dam construction; High Court rules in
favour of federal sovereignty, ending Gordon-below-Franklin scheme
1983 - Tasmanian Aboriginal Land Council established
1983 - Visit by The Prince and Princess of Wales
1984 - Official opening of Bowen Bridge
1984 - Official opening of Wrest Point Convention Centre
1984 - Fire damages Theatre Royal
1984 - Atlantic salmon eggs introduced to Tasmania
1985 - Four-day cremation ceremony at Oyster Cove, south of Hobart, for
Aboriginal remains recovered from museums
1985 - CSIRO Marine Laboratories open in Hobart
1985 - Last voyage by ferry Empress of Australia before replacement by Abel
Tasman
1985 - Last Tasmanian drive-in theatres close in Hobart and Launceston
1985 - Municipal rationalisation advances with Launceston taking over St
Leonards and Lilydale
1986 - Pope John Paul II holds mass for 32,000 people at Elwick racecourse
during Hobart visit
1986 - Archaeologists discover Aboriginal rock paintings in South-West believed
to be 20,000 years old
1987 - Launching of Lady Nelson replica ship
1987 - High Court decision bans logging in Lemonthyme, southern forests
1987 - Antarctic supply ship Nella Dan sinks off Macquarie Island
1988 - International fleet of about 200 sailing, cruise and naval ships from
about 20 countries calls at Hobart as part of Australian Bicentennial
celebrations; more than 150 leave on race to Sydney
1988 - Clarence and Burnie proclaimed cities
1988 - Tasmanian Sporting Hall of Fame opens
1989 - State election ends with Labor-Green accord involving five independents;
their no-confidence vote in Robin Gray's minority Liberal government gives
Labor's Michael Field premiership
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