The year 1966 brought big changes to Australia including the retirement of our then longest serving Prime Minister, Sir Robert Menzies, who had been in Office all of my life, well it seemed to me that he had as he had commenced his second term of office when I was just 12 months old and was now making way for his ill-fated deputy, Harold Holt, who would mysteriously disappear the following year, presumed drowned in treacherous surf.  The construction of Sydney's Opera House continued despite it's Danish designer and architect walking out on the job in 1966 just when it was really taking shape.                               The photo above was taken in 1966. Construction began in 1959 and the Opera House was finally opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1973. It has since become Sydney's second most recognised landmark, only preceded by the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Without doubt the biggest change in Australia that year was our conversion to decimal currency from pounds, shillings and pence to dollars and cents. The full set of original decimal currency is shown below with the equivalent old currency.                                I was working in the Sydney Office of a bank at the time and conversion day was a daunting prospect with all banks in Australia closed to the public for several business days beforehand to enable clearance of the old currency and receipt of the new and manual conversion of all bank records together with conversion or replacement of machinery prior to re-opening on "C day", 14th  February, 1966.  It was a mammoth task, there were no computers or ATM's in those days and all interest and bank fees were calculated and charged manually. From that day the old currency was not re-issued. The conversion went like clockwork with the old currency being cleared to the Reserve Bank for destruction of the notes and meltdown of coins. Just four days after "C day" following a Rolling Stones concert I met the girl who would become my wife.                                  1966 photo. The shed at right is on the Sydney Opera House construction site with Sydney Harbour Bridge in the background.