In the New Year we’ll do our regular “State of the Riot” piece and look at the biggest overall stories and keyword searches for 2011.
But today we’re going to go back and look at what were the biggest stories in each month.
It should be noted these results are for each calendar month and reflect pageviews on single pages. Stories which spread over multiple months and news entries have thus been disadvantaged.
However, with that caveat, it’s a useful look back at the stories that actually floated readers’ boats in 2011.
January
*Sigh*, January 2011 still saw the pageviews stuck on the astonishing implosion of the Raiders’ star Joel Monaghan and the unfortunate picture of the winger with a labrador.
February
Fortunately by February we’d moved on and the main interest was a short lived spate of nightclub bombings targeting Meche and ICBM.
March
March was a two horse race with the effort to branch stack the utterly inconsequential Social Network Of Graduates bringing a great deal of public derision to some otherwise bright young things.
But, following from February, the sad demise of young Michael Steep and the efforts of his friends to permanently memorialise him in the Woden Bus Interchange was a big issue.
Michael Steep and The Risen Mully, have now permanently established the steel door of the Woden bogs as the premier site for public grieving graffito style.
April
April was the month where sex scandals at ADFA went mainstream after being a PR disaster waiting to happen for many a long year.
(To say nothing of the ongoing human tragedies which neither Defence, Labor, nor Liberal ever gave a stuff about)
May
May was the month of the bogus road rage story which went strangely viral.
We still don’t know what the hell was going on there, but we do know the police got peculiarly interested in it and it made Sydney talkback radio.
Me? I’m still waiting to turn up in someone’s PHD thesis and we can only hope they get failed on ethical grounds.
June
On June 23 we were finishing for work at The Eagle’s Nest when we noticed smoke coming out of Acton our understanding is we published about the fire before the first 000 call was recieved.
A huge effort from readers sending in their media of the event made for a great yarn, if not a happy story for New Acton or the Diamant Hotel.
July
Costco opened in July and nothing was ever really the same again for Canberra’s bargain hunters.
August
August saw the high water mark of the angry bogan efforts to overturn the Australian Constitution in the name of their perverted idea of democracy. It started as feverish activity to create the illusion of a popular groundswell.
In end “Real Australia” appeared to decide it preferred constitutional rule (even under THAT WOMAN) and there were more bicycles counter protesting than trucks in support.
The full convoy tag is worth checking out on this one.
September
September was the month we discovered the ACT had become a magnet for the storage of highly toxic oil right next to metal that catches on fire if exposed to air.
The ensuing conflagration at least came with great photos, and hilariously botched emergency response.
The long term health consequences (if any) of the disaster remain years in the future.
October
In October everyone took a very keen interest in a police raid on the London Burger and Beers.
To date nothing has come of the raid which makes it curiouser still.
November
November was the month of Barack Obama, and his twice postponed whirlwind visit to Canberra.
What was going to compete with The One?
December
December is not done, but the Belconnen Mall explosion appears to be heading to an easy win.
And the winner is…
Being big in Canberra is no substitute for going viral nationally. The winner is the bogus road rage story.
But the most read single page of 2011 for a local story on this website was the Diamant Fire.
Feel free to share your most memorable stories from the 2011 in the comments. (Be sure to include a link)
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