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2008 is already being spoken of as the year of the unexpected, the tone set just 72 hours after the stroke of midnight when voters in the mid-western state of Iowa in the US decided that an African-American politician with an exotic-sounding name and a poetic turn of phrase deserved an unexpected victory in the first popularity contest of the US presidential election season.

Barack Hussein Obama, Sarah Palin, Lehman Brothers, Hank Paulson, Joe the Plumber. Most of the surprises and upsets came from America. For Australians, too, perhaps the most shocking single event unfolded in Lower Manhattan, with the . 2008 should have been the crowning moment of his brief but brilliant career, with his spell-binding performance as the Joker in Dark Knight. Instead, the country mourned his premature death, at the age of just 28.

Back in Australia, the defining moment of the past 12 months came with . Some called it Australia's Day of Atonement. Others questioned why present-day Australians should apologise for past injustices to indigenous people. For members of the , who had been drawn to the capital by the promise of a single word, it was an event of immense cathartic power. Thunderous applause rang out not only in Parliament House, but on the lawns outside and around big screens which displayed the event around the country.

Kevin Rudd started the year by fighting inflation, and ended it by declaring war on unemployment. The prime minister portrayed himself as a wartime leader, and likened the global downturn to a "rolling national security crisis". The resources boom ended, and Australia realised it could no longer bank on China's growth to underwrite its economic good times. Partly as a result, Australia's once cash-rich Treasury is about to get an overdraft. Australians will be heading off for their summer and seasonal break more uncertain about the economic future, perhaps, than at any time over the past 17 years.

Elsewhere in national life, Quentin Bryce, a former sex discrimination commissioner with a male-sounding name . Brendan Nelson, the former opposition leader, had his "kiss-me-Hardy" moment; and Malcolm Turnbull, the former head of the Republican movement, of the once-staunchly monarchist Liberal Party.

Qantas had something of an annus horribilis, with two mid-air dramas and a series of other mishaps. Tourism Australia its controversial "Where the Bloody Hell Are You?" campaign, and with Baz Luhrmann. Australia's most important visitor, meanwhile, was an 81-year-old Pontiff, who, for four days in July, by over 200,000 adoring Catholic pilgrims.

The Beijing Olympics produced more than a few surprises, starting when the Aussie team marched into the Birds Nest in subtle shades of blue rather than the traditional green and gold. Golden glory also came from some unexpected quarters. A little-known and openly gay Australian diver, Matthew Mitcham, plunged 10m into the pool in order to climb the medal podium, while the pole-vaulter Steve Hooker propelled himself on a more upward trajectory to claim gold. And what a topsy-turvy year for the Australian cyclist Anna Meares, who broke her neck at a bike meet in January but managed still to win a silver medal in Beijing barely six months later.

Anna Meares was beaten in second place by a Pom, which became one of the stories of the games. For the first time since the Seoul Olympics, the Brits "out-medaled" the Aussies - a surprise to some, though not to Australian Olympics chief John Coates, who had watched with envy at the vast sums of lottery money being thrown at British elite sport and predicted as much beforehand.

Cricket produced more than its fair share of unscripted drama, with the angry "Bollyline" series at the beginning of the year. An Indian player, nicknamed the Turbanator, allegedly called the Australian all-rounder, Andrew Symonds, a "monkey". Then, as the recriminations threatened to derail the whole tour, many Aussie fans turned on their own team, which certainly came as a shock to skipper Ricky Ponting and his men. Australia started the year as the world's sole cricketing superpower but ended it in disarray, with defeats against India and South Africa. In the absence of Warne and McGrath (and, to a lesser extent, Adam Gilchrist) Australian cricket has lost both its fear factor and self-confident strut. Given its present pool of players, it is hard to see them getting either back.

Many things stayed the same: the ongoing drought brought more suffering for the nation's farmers, Telstra escalated its long-running war of attrition with the federal government, Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard kept on talking about "working families", and the New South Wales government continued to be beset by scandal.
I'd love to hear your highlights of the year, or, indeed, your projections for 2009. But, in the meantime, have a fabulous new year and enjoy the fireworks.

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