1982 Commonwealth Games opening ceremony

The Opening Ceremony of the 1982 Commonwealth Games was held on 30 September 1982 at the QEII Stadium in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

The ceremony was directed by Ric Birch. The chairman for the XII Commonwealth Games was Sir Edward Williams, KBE, KCMG.
Sir Edward was later decorated Australian of the Year for 1982. Tony Machin walked in the ceremony.

The opening ceremony was held during the afternoon of a fine and sunny, but extremely windy and somewhat cool, afternoon. The starting of the Opening Ceremony was signaled with a kookaburra's call, followed by the traditional cry of "cooeee". Already on the field were two Commonwealth Games logos. After the announcement welcoming the audience to the opening ceremony, thousands of high school students dressed in red, white, or blue came running onto the field. Some of the children carried fabric placards while others picked up coloured boards once they were on the field. While the Opening Prelude / Commonwealth Games Song was performed by the Queensland Symphony Orchestra and the Sydney Philharmonia Choir), the children formed the Australian flag.

As this was breaking up, marching girls, wearing white and blue, green and black, or red and white, came along the athletics track from the right. From the left, came Surf Lifesavers bearing a variety of flags. The following music was played:

The high school students then formed red and blue circles, outlined in white, surrounded by a blue square. Again, on either side they formed the Commonwealth Games logo. The circles broke up to form a stylised map of Australia again surrounded by a blue square representing the sea. The map was the source of controversy as it omitted Tasmania.

The centre of the map was now filled with young people in the native costumes of the many different nationalities which make up Australia. While "I Still Call Australia Home" was playing, these young people stood in rows, holding hands, and swaying to represent waves on the sea.

The dances within the map included an ethnic folk dance medley of some of the countries from which some Australian people came. The dances were;

...
Wikipedia