On November 11 1975, radio journalist Leigh Hatcher was beavering away at a story in his shoebox office on the second floor of Parliament House when his junior colleague burst through the door with startling news.

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"Shit," he recalls the bewildered cadet exclaiming.

"Gough's been sacked!"

Just 19 himself, Hatcher had only begun his career as a political roundsman on budget day, three months earlier.

The tumultuous period would catapult him into a rarefied side role in Australian history as he witnessed up close one of the most extraordinary political sagas since federation.

The dismissal of Prime Minister Gough Whitlam by Governor-General

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