Hordes of media filled the town waiting to report on the pregancy's outcome in mid August of 1950. In those days, having four at once was not only highly unusual, it was also highly risky because the babies would be born too prematurely to survive.

But in this case, British-born war-bride Betty Sara, 29, who had moved to Bellingen with her ambulance officer husband Percy the year before, carried her quads to just 12 days shy of full-term.

The labour spanned three days, with the first baby born on August 17, the second on August 18 and the third and fourth on the evening of August 19.

The birth took place in Bellingen Hospital with three local doctors in attendance - Dr Mervyn Elliott, Dr George Hewitt and Dr K. Elphinstone, plus a Newcastle obstetrician who flew into Bellingen because he was so interested in the case.

X-rays taken seven weeks earlier had revealed Betty would have quadruplets but the doctors kept the news from her for as long as possible, saying it was twins or possibly triplets, as they feared she would suffer from shock if she knew the truth.

The non-identical babies, two boys and two girls, were born alive and well, with their weights ranging from three pounds to five pounds. Alison, Phillip, Judith and Mark became national celebrities as the first surviving set of quads in Australia.

When they came home to 14 Hyde St the following month, their older brother Geoffrey, aged 4, asked plaintively, "Are we going to keep them all?"

The bidding for exclusive rights to their story was won by Frank Packer's Consolidated Press, partly because Betty was an avid reader of the Australian Women's Weekly. Over the next 25 years, the magazine followed every milestone, frequently on its front page.

As part of his 'Forgotten Australia' podcasts, Michael Adams revisited the story of the Sara quads on August 18. Tune in via one of these links:

Apple Podcasts - http://tiny.cc/Aus-On-This-Day-iTunes

Google Podcasts - http://tiny.cc/Oz-On-This-Day-Google

Spotify - http://tiny.cc/Aus-On-This-Day-Spotify

The family left Bellingen for Sydney in 1956. The podcast describes their lives subsequently and their response to the enormous publicity that surrounded them for decades. In retirement, Betty and Percy returned to live on the Coffs Coast. Betty celebrated her 99^th birthday in January this year.