That might have been Comet Bennett. My Dad got me up before sunrise one day. I was blown away, and I am always thankful to my Dad that he did that. We also got up early to watch the Moon lands (because Australia).I seem to remember a comet sinking behind the horizon then, but sun colored. A slow fireball.
Toys. Meccano, I had a small set, but with younger siblings in the house all the little nuts and bolts went missing. Blocks, like Lego, but made of the soft plastic. I had two sets, one was called Montini. I loved them, I made spaceships, boats, towers, endless things. I made weirs spaceships up until my teens and put them on my bookshelf like people put collectibles today. My aunt bought me a tin toy when she passed through America, and I still have it, it was a spaceship that rolled around on the floor and wheels, and wouldd launch a little spaceman up to hover on a cloud of air, he was made from styrofoam and cardboard, imagine an inverted mushroom. And the Dinky Aston Martin DB5 from Goldfinger.
TV. All the Irwin Allen. All the Gerry Anderson (except Thunderbirds, a rights thing in Australia). Sea Hunt. Flipper. Disney. And this Aussie show, its production values weren't much more than Tom Corbett or their ilk, but the theme tune was incredibly groovy. Go to 3:20.