Life in Australia – 50 years ago
Adelaidians- do you remember riding the Ferris Wheel on top of Cox-Foys – in Rundle Street? (before Rundle Mall!)
Or shopping at Moore’s Department Store in Victoria square – which is now the location of the Law Courts?
Or Melburnians – do you remember the famous Southern Cross hotel, or the CRA high rise building – which was quite remarkable for its short 26 year lifespan?
The National Film and Sound Archive has some interesting short historical films that feature Australia’s Cities, and they are now available on You Tube.
Made for the Department of Immigration in the mid 1960s to entice immigrants from Great Britain, the “Life in Australia” series visits state capitals and regional centres around the nation to promote an idyllic picture of life in Australia.
Part travelogue, they tour points of interest around the towns, but the emphasis is on providing a visual record of “typical” daily life, from work and education to home and recreation. The videos are quite short – about 10-15 minutes each.
Cities featured include Brisbane, Cairns, Mount Gambier, Wagga Wagga, Adelaide, Perth, Geraldton, Hobart, Launceston, Melbourne, Geelong and Sydney.
So take a journey into the past and see how some of Australia’s Cities looked in 1966. The link below is for the Melbourne Film.
Sadly, you’ll notice that many of the major icons of the time have now gone, but it’s great to be able to see “into the past” and remember the impact they had on Melbourne in the 1960s.
Other interesting points to note in the Melbourne film include brand new high rise public housing – promoted as a desirable form of living as opposed the Aussie “quarter acre block”, Holden “Red” motors being built at Fishermans bend, and an EK Holden also features prominently (although the EH would have been out by then).
Bourke Street also looked great, pre-mall, with some fantastic neon signs.
You can follow the links from this Melbourne video to view the other Cities.
Tell us about what you remember – and what made the most impact on your City life, in the comments…
Jim - ideas, observations and handy shortcuts
Jim has been a member of the .id team since early 2010, following 10 years as a Director in local government and prior to that, many years at IBM. Jim is also a former .id client and recognised the value of .id’s tools in council decision making. He decided to join .id to help spread the word! He manages .id’s local government clients in Queensland and South Australia, helping them to use .id’s tools for informed strategy and policy decisions. Outside work, Jim enjoys learning Spanish, travel (especially to Spanish speaking locales) and collects the odd car or two…
