I know that CC has a few followers in Australia, and I recently came across a series of slides that I believe they will enjoy seeing. Images captured in the 1950s and 1960s, with daily traffic of the period. These shots should spark a few memories to those who lived those days, and to the rest, provide a nice view of what life was like back then.
As for myself, I’ve always had a bit of a fascination with Australia’s automotive past. A mix of products from Europe (mostly British) and American subsidiaries that seemed to enjoy the goodness of both worlds. It’s always a bit odd -but good!- for me to see Valiants, Falcons, Minors, Minis, and Bedford trucks all sharing the same roads.
Locations and dates have been noted, as provided online. The lead pic is at Flinders Street Station in Melbourne, from 1952.
Commercial St. and Penola Road, Mount Gambier, South Australia, 1955.
FE Holden, Fishermans Bend, Victoria, 1956.
Bourke Street, Melbourne, 1960.
Lilac Time Hall, Goulburn, New South Wales, 1964.
Gladesville Bridge, Huntleys Point, Sydney, 1964.
Young and Jackson’s Princes Bridge Hotel, Naarm Melbourne, 1966.
Roselands Shopping Centre, Sydney, 1968.
Rex Service Station, Melbourne, 1968.
Queen Victoria Market, Melbourne, 1968.
King William Street, Adelaide, 1969. (Impossible to see in this resolution, but Bullit is playing at the Warner Theater in the background).
Miranda Fair Shopping Centre, Sydney, 1969.
Grand selection of photos. I love the first two and one sees the 55 Chevrolet in the first photo and how much the Holden in the 2nd photo shares a resemblance. If GM had offered the Holden in 55 as a “Midsize”, would have beaten the Ford Fairlane by 7 years. However. would it have sold well here in the states? I see a lot of Chrysler Valiants in later pics.
Looks can be deceiving. With a 105 inch wheelbase the Holden was a bit small for that Jason. Maybe it could have been worked as a pre-Corvair compact, but that style didn’t come out until ’56 and Holden was flat out keeping up with demand.
It’s weird for this US guy to see so many American-looking cars on the “wrong” side of the road, mixed in with lots of British cars. Thanks for finding and posting this older stuff, Ric.
South Africa was the same in the 1950s and 1960s, full of American cars. By the 1970s, the American badged cars like Chevrolet Caprice and Ford Fairlane were Australian rebadged imports.
Great shots, in most of these I was able to locate the modern day buildings. Not all the same as 50-60 years ago but some are still there.
I’d pick an early Falcon for my daily driver here. I can’t imagine that British cars were very good for Australian conditions: hot, high speeds, and long distances.
British cars, generally speaking, tended to be commoner in cities, or chosen by country folk who didn’t expect to travel far from home. Speeds tended to be lower in those days, but you had to choose your car well. A Morris Oxford could sustain a 50-55mph cruise for hours (Dad did), but you wouldn’t want to try that in, say, an Austin A30. Outside the cities road conditions were often poor, so ruggedness mattered more than speed.
Early Falcon is the worst choice possible in OZ, they were not good cars
Wow… is that two-tone Valiant factory?
The one outside Young and Jacksons? Taxi. With something like half a dozen taxi companies operating in Melbourne back then, there were some weird liveries, trust me!
What about a Sydney RSL taxi red blue black mate of mine bought an ex taxi a HZ Holden, replaced the bootlid with one in primer grey and was refused a pinkslip because of too many colours, a quick blow over in primer solved that problem but the various colours on cabs was great
Thank you for schooling a Yank.
So many familiar places and the cars are what ive been driving both in OZ and NZ for decades, Aussie built British models were not the same as the British CKD packs assembled in NZ some upgrades didnt make it to OZ, Aussie cars sold well in NZ but mostly on price, they were cheap,and it showed. Some shortcoming like brakes were addressed with standard power disc brakes in by the mid 60s and better interiors’ went in and were exported back to OZ but when my old man stepped down from a 2 year old Velox into a brand new Holden the disappointment was heard loud and clear from both parents
Wonderful photos, I spent some time looking at the details .
Why, in photo # 6 are there so many cars parked on a limited access road ? .
I too noticed and like the two toned Valiant taxi .
-Nate
Nate, the Gladesville Bridge opened in ’64, so my guess is that it was opening day and they had all come to try out the new bridge and, even more exciting, the new approach roads. It was new, space age freeway-style road, and Australia didn’t have anything like that in those days.
The bridge itself cannot be seen here as it is out of frame.
Nice photos. Flinders St Station in photo 1 is a remarkable old Victorian pile, so big there’s a (disused) ballroom in the roof, but it looks vastly better today than it did then – pollution made it grimy and grotty, whereas the paintwork now stays rather splendiferous.
I spy two real rarities for Oz. The step-down Hudson in pic 1, and a Fiat Topolino woody wagon in the FE Holden photo. I’ve seen exactly one Hudson years ago, a four-door, and exactly none giardineras with wood.
Here’s a puzzle for non-Ozzies to ponder. In pic 7, both the wacky-painted Valiant and the white Mini are about to make right turns (think left turn in US, across traffic), but they are each in the far left lanes (far right US): how is this possible? (Clue: it’s a rule to keep trams clear that still applies in downtown Melbourne to this very day). Answers addressed to More Weird Shit From Downunder, c/o CC, OR.
Friends who had a couple of acres of old cars in Narrabri had a Hudson in their ‘collection’
Now admittedly Hudson kept the stepdown in production for a long time, but I can claim three stepdown sightings and one ride. A friend in Warragul had two back in the seventies, a ’48 Super Six sedan and a ’51 or ’52 Commodore (or might have been a Hornet, can’t remember) that he was bringing back to life. I had a ride in the ’48, just up and down the driveway, all it was safe for at the time.
The other Hudson experience was our landlord, who had one of the garages extended about a foot and a half to fit his Hudson in. Can’t remember the year though.
That Topolino? A real oddity. A local car dealer donated a Topolino trade-in to a local playground in the late sixties – you can guess the rest.
This article attempts to explain the “hook turn,” but I’m still not sure I get it!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hook_turn
Well done you!
Essentially, you pull in the leftest lane (think rightist, US), and the city streets being Victorian-era very wide, you crowd as many as can fit across the top of the, say, north/south road you are on – that way, the north/south trams and cars aren’t blocked by you, you’re over outta the way – and when the light for the east/west road turns green, off you turn sharp right (left, US) and away you scoot. If you stall, or other wise faff about, obviously you become a total blockage and irritant to the east/west cars impatient to get moving, and they will inform of you such by virtue of horns and fists and baseball bats, etc.
Good god, put that way, it sounds completely nuts! I guess it actually kinda is, but at least it’s less likely to kill you than the majority of the wildlife here.
I hope this has helped.
It made me laugh, which is more important. Thanks!
Justy’s good at that, but he’s right.
Just one thing to add: while you’re keeping an eye on the mirror and trying to pull to the side out of the way of traffic coming up from behind, don’t bowl over the pedestrians crossing (and they’re busy intersections, so there’ll be some). The pedestrians will see you coming, but I wouldn’t rely on that as a defense.
And to think I had to do this going for my driving test. Like many a testee, I’m sure, I’ve never driven back there since.
anyone else spot the Monaro “ASS 250”?
My favorite is that Chevy bus with the hood up behind the ’55 Chevy.
I am a little amazed at the complete lack of Studebakers in these shots – I had understood that with them being built locally, they had a higher market share there than in the US, and were even used as police cars (and in television shows). Perhaps no.
And they were raced, too! But no, the numbers were tiny, especially by US standards. At a time in the 50’s and 60’s when Holden had 50% market share and was selling perhaps 80K per year, the Studes sold in the hundreds. A much-respected brand (as their remarkable survival rates seem to attest still) but probably a bit thirsty and expensive for most folk. The link below gives a quick rundown of the company’s presence here.
https://studebakercarclub.net/studebaker-in-australia/
I remember a couple rumbling around the small town I grew up in (Swan Hill) in the 60s
One was a wagon, they would always get a respectful comment from my non car loving Dad.
I remember a white Lark sedan that made some magnificent sounds, probably the first V8 I took notice of.
The tv series Homicide used a Studebaker in the first season episodes before switching to Ford Falcon, then Holden and finally the Aussie Chrysler Valiant in the final seasons.