Inside the Collection: Remembering Australian Summer Holidays

My childhood memories of Summer include endless days frolicking the gentle waves at Balmoral Beach. With hours spent exploring the rock pools and scavenging the shoreline for shells and seaweed to make elaborate sand castles. I recall the excitement and independence of walking to the takeaway shop on a quest for cool treats – with so many options to ponder over: Calippo, Splice, Paddlepop, Billabong, Streets Heart, Bubble O’Bill and more. Fond childhood memories, but I digress….

With our theme of “Summer” this month, this week we revisit an Inside the Collection story: Remembering Australian summer holidays by Margaret Simpson. In this article Margaret shares with the reader typical memories of the Australian Summer holidays from car trips to beach and pool visits, lifeguards, swimwear and thongs, and sun – relating them back to objects in the Powerhouse’s collection.

An excerpt, and link to the full article, is provided below …

The beach has always been the ultimate destination for summer holidays whether it was just a few kilometres away or a long car trip. Back in the 1960s cars weren’t as reliable as today. Even for a relatively short drive you’d stop off at the service station to have the oil, water and tyres checked and to pick up maps. Some families set off before dawn to beat the holiday traffic (what traffic?). Cars had no air-con or radios let alone all the high tech entertainment of today. Radiators would boil, tyres blow-out, kids carsick, seats were sticky, and the journey felt intolerably long. Did those rubber strips hanging down the back of the car really prevent car sickness?
New Acquisitions Obj No: 2011/73/1 Road maps (5), Shell Road Guides for New South Wales, Newcastle
District and Sydney-Brisbane, paper, published by the Shell Touring Service, Shell
Oil Company of Australia Ltd, made by P C Grosser, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia,
1962-1965
Nevertheless, it was all worthwhile once you arrived at the beach with the sun sparkling on the waves. Armed with your orange moulded-plastic Zippy Board you’d race down to the water only to come screaming back up again with blue bottle tentacles wrapped around your legs.
Lifesavers typified the bronzed Aussie and added both safety and glamour to the beach. They worked long hours with much more primitive equipment that today at un-netted beaches where the increased likelihood of sharks added to the hazards. Having the shark alarm go off was terrifying especially if you’d gone out beyond the breaking waves.
This surf lifesaving reel was used by South Curl Curl Surf Lifesaving Club in about 1960. MAAS Collection 85/826. Photo: Andrew Frolows, MAAS
Rescues by lifesavers were really impressive as they had to swim out with the harness. The crew on the water’s edge would pull the distressed swimmer back to the beach with the reel, which was phased out in 1994.
This surf lifesaving reel was used by South Curl Curl Surf Lifesaving Club in about 1960. MAAS Collection 85/826. Photo: Andrew Frolows, MAAS
Whether you donned your swim suit, bathers, trunks, swimmers, togs or cossie, chances are they’d have been made by Speedo. From the late 1940s shirred cotton ‘bubble’ costumes became popular, especially for girls, while in the 1950s women were glamorously corseted in shirred and elasticised fabrics with moulded bra cups, boning and heavy seaming. Two pieces of the time were demure by later standards with waist-high bottoms obscuring the naval which was painted out by newspaper photographers if snapped by accident. Post-war immigrants caused a stir at the beach by wearing their scanty European-style swimwear with men wearing brief costumes of elasticised material without a modesty skirt.