In Living Memory by National Geographic encapsulates daily life in Australia in mid-20th century

See how much Australia has changed, and what life was really like from the 1930s to the 1970s, with a new photographic book titled ‘In Living Memory’.

• How good is Australia?
• The scenes that change David Attenborough forever

Step away from the 21st century — home to social media influencers, tech-savvy teens and access to unlimited information — and back in time with Australia Geographic.

It has released a new book, In Living Memory, which encapsulates daily life in Australia from the 1930s to the 1970s.

In Living Memory, by Alasdair McGregor, published in November, is a photographic chronicle of the highs, lows and trends of the mid-20th century — featuring snapshots of historic events, the average Australian’s living conditions and the building of iconic landmarks, including the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge.

A Sydney inner-city back alleyway lined with outdoor privies, 1943. Laneways provided crucial access for nightsoil collectors in areas where terraced housing was common. Picture: Alec Iverson

A bread delivery man hands up a loaf from his horse drawn cart to a woman in Potts Point, Sydney, during the Great Depression in 1935. Virtually every home had bread and milk delivered on a daily basis in the days before owning a car was commonplace.

The first radio broadcast in Australia was made in 1923, and in the following decades radio became an essential part of daily life. Listening to the radio was usually a communal activity, as it was for this post-war group on a Victorian beach. Picture: State Library of Victoria

Comprising a majority of monochrome pictures — with some printed in colour to retain the tint and patina of the original photograph — In Living Memory captures Australian diggers cheerfully departing home soil to fight overseas in WWII, the changes to swimwear fashion and a day-in-the-life of children at school.

Not only does In Living Memory showcase Australian society in the mid-20th century on a visual front, it also details how events and societal rituals came to be.

MORE NEWS

Most shocking moments of the last decade

Best last-minute gifts as Christmas looms

Aussies urged to avoid deadly pet presents

One including how the Oslo lunch came about in schools, which was an initiative kickstarted to improve the everyday diet of children following the Depression.

“Another move to bolster the nutrition of schoolchildren focused on milk,” In Living Memory states.

“Milk was distributed free to crèches, kindergartens, and both public and private primary schools.

Back in the 1970s, Qantas 747s offered first-class passengers the roomy exclusivity of the Captain Cook Lounge, accommodated in the aircraft’s distinctive upper deck ‘hump’. Picture: Qantas Heritage Collection

Swinburne Technical College boys enjoy fish and chips straight from their newspaper wrapping in Melbourne, 1959. Picture: Museums Victoria

Prime minister Ben Chifley inspects a Holden 48-215 (aka the FX) at the car’s launch, on 29 November 1948. Such was the excitement over this first all-Australian vehicle that 18,000 customers paid a deposit for the FX – sight unseen. Picture: State library of SA

“Children were made to drink it no matter what its state of preservation.

“Warm, curdled milk, edging on the consistency of yoghurt, was said to have turned off many an Australian child of the 1950s and drinking the stuff for life!”

In Living Memory also captured the introduction of women’s roller derby from America to Australia, the early days of cars paying 6d to cross the Sydney Harbour Bridge and what the initial stages of first class looked like while flying with Qantas.

The billycart – homemade fun for children of all generations, rich and poor alike – in Surry Hills, Sydney, during 1949.

The joyful and welcome sight of the flying doctor coming in to land in outback WA during 1955. Picture: State library of Victoria

“In 1934, Qantas — the airline that had begun life flying two flimsy biplanes in the dusty reaches of outback Queensland and the Northern Territory less than 15 years before — joined forces with Britain’s Imperial Airways (a precursor of British Airways) to form Qantas Empire Airways (QEA) and fly all the way to Southampton in England,” In Living Memory details.

“The new company began using Short S. 23 Empire flying boats in 1938, with the Australian base of the operation at Rose Bay, Sydney.

“These all-metal aircraft accommodated just 15 passengers in considerable comfort on a journey that took nine days at a cruising speed of about 240km/h.”

Patrons queue at the takeaway snack bar, perhaps to “grab a Chiko”. Sennitt’s Ice Cream was a popular brand in Victoria from the early 1900s until the company’s takeover by the multinational Unilever, in 1961. Picture: National Archives of Australia

Members of a professional women’s Roller Derby squad of 14, brought to the Sydney Stadium from the USA by promoter Murray Tannen to showcase the all-American sport, August 1955. Picture: Ivan Ives

Doling out their daily serve of milk, Darlington Public School, NSW, 1950. Picture: State Library of NSW

In Living Memory editor Chrissie Goldrick said the book was a visual celebration of Australia.

“Against the backdrop of seismic international events, ordinary Aussies went about their daily lives doing the same things that people always have — living, working, making homes, caring for loved ones and finding opportunities to laugh and enjoy life, no matter how tough the times,” she said.

Sir Donald Bradman signing an autograph for a polio victim after the MCC versus Prime Minister’s XI match in Canberra in 1963. Picture: National Archives of Australia

A couple cheerfully enjoying the conditions at Maroubra Beach in Sydney during 1944. Today there are more than three million regular surfers. Picture: N. Herfort

“The book is also a tribute to those who were there to capture those lives — the photographers who occasionally turned their cameras away from the big events of the day and trained them on arguably the most fascinating of all subjects: us.”

In Living Memory is available at all good bookshops and via the Australian Geographic website for $59.99.

Originally published as In Living Memory by National Geographic encapsulates daily life in Australia in mid-20th century