What life was like in Melbourne in the 1960s

THEY were turbulent times in Australia, with a war looming and the youth revolution. Yet much of life in the Melbourne suburbs in the 1960s remained untouched.

Women walking down Flinders Lane in 1961.

• How Melbourne was built in pictures
• Forgotten photos of lost Melbourne
• What Melbourne suburbs used to be called

IT’S remembered as the Swinging Sixties: Beatlemania sent the city into meltdown when the Fab Four arrived in our city, and the miniskirt made its first shocking appearance at Flemington.

But it was also a turbulent period in Australia’s history.

Conscription was introduced in 1964 and the looming threat of war in Vietnam was to become a reality.

Today marks the anniversary of the Battle of Long Tan, Australia’s largest battle of the Vietnam conflict.

Yet as these events unfolded on foreign shores, many aspects of life back home in the Melbourne suburbs remained untouched.

Kids played in the park and held billy cart races, while their dads mowed their front lawns.

See how Melbourne lived in the 1960s and the moments that shaped the decade.

WHAT WAS GREAT ABOUT THE 1960s? HAVE YOUR SAY BELOW

Maryanne, Harley, Janet and Philip Thompson of Mont Albert reading together in 1961. Image: HWT archive

Homes in Carlton in 1964. Image: HWT archive

Burke Road, Camberwell in 1967. Image: HWT archive

Migrants arrive at Essendon Airport in 1962. image: HWT archive

MELBOURNE LIFE IN THE 1960s

Price of a loaf of bread: 18 cents

Average weekly wage for male workers: $49.40 in 1962

Unemployment rate: 2 per cent

Biggest names in sport: Murray Rose, Dawn Fraser

Latest tech device (the tablet of its day): Stereo hi-fi consoles and belt massagers which were thought to aid weight loss.

Medical development: In 1961 the oral contraceptive pill went on sale

Population of Melbourne: Just over 2 million in 1960