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In 1966, home ownership sat at 73 per cent. Look at us now

The Australia of 1966 – the time of ‘peak house’ – is almost unrecognisable today.

An AV Jennings display home village in Hobart in the 1960s, where the rate of home ownership reached its peak in Australia.
An AV Jennings display home village in Hobart in the 1960s, where the rate of home ownership reached its peak in Australia.
The Weekend Australian Magazine

Australia has changed dramatically over the course of the past few generations. The Australia of, say, 1966 is almost unrecognisable today. At that time this country was an unabashed colonial outpost of Britain. As indeed it had been for the previous 178 years.

I chose 1966 as the beacon of pre-modern Australia because in that year, according to the Census, 73 per cent of dwellings were owned outright or with a mortgage. It was the time of “peak house”. By the 2021 Census, that figure had slipped to 63 per cent. Renting has become more popular over the past 60 years or so.

The late ’60s ushered in the era of the hippie and protests against the “Establishment”; the 1969 Woodstock festival was pivotal to a cultural revolution that was sweeping the Western world. Australia’s political landscape, too, changed with the times: out with the Coalition, in with Gough Whitlam’s Labor party whose campaign slogan was simply “It’s time!”

Germaine Greer pictured in 1972.
Germaine Greer pictured in 1972.

There was movement on almost every front. Germaine Greer published her seminal book The Female Eunuch in 1970. Australia’s archaic divorce laws loosened in 1975 with the bold idea of no-fault divorce. Television was ablaze with soap operas in the 1970s that reflected the social mores of the times, including Number 96 and The Box. Sydney’s first Mardi Gras took place in 1978. Here were the foundations of an Australia that we might recognise today.

Sydney’s first Mardi Gras took place in 1978.
Sydney’s first Mardi Gras took place in 1978.

But then, perhaps change is a constant. The transformation that took place over the 60 years from 1906 wasn’t just about cultural effects, although Greek and Italian immigrants did change our palate and sense of design; it was more the net effect of new technology and of social reorganisation. This included the telephone, the car, the rise of a middle class and the wider application of income tax.

In 2086, will today’s Australia be recognisable? What will be the proportion of home ownership? And from whence will come our cultural references: England, America or Asia? Or will the Australian people (finally) look inwardly for cultural direction?

The Australia of today is a vastly different place to the Australia of 1966. Our immigration program is bigger. Technology has changed the way we work, communicate, find relationships. Australians are much more likely to have travelled abroad. And there are proportionally more old people today than there were in 1966.

Our worries have shifted from falling to the “domino effect” (communism) to failing to adequately respond to climate issues. There is still intergenerational bickering, although political tensions have shifted from class to progressive-versus-conservative thinking. And while it’s easy to focus on the differences (and there are many), there is still a common thread, I think, that connects Australians through time.

Here is the idea that an Australian of today could find common ground with an Australian of a similar age in 1906, 1966, or 2086. That common ground is awareness of the abundance of resources, our geographical isolation, and hope for the future. Everything else, including our technology, social structures and cultural references, will come and go. It is the common ground of hope for the future that drives ambition, that makes us – or should make us – strive always to create a better Australia.

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Bernard Salt
Bernard SaltColumnist

Bernard Salt is widely regarded as one of Australia’s leading social commentators by business, the media and the broader community. He is the Managing Director of The Demographics Group, and he writes weekly columns for The Australian that deal with social, generational and demographic matters.

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