Life In Australia: Adelaide - 1966

[Nathan]

I'm sure a few of you may have seen this already, as it's been doing the rounds today on twitter and facebook. It's a short about Adelaide (there's other shorts about the other capitals as well), shot by The Commonwealth Film Unit, and restored by Screen Australia.

Adelaide comes of looking like a pretty exciting place in the 60s. It would be interesting to find out what (and where) some of the restaurants and stores featured are.

[dsriggs]

Just GREAT footage!

[Nathan]

Also interestingly, at the current time, the Adelaide video has way more views than any other city (more than double Sydney, and 10x Melbourne). Make of that what you will.

[iTouch]

I haven't posted in a while as I've been heaps busy, but I'm back
This vid is amazing, it made Adelaide look like a hustling and bustling city at the start and at towards the end made it look chilled and cool.

One thing that I didn't get was at 19:00 where people would let their kids swim in the River torrens water... No offense but I wouldn't let my child touch that water with a 10ft rod

[ricecrackers]

by accounts of my parents it was a more happening place back then. it was also Australia's 3rd city
however much of that life has now been diluted by decentralization to suburbia combined with centralization of corporate offices to the eastern states

the city centre itself has been 'dying' ever since despite many futile attempts by councils to manufacture a new heartbeat. the recent trend to turn it into another dormitory location and the other trend away from live entertainment has quietened it further since the 1980's. i am old enough to remember it during the 1970s and it was more lively then.

many on this forum want to remove cars from the CBD altogether - i can tell you that will not improve the situation but make it worse. Rundle Mall is a relative ghost street compared to the years when traffic flowed through it.
Cars are part of the Australian way of life, if you remove them from the centre of our cities nobody will bother to go there and you will have a donut effect.

[dsriggs]

One thing that I didn't get was at 19:00 where people would let their kids swim in the River torrens water... No offense but I wouldn't let my child touch that water with a 10ft rod

That's the Rymill Park lake, isn't it?

e: I was wrong, it seems to be this pit:
http://www.nearmap.com/?ll=-34.921808,1 ... d=20101213

Which has been filled in & replaced with a bocce court, I believe.

[ac83]

Fantastic footage! I've been dying to see some footage like this. Now to work out where all the scenes were shot.

I think one was down Railway Tce, Mile End South where Bunnings is now. I'm quite sure Perry Engineering used to be there. Amazing how busy the Pat was back then full of boats. It's taken a long time for them to come back.

[crawf]

AMAZING!

Thanks for posting

[Nathan]

Some additional things I've found out.

• The greek restaurant, where the guy steals a grape before the waiter comes, was apparently on Whitmore Square. (Although someone in the YouTube comments as suggested it may be Decca's Place on Melbourne St)
• The dress shop was on Melbourne St.
• The car line is at Tonsley (The Mitsubishi plant originally being Chrysler).
• Sorrento restaurant which they walk past was on Hindley St.
• The underground cafe/bar towards the end may be The Catacombs, in the basement of Romilly House.

[dsriggs]

I believe the restaurant they went to at night was at the Hotel Adelaide in North Adelaide, judging by the cars in the background.
The golf tee-shot was hole 3 of the Adelaide Links South Course.
Horse training was at Victoria Park.

[crawf]

The church @ 15.25, looks to be the on Henley Beach Road in Lockleys

[Omicron]

Thoughts:

- 0:40 Empty housing lots along the tramline!
- 0:52 Victoria Square looks really nice - the same layout as Hindmarsh Square is now. Love the HD Holden stopping for people getting off a tram in the middle of the street.
- 1:21 That view north on KWS seems much the same to me, aside from a few paintjobs and re-cladding here and there. Easily recognisable, at least.
- 2:16 I say - the old South Australian Hotel on North Terrace!
- 2:55 I have a frightening thought that's a narrow, gravel-edged South Road, because you can just see Chrysler's Clovelly Park factory in the background (blue Pentastar!). Love the Valiants, too.
- 4:34 Westbound on Anzac Highway? I think I recognise that median, and those double-storey units on the right down Camden Park way.
- 5:15 Can't be a Catholic school - they're not beating the children with sticks
- 7:14 I'm convinced that's the Hotel Australia in North Adelaide, now the Place on Brougham apartments. The top-level restaurant is the Colonel Light Room, if memory serves. You can see how the shape of the windows matches those on this exterior photo.
- 8:58 Beach shacks!
- 9:01 Victoria Park racecourse, surely. Running in the opposite direction to Morphettville, and you can see the Queen Victoria Hospital being built in the background.
- 10:05 Amazing how much CC2 looks like the old Advertiser building. A deliberate homage? Love the Town Hall and GPO towers in the same frame, too.
- 10:14 No-one is shouting or pushing?
- 10:42 Cox Foys on Rundle, now the hideous Renaissance Centre with its useless glass lifts and stupid balcony. That ferris wheel would have been amazing!
- 10:47 Coles Supermarkets sign, in that fabulous '50s building that is thankfully still there, although with a Central sign that doesn't quite light up all the letters.
- 11:50 She needs to put that back on the rack.
- 12:18 I don't recognise this restaurant at all. But I'll have the seafood platter and chicken fried rice, thanks.
- 13:03 Neons! Brilliant. More colourful lights these days, please.
- 13:35 Sorrento Restaurant, eating pasta, a caffe latte glass, ice-cream sold in 'coppe' - I'm sure the only place you could do that in '66 with such a dressed-up crowd was Hindley St.
- 15:26 Someone needs to recognise that church! I, er, don't.
- 15:52 Nice FB Holden Station Sedan
- 16:25 Well I'll be. The King St bridge with substantial earth embankments.
- 17:15 It would seem that growing grass on Elder Park is a skill that died out in '67. How they still cannot do it is beyond me.
- 18:55 CHILDREN PLAYING IN WATER. THEY WILL SURELY DROWN. PAVE THIS AREA IMMEDIATELY. So they did. Idiots. What a waste. Look how nice that is.

[crawf]

- 11:50 She needs to put that back on the rack.

Lol, loves it!

here's two more

4.15 - Looks to be the Botanic Gardens
11.16 - Frome Road?

[dsriggs]

Botanic Hotel at 10:36

[SRW]

Fantastic footage!

Oh, and hello Grand Central Hotel at 10:47. Such a shame.