Born in 1949

If you were born in 1949, Australia changed its government and, in a small way, changed its mood. Robert Menzies and the Liberal-Country Party coalition swept to power in December, ending seven years of Labor, and Menzies — that comfortable, reassuring, deeply British voice — would go on to run the country for the next sixteen years. The Cold War was making itself felt: there were communists in the unions, everyone said, though what that actually meant for a kid playing cricket in the backyard was hard to say.

The economy was humming along on the back of the wool boom — a pound of wool fetching prices that made graziers rub their eyes — and the sense was of a country cautiously confident. The first Holden rolled off the production line in Fishermen's Bend in October, and it was a genuinely significant moment: Australia's own car, designed for Australian roads and dust and heat. People stood in showroom windows just to look at it.

Petrol was still cheap enough to fill the tank without flinching. The wireless played Gracie Fields and Glenn Miller and the occasional jangly novelty song. Kids at school were still getting the cuts from the headmaster's cane, and the school week ended with a Friday afternoon of scripture and singing.

Simple, unhurried, and confident in a way that's easy to miss until it's gone.