Born in 1956

If you were born in 1956, you arrived in the year television came to Australia and nothing was ever quite the same again. The Melbourne Olympic Games in November were the occasion — the ABC and the commercial channels needed to be ready — and when the sets appeared in the shops, people stood in front of them on the footpath and watched with frank amazement. The Games themselves were extraordinary: the Melbourne crowd, warmly passionate, and the closing ceremony where the athletes marched together regardless of nation — a spontaneous gesture of goodwill that moved people to tears.

Australia won thirteen gold medals and felt enormously proud. The TV cabinet took pride of place in the lounge room, and families rearranged the furniture to face it. The milk bar got a TV too, and kids found new reasons to linger over their milkshakes.

Rock and roll was now undeniable — Elvis was in the house, on the wireless and through the door. Teenagers were jiving at the local dance hall and combing their hair into Tony Curtis sweeps. The Suez Crisis was the big international news, Britain's imperial reach suddenly looking shorter.

Australia kept looking to Britain, but the ties were loosening, slowly. Menzies won another election. The Hills Hoist was turning in every backyard.

The television set was on.