Born in 1957

If you were born in 1957, television was the new national obsession and the lounge room had become a different kind of space. Families who had gathered around the wireless now gathered around the glowing screen in the evening, watching variety programs and American Westerns and Australian game shows that were finding their feet. The set was on after dinner and the kids were allowed to watch until bedtime — Seven Little Australians and the like — and the front bar conversations shifted to what had been on the night before.

The economy was ticking along nicely on wool and wheat and the Snowy Scheme's gathering momentum. The Holden was in its golden age — reliable, unpretentious, made for Australian conditions — and the family drive on Sunday arvo was a ritual as fixed as church. Rock and roll was now inescapable: teenagers bought records and played them on the new portable turntables, and the local dance on a Friday night was where they tried out the latest moves under the suspicious eye of the Catholic Youth Organisation chaperone.

The corner shop still delivered groceries on a bicycle with a big front basket. Cricket season meant Richie Benaud was about to begin his great career as both player and, later, as the voice of the game. The country was young, tanned, and moderately prosperous, still deciding what it was, exactly.