It was pretty much a pain in 1980, but you do get used to it - and for good reason I tended to leave home about 0700 and leave for home no earlier than 1800.
On several occasions I walked either into or from the city, tram strikes of, on one occasion, walked home after a severe storm caused traffic chaos - after waiting an hour for a tram, the next one to arrive took half an hour to travel the two blocks it was in sight, and when it arrived it was full - including the running boards and bumpers. I decided that walking was at least as quick. Took me an hour, and I arrived home at about 1900, just as my next door neighbour arrived in his car, having left his office in town at 1700.
This was the occasion when the storm, about 1530 from memory, saw cars floating down Elizabeth St, and water nearly up to the platforms in Flinders St. Would have been in the seventies I think.

