Thread: Technology

Talking of Electricity etc - it was only long after both my parents were dead that I realised both of them grew up, and went through their entire education including university, without ever living in a house with electricity. In Sydney, the largest city in Australia, this only became normal in about 1930. Few realise that although WW1 was the first major war where motor transport was a major tool, few even major cities had electric power except in special locations.

Going back to my own youth, although I grew up with power and water in our home, I remember when we got our first refrigerator - and the fact that nobody else in my class at school had one (late 1940s).

Technology has grown steadily throughout my life, and I find it difficult to say any period has shown faster change. Just to list a few 'new' things that have become household items in my lifetime (not their first appearance, but when they became commonplace in Australia):-

1940s; antibiotics, refrigerators, microgroove records, radiograms

1950s; car ownership, home telephones, television (1956), rural electricity distribution, decline of long distance train travel (replaced by cars), airconditioning in theatres and a few major shops, Hume Highway between Sydney and Melbourne now all sealed, mainframe computers start to be used commercially, electric train networks start to expand

1960s; air travel starts to replace long distance train travel and overseas travel by ship, portable radios, subscriber dialled long distance phone calls, automatic transmissions became available in popular cars, fax machines begin to replace telex, Australian oil production starts, steam trains fade out (replaced by diesel and electric), trams disappear in many places, standard gauge rail Sydney-Melbourne

1970s; First portable music devices (using cassettes), personal computers appear in businesses, air travel becomes cheaper on major routes with larger aircraft, disc brakes on popular cars, FM radio, last manual telephone exchange in Australia replaced, telegrams fade into history, diesel power becomes common in four wheel drives and light trucks, and starts to appear in cars, first oil crisis, standard gauge railway Sydney-Perth

1980s; Home computers (still rare), colour television, first mobile phones appear

1990s; internet becomes available to home users, first flat screen TV, solar power starting to appear on houses,

2000s; internet becomes widely used, mobile phones go from an expensive luxury to commonplace,

Hi,
My mother grew up in a farm house where the lighting was shellite, piped and pressurised to fixed lamps running silk mantels.
She could also name every piece of harness on a working horse, and rode one from the farm to the school bus when the drive was too boggy for the Tin Lizzy.
Cheers

I remember kerosene fridges and lights, a hand-operated washing machine and we had a manual telephone exchange connecting the neighbours.
A grocery truck did the rounds on Wednesdays.
I am a senior citizen now. I worked out yesterday I am the oldest of 170 people at my work. In 2 weeks I'm presenting at a conference where I expect to be the oldest of 700 people. Definitely time to retire.

My mother's parents were born in 1870 and 1871. They lived virtually all their lives in the outback. Bourke, Hungerford, Charleville, Winton. They would tell about what a cause for celebration was the opening of the rail-line to their town. A bridge over the local river was often an election issue and cause for a grand opening party. The western highways and the Bruce Highway were not fully sealed until well into my working life. Around Winton - Longreach - Boulia not until 1988!!!!

Some of the stations on our mail runs had acetylene lighting systems. We often carried a drum of carbide on the mail trucks. Most though used kerosene lanterns and pressure lanterns. Some had electric lights from a battery bank. These usually had a small engine generator to charge the batteries. Most had a big console radio run from a large wet cell battery. When the battery was getting low it would go into town on the mail truck to be charged at the ice works and returned. Everybody, and I mean everybody listened to the ABC News and set their watches and clocks by the ABC time signal at the start of the News fanfare.

In the late 1940's we lived for a time at the bottom end of New Farm. There were 26 houses in the street. I had to count them for a school project on where I lived. Four had motor cars, two Vanguards, a 1936 Hupmobile, and a pre-war Vauxhall converted into a builders ute. The same number of telephones. When a near neighbour got a washing machine I think every woman in the street went to look. Washing was done in a copper often wood fired out in the back yard. Flash people had a gas copper under the house. Most had ice chests and fridges did not become common until the end of the 50's. There were street lights at tram stops and intersections and none in between.

Actually Bundarra in NSW had the last manual telephone exchange in the 80's!
Friends had a property about 15km out of town, we'd have to crank the handle on the phone to ring the exchange and get a line out.
It would've been the mid eighties it was finally replaced.

Originally Posted by rick130

Actually Bundarra in NSW had the last manual telephone exchange in the 80's!
Friends had a property about 15km out of town, we'd have to crank the handle on the phone to ring the exchange and get a line out.
It would've been the mid eighties it was finally replaced.

Probably more reliable than the NBN :-)

Originally Posted by DiscoMick

I remember kerosene fridges and lights

I still have two kerosene fridges. They get lit when we have lots of friends come around. Gas absorption fridges are still common.

Aaron

Originally Posted by JDNSW

Talking of Electricity etc - it was only long after both my parents were dead that I realised both of them grew up, and went through their entire education including university, without ever living in a house with electricity. In Sydney, the largest city in Australia, this only became normal in about 1930. Few realise that although WW1 was the first major war where motor transport was a major tool, few even major cities had electric power except in special locations.

Going back to my own youth, although I grew up with power and water in our home, I remember when we got our first refrigerator - and the fact that nobody else in my class at school had one (late 1940s).

Technology has grown steadily throughout my life, and I find it difficult to say any period has shown faster change. Just to list a few 'new' things that have become household items in my lifetime (not their first appearance, but when they became commonplace in Australia):-

1940s; antibiotics, refrigerators, microgroove records, radiograms

1950s; car ownership, home telephones, television (1956), rural electricity distribution, decline of long distance train travel (replaced by cars), airconditioning in theatres and a few major shops, Hume Highway between Sydney and Melbourne now all sealed, mainframe computers start to be used commercially, electric train networks start to expand

1960s; air travel starts to replace long distance train travel and overseas travel by ship, portable radios, subscriber dialled long distance phone calls, automatic transmissions became available in popular cars, fax machines begin to replace telex, Australian oil production starts, steam trains fade out (replaced by diesel and electric), trams disappear in many places, standard gauge rail Sydney-Melbourne

1970s; First portable music devices (using cassettes), personal computers appear in businesses, air travel becomes cheaper on major routes with larger aircraft, disc brakes on popular cars, FM radio, last manual telephone exchange in Australia replaced, telegrams fade into history, diesel power becomes common in four wheel drives and light trucks, and starts to appear in cars, first oil crisis, standard gauge railway Sydney-Perth

1980s; Home computers (still rare), colour television, first mobile phones appear

1990s; internet becomes available to home users, first flat screen TV, solar power starting to appear on houses,

2000s; internet becomes widely used, mobile phones go from an expensive luxury to commonplace,

I briefly worked for the AGL Coy in Sydney. 1960's. They had over 3000 staff at around 25 centres. The only building with air conditioning was three floors of one in Haymarket where the mainframe computer was. The computer had its own electricity sub-station and an engineering staff to maintain it. It was used solely for customer accounts, around 300,000 every quarter and probably had less capacity than a modern laptop.

When I first started at Social Security any client who was found to have a mobile 'phone or answering machine would get a visit from a field officer. These items were not only too expensive for an unemployed person to buy but were considered business equipment and begged the question was the client really unemployed.