The 1960s In Australia

The 1960s is one of the most heavily mythologised decades of the twentieth century. More than 50 years on, the era continues to capture the public’s imagination. The 1960s in Australia: People, Power and Politics recognises the complexity of social and cultural change by presenting a broad range of contributions that acknowledge an often overlooked fact – that not everyone experienced the 1960s in the same way. The diversity of the time is confirmed by contributions from a number of expert Australian historians who each provide an insight into Australia in the 1960s, offering an understanding of the social realities of this period as well as the ebbs and flows of transnational influence. This collection includes a featured contribution by prominent Australian historian, Raymond Evans, who provides a personal insight into the 1960s. Other contributors also place ‘the lived experience’ at the centre of their analysis by considering the growth of modern flats, the impact of cosmopolitanism, and sex and sexuality in the ‘Sixties’. The book also highlights the way power was deployed and deconstructed during this era by considering the psychiatric profession, the agenda of the counter-culture, and the role that women’s magazines played in reinforcing dominant gender paradigms. The complex politics of the era are also explored through the transnational impact of figures such as Anthony Crosland, the impact of the Vietnam War, and the multiplicity of motivations behind the anti-war protest and the Aboriginal rights movement of the era. The 1960s in Australia: Power, People and Politics is a fresh focus on a significant time in Australia’s history. It brings together a collection of innovative and engaging explorations into the Australian ‘Sixties’, which underline the complexity of the time.

Australia is rarely considered to have been a part of the great political changes that swept the world in the 1960s: the struggles of the American civil rights movement, student revolts in Europe, guerrilla struggles across the Third World and demands for women’s and gay liberation. This book tells the story of how Australian activists from a diversity of movements read about, borrowed from, physically encountered and critiqued overseas manifestations of these rebellions, as well as locating the impact of radical visitors to the nation. It situates Australian protest and reform movements within a properly global – and particularly Asian – context, where Australian protestors sought answers, utopias and allies. Dramatically broadens our understanding of Australian protest movements, this book presents them not only as manifestations of local issues and causes but as fundamentally tied to ideas, developments and personalities overseas, particularly to socialist states and struggles in near neighbours like Vietnam, Malaysia and China.'Jon Piccini is Research and Teaching Fellow at The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. His research interests include the history of human rights and social histories of international student migration.'

Re"The 1960s was a decade of growing prosperity for most Australians, with full employment and improving lifestyles, but there was also war and conscription and social conflict. Australia in the 1960s was looking for change, but a government in power too long could not see what was coming. For the first time people young and old fought back against conscription and war, but we went crazy when an American President came to visit. And easy-going Australia changed forever when a Prime Minister was lost in the surf. This was The 1960s ¿ the decade of Vietnam, National Service, Harold Holt, LBJ, jobs for all, the minerals boom, the credit squeeze, Australian governors-general, decimal currency, the Gurinji, capital punishment, miniskirts, computers and new, previously unheard-of, freedoms."

Analysis of the economy and diverse prosperity of Australia at the beginning of the 1960s ; includes section entitled "The Aboriginees" [sic] (p.371-373), discussing the place of Aboriginal Australians in contemporary Australian society

From life in small New South Wales country towns to the glitter of Sydney, this memoir explores life in a changing Australia, from age 7 to 17. Especially written and recorded for ABC radio, this book evokes an innocent Australia through a quietly comic delivery, where we witness again holidays in quiet seaside villages, the days when newspapers were king, Decimal Currency Day was a big thing and Beatles haircuts were all the rage. When teenagers were inspired by pop music to a fresh idealism, protest and groovy gear. When man walked on the moon. A journey through the drama and excitement of an Australia now known only by memory. This is the first publication of Growing Up in the 60s as broadcast on ABC's Nightlife several times, and on many ABC regional stations including Broken Hill, Wagga Wagga, Camberra, Upper Hunter, Tamworth and Darwin. If you remember UV lights, if you loved Easy Rider, if you still know the words to Norwegian Wood and once had a poster of Che Guevara on your bedroom wall - in other words, if you grew up in Australia in the 1960s - you will get a lot of fun with Tom Thompson's book. It is funny and astute and wonderfully nostalgic. - Jane Cadzow, The Australian

In photographs and words, this beautifully presented book rekindles memories while providing glimpses of the 1960s in Australia: the Vietnam War and the conscription lottery; the Swinging Sixties, with its mini-skirts and changing fashions, the Beatles, Rolling Stones and the Australian group, The Seekers; the loss of a Prime Minister by drowning; the excitement of Kings Cross; the building of the iconic Opera House; the advent of decimal currency; Aboriginal recognition and the changing social patterns, including the arrival of immigrants from the UK and Europe; overseas working holidays for Australians; censorship; sporting successes and the new frontiers in Western Australia, Northern Territory and Queensland, with the mineral boom and new towns appearing in the desert. The kaleidoscopic images are in both colour and black-and-white and are juxtaposed to emphasise the differences that emerged during this exciting decade of change.

In a provocative reappraisal of the 1960s, Aborigines & Activism recontextualises the history of Aboriginal activism within wider international movements. Concurrent to anti-war protests, women's movements, burgeoning civil rights activism in the United States and the struggles of South Africa's anti-apartheid freedom righters, dramatic political changes took place in 'assimilated' Australia that challenged its status quo. From the early days of grassroots resistance through to Charles Perkins' 1965 Freedom Ride, the 1967 Referendum, Canberra's Tent Embassy and beyond, this is the story of the Great Southern Land's racial awakening - a time when Aborigines and their white supporters achieved paradigmatic shifts in the search for equality, justice and human dignity that still has powerful implications for 21st century Australia. This is an engaging study of the stories of racial awakening in Australia that marked the coming of the wind of change. Through rigorous research, the author shows how supporters of Indigenous Australians and their struggles for equality pushed Australia into the 60s literally and figuratively. The book also puts the Australian experience of the 60s into an international perspective, portrayed as unique but not in isolation.