Transcript CHANGING TECHNOLOGY in the post war period

CHANGING
TECHNOLOGY
in the post war period
Focus Question
• How has Technology impacted on way of
life in Australia in the Post War period
• Housing
• Communications
• Entertainment
• Transport
Geoffrey Blainey
The Tyranny of Distance
• “The idea of distance….illuminates the
reasons why Australia was such a masculine
society, why it became more egalitarian..and
why it was a relatively peaceful society. It
seems to offer insights into the rise of cities,
and changes in social life.”
•
•
As you view the power point compose a mind map which represents
the impact of technology on Blainey’s concept
• The most important contribution of
technology to society is making the lives
of common people much easier, and
helping them achieve what was previously
not possible.
• How have lives become easier??????
• Give at least 3 ways
• Are there any negatives?
HOUSING
Our little piece of Earth
• “The material home represents the concrete expression of
the habits of frugality and saving "for a home of our own."
Your advanced socialist may rave against private property
even while he acquires it; but one of the best instincts in us is
that which induces us to have one little piece of earth with a
house and a garden which is ours; to which we can withdraw,
in which we can be among our friends, into which no
stranger may come against our will.” Sir Robert Menzies
1942
• Australia has one of the highest home ownership rates
among OECD countries, with approximately 70% of
households being owners or purchasers ( ABS 1996)
The Great Suburban Sprawl
• For the average suburban dweller a
quarter acre block of land, a Victa Mower,
a brick veneer bungalow a Hills Hoist and
the family car have traditionally defined
our post war lifestyle
Red Brick and Tile Suburbia in
1960’s to Eco houses
James Hardie-Asbestos????
In the post
war boom,
new materials
and credit
availability
made buying
and building
your home
possible.
1950’s to 2009 Kitchen
New materials; Vinyl and Plastic to timber
and stone
Inner City renewal
High Rise
• Australia’s first skyscraper to reach 25
storeys, the AMP Building, was built in
1962. The same decade saw Blues Point
Towers built to accommodate the
growing demand for city living
• One of the greatest challenges of the past
200 years has been to give the nation’s
dispersed population a sense of unity. On this
front Australia’s broadcast media have played
a key role in shaping our national identity.
• From Wireless to Web
TECHNOLOGY- A DOUBLE EDGED
SWORD
• “The rise of the suburb has partly been due to the triumph
of technologies of communication; with the household phone,
television and motor vehicles being supplemented by the rise
of internet- capable computers and the mobile phone.
• These technologies have helped the modern Australian
lifestyles, although it can be argued that they have also
diminished the sense of remoteness and serenity.”
• Chris Baker Monash University
THE ICONS OF SUBURBIA
• Today many visitors regard the Australian
suburb as the ideal living environment,
one which is embedded in the Australian
program Neighbours and which now serves
as an expression of the Australian way of
life
ENTERTAINMENT
1950’S DRIVE INS
TV Soap Opera
When television was introduced to Australia much of the programming was
imported from overseas, especially from the United States. Popular
programs included quiz shows, variety shows and ‘soapies’ – long-running
series that typically screened on daytime television.
• Bellbird depicted life in a small Australian country town, a fictional place that
lent its name to the show’s title. Most of the series was shot at the ABC‘s
Melbourne studios in Elsternwick, with only limited location work in towns
around Melbourne and Victoria. Bellbird screened for 15 minutes leading in
to the 7 o’clock news, from Monday to Thursday. The series was a huge hit
in rural and regional Australia because it dealt with the concerns of people
living on the land and the dynamics of small country town life. The ABC
produced 1693 episodes of Bellbird and the series ran for 10 years, until
.
1977
Australian Soapies
• One of the claims made about the role of TV in
a community is that it helps to create a sense of
shared knowledge and experiences, that it
crosses class, political and economic lines to
bring very different people together.
• Some of the move to local Australian
production in the 1960s was supported by the
use of quotas — the requirement that a certain
percentage of programs broadcast had to be
Australian-made
Rise of Popular Culture
• the new technology changes cultural
values by spreading ideas, values, behavior
patterns within a society
From this to this in 50 years
Television changed the way Australians spent their leisure time people began staying at home, rather than going out to the cinema or
other venues
.
TRANSPORT
RAIL
• Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, , the
government established a program of
standardizing railway gauges throughout
the country. In 1962, railway lines
between NSW and Victoria were
standardized, making it possible to travel
directly from Sydney to Melbourne. In
1969, Australia's east and west coasts
were directly linked by the Indian Pacific
rail line.
• Today, there are several long distance and
interstate train routes across different
parts of Australia. They are still
economically important for transport of
goods and for tourism.
Rise of Supermarkets and the
demise of the corner store
• Refrigerated
Transport allowed
greater variety of
foodstuffs. Cold
Storage allowed non
seasonal foods to be
eaten year round
• Internet now allows
online orders and
delivery
From this to
• The first mass produced car in Australia was the
Holden. First one ran off the assembly line on 29
November 1948 at the factory at Fisherman's Bend,
Melbourne. It was the FJ Holden
• Cars can be emblems of nationality and symbols of
success for an individual owner and a country. The
Holden was launched in 1948 as a people’s car for
Australia but there was also a range of alternative
visions for Australian cars.
• Freeways were built in the 1960s to improve the flow of
traffic in and around cities.
CAR OWNERSHIP
In 1963 32% of families owned a car
Milestones in transport
infrastructure
• 1960: last tram ran in Hobart.
• 1961: last tram ran in Sydney.
• 1962: first non-stop train trip from Sydney to
Melbourne, the Southern Aurora, ran on the new
uniform-gauge line.
• 1964: Gladesville Bridge opened in Sydney providing a
better east/west link.
• 1965: first hydrofoil ferry service across Sydney
Harbour.
• 1965: first non-stop Pacific flight for Qantas.
• 1965: Sydney to Newcastle expressway opened.
Aviation
Even in 1955 the flow of news,
people and cargo was slow.
Aeroplanes flew at less than 300
miles an hour and could carry 82
passengers
In 1958, Qantas became the first
airline in the world to introduce a
regular round-the-world service.
In 1959, Qantas also offered
regular flights to America,
London via New York and
London via India.
The Airbus can carry 526
passengers and has a cruising speed
of 526 miles per hour
IMPACT
• In the 1960s, more and more Australians began
to travel internationally, particularly to America,
Europe and Britain. This greater movement of
people between Australia and the rest of the
world had a significant impact on Australian
cultural life. For the first time, people from all
walks of Australian life began to gain first-hand
experience of the cultures of other countries.
As a result, ideas, fashions, trends and
technology from overseas flowed more easily
into Australian society.
COMMUNICATIONS
From telegrams to Telephones
to Email.
Impact?
From This to ?
IBM in the
1970’s
FROM THIS TO
• Magnetic Videotape
Both vision and sound can be recorded on magnetic tape. A crude
video recording system was first demonstrated in the United States
in 1951, and commercial videotapes became available in 1957. From
1962 the ABC started to install videotape recording equipment at
production facilities in each capital city. The conversion from film to
video made television productions faster and cheaper.
• In 1967 Sony launched its first Porta Pak – a portable video system.
Initially, the Porta Pak was operated by a crew of two – one person
to use the camera and one to operate the video cassette recorder.
Innovations quickly improved the quality of material shot by video
camera and made the units smaller.
Coaxial Cables
In 1962 Australia’s first coaxial cable was
finished, allowing multi-channel
telecommunications between Sydney and
Melbourne. This opened the door to
national television networks, and allowed
the subsequent ‘rapid exchange of
information’ (National Film & Sound
Archive of Australia) and computer data
across networks.
Satellites
In 1966 Australia’s Overseas Telecommunications
Commission (OTC) used a satellite to transmit the first
live television broadcast between Western Australia and
England. Soon after, Australia started to receive daily
overseas news reports by satellite. The following year
Australia participated in Our World – a two-hour global
satellite telecast produced in eighteen countries. In
1969, live coverage of the Apollo 11 moon landing –
made possible by satellite transmission – became the
longest continuous live broadcast on television.
IMPACT OF 1956/2000 OLYMPICS ON
OUR NATIONAL IDENTITY?
It created a forum for uniquely
Australian stories to be played out
and allowed Australians to share
different cultural experiences.
Images utilized in the
Opening ceremony
included the Hills Hoist,
the Victa Lawnmower
Impact of Changing Technology
• “ While distance and remoteness were
defining features of Australia in years gone
by, today technology has annihilated distance”
Malcolm Turnbull
• "the next century will be one in which the
tyranny of distance has been abolished ...
Australia will profit from its strategic location,
as a highly educated, English-speaking society
that because of technological change is now
as integrated in the world economy as any
place on earth". Rupert Murdoch
MINDMAP RESPONSES
Tyranny
to
Proximity