My first experience of Melbourne was the very start of 82. It was a stinking hot summer (not like we get nowadays) and there were wooden trains, with no aircon, rolling around under blue skies. The cars were mostly Australian made, the music was mostly Australian (a lot of it timeless), there was a great deal of Australian-made television (series and stories, not franchised 'reality' garbage), and the banks and building societies, electricity, telephones, gas, water, trams, trains, and most of the buses were ALL owned by the Australian population via our governments. Plus we made our own clothes and kettles. And the news media was Australian owned. And there was Moomba, and the VFL. The self-centred greed of banking corporations and property developers, and forty years of absolutely dreadful politicians motivated by ideology, greed, self-interest and the immoral benefits of unaccountability, have all laid waste to what was a beautiful and uniquely Australian city. And of course, like the rest of the world, most of the population now walks around with their faces focused on plastic screens. It's all just great nowadays, isn't it? How do you fix it, at least a little?
Now we see ads that say like it is so rare'Proudly Aussie Made,' Because Aussie anything is disappearing at a rapid rate. Thanks Gezza for reminding us more mature folks how good things were. You're a gem mate.👍🇦🇺😊
Australian pedestrians? You mean Anglo-Saxons I think, who are actually European. Sorry, having English ethnicity doesn't make you any more Australian than any one else born and raised here (except for the first Australians, Aboriginals). Talk about tall poppy syndrome. You are an ethnic import just like the rest of us, no better, no worse.
That was just like going home for a little while! The absolute sweet spot for how I remember Melbourne when I was a kid. RC Cola!, The last tram stop at the top of Batman Ave for the 70 and 75! Thanks mate.
That was great just to see all those memories in front of us all in those more relaxed times.Just seeing a Billy Guyatts sign brings back memories. Thanks for that great footage of the city in the 70s. Tarax!
I was a great time, I suppose everyone says that when they look back to when they were young and didnt have a care in the world. Life was slower, people were more respectful, a trip to Town was a day out. People stopped and chatted to strangers. People had conversations on the Trams. Counter Lunches were the norm as were cups of tea in Coles Cafeteria or if you were flush a meal at Myers Cafeteria. Myers Food Hall on the ground floor of the Lt Bourke St side, you could get everything from a hot smoked Ham Hock to a can of Chocolate coated ants. Lifts were staffed by an attendant, the Corps of Commissionaires delivered internal mail for Businesses and manned foyers. Men who couldnt get a job, were employed for life as Street Sweepers, with a broom and cart carrying two rubbish bins. The City is now a Sewer, it went down hill mid 90s.
l miss the old days of melbourne and the old cars and wc green trams l fine it hard to stop the tears and things were so easy and cheap and love and peace in life.
God I loved those green trams. Rattling down St Kilda road in the summer with the doors open! I remember the Coke sign opposite Flinders St - that thing must have been there for decades. I loved Melbourne when I lived and worked there in the 80s. Last time I went, in 2019, I loathed it. So sad.
A very different Melbourne to the one we have today. Back then travelling to the city was exciting and most of all you felt safe. I would have been 18 or so in the mid seventies where the music was great the fashion a bit absurd and best of all.... not a cell phone in site. Thank-you Gezza for your presentation, I have liked and subscribed.
Beautiful memories, I had just birthed my second son, on Bastille day.. happy times at home, BBQ in the back yard, in the pool at Summer, humble, simple, innocent. Now at 75 I am in Darwin, left Melbourne 2 years ago, cannot stand to be there, it's painful, once the world's most livable city, now, evil and a cesspit. So sad.
I was born in 1980 so this was before my time unfortunately. Sometimes I wish I was born 20 or 30 years earlier so I could have lived through this wonderful period. Melbourne is such a depressing shithole these days.
It was much more alive back then - lots of live music, cheap and at your local pub - of which there were many more. And beer was cheap - not like now - in the late 80's we were getting jugs for $2. The 80's were a peak for live music. Then they brought in the Pokies and it killed the live music scene, and much of Melbourne's life.
True, back then We could see more White people / Australians compared to today anywhere we turn our heads, we only see 1000’s of Asians. Very hard to to even spot Aussies. Clearly, Asians have taken over everything incl. property market, jobs, businesses,.. Nothing racism, but just telling, we don’t get a feeling that we are in Australia rather than we feel more like I’m in some Asian country 😅.. In Addition, Street foods which used to be Cheap before are now way more expensive (example- Queen Victoria Markets every Wednesday and Sunday street stalls selling a small piece of food for $18😢🤭😮 & I see only rich Asians buying a eating and all Aussies with family and kids are just standing a watching and moving on after looking at the price).. I think now, the world’s food industry is now serving only for the riches 😓.. Back then we’re nice muscle cars with sound and vibe, but expensive plastic fiber with just all technology on market thrown into the car, that’s it.. Back then, we call each other via Telephone ☎️ and fix a time to meet and we enjoyed but now, only virtual or RU-vid, people not seeing each others face 😓.. Such a boring lifestyle… these videos takes us back and gives immense pleasure of simplicity, calmness, excitement of development happening at those stages..
Ah, the City Square! Wonderful memories of meet ups with friends. It was either there or under the clocks at Flinders Street Station. I love Melbourne (even now).
For that three minutes and fifteen seconds I was either sitting on the bench with my late grandfather outside the South Melbourne Markets or I was hearing Dad blast Neil Diamond's Hot August Night LP on his quadrophonic stereo in a flat in Elwood. Take me back.
Mum recently passed away and I non stop play Neil Diamond on the cd in the car since. So many great memories and I'd take one giant step and leave all this behind to go back to the best era ever. All that traffic on the video yet I lived off glenferrie Rd in the large apartment on top of the fire station and at 4 yrs was safe to be out and play down the cobblestone lanes where fences hung with sweat pea scents. Horse and carts delivered the milk! I was born in 62.
@@davidharlem6824 absolutely for sure and its odd that I just happened across these great memories tonight as it was my mums first birthday yesterday since she passed in September. Has to be a sign or manifestation as I've done nothing but think about her and dad wishing that we were all together again in the good old days and alas!
@@jessegold5542 Yes Jesse, it’s amazing how these signs appear - there’s far more to it than we will ever know, at least from this side anyway. You are not alone, many of us remember and wish to return to a world and time long gone. Take care.
I left Melbourne in 1974 for rural NSW . This is the Melbourne i remember. Last time back five years ago i felt like a foreigner, lol , though i was born in the Jessie McPherson Community Hospital which was on the corner of Russel and Lonsdale Streets.
I am not Australian. I currently live in Melbourne as an exchange student. When I arrived at the city I could feel there was something very wrong, I didn't expect it to be like that. I pictured a city with Australians and a lot of local culture, instead we are lots of foreigners living together, I hear tens of different languages at the same time. I got myself a bicycle because I wanted to explore other suburbs and meet actual Australians. I found a BBQ place with lots of posters of Melbourne from the 1970's, and that's how I got to see this video. It's a shame what happened to your city, and that is happening with the capital of my country (México). Only this time the foreigners are Europeans and Americans, and they are displacing us to other areas, and obviously they are imposing their own culture over ours
A time when people were normal and were able to communicate and "THINK FOR THEMSELVES" instead of staring at a small screen. and accepting everything they are told.
Such a rich tapestry back then. It sucks in comparison now. Everything feels contrived and devoid of feeling and atmosphere now. Too many non English cultures now. There, I said it. We're all thinking it.
I'm 50 thanks for memory trip mate said to my 88 year old dad today thanked him for letting me experience the best time on this planet when I was growing up seen the best of it 😊🍻WA🇦🇺
Reading these comments ,i thought it was just me thinking of the past .But relieved now other genuine people think the same ........yes Melbourne a great city once ,many memories visiting ,business and pleasure ......Globilisation done a lot of harm to this great nation
Thank you. I used to work in the Princes Gate towers, with a lovely view over the river and gardens to the south. Not so many people today remember them.
As a young teenager going to school in the city I used to muck around in those buildings, riding up and down in the lifts. I was always intrigued by the floor that had no number, it was just called Monsanto .
I'm a Sydney boy, teenager from the early 70s, what a great time it was to grow up . So much love , unfortunately the world felt and was real! Why have we let out governments become so complicated, powerful . It doesn't matter where the pictures Were taken , great memories!
These images are proof that you can také something beautiful and destroy it. Just look at all the cities rolled into one here, New York, San Francisco, London, Munich, Berlin etc...Melbourne was gorgeous, it was clean, it had just the right amount of green backed up by just the right amount of beautiful architecture, clean and well paved roads, stunning to look at in these pictures. Luckily I experienced it in these years as a kid and teenager. It was exciting. Now its an over developed shithole, ugly tasteless apartment buildings everywhere with no style, bland cement facades or commision house style lime green and orange panels glued onto the front amd sides, junkies and ferals everywhere and wrecked roads
Someone should print all these comments out and send them to every politician who needs to read them. Clearly melbournians want their once great city back.
No bike lanes or Sally Capp to be seen anywhere. 3.03 , Toorak Road Burwood , just west of Warrigal Road where the then route 74 , now 75 tram used to terminate.Been living in the area for 57 years.I remember all those stores and there was also a chemist right on the corner next to the milk bar. I would have been around 10 years old but I can remember it like yesterday.The Supa Valu food market in the photo is now a Chemist Warehouse.Was later a SSW then Foodland then IGA supermarket then was empty for a while them became a Chemist Warehouse to this day.The sign on the roof is still there that displayed the various past tenants and was a neon sign at one point.
Melbourne born and bred, at the tender age of 54, I can relate to every image you posted. You have sentimentally wounded me, forever, in the best way! Cheers, bud!!!
Straight up On the left Myer Melbourne Bourke Street Store My first job as a stenographer on the 7th floor Lonsdale Street Store “Credit Control”1973 Computers just being installed and our wages turned from cash to direct bank deposit US off the gold standard and the beginning of the end Although I have really great memories of everyone there and Melbourne CBD 😊
I wasn’t born until 1987 and I didn’t move to Melbourne until 2007, I feel even the last 15 years Melbourne is not the same. I remember my first trip to Melbourne in 2005 it has this sense of adventure and I remember everyone being so friendly, then slowly that changed, I live here now and when I head into the city it seems dull and depressing. Maybe we just long for what we don’t have I don’t know. These photos are beautiful thank you for sharing.
I was born 1980 & raised in Melbourne and only left 2 years ago. In those early days, Melbourne felt personal, as if anything was possible. It had that sense of adventure you mentioned, but also a sense of community and warmth. It's well and truly GONE. For me, it took a noticeable turn from the mid-2000s.
Loved being a teenager in the late 70’s and taking the train into Melbourne with mates on a Sunday. Place was deserted, but the amusement parlours and record stores were open. Such fun times.
Ah, wonderful. My first car (beige LC Torana), my first real workplace (Cromwell House, since demolished), sitting in the open doorway of a W2 tram, McEwans, Supa Valu grocers, the sand train, Australian-made cars everywhere, local brand names, Darling Road terminus as it was then, yes it was like going home for a visit.
These were the best of times when everyone took responsibility for their actions. No woke bullshit here. I remember my grandma taking me into the city and we would have lunch at the Coles cafeteria before taking all her LAN Choo tea coupons in to be traded for a small gift, then maybe taking in the pictures.....the best day ever, or other times you would take a train into the city to just go to the joke shop for blood capsules or a whoopee cushion,and then sneak past the shaft cinema for a giggle. Now with the woke brigade and bike paths and tram stops, who wants to go into the city anymore.......they have stuffed it up royally.....thanks for the memories Gazza
Yes the big Coles cafeteria with its jellies and custards, but so much food and the shiny wooden seats and those old fashioned lifts with the cage! It was great then my grandmother and mum would stop at the Darrell Lea shop and buy us a dollie jar of little candies. Wish it had never changed and would go back to those times in the click of a finger. Yep saw Charlotte's web, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang etc at the Atheneum Cinema. Oh the memories.
I wish my grandfather had lived long enough to tell me about growing up in Melbourne. He was too young for WW1 and a bit too old for WW2 but went anyway. It was a thrill going there for the first time and doing a hook turn.
My dad smoked Rothmans and was a fire-fighter MFB and joined the fire brigade as he was just that bit too young for WW2. I grew up in Malvern it was the best years of my life.
0:44 I spent many a happy moment on my way home from school around 1970 at those stores under Batman Ave. I was into model aircraft and they sold kits there. Balsa planes and little Cox engines. Everyone hated the Gas and Fuel buildings, that is, until they built Fed Square. God this channel makes me feel old... in a good way...
Oh wow great nostalgia. I remember starting work in the City in December 1972 at the age of 16. Melbourne city was a thriving exciting place for a young girl to start her working life. So many trendy clothes and shoe shops. Loved Michaels corner store with multi levels of fabrics. The Myer basement store. Clegs and the little knitting wool shop in the arcarde opposite Flinders street station. Daimaru, Georges, Coles cafeteria and the Flinders Street platform where I used to buy soups and Creamy Sodas and stood at the stand up tables. The London Hotel where I used to get a cheeky Southern comfort and coke and Victoria market stalls where there were unique clothing and items being sold. Festival Hall and its weekend wrestling with Mario Milano and other characters. The little cafes with the mini Juke Boxes on the table with cheap diner meals. So much fun
Wow 26 years before I was born I was born in 1996 I started my life in bankstown in chapel Rd south I had a good childhood in that house good u upload these videos I want to see the world every country 1500 years before I was born every century every ccountry
I went to Melbourne in 1974. It was the enchanted city. I returned to live in South Australia a year ago. The Melbourne I left behind was barely a shadow of is former self. Those orange Z1 class trams were brand new then. They have all been withdrawn from service. The W class trams have gone (the handful of W's running the city circle are not authentic). Neither is the city. It has been totally wrecked. Even the vista of the Shrine from the city is gone. Shame on those responsible for trashing an iconic Aussie city. Most of the people who appear in these photos are gone too. Melburnians were the most wonderful people you could ever meet. It is now a city which champions woke!
The tram depot down high Street is where I used to take off to at such a young age to see the model tramways set they had and can still remember the smell of the wheels oiled of the trams.
Somewhere, in the Bowels of the MCC is, if not sold off, a huge archive of glass slides. Back in the day, the Chief Clerk was photo mad. He took, or had taken, photos of everything, from streetscapes to every nut bolt and screw they purchased in the 1800s. The old MCCESD had thousands of them, they were in my office. Hundreds of thousands more were stored in the Town Hall and the old Lonsdale St Powerhouse.
For a brief period of time I was with my late grandparents on our annual Christmas trip to Melbourne. They took us to see the just released Jaws ! when we got back to Lakes Entrance, my parents could not work out why we wouldn’t go for a swim at the beach !
I used to visit melbourne alot when I was a teenager. I'd catch the Vinelander from Mildura and arrive at Spencer St station early Saturday morning. Such good memories.
I spent time watching a lot of your Melbourne videos. A lot of effort you have gone to finding them. Thank you for the history. From a proud Melbournian 👍
Good to see those old photos of our great city where I used to work as a younger man in the 70s, but I'm glad we have moved on and I have always liked Melbourne then and now.
