men-only bars

Men shoulder to shoulder in the public bar, downing brew after brew under a thick nebula of bluish smoke; women partitioned off in the "ladies' lounge", chatting, shelling peas, sewing, shouting shandies. For the first half of the 20th century, this was the face of pub life across Australia. In testosteronecharged pubs with no ladies' lounges [such as the one pictured), women dutifully waited in the car or huddled near the saloon doors as their husbands or boyfriends ferried drinks outside. In the late 1960s. the law changed, women were allowed to be served in public bars and the walls separating the ladies' lounges came tumbling down.
Greg Callaghun

Tinkers

Tinkers once travelled the highways to repair pots or sharpen knives, but by the time Harold Wright was photographed, left, with his daughter Evelyn in 1956, they were already an oddity. He had emigrated from England in the Depression and hit the road doing odd jobs. His family lived in the wagon, Road Urchin, travelling between Victoria and Queensland until Wright died in 1969. "Life on the road is the toughest existence a man can choose," Wright told photographer Jeff Carter. "People often say to me it must be a lovely, carefree life. They don't understand the hardships caused by the weather, or realise how the uncertainty of work causes constant worry."
Mark Whittaker

Corner shops

Corner shops still exist, of course, but in the guise of brightly lit, 24hour convenience chain stores that all look the same while selling the same products. But in 1934, when this photo was taken of an east Sydney corner shop, such places were mainstays of their community, selling the needs of everyday life - from eggs to light bulbs, from milk to soap - while gossip was exchanged with shopkeepers who knew their customers and all their kids by name. However, even then, supermarkets were on the rise in the United States - and the corner shop, as we fondly remember it, would soon become a rarity.
Mike Safe

Telegram Boys

These telegram boys being trained in 1950 at the Brisbane central post office would soon be overrun by technology. When many households did not have a telephone, urgent messages to those far away could be sent by going to a post office and writing the message on a form. There was a basic charge for 12 words, which were telegraphed to the post office closest to the destination. The telegram boy then carried the message in a leather pouch as he bicycled to the recipient's doorstep. But then household phones became common -followed by facsimiles, mobile phones, emait and now texting.
Mike Safe

Cracker Night

Penny bungers, tom thumbs, jumping jacks. For generations of Australian kids, fireworks were an unrivalled source of pleasure and pain. The pleasure came (mostly) on Cracker Night when these kaleidoscopic wonders, bought from the local milk bar, lit up the sky. The pain was whenever someone held on too long, or the cracker misfired. Every year people were blinded and had fingers blown off. By 1982, Victoria had banned them for the public. NSW followed in 1987. Today, unless you're a licensed pyrotechnician, only in the ACT (on the Queen's Birthday) and the NT (on Territory dayl are firecrackers allowed,
Drew Warne-Smith

BLUE HILLS

Long before Neighbours was on TV, there was Blue Hills on ABC radio - all 5795 episodes, over 27 years. Its writer during this marathon run from 1949 to 1976 was Gwen Meredith, seen here dictating dialogue for an episode. A Sydney University arts graduate, she preferred recording to typing the script, thus helping to give the serial its folksy rural charm. For five years before Blue Hills, Meredith churned out another countrified serial for the ABC, The Lawsons. Turning 99 this year, she lives in the NSW Southern Highlands and later this year the ABC plans a boxed CD set of Blue Hills memories.
Mike Safe

One-armed Bandits

The pokies were a manual beast when they first sprouted in illegal gambling dens in Australia in the 1930s. 'One-armed bandits,' we called them, and to play you pulled a handle that sent symbols spinning. When they landed in a winning combination, punters were greeted with flashing lights, tunes and coins clattering into a receptacle. These days, pokies are driven by computers, operated by touch-screen, and wins are registered as credits. But while technology has diluted the romance, the losses and addiction are a constant. First legalised in NSW in 1956, gaming machines in Australia took $9.54 billion in 2003-04.
Drew Warne-Smilh

PAGE THREE GIRLS

The demise of the page three girl - in Australia at least - came with the passing of afternoon newspapers. From 1988 to 1992, all major afternoon tabloids - The Daily Mirror and Sun in Sydney, The News in Adelaide, The Telegraph in Brisbane and The Daily News in Perth - closed amid the first wave of the information technology revolution. The Aussie bikini girls were usually of a sunny, outdoors disposition and kept their tops on - unlike their sisters in the European tabloids, particularly those of the London Sun, who still stand proud despite the European Union's attempts to have them cover up.
Mike Safe

Uluru: Ayers Rock
- Circa 1979 -

Peter remembers "... our home for the week we were at the rock, we left the caravan at Alice Springs, (about 150 miles away) as the roads were pretty rough back then (1979). Now the only camping allowed is at a site about 10 miles from the rock, hidden away in the sand dunes, it's nice, BUT, I'm so glad we were there before it got so sanitized."

Sister Janet Mead receives her gold record from A&M president Jerry Moss for selling over one million copies of 'The Lord's Prayer' in the USA in 1974

Tony Mundine

Noeline Brown
Back in the '60s, '70s and '80s, Noeline Brown was a real glamour girl - the darling of Australian television audiences as a result of her unique comic talent in series like 'The Naked Vicar', 'Mavis Bramston' and 'Kingswood Country' to name but a few of her colossal hit programs.

After dancing her way around more than 60 cities and regional towns in 2004-2005 in the popular play Wallflowering with Doug Scroop, Noeline now struts her stuff for the rest of Australia in the fourth season of Channel 7's popular show "Dancing with the Stars".

Mick Bradley
Photographer
At the turn of the 21st century we appear to be faced with a similar predicament to that of Eugene Atget, working as he did to document his new century in the Paris of one hundred years ago.

What remains of the unique and human character of our cities and towns is rapidly disappearing. Despite this inevitable 'progress' there is still much to capture with the camera - both old and new. The so-called commonplace is as vital and exciting as always.

The majority of my photography has been carried out across Australia between 1969 and the present, with three brief visits to London, the city of my childhood, in 1983, 1994 and 2002.

The intense stimulation of a different environment proved fruitful in developing my skills and portfolio. Not quite belonging to any particular country allows me to bring what gallery director (and my agent) Paul Greenaway calls a 'migrant's eye' to all locations, along with empathy for the many displaced persons living in all the world's cities.