17th April 2012

1. SUBURBAN DOMESTICITY: LIVING THE DREAM?
DAVE EARL | PHD CANDIDATE
DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY

2. HEWLETT FAMILY
Hewlett Family, c.1953. Author’s possession.
2

3. DOMESTIC APPLIANCES: ONLY A DREAM?
Models Demonstrating Hoover Vacuums, 1952. State Library of Western Australia, 8292B/26974-1.
3

4. A SCANDAL DEMANDING ATTENTION
“Our Asylums Still in the Dark Ages,” SMH 15th May, 1949, 6.
4

5. BEX AND A GOOD LIE DOWN
Bex Powder. Powerhouse Museum, 2003/194/1.
5

6. TERRIFYING NEW WEAPON
“Atomic Bomb May End War,” SMH 8th August, 1945, 1.
6

7. MICHAEL GILDING
Gilding, Michael. The Making and Breaking of the Australian Family. St. Leonards: Allen & Unwin, 1991.
7

8. KEREEN REIGER
Reiger, Kerreen M. The Disenchantment of the Home: Modernizing the Australian Family, 1880-1940. Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1985.
8

9. JOHNSTON STREET, ANNANDALE
State Library of NSW, a089607
9

10. HARGRAVE FAMILY, 1894
Powerhouse Museum, P2903-9/68
10

11. OXFORD STREET, PADDINGTON, 1900
State Records NSW, 12487/7546 12487_a021_a021000014
11

12. DOMESTIC BLISS IN AUSTRALIA
State Library of Victoria MP00/00/56/98
12

13. PIECEWORK
Justice & Police Museum Photographic Collection, Historic Houses Trust, 31297
13

14. COLLIERY CREW, 1894
State Records NSW, 10036_a027000045
14

15. PAPERBOY, 1930
View of the entrance to Newtown Station, Sydney, taken in the aftermath of the stabbing murder of Domenico Belle at 11 a.m.
Justice & Police Museum Photographic Collection, Historic Houses Trust, 31191
15

16. PLAYFAIR STREET, THE ROCKS, 1901
State Records NSW, 4481_a026_000037
16

17. CARING FOR BABY, c.1910
John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, D1-11-86
17

18. COOKS HILL PUBLIC SCHOOL, NSW
Newcastle City Council Cultural Collections, Hunter Picture Bank 006 000098
18

19. SCHOOL GROUP, VICTORIA
State Library of Victoria, H42834/80
19

20. DOMESTIC SCIENCE CLASS, TASMANIA
Teaching Aids Centre - Photographic Prints, Archives Office of Tasmania, AB713-1-8204
20

21. YALLOURN TECHNICAL SCHOOL, VIC
State Library of Victoria, Image H2009.18/862
21

22. SALVATION ARMY CAMP, COLLAROY, 1947
Hood Collection, SLNSW hood_22395.
22

23. BODGIE STYLES FOR SPRING
Pix, 14th July 1951.
23

24. DECLINE IN THE BIRTH-RATE
40.0
35.0
30.0
25.0
20.0
15.0
10.0
5.0
0.0
1885
1888
1891
1894
1897
1900
1903
1906
1909
1912
1915
1918
1921
1924
1927
1930
1933
1936
1939
1942
1945
1948
1951
1954
1957
1960
1963
1966
1969
1972
1975
1978
1981
1984
1987
1990
1993
1996
1999
2002
Crude Birth-Rate in Australia.
Australian Bureau of Statistics, Australian Historical Population Statistics, 2006
24

25. INFANT MORTALITY RATES IN AUSTRALIA
120.0
100.0
80.0
60.0
40.0
20.0
0.0
1901
1903
1905
1907
1909
1911
1913
1915
1917
1919
1921
1923
1925
1927
1929
1931
1933
1935
1937
1939
1941
1943
1945
1947
1949
1951
1953
1955
1957
1959
1961
1963
1965
1967
1969
1971
1973
1975
1977
1979
Number of infant deaths per 1,000 births
Australian Bureau of Statistics, Australian Historical Population Statistics, 2006
25

26. NEWTOWN BABY CLINIC, 1914
Photographs of the Newtown, Alexandria and Bourke Street Baby Clinics, State Records NSW, 4873_a004_a004000006r
26

27. VICTORIA’S IDEAL CHILD
27

28. AVERAGE HOUSEHOLD SIZE
5
4.5
4
3.5
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
1911 1921 1933 1947 1954 1961 1966 1971 1976 1981 1986 1991 1996 2001 2006
Average number of persons per household
Australian Institute of Family Studies, 2012, http://www.aifs.gov.au/institute/info/charts/households/havsize.html
28

29. WHEN THE SEVENTH MAID WALKED OUT…
The Home, Sept. 1920, p.85, in Gilding, The Making and Breaking of the Australian Family.
29

30. OLD ORDER HOMES?
Camina. Old or Homes or New Order Houses? Some Reflections of a Middle-Class Woman. Melbourne: Whitcome & Tombs Pty. Ltd., c.1943.
30

31. DACEY GARDEN SUBURB PLAN, c.1913
State Records NSW, 5225_a018_a018000001
31

32. NARRABEEN: VALUES MUST INCREASE!
National Library of Australia, nla.map-lfsp1695
32

33. JOHN MURPHY
Murphy, John. "Shaping the Cold War Family: Politics, Domesticity and Policy Interventions in the 1950s." Australian Historical Studies 26,
no. 105 (1995): 544 - 67.
Murphy, John. Imagining the Fifties: Private Sentiment and Political Culture in Menzies' Australia. Annandale: University of New South Wales
Press & Pluto Press, 2000.
Murphy, John, and Belinda Probert. "'Anything for the House': Recollections of Post-War Suburban Dreaming." Australian Historical Studies
36, no. 124 (2004): 275-93.
33

34. ELAINE TYLER MAY
May, Elaine Tyler. Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era. 20th Anniversary Edition ed. New York: Basic Books, 2008
[1988].
34

35. MIGRANT TRAINING
Dr Eva Haarmann (standing, right), of Vienna, gives an English Lesson to other Australian migrants, NAA A12111, 1/1955/32/21.
35

36. INDUSTRIAL EXPANSION
Snowy Hydro-Electric Scheme, 1947. NAA B4498, 59D8.
36

37. VETERAN REHABILITATION
Heidelberg Military Hospital, Victoria, 1944, SLV H99.201/1174.
37

38. WHEN THE BOYS COME HOME
Australian Women’s Weekly, 9th March 1946: 11
38

39. CRUDE MARRIAGE RATE IN AUSTRALIA
14.00
12.00
10.00
8.00
6.00
4.00
2.00
0.00
1885
1888
1891
1894
1897
1900
1903
1906
1909
1912
1915
1918
1921
1924
1927
1930
1933
1936
1939
1942
1945
1948
1951
1954
1957
1960
1963
1966
1969
1972
1975
1978
1981
1984
Number of marriages per year per 1,000 population
Australian Bureau of Statistics, Australian Historical Population Statistics, 2006
39

40. MARRIAGE BOOM
Mrs H.H. Kinninmont wedding, Hunters Hill, Hood Collection a436005, SLNSW.
40

41. BABY BOOM
Crèche at large maternity hospital, 1954. NAA A1200/1 L15678.
41

42. Baby Trying to Mow Lawn from Pram, Springvale, 1950, Museum Victoria, MM 110922
42

43. BIRMINGHAM GARDENS, NSW
Hood Collection, SLNSW hood_28109.
43

44. QUEENSLAND HOLDEN LAUNCH
1948 The Queensland launch of the Holden 48/215 at Eagers Motors, SLQ neg. #111267.
44

45. MY HUSBAND’S A DIFFERENT MAN!
Australian Women’s Weekly, 12th March, 1949: 20.
45

46. MAN ON SUBURBAN MARRIAGE
Man magazine, March 1952.
46

47. ATTRACTING A MAN IS A CINCH
Courier-Mail, 28th March 1947, 7.
47

48. MARRIAGES START IN THE KITCHEN!
Australian Women’s Weekly, 11th March 1947, 44.
48

49. DON’T CRY DEAR LADY
Australian Screen and Sound Archive: http://aso.gov.au/titles/ads/tandaco-prepared-stuffing/clip1/
49

50. MY WIFE WORKS AND I HATE IT!
Australian Women’s Weekly, 18th March, 1959: 4.
50

51. WORKING WIVES ON WARPATH
Australian Women’s Weekly, 15th April, 1959: 6.
51

52. DAVE EARL
daveearl.net | dear7745@uni.sydney.edu.au
DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY | SCHOOL OF PHILISOPICAL AND HISTORICAL ENQUIRY