General News
20 June, 2025
THE WORLD OF CHANGE: Subtle and overwhelming with Brian Lennen
A wandering recollection of the past compared to the modern day.
Sitting on the toilet (a great place for contemplation), I recalled the days of septic tanks.
They were primitive but essential for public health. Often, like the laundry and the bathroom, they were separate from the house.
Once a month the tanks (bins) were collected by the driver of the night cart.
The reticulated water system is now taken for granted. When we turn the tap we have instant clean, hot or cold water. If our supply is cut off we go into a panic mode.
The storm water system is also taken for granted.
The telegraph was an essential device for inter-continental communications.
It was common for people to send telegrams for special occasions such as birthdays and weddings.
During the war years the arrival of a telegram was greeted with dread.
To save costs clever abbreviations were often used.
Men’s fashions in particular have seen a change from formal to more casual.
Dressed up men wore tailored suits, vests, a shirt and tie with a stetson hat.
It is noticeable that headwear is still in vogue. People of all ages can be seen sporting baseball caps.
Watching people as they were coming and going from the local supermarket, I was intrigued by the number attached to their mobile phones. For many they are life support systems.
Harking back to my youth, most houses were without a landline and people relied on the public phone booths.
On many nights there would be a queue of people waiting. It was often a great place to keep up to date with local affairs.
Some informed people could receive calls from the booth.
In later years the phone boxes were subject to vandalism. The booths were once dotted throughout the town but have now been removed.
If you had a landline at first you contacted the exchange where your call was plugged through to your number.
The phones themselves were cumbersome and immobile, unlike the phones of today.
On an excursion to Melbourne we visited the State Bank Computer , it occupied three stories. A normal mobile phone’s coverage is an infinitely more vast implement.
Another feature that is impossible to miss, is the tattoo.
Once mainly found on returned servicemen (especially sailors) and only on their arms, they are now found on arms, legs and faces. Once essentially on men, they are also coveted by women. The stigma associated with them seems to have vanished. For many they are a form of liberation.
The typewriter has been rendered redundant of course, replaced by the computer keyboard.
Unfortunately the importance of handwriting has been downgraded. A consequence of this is an end to letter-writing and diaries.
For the best part of 100 years the city of Maryborough had its own commercial radio station, 3CV. It had a high coverage of local content. Fortunately the community station has filled this void.
Unfortunately the Golden Wattle Festival came to an end decades ago. It was a wonderful promotion of the district.
Guy Fawkes Day, a British institution was eagerly anticipated by local families. For weeks beforehand sticks, branches and waste paper was stacked into a bonfire which was lit on cracker night. The children fired off fire crackers, rockets, jumping jacks, wizzers and double-bangers.
The most dramatic change in my lifetime was decimalisation in 1966.
Our currency went from pounds, shillings, pennies and farthings, to dollars and cents.
I can remember having farthings, half pennies, thruppence and six pences. You could get a liquorice block for a farthing or an ice-block for thruppence (three pennies).
Weights saw the end to pounds, stones and ounces, replaced with kilograms. Length introduced metres. Interestingly many people of my generation convert these measurements back to their imperial equivalent.
Of course the arrival of television in 1956 is the most significant influence on our lives.
The average Australian spends a minimum of five hours a day watching it. It influences all aspects of our lives.
To quote novelist George Orwell, “it is the most powerful tool for education and propaganda”.
Who would have believed we are being observed going about our daily lives, just as Orwell predicted (in his novel ‘1984’), in television reality shows such as ‘Big Brother’.
Overseas travel, once the domain of the rich and privileged, is now commonplace for both the young and the old.
The mobile phone provides an endless range of entertainment and information. Subscription streaming services such as Netflix, Stan, Prime, ESPN, Paramount, etc, have extended the importance of the mobile.
YouTube is a multi-faceted free platform for accessing a wide variety of information.
Individuals are able to create their own content which is usually scrutinised by the provider, although its misuse is a problem.
As illustrated above, our lives, thanks to the technology we have today, has turned many of us into “couch potatoes”.