Many positive and negative events from 1975 in Australia (and across the world) are etched in our minds, and the National Library of Australia’s Living in the Seventies photographic exhibition has captured many of them. It was a colourful time, in more ways than one, and it wasn’t uncommon for home décor especially in the newer suburbs, to include a mix of green, orange and purple in the lounge room, along with the mission-brown exterior. The arrival of colour television and a better range of programs, were major highlights, as were the wide variety of films, the eclectic music scene and “out there” fashions, including flared trousers and platform shoes. The Whitlam government’s introduction of free universal health care and many other social reforms, the United Nation’s designation of 1975 as International Women’s Year and the success of the women’s movement in helping to achieve better opportunities for women in the nation’s economic, social and political life, were hugely important. The exhibition certainly illustrates the many highs and lows of 1975, and the sacking of the Whitlam government in late 1975 is one of those lows.
