In Praise of Summers' Past

IT’S hard to imagine a collection of photos more evocative to Australians than those on the walls of the Victorian Archives Centre.
Summer Past, Golden Days in the Sun 1950-70, is the name of a free exhibit to stir memories of beach going days for all audiences, but perhaps mostly of an older generation.
The snaps taken by national archivists and supplied by the National Archives Office are worth a thousand words as they show us who we are and hold still those special places where we spent holidays in warmer months.
The coastal backdrops are unspoilt by development and the faces look relaxed and comfortable in front of you as your eyes wander from frame to frame of smiling children surfing on waves to bronze bodies basking on Bondi before the sun became an object of menace.
This was the time of hauling caravans, budget motels and of transistor radios playing the cricket for groups relaxing on the sand.
The women are full-figured and free-spirited, and perhaps more than anything else this walk down memory lane frames that first generation of young liberated women.
The likeability of this rich archival series is that it truly captures youthfulness before the change of a nation.
There is Lorne of 1967, at the end of a long, hot day of playing in the waves. As you stare yourself into this image you catch that brilliant moment on a beach when a stinking afternoon turns to its end.
What about the lads at Manly! Snapped risking their lives to dive across a spinning wheel into the bluest sea. Torquay at dusk of 1968, and the silhouette of two surfers gathers something of the mood you suspects exists between all mates alone in the elements.
The suggestion behind these photos is that it was better back then, simpler, though it might be a case of the camera keeping what was a real experience for its subjects and not the simulacra of today.
Standing in front of the three placegetters in the 1952 Miss Pacific pageant, you wonder what became of these glamour gals? Maybe they married their dreamboat partners, became mothers, raised families in the suburbs and retired down to the coast.
Summers Past at the Victorian Archive Centre is on until November 2007.