Nostalgic Aussie photos bring back memories of video shops, broken biscuits and the invention of Maccas
Those were the days... of after school visits, Friday nights choosing a video from the local shop and perhaps a weekend treat at McDonald's or Pizza Hut.
New book Bob Byrne's Remember When is described as a 'sugar hit of nostalgia'.
It features images from the 50s to the 90s which spark fond memories of yesteryear.
Read on to see some of the best.
Many will recall the newspaper kiosks in Melbourne.
This photo was taken in 1991.
"There were many of these small booths around Australian cities selling newspapers and magazines, not to mention snacks and cigarettes," Byrne said.
"The kiosks usually carried the latest edition of the city dailies and a wide range of magazines. I remember too when they sold cigarettes, but I think that was stopped when more stringent laws were passed regarding the sale of smokes to minors.
"I believe the last time I purchased a paper from a little kiosk was possibly in the early 1990s.
"There may be a few remaining newspaper kiosks, but the rise and rise of online newspapers has seen their gradual demise."
Blokes browse the tool display, at Whittakers Hardware Store in Perth, 1968.
"Back in the day, you could always rely on top-notch service at your local hardware store," Byrne says.
"Remember when you could buy a single bolt and nut, a single tap washer, when nails were sold by the pound and the advice was given free?
"I used to love the smell of the hardware store – hard to describe, but so distinctive that even with your eyes closed you knew where you were.
"There were paint displays in the window, wheelbarrows by the front door, ladders down the back, and the key-cutting machine was generally whirring in the background. There were rows and rows of bits and pieces, and the people behind the counter could put their hands straight on whatever you wanted.
"Sadly, most are now gone, replaced by the big chains."
This family browses a fruit stall in South Strathfield, Sydney in 1953.
"Before pre-packaging of almost all of our food, there was an age when most things arrived at the corner shop in bulk," Byrne says.
"There were big sacks of flour, grain and sugar, and storekeepers would weigh and ladle ordered amounts into brown paper bags.
"I remember, in particular, that biscuits would come in a big square tin and there were always some broken biscuits left in the bottom.
"The storekeeper would sometimes reward a child who was shopping with Mum with a few pieces of biscuit or he might decide to sell the damaged stock at a heavily reduced price.
"I can still recall going to the little corner shop and buying 1/- worth of broken biscuits, and you generally got lots of tasty bits for that amount."
The distinctive shape of a Pizza hut in the 1970's.
"Remember those early dine-in buffet-style Pizza Hut restaurants scattered across Australian suburbs?" Byrne says.
"When Pizza Hut first opened in Australia in the '70s, you could actually go for a sit-down meal, grab as much pizza as you wanted to eat with plenty of drinks to go around, and fill your ice-cream bowl to the brim, coating the scoops with all sorts of toppings.
"I'm not sure when they became takeaway-only fast-food places, but I know that the traditional 'hut' style buildings have all but disappeared these days."
This photo of Video Ezy, Erindale, Canberra, in the 1990s will bring back plenty of memories.
"Video came and went all in a matter of 30-odd years," Byrne says..
"I remember our first VCR, a top-loader that I bought around 1982. By the early 2000s, the VCR was replaced by the DVD, which was only around for a few years – now almost completely replaced by smart TVs and streaming movie services.
"A visit to the old video store on a Friday or Saturday night was always a great experience. There were lots of colourful posters of the latest releases, new movies to be discovered, and our local shop had a big range of chocolate treats.
"Whole families would visit the store, with some kids already dressed in their pyjamas, prepared for a night around the TV with loved ones and then off to bed."
"In the late '50s, 45s and 33s had just come in, replacing 78rpm vinyl records," Byrne says, showing off this photo of a Frankston, Melbourne shop in the 1970s.
"My very first single was 'Hound Dog' by Elvis Presley, which came out in '56, and from then on I was forever hooked on music.
"My first LP was Paul Anka, by Paul Anka of course, which I still have and can now play again having just bought a new digitally enhanced record player."
David Jones remains a popular shop, and this cafeteria in Sydney was the place to be in 1956.
" Long before fast-food chains arrived in Australia, the main emporiums and department stores, such as David Jones, Grace Brothers and Coles, had cafeteria-style dining rooms, offering the 'fast food' of the day," Byrne says.
"To a kid, on a rare shopping 'trip to town' with Mum and Grandma, it was heaven on a stick to be able to choose mains, dessert, a drink – and not to eat something home-made for a change.
"To a young child, these cafeterias were wondrous places. They always seemed so large, so many tables and so crowded.
"There was a plastic tray that you pushed along the shelf and in front of you the bain–marie full of steaming hot food, served by the matronly ladies in their white coats, always offering a large dollop of gravy.
"I loved my banana splits or mixed sundaes, but I always felt more grown up if I selected the trifle because I knew it contained a little bit of sherry."
"Back before we had computerised checkouts, there were cash registers," Byrne says.
"According to Wikipedia, the first cash register was invented in 1879.
"Early registers were entirely mechanical, without receipts. The employee was required to ring up every transaction on the register, and when the total key was pushed, the drawer opened and a bell would ring, alerting the manager to a sale taking place.
"Those original machines were nothing but simple adding machines."
This shot was taken in Melbourne in the 1980s.
There have been many names in retail that have disappeared over the past 50 years – names such as Waltons and Fosseys.
Waltons, pictured here in Blacktown, Sydney in 1971 started out as a menswear shop on George Street in Sydney.
Byrne said it expanded rapidly by buying up smaller retailers, and by 1972 had 96 department stores.
"The company had 12 stores around Melbourne and Victoria, and over 60 stores across the eastern states, including Sydney, Brisbane and numerous suburban and country outlets. They also operated several stores in South Australia," he said.
"Alan Bond bought Waltons Ltd in 1981, but the purchase became a financial disaster, with Bond losing $199 million over the deal in 1983. The Waltons department store name then disappeared, with some stores becoming Venture and Norman Ross outlets."
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