Sydney 1975 / Filmed by Ross Myers

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Sydney 1975 / Filmed by Ross Myers

Filmed in & around Sydney 1973-1975 by Ross Myers (Also includes scenes from Easts/St.George footy game 17.8.1980)

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  4. Great footage, now just slow it down a tad and replace the inappropriate 1977 disco track with something Aussie from ’75, and it’ll be perfect!

  5. Emigrated to Sydney from Scotland in Dec 1974 so 1975 was my first full year here. I’m back living here after 30 years in Perth. I now call it S.I.N.O. (Sydney in name only). Sung to the tune of ‘Where have all the flowers gone’?…”Where have all the Aussie’s gone?”…so sad!

  7. This footage is from around 1971 or early 1972, not 1975. Road signs and markings are still in MPH and there was not one XA Falcon spotted on the road when you slow down the clip’s speed. Taxi cabs spotted were largely XY Falcons. Lovely film footage nonetheless.

  9. Anyone notice that not one drive knew how to drive properly? No blinkers, not in the middle of the lane, cutting others off, bunching up in between lanes. Holy moly.

  10. Anyone notice that not one drive knew how to drive properly? No blinkers, not in the middle of the lane, cutting others off, bunching up in between lanes. Holy moly.

  11. Anyone notice that not one drive knew how to drive properly? No blinkers, not in the middle of the lane, cutting others off, bunching up in between lanes. Holy moly.

    1. Pierre Pinson yes but London Cars stopped as soon a water touched them ironically, Lucas Prince of Darkness was the catch cry for their Electrics hahaha

  19. Love it. Thank you. Great to see all the old, cars, roads and buildings at a time before social media and all the critics out there. A time when people would say good morning with a smile and not the intent to rob you. Cheers.

  20. I was 6 years back in 1975, what great memories.

    Good to see Easts (that’s what I still call them and support them) have the same amount of fans today as they had back then ??

  21. I was 6 years back in 1975, what great memories.

    Good to see Easts (that’s what I still call them and support them) have the same amount of fans today as they had back then ??

  22. I was 6 years back in 1975, what great memories.

    Good to see Easts (that’s what I still call them and support them) have the same amount of fans today as they had back then ??

  30. Australia used metric? Roosters weren’t called Roosters, my mum would have been 21 here and never told me any of this but I bet if I go ask her she’ll say why would u care lol…. I wish I was born back then…

  32. The good old days when there were no lefties in sight, and no one got upset about a Chicko Roll, Redskins, Coon Cheese, Blacktown, ect ect. And we actually took the piss out of each other had a laugh and no one went to some tribual to complain.

  35. My first thought was “why would you choose to wreck historical footage by playing this at high speed?”, but Ramdarook has explained this. Good historical footage when played at 25% tempo.
    I note some late 70’s Valiants here. Martin Place still had two-way traffic.
    Thanks for posting.
    .

  41. Not that many Japanese cars hey? Holdens and Fords everywhere. You should be thanked for capturing theses moments. It’s is a real treasure. I’m nearly sixty and I am stunned at how horrible Sydney has become.

  45. Just great…… brought back a lot of memories seeing all the old buildings, streets,people rushing around everywhere that there appointment is more important than yours hahaha that was a top video thanks….

  46. It was so strange to see parts of Sydney I’ve lived, especially when you turned onto Flinders St, I lived with my now wife on the right hand side after the service station where the building with the first arch is. It all looks very similar to when we lived there in ’96, but very different but same to now.
    Great video!

  50. the cars…imagine having a warehouse full of pristine XP’s XY’s Torana’s and Kingswoods…I was 10 and my dad had a v8 monaro…the criminal 😛

  54. When bookmakers bet nearly every race to 96%. Heaven. In 1979 there were 52 bookmakers at Wentworth Park dogs. Plus about 16 in Ledger betting to losing figures on most races. You could get on to win 10k with any of the big bookmakers. Now there would be lucky to be four. What happened. Best time in Australia 70’s and early eighties. Heaven

  55. 3.12 in and on the right it’s the EPL lift test tower where I worked,also the old Paris theatre where I saw my mates in the band called “ subversion “ play around 75/76 great days

  56. Very compelling footage, thank you for uploading. I live in Western Canada now, but spent 20 years in East Sydney and Woolloomooloo – made me ‘homesick’. One interesting fact a lot of people don’t know is that many major Sydney streets were built on and follow the original Aboriginal tracks, in particular South Dowling, Bourke Street down to Woolloomooloo and Botany Road is another one.

    1. Yeah, I live in California now. Grew up in Homebush. Also spent many years in the Eastern suburbs especially while at the UNSW. Left Sydney on Christmas Day 1975. This video is pretty much as I remembered Sydney. Miss it so much.

    2. @ramdarook seem as though you’ve taken exception to the fact I made a statement about the music…each to his own I suppose…let me ask YOU this question….CAN YOU NAME EVER STREET…EVERY DIRECTION…EVERY VISABLE LANDMARK…EVERY TAXI COMPANY….CAN YOU?……….
      BECAUSE……..I CAN….REGARDS

    3. @Wayne Margan I didn’t think the date the music was released was important as I had a lot of fun putting it all together for Youtube. I grew up in Sydney so I do know it quite well. The taxis in this video are a bit of a mystery to me. There seems to be hundreds running around in every direction, all different colours & companies. Same with the buses dashing all over the city that particular morning that I filmed this. All the best, ramdarook.

    4. @ramdarook I spent the first 19 years of my life in the northern part of VICTORIA STREET,as a kid the area was regarded as KINGS CROSS ,now the TRENDIES call it POTTS POINT,I was trying to work out what car you were in by the bonnet?…TAXIS..DELUXE and RED CABS..depot in Victoria st Kings Cross..RSL CABS..blue with red bonnet…depot O’RIORDAN ST ALEXANDRIA…LEGION CABS..white with blue bonnet depot Foveaux St Surry HIlls
      YELLOW CABS..(more orange than yellow) original depot Darlinghurst Rd DARLINGHURST…SYDNEY RADIO CABS..sky blue with yellow guards..depot NEW SOUTH HEAD RD..EDGECLIFFE..about 1976…RED..YELLOW, and SYDNEY RADIO formed what is today TAXIS COMBINED SERVICES…Regards

    5. @Wayne Margan I’ve been meaning to thank you for this information. I have now been studying my footage checking out all the taxis!

    1. I filmed this when I was 17 (I was a young handsome punk ha ha) & had just purchased my first super 8 movie camera. It had a lot of features including 9fps which could speed things up. I wanted to give it a test run so I borrowed my mum’s car & mounted the camera in the front seat & went for a drive into the city. This was the result & I showed it to my family & friends at the time & we had a great night viewing it. I didn’t view it again for many years until I decided to upload it onto Youtube. I decided that adding elevator music would make it quite boring so I decided to liven things up a bit. The footage shown is exactly the way I filmed it & I am unable to change it (& I suppose I am lucky to still have it in my possession) All the best, Ross Myers (ramdarook)

  89. At 3:31 the footage shows a speed limit 50 (mph) sign. This would suggest the footage is earlier than 1975. Australian roads went metric in July 1974.

    1. Fancy doing it right after the halfway point of the year. I wonder what the significance of that is?
      The consensus in the comments going by the cars is the traffic footage is 1972. The football match is 1980.
      All they had to do on the road limit sign was put a diagonal stroke though the 5.
      It’s amazing how similar the infrastructure was so long ago like the painted road markings and those freeway dots that go brrrmp brrrmp brrrmp on the tyres, replaced by rumble strips now. I like the dots more. They looked more modern.

    1. A few people have mentioned the speed of this video. In the early 70’s I purchased my first Super 8 movie camera & I spent several weeks trying to figure out all the features it had. Normal filming speed was 24fps but this camera also had a time lapse setting of 9 fps. I wondered one day what would happen if I went into the city & did some timelapse filming & I also mounted the camera in my car for the trip home. It was all for a bit of fun & you can see the result. I almost threw the film out several years ago but I’m glad I decided not to.

  100. Thanks this is fantastic. I was 13 in 1975. I had so much fun in this city a few years later
    I’m surprised they had Southern Cross Drive then but I checked and it was built in 1969

  102. This is absolutely wonderful. Very nostalgic, very creative, and Donna Summers is a great choice.
    No ugly high rises in sight. Oxford Street looks half decent. A lot more open parkland along the Moore Park area. A happy, vibrant city.

  103. 0 – 12 seconds is North West corner of of CBD Hyde Park looking south along Elizabeth st.

    19 – 45 seconds Top of Martin Place (before it was closed off to traffic and made a pedestrian area only) on (probably Elizabeth st – one down from top) looking down west toward The State Bank of NSW building.

    -45s note: (IS NOT the Fays Dept. store on Liverpool and Pitt , Neither on George st. south end near Central station)

    1m 7s – 1m 16s Looking North East from in Wentworth St across the corner of (also) Oxford St. .College St. and Liverpool St.

    1m 17s 1m 23s- (CBD – Woolloomooloo) Starts at bottom of Stanley st and drives west up to College St turns right (North) onto College St st past The Museum’with Hyde Park on the left.

    *** Suddenly somewhere else at 1m 24s – the person has turned left off College St and is on PARK ST* , TAKE A LOOK ON THE LEFT AT 1m 25s !

    at 1m 28s turns left onto Elizabeth St (moving south).
    1m 40s Turns left (moving east) onto Liverpool st

    1m 59s crosses from Liverpool to Oxford St (moving approximately South East)

    2m 23s Intersection known as “the top of Oxford” (Correct name- “Taylor Square”)
    2m 36s Turns to Flinders st. heading SSE
    2m 49s Then turns onto “South Dowling St.” heading South and ends around a mile before the first intersection junction.

  104. Sydney was a complete ratrace by 1975: the worst of all possible worlds. Heavy industrial and traffic air pollution, sewage pollution on the beaches, in-your-face tobacco smoking wherever you went, and casual litterbugging in streets and parks. Thank God those blights are now past. The post-war modernist building boom (both government-planned and speculative-commercial) that has never ended had already swept away what had been the British Empire’s elegant Victorian city par excellence. Driving was an ordeal: the streets were choked with cars, with the clean and efficient tram network having been scrapped (by a Labor state government!) in the early sixties. It was still before the introduction of _Give Way_ signs, roundabouts, traffic-calming and control road architecture, the 0.05 blood alcohol limit, random breath testing, unleaded petrol and pollution-control engine equipment. Of course there are things you can find to gripe about today as always, but the 1970s were the absolute nadir of civilised life in Sydney.

  105. No bicyclists, no speed cameras, handful of cheap toll at best, no shit drivers, no mobile phones and no internet, Simpler times compared to today. Life was great back then.

  110. Sydney had become a total ratrace by 1975: the worst of all possible worlds. Heavy air pollution from traffic and industry, sewage pollution in the waterways and on the beaches, in-your-face tobacco smoking wherever you went, and casual litterbugging in streets and parks. Thank God those blights are now past. The post-WW2 modernist building boom (both government-planned and speculative-commercial) that has never ended had already swept away what had once been the British Empire’s elegant Victorian city par excellence. Driving was an ordeal: the streets were choked with cars, with the clean and efficient tram network having been scrapped (by a Labor state government!) in the early sixties. This was still before the introduction of _Give Way_ signs, roundabouts, traffic-calming and control road architecture, the 0.05 blood alcohol limit, random breath testing, unleaded petrol and pollution-control engine equipment did much to ameliorate the worst aspects of daily existence. Of course there are things you can find to gripe about today as always, but the 1970s were the absolute nadir for civilised life in Sydney.

  114. Thank you for sharing your home movie.
    I was 20 in 1975, working at the Bank of NSW.
    The streets, cars, fashion and footy – all Aussie.
    Before everything became globali$ed.

  117. people actually spoke to each other…there was plenty of work around…cars and houses were affordable…only one toll..The Harbour Bridge….look where we are now…what happened

    1. A few people have mentioned the speed of this video. In the early 70’s I purchased my first Super 8 movie camera & I spent several weeks trying to figure out all the features it had. Normal filming speed was 24fps but this camera also had a time lapse setting of 9 fps. I wondered one day what would happen if I went into the city & did some timelapse filming & I also mounted the camera in my car for the trip home. It was all for a bit of fun & you can see the result. I almost threw the film out several years ago but I’m glad I decided not to.

      76

  121. For the driving part of the video, I’m not sure where the first part is taken, but once it cuts to being in the city, I’m fairly sure it’s as follows:
    -Travelling west on Park Street (Hyde Park to left and right)
    -Turns left onto Elizabeth Street, going south (Hyde Park on left)
    -Goes south down Elizabeth Street two blocks, past Bathurst Street
    -Turns left onto Liverpool Street, going east (the two-lane slip lane is still there today and very recognizable)
    -Continues east down Liverpool Street for three blocks, past Nithsdale and Commonwealth Streets
    -Turns right onto Oxford Street, going east (now this would be going straight on as Liverpool Street further on is inaccessible from this alignment)
    -Continues down Oxford Street until Taylor Square, turns right onto Flinders Street going south
    -Continues down Flinders Street, eventually turns right on S Dowling Street, going south
    -Continues down S Dowling Street (this route is now the Eastern Distributor, but it wasn’t built until the 90s so it’s just a road)
    -S Dowling eventually turns into Southern Cross Drive (built 1969)
    -Southern Cross Drive and video ends at Wentworth Avenue, Eastlakes – wasn’t extended to connect with the airport tunnel until 1988.

  122. This is seriously a historically important film, its really well done (plus I love the look of Super 8!). I can remember as a little kid that this is what Sydney was like in the 70s!

  126. The maker of this film should give it to the sound and film archive in Canberra. It is a true and perfect example of a day in the life of a major Australian city in the middle of the 1970’s. I was a 9 yr old from Wollongong often visiting my relatives in Sydney. Wow the cars have changed so much. I love historical films like these.

  129. done that trip a few times …heading back south after a day in the city….Roosters old ground Sydney Sports ground, two stadiums ago???

  130. done that trip a few times …heading back south after a day in the city….Roosters old ground Sydney Sports ground, two stadiums ago???

  131. done that trip a few times …heading back south after a day in the city….Roosters old ground Sydney Sports ground, two stadiums ago???

  132. done that trip a few times …heading back south after a day in the city….Roosters old ground Sydney Sports ground, two stadiums ago???

  135. Brilliant, thanks for sharing! This is so nicely edited, it’s perfect! I can imagine at the time … “why do you want to waste film driving around Sydney?” … 50 years later … “THANK YOU SO MUCH for filming something as mundane as city traffic … the roads, the buildings, the AUSSIE MADE CARS!”

  136. The ‘good old days’ of Sydney and Australia..
    When everyone was ‘fair-dinkum’ and a handshake meant ‘the deal was done’.
    Sadly, we have lost the plot nowdays…

  139. Back in era when Australia was really Australia, being proud of Australian made, & a large proportion of the population did manufacturing work not frightened to get their hands dirty. Has Australia improved in more recent times?? Debatable

  140. It’s very fast. I’ll adjust the film speed so I can take a good look around. I was 20 years old when this was made.

  148. As a baby boomer Sydney sider the post war colonial hangover was fading and Australia was starting to change dramatically going into the 70’s.

  153. my memories of Blacktown Cab rank, ALL HOLDEN!!!, Best days ever, HQ, HZ, HR, HG, & i was still holding Mummy’s hand?.

  155. Same number of vehicles in the street as today ?? the toll roads have maintained that. I was 1 year old in 1975, very earliest memory of being pushed in a pram alongside this traffic in the city, or what i could make of it back then, but the images do trigger memories. Jm

  156. Same number of vehicles in the street as today ?? the toll roads have maintained that. I was 1 year old in 1975, very earliest memory of being pushed in a pram alongside this traffic in the city, or what i could make of it back then, but the images do trigger memories. Jm

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