Information
The Making of Modern Australia
Launched in March 2009, The Making of Modern Australia is a cross-platform people's history of postwar Australia. What began as an interactive website is now also a major four-part TV documentary series on ABC TV and a book of the same name, written by series narrator William McInnes.
Under the slogan Your Story; Our History, the Making of Modern Australia website allows Australians to upload text, images and home movies. Users have already laid the foundations of a rich scrapbook of the nation's history within living memory.
The TV series and book draw on stories gathered online. As more and more Australians add their stories, the Making of Modern Australia becomes a richer and more entertaining resource. Stories are catalogued by geography, time and subject.
An education portal presented by ABC and Education Services Australia has also been incorporated into the website. This interactive resource engages students and teachers to learn online and contribute themselves to our living history.
Part 2: The Australian Dream
Episode 2 - The Australian Dream
Broadcast: Thursday 29 July, 2010
The Australian obsession to own your own home is so entrenched in our culture, there's even a phrase for it … The Australian Dream.
It began immediately after the Second World War and continues to this day. At first 'the Dream' was modest – a 2 bedroom dwelling in the suburbs just like everyone else’s, with enough land for a vegie patch and a spot for the kids to play.
But then the population exploded, the suburbs sprawled, the fashions changed, and 'the Dream' did too. Today a 'modest' Australian home is at least twice the size of the post-war model. It used to be possible to buy a house for three times your annual salary, now it's nine times. And where once "home" was about shelter and security, now it's also a means of accumulating wealth and status for which many are finding it impossible to pay.
In this episode a cross-section of Australians tell stories of the Australian Dream; Olive and Roger still live in the tiny home Roger built with hand tools when the war ended 65 years ago; Carol has lived in a succession of renovated houses before finding her 'dream home', but a life-long contact with asbestos building materials has resulted in a life-threatening illness; Kevin in outback New South Wales tells us he was the first aborigine to receive funding to build a house, a tiny weatherboard cottage which has been 'home' for he and his wife, their eight kids and a plethora of relatives and friends; Sophia and Joe reflect on how their dream to profit from owning multiple properties turned into a nightmare in which they lost everything; and 90 year old Dolly, who’s rented all her life, reminds us that you don’t have to own it, to live in your 'dream home'.
Remarkably, no matter how high the prices go, the Australian Dream endures. Successive Australian Governments have kept it alive by providing special grants to first home buyers and generous tax incentives to new investors.
But there are 22 million people in Australian today and we’re struggling to accommodate them. Predictions are that in 2050 there will be close to 40 million, and no doubt most of them will have ambitions to own their own home.
