Youth
A Precious Resource
Boomers loved their children and grandchildren. Because like real-estate, livestock, ore deposits or lumber… young people were our future assets
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There are currently 28 photographs in this section.
Smile Peace Love
Hugs & bonhomie were only the solution to our intergenerational woes
Sandwich board activist Danny Lim at George Street, Town Hall [Jul-2024 292KB]
The Big Schlep
Reschedule the twins for their NDIS Autism & Anxiety Support Appeal, pick up Nixon from GAHT and take Cooper to the Young Adults Learning Differences Centre. Then drive the twins to the child psychologist, Nixon for a bowl–cut mullet and Cooper to the ODD Therapy Session. Finally, get the twins across town for the last bit of netball practice, Nixon to the Harmony Day dress–rehearsal, and try to reschedule a meeting with the principal about a woodwork teacher who called Cooper — who is incredibly creative, affectionate and caring — a “vicious retard” for throwing a claw hammer at another student’s head. Also need to email the school’s Student Welfare Officer to remind
her them about Nixon’s updated psychology report + risk management plan and also that the complaint against her them is proceeding in the Human Rights Commission. Then have a break to check the feeds, then hit the M4 to make sure Nixon, Cooper and the twins are back home and have taken their ADHD meds by midnight
Darling Harbour playground [Jun-1992 529KB]
No safe place
Fretting parents who left things too late; anxious grandparents well out of their depth; abstruse pedagogical theorists run amok. Harm mitigation. Risk amortisation. Hypervigilance and a discourse of unquantifiable danger lurking within every home, classroom, church or playground
An ironic end to a day at Taronga Zoo [Apr-2005 281KB]
For one brief shining moment
EKG; Catecholamines urine 24 hour; Faeces pathogen PCR; Renal ultrasound; Renal Doppler ultrasound; Fasting glucose; Spot glucose; Glucose Tolerance Test; HbA1c; Urine protein test; Dilated Eye Retinal Scans; PCR tests; Pathogen throat swabs…
Blackwattle bay jetty [Jul-2017 422KB]
Bo–ho chic
Normcore/ Preppy/ Indie/ Grunge/ Bucolic Jazz Scocialism… we celebrated quirky dressers who spent a little more time than most on carefully curating their own look and personal brand
Nightcluber on the Cronulla–Bundeena ferry, in Sydney’s south [Jan-2005 196KB]
Remarks
Structured play
To fully prepare for successful careers, every activity had to be goal and team oriented
At the Bondi Beach waterline [Mar-2003 478KB]
Your life, their hands
My generation refused to believe there would come a time when those who follow us will extract their revenge
M17 gas mask, M1911A1 .45 automatic, Macdonaldtown [Apr-1983 187KB]
Weeks, maybe months
The slow–motion horror of watching your parents die from belatedly diagnosed illness, with the understanding that medical review boards will do their utmost to protect the anonymity and status of everyone implicated
North Bradfield Park, Milsons Point [Dec-2020 197KB]
Tween marketing trends
The role of glossy magazines was to teach young girls the vital importance of how they look
Perusing fashion magazines in the defunct Angus & Robertson book–store beneath Centerpoint tower [Dec-2003 280KB]
Tight lines, lads
Fishing as a recreational pursuit became more challenging after the hydrosphere was poisoned
Bundeena Ferry passenger, Cronulla [Aug-2019 270KB]
GPS service
Every year independent schools made such an outstanding contribution to the formal ANZAC Day march that there was no need for public schools to participate
Student drummers, Hyde Park Sydney [Apr-2023 495KB]
Baby on board
A political system that leads to [young] people having so few resources that they do not have opportunities to pursue lives that they have reason to value
(Grattan Institute, 2014)
Public ashtray on a monorail pole (since dismantled), at Sydney World Square [Oct-2013 464KB]
Prevalent brandonomics
A globally homogeneous culture made it easier to sell you things
A skateboarder at a vintage car display, Hyde Park in Sydney [Jan-2005 282KB]
Filial maze
Raising a family in a world where the future was so bright
Masked family, Central station northern concourse [Jul-2022 225KB]
Waiting for the hammer to drop
Even children realised we were running out of time
Footpath sundial graffiti on Water Street, Dunedin NZ [Nov-2017 653KB]
Preparing for the hereafter
Early retirement had many aspects but only one outcome
Yandhai Nepean Crossing, near Emu Plains [Jun-2021 109KB]
Burnout gender reveal
Parents loved to modestly announce their great news
Sky writing above Kirribilli, Sydney [Nov-2020 237KB]
Perfecting childhood
Hands–on parents expected their children to grow into Mozarts, Rembrandts or Doctor Doug Ross
Busking at Circular Quay, near the Sydney Opera House [Jan-1999 157KB]
The last summer
For a brief moment at the beginning of the 21st century, it was still possible to let children be themselves
At the steps of the swimming enclosure at Balmoral Beach, in Sydney’s north [Apr-2005 194KB]
Keep us from harm
Every potential hazard was fastidiously identified and neutralised
Drink bubbler at Erskineville Public School, Sydney [Aug-2019 314KB]
Remarks
Some hope for the future
Pronatalist ideology and generous government incentives kept alive the desire to have more children. Yet the actual proportion of live births continued to decline (Macrorends, 2025)
Wiggles exhibition, Powerhouse Museum Sydney [Jan-2020 139KB]
Purposeful activity
We created a retail industry filled with meaning and purpose
Discount variety store at Katoomba [Jun-2003 411KB]
Lifelong entanglement
We would have followed you anywhere
Bethesda Terrace, Central Park NYC [Oct-2017 559KB]
Remarks
Grandfathering wealth
As part of the compact between generations, the young can look forward to a utopia of free education, affordable housing, exponential capital gains and lifelong secure employment as domestic & corporate servants
Pedestrians in the Sydney financial district [Jul-2004 229KB]
Before the leaves fall
Our youth raced towards a future glowing with promise
Chasing fallen leaves at Crown Casino, Barangaroo [Jan-2025 515KB]
Preparing for the past
We laboured comprehensively to ensure things were much better for those who followed (ABS, 2022)
Laps at the Coogee beach tidal pool, in Sydney’s east [Mar-2003 438KB]
Crossing over
The slow fade to the other side wasn’t as terrifying as many believed
Nigel Love bridge, Mascot [May-2019 152KB]
On this harvest moon
For the briefest moment the proxy wars died down and our young had a chance of a more normal life
Yininmadyemi sculpture, Hyde Park Sydney [Apr-2018 337KB]
Baby Boom 2.0?
There was a mistaken belief that Australia underwent another baby-boom 2001-8 (eg. McCrindle, 2013).
Admittedly the total number of registered births grew to record levels after 2007. Despite the decade-long reversal in the 1970s, the overall trend in total registered births since 1935 has indeed been upward:
Yet a more interesting trend can be observed in the total fertility rate and the number of births per capita (ie. the total number of births divided by the total population):
Aside from a small reversal peaking in 2008, along with a post-COVID bump in 2021, these charts show a relentless decline in the proportion of children born in the last fifty years.
Fewer women were having fewer children. Fewer children were being born as a proportion of the overall population. Clearly the 1949—64 “boom” remains a one-off and we have been in gradual demographic decline since 1980.
Graph data is derived from: ABS Historical Population
(ABS, 2019).