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.
Topic Images
- Click on for a map showing where the photograph was taken
- Click on for details about the image
There are currently 25 photographs in this section.
Preparing for the hereafter
Early retirement had many aspects but only one outcome
Yandhai Nepean Crossing, near Emu Plains [Jun-2021 131KB]
Lifelong entanglement
We would have followed you anywhere
Bethesda Terrace, Central Park NYC [Oct-2017 658KB]
Remarks
Frictionless conformity
A globally homogenised culture made it easier to sell you things
A skateboarder at a vintage car display, Hyde Park in Sydney [Jan-2005 248KB]
Burnout gender reveal
Parents loved to modestly announce their great news
Sky writing above Kirribilli, Sydney [Nov-2020 258KB]
Preparing for the past
We laboured comprehensively to ensure things were easier for those who followed (Seawright, 2016)
Laps at the Coogee beach tidal pool, in Sydney's east [Mar-2003 365KB]
Filial maze
Raising a family in a world where the future was so bright
Masked family, Central station northern concourse [Jul-2022 215KB]
Grandfathering wealth
As part of the compact between generations, the young can look forward to a utopia of free education, affordable housing and lifelong secure employment in well-paying jobs
Pedestrians in the Sydney financial district [Jul-2004 111KB]
Crossing over
The slow fade to the other side wasn't as terrifying as many imagined
Nigel Love bridge, Mascot [May-2019 179KB]
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 384KB]
The Big Schlep
Get the twins to softball, pick up Indigo from GAHT and take Cooper to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Then take the twins to netball, Cooper to the Harmony Day dress rehearsal and drop Indigo off at the dance studio. Finally, get the twins to soccer practice, have a break in the car-park to check the feeds, and then make sure Cooper, Indigo and the twins are back home by 9pm
Darling Harbour playground [Jun-1992 656KB]
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 123KB]
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 now-defunct Angus & Robertson book-store beneath Centerpoint tower [Dec-2003 97KB]
On this harvest moon
The peace dividend gave our young a chance at a more normal life
Yininmadyemi sculpture, Hyde Park Sydney [Apr-2018 501KB]
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 316KB]
Bo-ho chic
Mainstream/ Indie/ Alternative/ Bohemian/ Underground… a celebration of quirky dressers who spent a little more time than most on curating their own look and style
Nightcluber on the Cronulla-Bundeena ferry, in Sydney's south [Jan-2005 175KB]
Purposeful activity
We bequeathed a retail industry filled with meaning and purpose
Discount variety store at Katoomba [Jun-2003 214KB]
Reel time
Fishing as a recreational pastime became more challenging after we systematically poisoned the hydrosphere
Bundeena Ferry passenger, Cronulla [Aug-2019 228KB]
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 146KB]
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 involved
North Bradfield Park, Milsons Point [Dec-2020 131KB]
Some hope for the future
The desire to have children didn't diminish, only the actual proportion of babies born (Macrorends, 2023)
Wiggles exhibition, Powerhouse Museum Sydney [Jan-2020 88KB]
GPS service
Every year private schools make such an outstanding contribution to the formal ANZAC Day march that there was little need for public schools to participate
Student drummers, Hyde Park Sydney [Apr-2023 667KB]
Structured play
In order to fully prepare for successful careers, every activity had to be goal and team oriented
At the waterline at Bondi Beach [Mar-2003 180KB]
No safe place
Fretting parents who left things too late; anxious grandparents far 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 208KB]
Moments to midnight
Even children realised we were running out of time
Footpath chalk drawings on Water Street, Dunedin NZ [Nov-2017 791KB]
Keep us from harm
Every potential hazard was fastidiously identified and ameliorated
Drink bubbler at Erskineville Public School, Sydney [Aug-2019 293KB]
Remarks
Baby Boom 2.0?
There was a mistaken belief that Australia underwent another baby-boom following 2001 (eg. McCrindle, 2013).
Admittedly the total number of registered births grew to record levels after 2004. Despite the decade-long reversal in the 1970s, the overall trend in total birth numbers 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 tiny reversal around 2008, these charts show the relentless decline in the proportion of children born in the last fifty years.
Clearly the 1949—64 “boom” remains a one-off.
Graph data is derived from: ABS Historical Population
(ABS, 2019).