Canberra in the 80s. Then and now.

These pictures are great – thanks! The double-decker bus cafe next to Woolies (the Dubbl Dekka) was run by a group of born-agains with whom my parents were involved. A water main burst underneath it in …1986?, closing Prouds for a week or so, so the cafe was closed down and the bus then lived on our nature strip in Pedder Street O’Connor for around six months. It was a great playground for us kids while it was there.

Many thanks for sharing these.

Gary Eck copping serious heckling.
I saw one of these early efforts. At that time he was also known to do MC duty for a friend’s wedding reception. Sample material: ‘…And now, on a more serious note: the Ebola Virus.’ My brush with fame.

The buses in these pictures I strongly associate in memory with different stages of my Canberra career. The beige buses definitely mark one of the photographs as pre-80s, unless some were kept in service after their time. I have very early memories of riding on these, with their distinctive racoon-like front grille and sloping faces. The MAN and Leyland models also had faces and interiors that impressed themselves on youthful memory.

And if you can remember Youngs you really are old. I will only admit to knowing people who do.

Has anyone heard more from the poster who was undertaking research into Weston Park? Photos of that place from the same period would be nostalgic for many readers I expect.

The pic of the RX7 in front of the Bin is a beauty.

Violet68 said :

Does anyone remember that other club down near Garema Place? I can’t. It used to cater to the gay crowd, punks and mods. I always remember dancing to the Young One’s version of Cliff Richards Living Doll there, with my Mum of all people! Thanks for these pics. Put a smile on my dial 🙂

The Manhattan.

Reminds me of when I first arrived in Canberra from Sydney. I thought it was so quiet and used to wonder where all the people were. I couldn’t understand why the buses didn’t run till 3 am either.
Few years later, we won tickets on the radio to go and see the premier of Footrot Flats at the Civic cinema. I used to go to the “Bin” a fair bit too. Does anyone remember that other club down near Garema Place? I can’t. It used to cater to the gay crowd, punks and mods. I always remember dancing to the Young One’s version of Cliff Richards Living Doll there, with my Mum of all people! Thanks for these pics. Put a smile on my dial 🙂

I tended to hang out at Belconnen, Blind Beggars, Pot Belly, Captain Greggs, Boot and Flogger all within falling distance of each other.

Don’t forget the Hungry Horse, Pot Black, the Henry Gratten (OK that one was in Phillip), Steel City Gym…and later Sails.

Does anyone remember Acton being a hostel? We lived there for a few months in 1976. From there we moved to Gowrie on Northbourne which is now Fenner Hall. My father had just got a job at National Mapping in QBN so I’m guessing both Acton and Gowrie were Gov’t owned.

I tended to hang out at Belconnen, Blind Beggars, Pot Belly, Captain Greggs, Boot and Flogger all within falling distance of each other.

Don’t forget Darcys Den.

KB1971 said :

there always used to be a black VL Calis parked out the front (early 90’s though).

Mine was the Red VL Turbo Berlina……….good times.

aceofspades said :

I tended to hang out at Belconnen, Blind Beggars, Pot Belly, Captain Greggs, Boot and Flogger all within falling distance of each other.

Boot and Flogger was the corner of Greens square Kingston, now the Durham I think.

Yes “Das Boot” was in Kingston and is now the Durham. Belco also had Leather Bottle, Pot Black, Hungry Horse – gees I feel old.

Chop71 said :

ahh The Private Bin ……. It really was the real McCoy

And Fine Cotton is probably still running …

The Bin – Swan Lager and always ending up standing (?) on the 3 or 4 stairs at the far end of the bar!

The Zone – I don’t actually remember it but I’m sure I was there [more than once].

I tended to hang out at Belconnen, Blind Beggars, Pot Belly, Captain Greggs, Boot and Flogger all within falling distance of each other.

Boot and Flogger was the corner of Greens square Kingston, now the Durham I think.

Chop71 said :

ahh The Private Bin ……. It really was the real McCoy

Hmmm just wondering if you knew Peter MCoy…..who used to run the Private Bin before moving on to Bobby McGees. Remember Wednesday comedy nights upstairs at the Bin? Gary Eck copping serious heckling.

The place where Cube is was originally called Rascals. It was pretty upmarket compared with Pandora’s and the City Club.

The Zone was interesting; $20 for all you could drink.

Awesome photos. Surely we can make this a running theme on the site?

I remember someone showing me photos of the lake during construction, they were pretty impressive.

Bonus points for anyone that can dig up photos of the bus restaurant that used to be near the merry-go-round!

KB1971 said :

I don’t remember the crunch club but does anyone remember “The Zone”. It was in the building where Reece plumbing is now in Braddon.

We ventured all the way up to Braddon a few times to “The Zone” because the Bin became really quiet when it first opened up. I remember it having some kind of a mezzanine floor that was a good vantage point. Everyone seemed to remain loyal to the Bin because the club only lasted a year or 2 from memory.

taninaus said :

Very cool – and lots of memories.

I was a child of the woolies there too. I remember going to the coffee shop upstairs for a treat after a run on the merry-go-round. The Bin and Pandoras (it was there early to mid 90’s I am sure) where I was inducted into alcohol and saturday night fun.

Yes those toilets in the interchange were ferral – but there was life and people in Garema place – anyone remember the furniture store where the police shop front is? And the Monaro Mall before QIC took over and expanded the Mall – there was great parking where the glove/hat shop is now.

There was a Young’s store where the cop shopfront is and in the arcade (which I think was then called Young’s Arcade) there was a great little music shop. That was a l-o-n-g time ago.

OpenYourMind said :

And night clubs. Here’s a challenge. Does anyone remember ‘The Crush Club’ at the top of Lonsdale St?

Where Reece is now? I remember a club being in that location in the early 90s, but as a Private Bin employee I usually stayed on home turf for half price drinks.

OpenYourMind said :

Apologies. Yes, XE. Does anyone remember the Police XEs (ish) of that era that had that single giant blue police light about the size of a garbage bin on the roof. Someone told me that it could telescope up to add visibility at accident scenes. Not sure if that was fact or fiction.

And night clubs. Here’s a challenge. Does anyone remember ‘The Crush Club’ at the top of Lonsdale St?

The cops in Merimbula had an XF Panelvan as a patrol car that was flat strap at 145, totally useless against the local hoons & then the Bega coppers got VN commodores for HP cars. There was no outrunning them…………

I don’t remember the crunch club but does anyone remember “The Zone”. It was in the building where Reece plumbing is now in Braddon.

Simpsonhj said :

I remember spending a lot of time in Prouds when I was a child, my dad used to be a watchmaker working for them in an office above the shop, I used to regulary go into the Woolies next to Prouds and spend my pocket money. Back then Woolies was a variety store more like a BigW . I also remember very clearly the Double Decker bus that was parked between Prouds and Woolies that was used as a cafe / eat in. I useed to eat there lots too. All this makes me feel very old.

The Woolies nearest the merry-go-round was a variety store but there was actually a Woolworths supermarket directly opposite the variety store where Centrepoint is now. The supermarket was there when we moved here in 1970, and Centrepoint opened in 1978.

On the corner in Civic Bus Interchange opposite the bus control tower was the JB Young’s department store, and prior to that it was Rogers department store. Young’s was taken over by Grace Bros in the late 1980s and they in turn were taken over by Coles/Myer shortly after. Young’s also had department stores in Kingston, Dickson, Curtin and Queanbeyan.

Behind the ACTION control tower and the clocks was a large toilet block. The state of it in the mornings after a wild night out was legendary, and a gay beat operated there as well. Before the toilet block was built a police shopfront was located there.

Next to the Chicken Gourmet in the building opposite Youngs/Rogers was a legendary seafood restaurant called Neptunes Tavern (1971-77) owned by my late father (I had to get that one in! 🙂 )

The ACTION buses, with ZIB numberplates (remember the days before self-government), are antiques in the old pics. The Qantas building and logo stands out as well. Remember when “Super” petrol was just 30 cents per litre! Now we have to pay through the nose (plus tax) for “unleaded”.

Apologies. Yes, XE. Does anyone remember the Police XEs (ish) of that era that had that single giant blue police light about the size of a garbage bin on the roof. Someone told me that it could telescope up to add visibility at accident scenes. Not sure if that was fact or fiction.

And night clubs. Here’s a challenge. Does anyone remember ‘The Crush Club’ at the top of Lonsdale St?

Ah memories.
First photo – I used to live in that building as part of the UC in 1990. Jaggers entrance was the door on the left, uni ressies was door on the right. Across the road was Jolly Jugs, around the corner was the Bin, and downstairs was chips and gravy at Chicken Gourmet! What more could a uni student want!

ohh the cafeteria in Kmart was called Hollys. they use to make great little hamburgers.
Does anyone remember the old doubledecker bus in the alleyway next to the woolies in civic. My mum use to take us they made great milkshakes.
seems like there is less to do now in civic then it was then.

Anna Key said :

The Bin with an RX-7 out the front. And Z plates on the buses. Excellent

OpenYourMind said :

Wow! These are fantastic, thanks for the nostalgia trip!
Although I suddenly feel old when I see these because they all feel like last week, like The Bin, XD police cars and the Clock Tower and Bus Control Tower.

Sorry to be pedantic, I think its an XE

Yep, XDs had a larger front grille, the XE had the metal work of the bonnet extended down into the grille area.

Grumpy Old Fart said :

Ah the good old days of Civic staggering out of the Private Bin at 10am on a Sunday morning. As for those remebering Pandora’s that was the late eighties. Try the Hotel Civic with the Green Door bottle shop and the Cock and Bull around the Northbourne Ave side. If it was really bad you ended up in the Subway in Garema Place.

I used to rock up at about 6am to clean the Bin on Sunday mornings. No way you would have lasted till 10am on my shift, haha. Well, unless you were prepared to pitch in and clean the mess you would have left in the dunnies.

The Bin with an RX-7 out the front. And Z plates on the buses. Excellent

OpenYourMind said :

Wow! These are fantastic, thanks for the nostalgia trip!
Although I suddenly feel old when I see these because they all feel like last week, like The Bin, XD police cars and the Clock Tower and Bus Control Tower.

Sorry to be pedantic, I think its an XE

Ah yes, my first ever encounter with chips and gravy – at the Woolworths cafe.

I’d get taken there fairly regularly by mum – It seemed like quite a long drive to Civic, probably because we lived way, way out from the city centre on the ‘outskirts’ – in Kambah 🙂

Great set of photos – love comparing the old and new. Good work on getting the matching shots JB.

Some photos from inside the old interchange tower can be found here: http://actbus.net/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=8664

Very cool – and lots of memories.

I was a child of the woolies there too. I remember going to the coffee shop upstairs for a treat after a run on the merry-go-round. The Bin and Pandoras (it was there early to mid 90’s I am sure) where I was inducted into alcohol and saturday night fun.

Yes those toilets in the interchange were ferral – but there was life and people in Garema place – anyone remember the furniture store where the police shop front is? And the Monaro Mall before QIC took over and expanded the Mall – there was great parking where the glove/hat shop is now.

Wow! These are fantastic, thanks for the nostalgia trip!
Although I suddenly feel old when I see these because they all feel like last week, like The Bin, XD police cars and the Clock Tower and Bus Control Tower. It’s funny how everyone used to meet at the clock but now we all have mobiles and finding each other is no drama.

I drove XF taxis back then and used to ferry the cadets from the Bin back and forth to Duntroon and ADFA.

I remember spending a lot of time in Prouds when I was a child, my dad used to be a watchmaker working for them in an office above the shop, I used to regulary go into the Woolies next to Prouds and spend my pocket money. Back then Woolies was a variety store more like a BigW . I also remember very clearly the Double Decker bus that was parked between Prouds and Woolies that was used as a cafe / eat in. I useed to eat there lots too. All this makes me feel very old.

Grumpy Old Fart said :

Ah the good old days of Civic staggering out of the Private Bin at 10am on a Sunday morning. As for those remebering Pandora’s that was the late eighties. Try the Hotel Civic with the Green Door bottle shop and the Cock and Bull around the Northbourne Ave side. If it was really bad you ended up in the Subway in Garema Place.

Nah Pandoras was late 90s and I’m pretty sure into the very early 2000s, I’d know as I was a regular patron of jolly jugs!! Ah and the Bin, remember going to the downstairs downstairs bit for the first time, where I was greeted with a vodka glass smashing against the wall slightly to the left of my head!

I’m just glad they dozed the Action Bus bit there, it was a breeding ground for deadshits!

Ah the good old days of Civic staggering out of the Private Bin at 10am on a Sunday morning. As for those remebering Pandora’s that was the late eighties. Try the Hotel Civic with the Green Door bottle shop and the Cock and Bull around the Northbourne Ave side. If it was really bad you ended up in the Subway in Garema Place.

rescuedg said :

What was going on in the first photo? Both the police car and the van behind it seemed to have smashed windows but no one is around.

The coppers had been dragged out and beaten up. It was a tough town back then.

Classic photos! I used to work at that Woollies as a teenager in the 70s. And The Bin….the less said, the better!! Mullets indeed. And wall to wall footballers and Duntroon cadets. A heady mix indeed…not!

The first pic has been on RiotACT before, and at the time I pointed out that it was taken the day before Australia Day, January 1985. There was a siege in Civic when a young fellow barricaded himself in a gun shop on the top floor in East Row (Civic Bus Interchange) above near where Impact Comics is now. Yes, it seems remarkable that there was a gun shop in the middle of Civic but in those pre-Hoddle St, other mass shootings days and tightened gun laws it was quite easy to buy guns.

During the siege, the young fellow fired a rifle out the window (hence the shattered windows in the cop cars), and was on the phone to 2CC throughout (which had a music format at the time) and demanded the station play nothing but Cliff Richard records.

I remember this well because I was on holiday in Noosa at the time and saw the news reports up there. When I arrived back my mother told me that she and my aunt had been caught up in it.

Thanks Johnboy. Good to see photos of the old joint. I got here in 79. Those piccys of the old cop cars remind me they had a station wagon that used to attend serious prangs. And it had a great round blue light that could telescope upwards quite a few metres , you could see it for miles.

Chop71 said :

ahh The Private Bin ……. It really was the real McCoy

I can remember it being wall to wall mullets on the raised section above the dance floor opposite the DJ booth & there always used to be a black VL Calis parked out the front (early 90’s though).

Jolly Jugs were great at Pandora’s. Pandora’s is now our largest meeting room but its called “In Blue” & the carpet is no longer sticky………….

dpm said :

amaroovian said :

cmdwedge said :

Petrol is 28.9c/L. GOOD GOD.

Ahhh, so that’s where the petrol station was. After the great hailstorm of Feb 2007, everyone working in 10 Mort St was sent home because of the petrol smell/fumes that went through the air conditioning because the basement was completely flooded and the petrol in the soil was apparently seeping out somehow. Old timers told me there had been a petrol station nearby but invariably they argued about whether it was on the actual corner or up around the spot where 14 Mort St is now, roughly next to the old Canberra Times building.

The underground 10 Mort carpark is built basically where the underground petrol tanks were. However, they’d been leaking into nearby soil for years. I believe the ground under the Cinemas on the other side of the road was affected, or believed to be at one point in time….

Yes it was, we watched a bloke for at least three months move dirt around prior to the new ACTEW building being built. Aparrently there were a couple of blokes killed in the basement of the old cinema because of the fumes, they lit an oxy torch or something to do some work down there & BOOM.

Very Busy, correct.

ahh The Private Bin ……. It really was the real McCoy

2.0 said :

OzChick said :

knuckles said :

I remember as a kid, whenever mum took us shopping on Saturday morning, we would have lunch in the public cafeteria in the old Woolies across from the merry-go-round. Always got a pie with chips and a milkshake.

My mum used to take us out to that cafeteria in Kmart at Belconnen Mall. Anyone remember the name of that place? They used to sell jelly with whipped cream.

It was Holleys’ (I think) My parents used to take me there on a weekend too 🙂

You’re right, it was Holly’s, and my husband is often heard to speak of their banana splits in hushed and awed tones. Apparently, he has never tasted their equal in all his travels

Excellent work!

I can’t take credit for these photos, they just came to me in an email, origin unknown.

Sorry JB, I should have actually written something instead of just forwarding you the email!

Now, I’m sure I have some of my own 80’s photos lying around…

amaroovian said :

cmdwedge said :

Petrol is 28.9c/L. GOOD GOD.

Ahhh, so that’s where the petrol station was. After the great hailstorm of Feb 2007, everyone working in 10 Mort St was sent home because of the petrol smell/fumes that went through the air conditioning because the basement was completely flooded and the petrol in the soil was apparently seeping out somehow. Old timers told me there had been a petrol station nearby but invariably they argued about whether it was on the actual corner or up around the spot where 14 Mort St is now, roughly next to the old Canberra Times building.

The underground 10 Mort carpark is built basically where the underground petrol tanks were. However, they’d been leaking into nearby soil for years. I believe the ground under the Cinemas on the other side of the road was affected, or believed to be at one point in time….

There used to be a Coles store next to Prouds with wooden counters running the length of the floor (along with people behind them to serve) and a lolly section up the back.

OzChick said :

knuckles said :

I remember as a kid, whenever mum took us shopping on Saturday morning, we would have lunch in the public cafeteria in the old Woolies across from the merry-go-round. Always got a pie with chips and a milkshake.

My mum used to take us out to that cafeteria in Kmart at Belconnen Mall. Anyone remember the name of that place? They used to sell jelly with whipped cream.

It was Holleys’ (I think) My parents used to take me there on a weekend too 🙂

cmdwedge said :

Petrol is 28.9c/L. GOOD GOD.

Ahhh, so that’s where the petrol station was. After the great hailstorm of Feb 2007, everyone working in 10 Mort St was sent home because of the petrol smell/fumes that went through the air conditioning because the basement was completely flooded and the petrol in the soil was apparently seeping out somehow. Old timers told me there had been a petrol station nearby but invariably they argued about whether it was on the actual corner or up around the spot where 14 Mort St is now, roughly next to the old Canberra Times building.

KB1971 said :

ABC129 said :

cmdwedge said :

Petrol is 28.9c/L. GOOD GOD.

And Leaded!

Correction “super”. There was regular as well in those days

It was actually called “standard”

knuckles said :

I remember as a kid, whenever mum took us shopping on Saturday morning, we would have lunch in the public cafeteria in the old Woolies across from the merry-go-round. Always got a pie with chips and a milkshake.

My mum used to take us out to that cafeteria in Kmart at Belconnen Mall. Anyone remember the name of that place? They used to sell jelly with whipped cream.

audioangel said :

Ah the old Action tower! That was the meeting place for so long! Im too young to remember there being a woolies near the merry go round though!

Yeah! My friends and I used to use that clock as our Civic meeting point. “Meet you at [insert time] under the Civic clock!”

Ah Civic in the 80’s:

Pandora’s (jolly jugs on a Thursday), Knights (all underage drinkers), Jaggers, Mooseheads and the Bin? The Liquid Lounge (or what ever it was called then) where no jeans were allowed?

Hot dogs from the carts out side the nightclubs or chips and gravy from Chicken Gourmet.

When cabbies were all retired public servants and you could actually get one after midnight on a Sat night.

When the merry-go-round was pretty much the same as it is now.

When we all banked at Civic Permanent or the Canberra Building Society.

When the Doug Anthony All-Stars busked each lunchtime near the merry-go-round.

When the Canberra Festival included a big street parade and a sideshow alley on the carpark where Myer now is.

Good times.

ABC129 said :

cmdwedge said :

Petrol is 28.9c/L. GOOD GOD.

And Leaded!

Correction “super”. There was regular as well in those days & you ran whichever fuel compared to the compression ratio of your vehicle. Super was the dear stuff.

I can remember my Dad buying a Tattlotto ticket from a little round stad-alone newsagency (?) shop thing right opposite where Sizzle Bento is now?? Anyone remember one of these in the city?

The reason I remember because you could not get Tatslotto tickets on the Sapphire Coast & it was a novelty to buy them up in Canberra when we used to visit.

I can also remember the first time I came to Canberra, coming down the Monaro Hwy & there being paddocks where Richardson/Chisholm/Gilmour is today. The next visit it was full of roads & within a year it was built out.

That was when it used to take 4 hours to drive to Canberra in the truck as the roads were so bad & the trains used to run to Bombala.

Some of those pics look more 70?s than 80?s, especially the Civic Cinemas one,/i>

Agreed. That one looks late 70s going on the clothes and hairstyles. Although it could be very early 80s.

I remember Prouds but can’t recall what they actually sold.

The same thing they sell now, jewellery

I remember as a kid, whenever mum took us shopping on Saturday morning, we would have lunch in the public cafeteria in the old Woolies across from the merry-go-round. Always got a pie with chips and a milkshake.

cmdwedge said :

Petrol is 28.9c/L. GOOD GOD.

And Leaded!

Petrol is 28.9c/L. GOOD GOD.

Some of those pics look more 70’s than 80’s, especially the Civic Cinemas one.

I’ve seen these pics before somewhere – maybe the NLA website?

Gantz said :

What is the story behind the Cop cars with the looks to be shot out windows?

Someone was gipped on their bus ticket………..

This is great! I’m not old enough to remember these, so it’s really interesting for me to see some of these pictures. Especially the old Action buses…

It would be great if this project could expand somehow. I’m sure some of the other members have some old snaps of Canberra stashed away somewhere. I’ll can harass my folks for some, but I was reared in the Western Creek area, so there won’t be many shots of the city I’m afraid.

The first shot is after the seige in the gun shop that used to be upstairs in the Sydney building. He hung out the window and took pot shots at the coppers for an afternoon…was quite exciting for Canberra in the early 80’s.

Hmmm, the ‘new’ Civic actually looks more sterile than in the 80’s. Kinda sad indication of progress really.
I like the pertrol price in teh background! Is that 28.9? Sigh… Those were the days!

Five stars to Threepaws, thanks for sending these in.

Ah the old Action tower! That was the meeting place for so long! Im too young to remember there being a woolies near the merry go round though!

Awesome work! id love to see more comparison pics. Especially around the newly redeveloped civic

Gantz said :

What is the story behind the Cop cars with the looks to be shot out windows?

City siege in 87 or 88 from memory

What was going on in the first photo? Both the police car and the van behind it seemed to have smashed windows but no one is around.

What is the story behind the Cop cars with the looks to be shot out windows?

Good work – but Im not going to thank you for making me feel old! =D
Should be a great project for someone if they have 80’s and 70’s photos and matching them up with today.

Thanks. I remember the ACTION control tower and the Woolies near the merry-go-round too.