SYDNEYSIDE WITH JANET PARR ‘Bludgers, layabouts and rugged conformists’

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33775, 22 February 1975, Page 6

SYDNEYSIDE WITH JANET PARR ‘Bludgers, layabouts and rugged conformists ’

r Apparently there is nothing very new about people taking everything - off at Lady Jane’s Bay just above South Head. Back in the 1830 s when Sydney took to dipping iwre than its toes in the water everybody swam nude. Bathing dresses came later.

But under an act of 1833; bathers wfa.re not allowed in the water (between six in the; morning and eight at night. I jit was nearly 70 years be-j [fore someone — the editor! of a Manly newspaper as a matter of fafct — challenged the act. and dived in at noon. He was not prosecuted, but nude barriers in Sydney land further ijurrth have been I lately and will] be. Apparently the neighbours did not like what wpjit on at Lady Jane’s — then: just Lady’s — back in the (nineteenth century, and they still do not. But there ai;e other things, that can be stripped off; apart from tbltse fragments j I of fabric that make the! 'difference between the de-! [cent and indecent — illu-j isions for instance. And; i sometimes people are not! given the choice of whether! they want to shed them or! not. Now the good “Strinej comeback” to those people; with the missionary instinct who like to offer Australians'

s;a word or two of construe-, ij live criticism is “Well-1 J ifyerdoanlike it whydonchergoorrie?” Mr Graham Turner I ■jspent a month here and hasj -; gone back to his job as; ■ jeconomics writer and author! [•■in Britain. “RUGGED CONFORMIST” So it was from there that 1 , he offered Sydney his opini ion, as part of their Sunday i reading, that Australia is a nation of bludgers and layabouts who have replaced “the work ethic with the; - shirk ethic” taking “sickies” . sick or not. Fanatical about sport, they drive ' 4 >eir child-[ ;!ren into it, willing or not. : [ Lacking individualism they i i have become a nation of : i “rugged conformists.” More .'was to follow — structures ..on politics and economics, I' both, alas, sadly misi managed, and culture with ■(Australia’s stance in the ■! world “halfway between' [Manchester and Rangoon.” You could, admittedly,, qturn elsewhere on the Sun-1 I day pages and find a gentler; 1 picture of Australians as■

- drawn by the head of a sur-i [ vey company, who packaged last year’s surveys into a ■ neat bundle for a gathering ;!<rf mathematicians. ;; And that revealed that! ■; Australians, generally, seemj to spend a lot of their time] watching television and sport. A lot of them drive cars. Half the men use after- ■ shave. Just over a third of Aus-! 1 tralians smoke cigarettes, ■ just over half drink milk. I More like lemonade than' i; cola, just over a quarter 'j never go to the cinema. They do not earn all that [much, really, but spend . quite a lot comparatively on food and groceries. (Was; f Mrs Eason listening?) They' > like still wines better than, ; sparkling wines and beer , better than either. VARIATIONS 1 They vary a little from '[state to state. West Austra-i '! lians seem to like music and, gardening more than , j Queenslanders but travel! -! interstate less than Victor- j •pans. ' There was more, of

,course, and in its own way it’ .(did seem to have some points 'in common with that other ' picture of the Australian con- ; formist making two shillings do the work of one. I So what was there left to be proud of on gloomy Sun- ! day? Well, the girls, of course. [Go along to any beach —i [never mind Lady Jane’s be,'cause the police were probit ably there, uniforms and ail, , taking a hard look at anybody who might, have gone to take a look. But there were plenty of “beauts” to be seen in bikinis anywhere, ’ those lovely, lissom, long [ legged, Australian girls ... But that, it seems, was . I yesterday. After four years t;of weighing and measuring j; the South Australian Fitness i Research Training Institute ;[has come up with the news 'that Australian girls are fat-! liter than they were. They are -'fatter than girls in Canada and the U.S.A. And by the time they are middle-aged' .they are going to be fatter[ ‘ than their nwtners at the; ['same age. [ When you cannot win you j jmight as well give up. ! J •