(uplifting music) (narrator) This is the story of Australia transformed into color for the first time.

From the early 20th century, as the moving image is born, Australia unifies as a nation.

A unique social experiment is captured as never before.

In vivid, moving archive, a new generation of pioneers puts Australia on the world map.

A land home to ancient cultures swiftly becomes a colonial outpost.

(woman) I don't think at all that they should allow colored races into Australia.

(narrator) It soon transforms into a multi-cultural melting pot.

(man) Great Britain has declared war.

Australia is also at war.

(narrator) There are hardships... ♪ ...and triumphs, as the country finds its feet, establishing its own unique identity.

(woman) The eyes of the world are on Australia.

(narrator) But behind the celebrations, there's a hidden story of a fledgling nation whitewashing its past.

Land rights isn't a word, it's a living!

♪ (narrator) Modern Australia's history, once only black and white, can now be seen for the first time in glorious color.

(cheering) ♪ (heartwarming music) ♪ August 15th, 1945, World War II is over, and peace is declared.

♪ The biggest crowds in the nation's history spill onto the streets.

♪ Six years of sacrifice is at an end.

♪ Almost one million Australians have served in the war as part of the British Empire.

♪ While the nation celebrates victory, it also reflects on the cost.

(man) A nation bows in silent homage before those who gave their lives that we might live in peace and security.

We shall remember them.

(narrator) 27,000 Australians have been killed in action, and almost as many wounded.

After five years away fighting, Australian troops return home.

The men on this ship fought across North Africa, the Middle East, and New Guinea.

Some also fought in Borneo, where many were captured by the Japanese and kept in brutal prisoner of war camps.

(somber music) ♪ The most infamous was Changi in Singapore, where this cinema newsreel was filmed at the end of the war.

♪ Of the 22,000 Australians taken prisoner by the Japanese, 8,000--almost one in three-- died from starvation, disease, and torture.

♪ This home movie stars former prisoner of war, George Sprod, and is filmed by his brother John.

(cheerful music) They recreate the moment George comes home and greets his mum.

♪ George endured three and a half years in Changi and also survived Burma's Death Railway.

♪ These drawings of his time in the camps were the start of an illustrious career as a satirical cartoonist.

♪ Miraculously, all three Sprod brothers have survived the war, so has their brother-in-law, seen here greeting his wife, and meeting his daughter for the first time.

♪ The boys are home just in time for Christmas.

And for the first time in six years, many families have something to celebrate.

♪ (lively music) ♪ Service men and women return to civilian life, but the country they come home to has changed.

Australia's allegiances are shifting away from Britain and towards America.

♪ But an even greater shift is about to transform the fabric of society.

♪ (upbeat music) ♪ To survive and prosper, Australia needs more people.

♪ The land is vast, the size of Europe, but has a relatively small population of only seven million.

The war exposed just how vulnerable the country is to invasion.

♪ The government believes it must populate or perish, and decides immigration is the answer.

♪ (Arthur) Commonwealth government is determined that its migration plan shall succeed.

(narrator) The Labor Party's Arthur Calwell, Australia's first immigration minister, launches the largest migration scheme in the nation's history.

(energetic music) ♪ In 1945, Australians are still British subjects, and the country's strict immigration laws enshrined in its White Australia policy favor Britons above all others.

♪ (spirited music) ♪ (man) The liner Orion, on her first peacetime voyage, brings a party of British tradesmen to help the commonwealth rebuilding program.

The boys are met by the Minister of Immigration and Information, the honorable A.

A. Calwell, who points out Sydney's view.

(narrator) Calwell promises that for every mainland European migrant, ten will still be British, and provides cheap passage, the "Ten-Pound Pom" scheme, to encourage them to migrate.

(Arthur) You're very welcome, as new Australians.

We want hundreds of thousands of men like you, and we want many, many thousands of young women too.

(anxious music) (narrator) But with post-war Europe in chaos, it won't only be Britons who come.

(man) All types from a dozen European countries clutter the ship's side for the glimpse of the country which is to be their home.

(narrator) The government agrees to take in tens of thousands of displaced people, Jewish Holocaust survivors, and refugees from Southern Europe.

♪ But this group's arrival in April 1947, captured on newsreel, exposes a deep-seated fear of foreigners.

(man) Minister of Information and Immigration, Mr. Calwell, has been the target for strong press criticism in this immigration venture.

With thousands of higher-living nationals awaiting entrance, English, Nordic types, and Americans, who can offer this country ideas and culture, it is little wonder that this project has been the center of a bitter controversy.

(narrator) Although they will keep coming, the government, possibly realizing its plunder, directs the spotlight to a ship carrying migrants carefully selected from the Baltic states in Europe's north.

(hopeful music) ♪ Young, blonde, and blue-eyed, they are dubbed "the beautiful Balts."

(cheering) (man) All of fine type, healthy and under 35, they're what this country needs.

(woman) Australia has given us the opportunity to start life anew.

We hope you will like us.

Look, a laughing kookaburra!

He likes us!

(bird calling) (narrator) Most migrants spend their first months in training camps.

At least half come to Bonegilla, a former army barracks near Albury in Victoria.

(teacher) There are more seeds in this second glass.

(class in unison) There are more seeds in the second glass.

(narrator) Over the coming decades, migrants will play a key role in Australia's future.

(animals bleating) But in these early days, to overcome prejudice, the government produces films like this one to screen in cinemas.

(whimsical music) (woman) Yes, please?

(speaking foreign language) Huh?

(woman) Oh, foreigners.

(narrator) This film captures a country in the act of reinventing itself.

-Yes.

-Ja, thank you.

(woman) You think they'd learn to talk English, -wouldn't you?

-Yeah.

(man) I don't know why they have to come out here anyway!

(disembodied voice) You don't know why they have to come here?

Well, they don't have to.

This happens to be one place that really needs them!

(narrator) One venture that desperately needs their labor is the biggest civil engineering project in Australia's history.

(inspirational music) ♪ Work begins on the Snowy Mountains Hydroelectric Scheme in 1949.

(water rushing) ♪ Two-thirds of its 100,000-strong workforce will be migrants from more than 30 countries around the world.

♪ Wartime enemies put hostilities aside in their new homeland, working shifts day and night.

♪ But still, the Snowy Hydro takes 25 years to complete.

Its network of tunnels, dams, and power stations will provide electricity for industry, and water for irrigation.

(water rushing) Beyond the story of its construction, the migrants settle in and begin to transform Australia.

♪ (laughing) ♪ In early 1949, Australia takes a significant step in further loosening its ties with Britain.

(man) Today, for the first time, certificates of Australian citizenship are presented.

Previously, all Australians were British subjects.

(narrator) Migrants are also offered citizenship and a stake in the country's future.

(man) Repeating after me: and that I will faithfully observe... And that I will faithfully observe... -...the laws of Australia... -...the laws of Australia... -...and fulfill my duties... -...and fulfill my duties... -...as an Australian citizen.

-...as an Australian citizen.

(narrator) The introduction of Australian citizenship is another milestone in the nation's growth.

(applause) (somber music) Indigenous Australians are also offered citizenship in their own country.

But often, under state law, this is only granted if they give up their language, culture, and ties to their communities.

Most Aboriginal people still live under a type of apartheid, as seen in this photo taken at the Sun Pictures Cinema in Broome.

♪ In some towns, they can't enter hotels or dance halls, and most aspects of their lives are controlled by the state.

♪ In the 1950s, Australia's policy of removing so-called "half-caste" children from their families reaches a new peak.

On average, one in six children is taken in what becomes known as the "stolen generations."

♪ (man) Mr. and Mrs. Deutsche had adopted three Aborigines to bring up with their own three children, and now they live in a 15-room mansion.

Mr. Deutsche says he believes it's possible to integrate Aboriginals into white families.

(narrator) Newsreels like this propagate the myth that it is for the children's ' own good.

(man) Sleep tight, children, because you know that dreams do come true, don't you?

(children murmuring) Would you like me to sing to you?

(children in unison) Yes!

(Harold) ♪ When the happy yes falters from her lips ♪ ♪ Pass and blush the news over glowing ships ♪ (narrator) Indigenous opera singer, Harold Blair, was separated from his mother as a toddler and raised by missionaries.

A born entertainer, his talent enabled him to leave the cane fields of Northern Queensland and pursue his passion for music.

(holding out note) (applause) While studying music at Melbourne's Conservatorium, he meets and marries fellow student, Dorothy Eden, a mixed-race marriage that captures much attention.

(Harold) ♪ Movin' in my heart I will pray ♪ (Harold and children) ♪ Every time I feel the Spirit movin' in my heart ♪ ♪ I will pray ♪ (Harold) Yes, sir!

(narrator) Blair is one of the few indigenous Australians lauded by white society, here, and in the United States, where he's invited to further his studies.

(Harold) ♪ The sun shines bright--♪ (narrator) Inspired by the American Civil Rights movement, he uses his voice back home to agitate for Aboriginal rights.

I inherited what voice I have from my mother.

And as a child, I sang at bush concerts.

And now, I would like to feel that I am acting as an envoy for my people to prove that we can take our place in the world of culture.

(upbeat music) ♪ (narrator) But Aboriginal assimilation is far from the minds of most Australians in the mid-20th century.

♪ For the majority, it's a time of peace and prosperity, conservatism and conformity.

The Liberal Party's Robert Menzies is elected prime minister in 1949.

You have given us not only an enormous majority, but an enormous task.

(inspirational music) ♪ (narrator) At the start of the '50s, Australia is still riding the sheep's back.

The golden fleece is the main export, and agriculture's share of the economy is beginning to decline.

♪ Migrant labor, raw materials, and technical advances all contribute to manufacturing growth.

♪ (man) At this car manufacturing plant Geelong, Victoria, thousands of Australians and new Australians combine their skills in industry using nine million pounds worth of raw materials annually.

♪ (narrator) The Holden FX is the first Australian-made car to roll off the assembly line.

♪ Specially designed by General Motors in the United States, it's an instant success when unveiled in Melbourne in 1948.

(applause) (man) This is the car for you, the one car designed and built for Australia.

Holden, Australia's own car.

(narrator) The first Holden costs over £700, almost two years wages for the average worker... ...but that doesn't curb demand.

By the end of the 1950s, half of all new cars on Australian roads are Holdens.

(intriguing music) It's an era of full employment, and the time-honored tradition of rushing to the pub before early closing for the 6:00 swill.

♪ It's a male thing.

Women cannot drink in public bars for another 20 years.

(crowd murmuring) ♪ Men have taken back many of the jobs women did during the war.

Women who stay in the workforce are relegated to lower-status positions, or paid less for doing the same work.

They earn only two-thirds of what men do.

♪ Women are encouraged to stay at home, have children, and care for their families.

A post-war baby boom sees a spike in births.

♪ On average, women are now having three babies, compared to two in the previous decade.

This fuels demand for bigger and better homes.

But there's an acute housing shortage with thousands living in substandard homes, as seen here in inner-city Sydney.

To help solve the housing shortage, the government sponsors various home loan schemes.

(man) Here is home, in the true sense, with all that magic word conveys.

(narrator) The Australian dream of owning your own home on a quarter-acre block is born.

♪ The building boom transforms Australia into one of the most suburbanized countries in the world.

♪ The mood is optimistic, but a new shadow looms on the horizon.

♪ (ominous music) ♪ 1950s Australia is an era of Cold War uncertainty.

(man) Today, five-sixths of Europe and Asia are under the iron heel of communism.

(narrator) Fear of a new global threat is fanned by anti-communist propaganda.

(marching) (man) Today in Australia, reds openly preach their gospel, flout our laws, and form a growing menace to the future of this country.

(chaotic music) Does that disturb you?

It should.

(narrator) The rhetoric is fueled by the perceived menace moving ever-closer to Australia's north.

(man) Active communist fighting fronts have been opened up in Indo-China, Malaya, and the Philippines.

One of the biggest prizes of all, Australia.

Be assured, they will not remain indifferent to the wealth this country can provide.

(narrator) In June 1950, at the height of Cold War paranoia, democratic South Korea is suddenly invaded by the communist North.

(somber music) (man) This is war in its most terrible form, civil war, when brother fights brother, and father fights son.

(cheering) (narrator) Australia rapidly commits forces to fight the spread of communism, joining its new ally, America.

(cheering) ♪ Volunteers eagerly enlist, many are World War II veterans who only returned home five years ago.

♪ It's the first time the country goes to war as an independent nation and not under Britain.

♪ (man) Thousands of miles from their homelands, the diggers come ashore.

The Aussies sang "Waltzing Matilda" through two wars.

They'll sing it again as they march through Korea.

(men in unison) ♪ Waltzing Matilda, with me ♪ ♪ Waltzing Matilda ♪ ♪ Waltzing Matilda ♪ (narrator) 17,000 Australians fight in the Korean war as part of the United Nations security force under American command.

(explosions) After three years, and high causalities on both sides, hostilities cease in 1953.

♪ (dramatic music) ♪ (man) Federal Parliament House Canberra is the scene of a world sensation.

(narrator) But the Cold War continues and comes to Australia's front door in 1954 when Soviet diplomat, Vladimir Petrov, defects.

His promise to expose a major spy ring puts the country at the center of an international espionage scandal.

(sober music) Petrov is taken to a safe house.

His wife isn't so lucky and is snatched by Soviet agents.

(man) Sensational scenes are witnessed at Kingsford Smith Airport, Sydney, as Mrs. Petrov is about to begin her journey back to Russia.

(narrator) This newsreel, seen in color for the first time, captures the chaos as anti-communist protestors try to stop the abduction.

(man) It is a wild scramble now, with men and women endeavoring to snatch Mrs. Petrov from her guards.

(crowd shouting) ♪ She looks back for one instant, as if beseeching help, and is then forced further up the gangway.

(crowd screaming) ♪ Before she can enter the plane, however, the crowd pulls the gangway from the aircraft.

♪ Mrs. Petrov's shoe, lost in the struggle, is secured by a bystander.

(narrator) Minus her shoe, Mrs. Petrov is bundled aboard.

♪ In a dramatic conclusion, she is rescued by customs officials hours later when the plane refuels in Darwin.

♪ The Petrov affair dominates headlines for months, but an inquiry finds no evidence of aspiring, and no one is ever charged.

♪ The Petrovs, seen here with security agents in a safe house, are given new names and live in obscurity in Melbourne for the rest of their lives.

♪ (flag ruffling) On February 6th, 1952, the nation is shocked by news of another kind.

(bell ringing) King George VI has died, and Australians unite in their grief.

(man) Tens of millions of children throughout the British commonwealth sorrow at the passing of a well-loved king.

In a school near Sydney, a simple, touching ceremony symbolizes their faith and their love.

(narrator) His young daughter, 26-year-old Princess Elizabeth, is crowned queen.

(man) God bless Elizabeth.

Long may she reign.

(stately music) (cheering) (narrator) In 1954, Queen Elizabeth II is the first reigning monarch to set foot on Australian soil.

(people murmuring) (Queen Elizabeth) It is, therefore, a joy for me today to address you not as a queen from far away, but as your queen.

(narrator) Her visit rekindles passion for the monarchy.

(regal music) Three-quarters of Australia's population of nine million turns out to catch a glimpse.

(Queen Elizabeth) This is the beginning of a journey which will take me from one side of this continent to the other.

It is my honest hope that during the few months of my visit I shall get to know you well and learn something of your achievements and your problems.

(narrator) The royal party sweeps through 57 cities and towns in 58 days.

♪ The visit is part of a six-month tour of commonwealth nations to shore up support for the fading British Empire.

♪ Australia proudly puts its best foot forward.

(man) 40,000 people share the thrills of the carnival with Her Majesty.

♪ (narrator) The outpouring of devotion shows how loyal most Australians remain to the crown and their British heritage, despite the population becoming more ethnically diverse.

♪ By 1950, nearly 400,000 migrants have arrived on Australian shores, and over half are from mainland Europe.

The new Australians are expected to assimilate.

(man) It takes courage to settle in a new country, learn new customs, new traditions.

(calm music) (narrator) To be fully accepted, they must forget their past, learn to speak English, and blend into the Australian way of life.

♪ This government-produced drama, No Strangers Here, demonstrates these expectations.

(man) Over there in the distance, Christina, is the sea.

And over here, stretching far beyond the horizon, is the Australian bush, and that glorious feeling of being free.

Was it like that where you come from?

(romantic music) ♪ (Christina) I can't remember much about my country, but it is beautiful here.

I like it!

I like your country.

(man) Our country, Christina?

(Christina) Our country.

♪ (inspirational music) (narrator) As migrants from Europe start to outnumber those from Britain, their influence becomes more evident.

♪ In 1955, the Italians and Greeks alone make up almost one-third of new arrivals.

♪ Many head to far North Queensland, where a thriving Italian community has found the region since the late 19th century.

♪ They play a major role in the rapid growth of the lucrative sugar cane industry.

♪ Greek migrants tend to go south to Melbourne, where factories are booming and jobs aplenty.

♪ They open the first milk bars and introduce Australia to the American milkshake.

Soon, Melbourne will have the largest Greek population of any city in the world outside Greece.

♪ In Canberra, Greek migrant, Emmanuel Gerakiteys, films the opening of his Blue Moon Café.

♪ It's one of the few dining establishments in the city, and it's stocked with a smorgasbord of foreign delicacies, soon commonplace in Australia.

♪ (care-free music) ♪ European-style eateries spring up across the country.

♪ In the summer of 1958, the first sidewalk café opens in Melbourne's Collins Street.

♪ The authorities try to close it down, but the idea of sidewalk eating takes hold.

♪ From the sidewalks to the suburbs, migrants are making their mark on all facets of life.

(soft jazz music) In 1950, Austrian-born architect, Harry Seidler, builds a radical new style of house for his migrant parents in Sydney.

♪ Its minimalist design becomes a modernist prototype.

♪ Migrants are having a major impact on Australia's cultural scene.

One of Australia's most-acclaimed painters of the era is a Hungarian Holocaust survivor.

(man) Judy Cassab of New South Wales wins second prize of £500 with this portrait of Judy Barraclough.

Two Judys combined to produce real Australian art.

(narrator) Judy Cassab will go on to win many prizes, including the coveted Archibald, twice, breaking through the glass ceiling for female artists around the country.

(calm music) ♪ (tense music) But not everyone is welcome to make a new life here.

Asians are still excluded by the White Australia policy.

♪ After World War II, over 5,000 refugees, given temporary sanctuary in Australia from the Japanese, are repatriated.

(man) Police seized, and none too gently, all who refused to board the ship.

(narrator) Some are forcibly crammed into overcrowded ships and sent back to an uncertain future.

♪ But one woman makes a courageous stand and takes on the government in a desperate bid to keep her family together.

♪ In 1949, at Bonbeach, Victoria, Indonesian mother, Annie O'Keefe, is about to make legal history by challenging the White Australia policy.

(passionate music) She and her children were given refuge in Australia during World War II.

♪ Annie has since remarried to Australian, John O'Keefe.

But now the war is over, she and her children are being forced to leave.

♪ Widespread coverage of her plight attracts public support, and she takes her fight to the high court.

♪ In a landmark ruling, she wins.

She and her children can remain in Australia.

But the Labor government brings in new laws making it even harder for others like Annie to stay.

♪ The White Australia policy also affects Australians stationed in Japan after the war.

These servicemen are part of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force overseeing Japan's demilitarization.

(intriguing music) ♪ The men are told not to fraternize with their former enemy, but local romances blossom, some into marriage.

♪ A nation, still bitter over Japan's wartime atrocities, refuses to allow the brides into Australia until July 1952, when this plane from Tokyo lands at Melbourne Airport.

♪ Cherry Parker is the first Japanese bride permitted entry.

She arrives with her husband John and their two children.

♪ The government has granted her case special merit and will soon allow another 400 brides into the country.

♪ But it will be another 20 years before the White Australia policy is finally abolished.

♪ (somber music) The divisions in society are nowhere more apparent than in the treatment of Aboriginal Australians.

♪ This film, commissioned by pastoralist J.

A. Kilfoyle, shows day-to-day life on a northern territory cattle station in the 1950s.

♪ The land's traditional owners live on the property, where the women work as domestic servants.

♪ The men are excellent stockmen, and for almost a century, are the backbone of the northern cattle industry.

♪ In the early '50s, beef is one of the nation's most lucrative exports, worth around £14 million annually, half a billion dollars in today's terms.

(whistling) ♪ (mooing) ♪ But instead of wages, many Aboriginal workers still only receive rations, flour, sugar, tea, and second-hand clothes.

♪ The injustice of this system will sew the seeds of the Land Rights revolution in the decade to come.

♪ Australia is a land defined by climatic extremes.

(flames crackling) ♪ Drought, fire, and flood are part of its natural cycle.

♪ (thunder rumbling) (water rushing) In 1955, the New South Wales Hunter Valley experiences nature's fury when torrential rains cause catastrophe.

♪ (man) Crews of the mercy planes come down low over Maitland to see where aid is needed most, and the full extent of the wreckage and devastation is revealed.

(narrator) An inland sea inundates an area bigger than England.

♪ (man) The rescuer and the rescued.

For, if floods bring tragedy, they also highlight the Australian's courage and tenacity.

♪ (narrator) Captured on newsreel, it is the first major natural disaster in Australia that is broadcast to the world.

♪ (mud slopping) ♪ (lively music) The country's hostile landscape is also the focus of an event that attracts global interest.

♪ (man) This character apparently thinks he can do the trip on his head.

He must have some secret control all of his own.

(narrator) For up to 20 grueling days and nights, the Redex Trials sees local and international drivers pit their skills across Australia's toughest terrain.

♪ (man) A grim country that gives no quarter.

Don't get caught out here, driver!

There's no one to help you for 100 miles.

(car rumbling off) ♪ (narrator) Coverage of the rallies, seen here in color for the first time, is screened to audiences across the globe.

(man) The Sydney sound cameraman must move out ahead, for this is world news.

(vocalist) ♪ White lightnin' ♪ (narrator) In ordinary family cars, drivers crisscross the vast continent, blazing a trail for motorists to come.

(man) There's no such thing as insomnia among the Redex drivers.

After what they've been through, they could sleep on broken glass!

They just hit the ground, and they're fast asleep.

♪ (splashing) (man) Look out, cattle ahead!

One mistake, and they're steak.

(car rumbling along) (man) Thirty miles out of Coober Pedy, the opal-mining town, we enter the security area controlling the Woomera Rocket Range.

All cars have been issued with passes, received the okay, and passed on.

(narrator) While rally cars are permitted to travel through this area, the land's traditional owners are not.

(indistinct speaking) The Woomera Range is a prohibited zone in South Australia's northwest.

(car rumbling) Its epicenter is Maralinga, a top-secret military area, where British scientists are preparing to test an atomic bomb.

(sinister music) ♪ In the midst of the Cold War, Britain is developing its own nuclear weapons.

♪ Australia has agreed to provide the testing site and military support.

♪ (explosion) ♪ The traditional owners, the Anangu people, are rounded up and moved, but several tiny nomadic groups remain.

(tank whirring) ♪ Britain's Chief Atomic Scientist, Sir William Penney, personally flies in to allay any fears.

(Sir Penney) Any weapon has to be tested, doesn't matter whether it's a shell or a bullet, it must be tested.

And in this particular test, a low-yield-- low-yield, that means a low explosive pack-- a low yield is being used.

(narrator) To further reassure the public, Penney produces a Geiger counter.

(man) A wristwatch vividly illustrates the radiation that is part of everyday life.

(Sir Penney) That's the sort of radioactivity that you've lived with all your lives.

(narrator) Meteorologists predict desert winds will sweep the atomic fallout away from populated areas, but the forecast proves horribly wrong.

(explosion) ♪ (birds chirping) October 11th, 1956, 3:27 PM.

At Maralinga, in the South Australian desert, an atomic bomb is about to be dropped as part of Britain's nuclear testing program.

(indistinct radio chatter) ♪ (explosion) ♪ A great rising cloud of radioactive dust sweeps, not as predicted away from settled areas, but instead drifts south across the land.

The mushroom shape lasts for an hour.

But even when it has disappeared, radioactive particles remain in the atmosphere, and winds spread the fallout far and wide.

Soldiers and civilians, including indigenous people, will later report radiation sicknesses from rashes, to blindness, and cancer.

(somber music) ♪ Britain conducts a total of seven nuclear tests at Maralinga.

The repercussions continue to this day.

♪ Culturally, Britain's influence over Australia remains strong.

(radio beeping) (Michael) This is the news from the ABC read by Michael Charlton.

Here are the headlines.

(narrator) Radio broadcasters are trained to speak with a distinctive British accent.

Sounding Australian is still considered crude.

(Michael) And Australia will be sending more goods to Britain, as a result of a recent agreement.

(narrator) In the mid-'50s, Australia begins to find its own voice, and it starts with this new play, the Summer of the Seventeenth Doll.

-Stop it, Roo, stop it!

-Keep away from them, Olive!

-You wanna murder him?

-Flaming larrikin!

(narrator) It's a revelation for audiences to hear Australian slang and to see working-class characters on stage.

(Barney) Ha!

Ha!

Ha!

(woman) And what's so funny about that?

(Barney) Ask him, he'll tell ya!

(man) Oh, I think that's up to you, it's your lie, tell her!

(Barney) He never had a bad back!

(narrator) The story of two cane cutters and their city girlfriends is a huge success for author Ray Lawler, seen here in a key role.

(bright music) ♪ The play breaks new ground, and is a symbol of Australia's coming of age.

♪ (coin clinking) Also rebelling against the status quo are Australian teenagers, but they're attracted to all things American.

(rock n' roll music) The arrival of rock n' roll causes a sensation and horrifies parents, as youngsters gyrate around the clock.

♪ Inspired by American music and Hollywood movies, Australian teens adopt their fashions, culture, and language.

♪ I'm a bodgie.

I'm a widgie, so what?

(narrator) But a new medium is about to revolutionize how Australians see themselves and the world.

(man) Good evening, and welcome to television.

(narrator) In 1956, television arrives and quickly becomes the nation's primary form of entertainment.

(dramatic music) News, once only seen at the cinema, is soon beaming into lounge rooms cross the nation.

Sydney's weather began to clear this morning, while householders, business people, and the civic authorities were clearing up the damage left by yesterday's torrential rain.

(man) Roots of a large tree were loosened by water-- (narrator) But making programs proves expensive, and Australians are increasingly exposed to content bought cheaply from America.

(TV narrator) Ladies and gentlemen, the story you are about to see is true.

The names have been changed to protect the innocent.

(narrator) Within a decade, cinema audiences are halved, as watching TV becomes a way of life.

(music on TV) (calm music) By the end of the 1950s, Australia has undergone profound change.

However, the majority of its people are still loyal to Britain and cling to its traditions, despite vastly different climates.

♪ Australia's post-war population has grown from seven to ten million.

(indistinct speaking) But concern over dwindling British migration prompts a new scheme in 1957 launched by laconic film star, Chips Rafferty.

Oh, I'm sorry.

I didn't realize you were here.

I've been wasting time, when I've got a lot of very important things to tell you.

I want to talk to you about immigration, particularly immigration from the United Kingdom.

Today in Britain, there are hundreds of family groups waiting to migrate to Australia who can't as yet make the move because they can't be assured of getting accommodation here.

(narrator) The campaign calls on the community to "Bring out a Briton" by helping them find homes and jobs.

(romantic music) (man) We came here from Britain three years ago.

We are so very happy that we are bringing out another British family to give them the same chance we got.

These are the people we want.

And the more of them, the better.

These are the kids, eager to grow up as proud Australians in this great land of ours.

(narrator) But the reality is one and a half million migrants have arrived in Australia since the end of the Second World War, and two-thirds are not British.

Their children, the baby boomers, will come of age in the swinging '60s, a turbulent decade that will transform Australia and its people.

They will go on to make the country one of the most multi-cultural on Earth and radically alter what it means to be Australian.

(bright music) ♪ (energetic music)