No Television! We didn't get a TV in the house until 1965.

Our entertainment was mostly created by us and our imaginations. We did enjoy listening to the radio in the evening before we went to bed.

Our family had a bakelite valve radio in the kitchen and the children would sit around it and listen intently to "Blue Hills", "The Argonauts" and "Dad and Dave", getting just as involved in the stories as we do over today's television.

My older brother and I were 3 years and more older than the twins and our youngest sister, so were always allowed to stay up later.


Written by Gwen Meredith (1907-2006), "Blue Hills" was an Australian radio serial about the lives of families living in a typical rural Australian location and was set in a town called Tanimbla. "Blue Hills" was the name of the town’s doctor's residence.

"Blue Hills" was broadcast by the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) for 27 years, from 28 February 1949 to 30 September1976. It included a total of 5,795 episodes, and was at one time the world's longest running radio serial. Each segment lasted 30 minutes.

The famous opening theme tune was taken from a short orchestral piece called 'Pastorale' written by Ronald Hanmer. He later re-worked this into a longer orchestral work titled Blue Hills Rhapsody.

Hilda (Nellie Lamport) serves tea to Dr and Mrs Gordon, seated, (Queenie Ashton and Gordon Grimsdale) and Peter Frobisher (Max Osbiston). Australian Broadcasting Commission, 1949.

................................................

The Children's Session, with its "Argonauts Club", ran briefly in Melbourne in 1933-34, and was revived as a national program in 1941. By 1950 there were over 50,000 Club members.

The Club encouraged children's contributions of writing, music, poetry or art and was one of the ABC's most popular children's programs, running six days a week for 28 years, until it was broadcast only on Sundays and was finally discontinued in 1972.

................................................

"Dad and Dave" from Snake Gully first went to air in 1937 and ran for an amazing 16 years. It was created by George Edwards, a radio actor and producer famous for being able to play numerous characters. He was popularly known as 'The Man with a Thousand Voices'. He played Dad until he died in 1953.

The serial was based on Steele Rudd’s book On Our Selection, first published in 1899. The dramatic rights were purchased in 1912 by actor and entrepreneur Bert Bailey who played Dad on stage for almost 20 years, as well as in four films directed by Ken G. Hall in the 1930s.

Australian radio audiences took to the serial with enthusiasm. It achieved extremely high audience ratings, made the mythical Snake Gully a much-discussed place, and had Australians of all ages whistling its theme song, "On the Road to Gundagai".

~ Dad and Dave from Snake Gully. George Edwards, Nell Stirling and Maurice Francis.
(Credit: National Film and Sound Archive)~