Ever get misty eyed about the ’70s and ’80s in Australia?
Those were the days: munching on Chiko rolls, riding in Kingswoods and reading that rather risqué Puberty Blues novel. It was a time of surf culture, good times and hip fashion.
If you would love to go back to that time, you can do so with a rather delightful selection of home videos on a YouTube channel called ramdarook.
The man behind it all is Australian man Ross Myers, a retiree who now lives on the Gold Coast, but grew up in the coastal Sydney beach suburb of Cronulla. Shooting film was a hobby for Myers, something he did while selling photographic equipment and moonlighting as a wedding photographer.
“I was always interested in technology, so I’d always go in the city to film some sort of time lapse,” Myers told Mashable Australia. Capturing street scenes was also an opportunity for him to test out newly released cameras at the pharmacy he worked at.
“I used to get all the new equipment and test it out. If I liked it, I would buy it for myself,” Myers laughed.
Often shooting on his trusty Canon or Nizo Super 8 film camera, Myers’ home videos capture a less built-up Sydney, before the building of apartment towers and chintzy new developments that are now ubiquitous in these areas.
Surfing features aplenty in Myers’ videos, with early icons such as Australian surfer Jim Banks, who was a Cronulla local, making an appearance. However, it is the once humble surrounds of the area that evokes plenty of memories for Myers.
“I was born in Cronulla, as was my father — so I’m always interested in historical photographs [of the area],” Myers said. “I went around Cronulla with my 35mm camera and took pictures of the old houses. A lot of them are gone now.”
Myers still has around two to three hours of footage that is yet to be digitised. “Thank goodness I didn’t throw them out, I know that happens to a lot of films,” he said. We’re certainly thankful too.
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