Janet Few wrote this blog post recently which was the inspiration for this blog post. Her blog post was entitled My Life in Seven Censuses. Janet lives in the UK and they take a census every ten years. In fact, it is likely that this might be the last census in the UK; the government considering that it can obtain the information it needs through other means. Let's see what happens.
Australia is a bit unique in family history terms in that it has destroyed the censuses it has taken over the years. You can read more about the history of the Australian census here.
I found Janet's blog post fascinating on a number of levels. It was really interesting to see what kind of data the enumerators were asked to collect e.g. what type of heating was in the house, what type of television, how many cars, level of education and so on.
Janet bemoans the lack of information about pets and there's a bit of me that wholeheartedly agrees with her; pets are an important part of the family and presumably the government would like to know how many dogs there are in the neighbourhood so they can have the right number of dog catchers or supply the right number of dog litter bags.
So what can we find out from the Censuses taken in Australia in my lifetime? Did the questions change? Where was I living? How did family or household relationships change? We will have a Census later this year and there's no talk of it being the last.
This is Part 1 of My Life in 12 Censuses. I hope it provides food for thought. I have found it a fascinating exercise.
Friday 30 June 1961
I was only a baby and christened one month later at St Marks Anglican Church a couple of streets away. I've gone through my mother's letters for the time period but can find no mention of the Census. My father is recorded as being an Architect on my baptism certificate. He was occupied at the time with drawing plans for the Hurstville Club (I'm assuming the South Hurstville RSL club but will confirm with Dad). My mother talks about enjoying "the walks with the pram up to the clinic and shops. The old clinic sister's something of a character, but she obviously thinks Alex is the ant's pants." I am pleased to see that the clinic is next to the Library and I hope my mother got to borrow some books while she was there.
In 1961, according to the ABS Census, which you can read here, South Hurstville did not rate a mention in its own right but was rather, part of Hurstville. Hurstville had 16,829 occupied dwellings and 400 unoccupied dwellings. 61,005 people were living in Hurstville, slightly more women than men 30,816 versus 30,189.
The 1961 Census was interested in the following:
- age
- birthplace
- conjugal condition
- industry
- masculinity (I know!) number of males per 100 females. In 1961 it was 101.48 up from 9997 in 1947 and down from 108.7 in 1911.
- population density
- nationality
- occupation
- race
- religion
- occupational status
- and if you weren't working how long and why
As far as dwellings were concerned, they were interested in:
- number of rooms
- material used in outer walls
- rent
- number of inmates
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Alex and Jim at Hurstville
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My father was one of 168 architects in his age group (25-29) working at the time. My mother was one of 82,345 women in her age group (25-29) who would have listed Home Duties as their occupation.
One of the more confronting aspects of the recording of this census is that every table has the following written under the heading "exclusive of full-blood Aboriginals".
Wikipedia advises: "When the Federation of Australia occurred in 1901, the new Constitution
contained a provision (section 127), which said: "In reckoning the
numbers of the people of the Commonwealth, or of a State or other part
of the Commonwealth, aboriginal natives shall not be counted."
In terms of dwellings, the average number of rooms per dwelling was 5. Most people lived in a private house, but I was shocked to see that over 19,000 still lived in a shed or a hut. The average number of people living in a house was 3.66 in urban areas of NSW. Most urban homes had outer walls of brick but there was still a high proportion of those made from fibro-cement or timber. There was one made from calico,canvas or hessian! Average weekly rent (unfurnished) was 34 shillings and 9 pence. Flats were more expensive. Most homes in urban areas had gas and electricity and a television set.
Thursday 30 June 1966
We are now living at 22 Elliott Street Campbell in Canberra, A.C.T.. If you relied just on the Census to research my family history you would miss our trip to Europe living in Edinburgh for a couple of years while my father studied for his PhD and that we also lived in Melbourne as well as Sydney on our return. A lot can happen in five years!
My mother's letters make no mention of the Census again. She writes to her father in Sydney and talks about a recent birthday party for me. "It is almost traditional it seems that the parties must consist of chips, sausage rolls, cocktail frankfurts, lots of tomato sauce, bread with hundreds and thousands on, chocolate crackles, meringues, gallons to drink, sweets and a birthday cake." She talks about ice-cream being in a can. Plastic seems everywhere these days. I'd forgotten or don't even remember icecream being in a can. My mother enclosed an open ticket for my grandfather to fly down to Canberra from Sydney with TAA or Trans Australian Airlines, which no longer exists. It cost all of ten dollars. She warned him that it would be very cold but that my father could lend him some woolen underwear from Edinburgh.
I still have that black kettle you can see in the photo and probably those records too on the right hand side of the fireplace. Oh yes, and the dining table and chairs.
In the five years since the previous census, the Australian Capital Territory's population had nearly doubled up to 96,000 from 58,000. Most of this population lived in Canberra; the urban center. There were slightly more men than women living there. Nearly 50% of the population was under the age of 21. Less than 3% of the population was aged over 65. It was a young city in many ways. 73% of the population were born in Australia so it wasn't a very culturally diverse population at first glance. Significant ethnic segments were Italian, German, Yugoslav and Dutch. 13% of the population worked in building and construction and 31% for a public authority or Defence. Most people living in a house had at least one car and some had 2 cars. Most homes operated on electricity only. Very few had gas. Nearly every home had a television set. 80% of the population lived in private houses and most of those were built of brick. The average number of rooms per dwelling was 5 and the average number of occupants was 4. Rent for an unfurnished house seemed to range from $6-$12 per week.
I don't think we had any pets at this stage.
Wednesday 30 June 1971
According to this Wikipedia article here,
"Following the 1967 referendum removing section 127 from the Constitution, the "race" question was re-designed for the 1971 census and methods for remote area collection examined to improve identification of Indigenous Australian groups.[13]
There were 12,755,638 people counted"
But we were not counted as we were visiting the UK again. At that time we were in fact in London according to an aerogramme from my mother.
By now we have two cats Tilly and Yum Yum. My grandmother has a cat called Kit who we eventually adopted when she moved to Manuka. Gran looked after the cats for us while we were overseas.
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Ethel Conner (nee Carrett) holding Kit, me holding Tilly and Barbara Conner (nee McLoughin) holding Yum Yum the day we left for the UK.
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Wednesday 30 June 1976
According to Wikipedia...
"The 1976 census was the largest undertaken to date, with 53 questions. Due to budgetary restraints, the ABS was not able to complete normal processing of the data and a 50% sample was processed.[13] There were 13,548,450 people counted"
But not for long. These were turbulent years. My aunt died earlier in the year - the first person close to me to die. I was completing my School Certificate. My mother was studying English, Roman Civilization, Medieval Studies and History at ANU and my father was contemplating a change of career. By September my parents had moved to Sydney and I was boarding for the last term of school.
I'm not completely confident that this photo is from 1976 but it is as close as we will get.
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Me in gateway of 3 Nungara Street
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You can see the actual census form right at the end of this document here.The quality of the print outs of the statistical information is very poor for 1976. The population is now 197,623 compared with the 96,000 when we arrived ten years before. More than doubled. We're starting to collect information about whether people are from a non-English speaking background and we're starting to see evidence of Asian migration. 11% of the population speak English and one other language.The Catholics have now overtaken the Anglicans as the major religion. 15% of the population has a Diploma or higher educational qualification. 67.6% of the labour force is aged 15-39. 65% of families had an annual income of $9-$18k per annum. This census wanted to know what kind of toilets we had and what kind of heating fuel we used. The most common rent was between $30-$39 per week. Mortgages were mostly sitting at between $25 and $74 per month. Most people traveled to work by car as the driver (64%) with nearly 13% as a passenger. 8% caught the bus.
We had three cats now - Tilly, Kit and Yum Yum.
Tuesday 30 June 1981
Now I must confess I'm not entirely sure where I was living at this time. I think I was living at 43 Rose Street Chippendale in Sydney. I was a Uni student, repeating my second year of an Arts/Law Degree at Sydney Uni. I'd left home and was renting. I was working as a waitress whenever I could. I have no memory of the census at all. My diary is a mess at the time. I may have even left Uni by this stage and started working for Dymocks bookshop. It's all a bit of a haze.
My mother was working casually at David Jones in George Street. I have a payslip for her dated 20th June. She worked 28.5 hours at ordinary time and 6 hours at overtime making the grand total of $140.35 for the week. My father was teaching at Sydney University.
Most of us were paying $40-$70 per week rent. I found a note saying "pay rent $90" in my diary but that may have been for a month. I was one of 16,525 women working as waiters or bartenders. I was one of 6% who usually walked to work or the 9% who caught a bus. My age group made up the largest percentage of the workforce at the time 14.7%.
My diary note on the day says Stocktaking. Sick. To Judith's. Who knows where I was? In bed sick when the census caller came or at Judith's flat in Balmain. I doubt we would have heard the census caller come if they did.
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Alex feeding Daisi at the dinner table in Chippendale. Nickolai in the background.
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Pets - I was sharing a house with Alan and he had two German Shepherds: Daisi and Amy. Our letters came through a slot in the front door. It was a brave postie who shoved them in with Daisi waiting on the other side! Later I adopted a cat we found wandering the street. We christened it Wozzi because we weren't sure whether he was or wasn't.
Monday 30 June 1986
This census now finds us in Brisbane, Queensland. 31 Equinox Street Taringa. Robert and I had been engaged for two years and just bought our first home for $60,000. We moved in 16th May so had been there for about a month. We rented a number of homes before this one. One in Rosalie and one in Chelmer.
The 1986 Census is aggravating to look at online as the information is presented sideways. It tells me that there were 4,968 people living in Taringa at the time, slightly more than the last time the Census was taken. There were 2,210 private dwellings, a growth of 11% since the last Census. This Census included an Ancestry question. Of the 1,076,309 counted in the Census, 823,058 claimed English ancestry, 527,509 Australian ancestry, 55,057 Irish ancestry and 43,901 German ancestry. A significant proportion of the population had left school aged 13 or younger - 11%.
I was in full-time employment and studying part-time at night. I graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (finally) a couple of years later from UQ. I was working at the ABC as a Producer's Assistant in News. My diary is full of cryptic code saying T or Q8. I was either calling the items on the rundown at the desk in the studio (the Transmission shift) or generating the subtitles on the Quantafont character generator at the back of the studio (the Q8 shift).
My 82 year old grandmother was living with my parents, recovering from bowel cancer surgery. She moved into a retirement village shortly after.
In my diary for 30th June I have written - To O'Reilly's via Duck Creek Road. I reckon I may have gone out with Loani and Ben and Greg for the day to O'Reillys for a drive. I seemed to have had a long weekend that weekend and we were probably celebrating Loani's birthday. There is no record of the Census in my diary and I certainly don't remember it. I joined the Queensland Family History Society the year before so you would think I was starting to become conscious of these things!
Pets? I had a cat called Wozzi who I brought up to Brisbane from Sydney. He died later in the year and I was heartbroken. He was my last link with Sydney.
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Alex and Ben at O'Reilly's Lookout
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Wozzi and Alex at 88 Leybourne Street Chelmer before we bought the house at Taringa.
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Stay tuned for Part 2 which will cover the years 1991 - 2016.
Do you think this sort of exercise is useful to you as a family historian? Have you done anything like this before?
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