[Nixon Family Home Movies: Reel 2]

In the Nixon Family Home Movie Collection, married film enthusiasts Les and Dorothy Nixon have captured their family life from when their children are very young to when they are young adults, at home in Geelong, during wonderful beach holidays at Point Roadknight on the Victorian coast, and when going about their everyday activities, from the 1960s to the 1980s.

The films show life in regional and suburban Victoria at the time: playing in the backyard and bike riding down the street (no helmets of course), lots of tennis, lots of beach and swimming, lots of family visits, birthday parties and family barbeques or picnic gatherings. Along the way, the films also record the distinctive fashion (often handmade) and hairstyles of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, through Dorothy Nixon being so stylish a dresser herself, and at the many family weddings across the extended family.

The films are made on Standard 8mm and then Super 8mm film, and are in reasonable condition though a little shaky or damaged at times.

In this film, the Nixon family are living in Alice Springs in 1966, until we see them returning to Victoria via a TAA flight. TAA (Trans Australian Airlines) was the major air service in the 1960s and 1970s flying to destinations all over Australian and its near neighbours of Papua New Guinea and Timor. One of the most memorable advertising jingles at the time was ‘Up, Up and away, with TAA, the Friendly, Friendly Way…’, a variation on the 1967 song Up, Up and Away, written by Jimmy Webb and also used by the US airline TWA.

At home in Herne Hill, new baby Stuart is introduced to the camera, in his ‘bassinette’, laughing at the camera, bouncing in a ‘bouncinette’, in his bath, in his ‘highchair’ and sitting on big sister Karen’s lap. The family spend time at the beach and Karen celebrates her fourth birthday.

Scenes of the Melbourne Zoo show the difference in standards for zoological practices between the 1960s and contemporary practices.

Selected highlights list:
00:00:23:00 view of houses in the arid setting of Alice Springs
00:01:15:00 mountain scenery seen across the scrubby desert
00:01:49:00 memorial for ‘Flynn of the Inland’
00:02:22:00 Dorothy wearing a very 1960s style ‘sunsuit’ for hot weather
00:02:30:00 children playing in a portable backyard swimming pool
00:03:16:00 views of rocks and a creek followed by Alice Springs township from a higher vantage point
00:04:50:00 (faint) carvings on a rock face
00:05:15:00 ‘John Flynn Church’
00:05:25:00 cars in Alice Springs
00:05:56:00 Karen wearing sunglasses
00:06:40:00 views around an Indigenous settlement
00:07:11:00 children eating watermelon
00:07:28:00 floods in the outback
00:07:45:00 TAA (Trans Australian Airlines) airplane on the tarmac at an outback airport
00:07:53:00 propeller of flying plane and views of the sea and land below, followed by landing scenes
00:08:51:00 scenes of baby Stuart at home in Herne Hill, Geelong
00:09:50:00 baby Stuart in a ‘bouncinette’ and in his ‘bassinette’
00:11:55:00 Les and Karen with baby Stuart
00:12:42:00 Dorothy in a Ford ‘Cortina’ model car
00:13:29:00 scenes at the beach
00:14:03:00 Karen and companion buried in the sand at the beach
00:15:48:00 scenes at the Melbourne Zoo
00:16:33:00 Karen’s fourth birthday celebrations
00:17:13:00 baby Stuart almost crawling across the carpet
00:18:08:00 Karen shows a popular activity of the time – the ‘hula hoop’
00:18:45:00 Stuart in a crate on the back of a bicycle
00:18:47:00 Karen shows off her ‘cowgirl’ outfit
00:19:17:00 baby Stuart walking
00:19:31:00 Karen and baby brother Stuart on a tricycle (trike)
00:21:00:00 baby Stuart walking with a toy lawn mower, on his tricycle and with Karen showing off a new outfit
00:21:37:00 at the beach and in the water
00:22:21:00 Dorothy and the children in new outfits in red and orange
00:23:06:00 late 1960s or early 1970s wedding
00:23:28:00 Les in 1970s style shorts and long socks
00:24:04:00 a ‘Victa’ brand lawn mower
00:25:30:00 garden scenes
00:25:40:00 a cricket game