Remembering the days when backyards were where kids had real fun

In the days before high-rise apartments, two-job households and busy city living, life was a lot simpler for Australian kids.

While children now often get their entertainment from video games and Netflix, kids of the 1940s, ’50s and ‘60s were encouraged – usually very, very strongly! – to play outside. For many, it was as simple as heading to the backyard, often with a gang of kids in the neighbourhood. Moving from one house to another, there was a wealth of things to play with, even if they weren’t necessarily toys!

Starts at 60 is taking a look back at some of the staples of an Aussie backyard when it was a playground, even without any modern-style play equipment. How many of these things do you remember?

For many, a dunny or a thunderbox was a big attraction. If your mother was a clean freak, chances are she’d mop the floor inside and get you to duck into the yard if you needed to do your business. Some homes had them right up to the 1970s. Chances are there are still a few homes out there with them today.

Another staple of a traditional Aussie yard was the Hills Hoist. Obviously, your parents used it to hang the wet clothes out to dry, but it also proved an interesting piece of play equipment for many kids. You probably remember swinging off them and making yourself dizzy.

If you weren’t lucky enough to own a Hills Hoist, your family probably made do with a good old-fashioned rope clothes line. Propped up by a plank or wood or forked branch trimmed to the right height, a long piece of rope or twine usually extended the length of your yard. It wasn’t uncommon for parents to constantly adjust the rope – particularly when heavier clothes made it droop. Unlike the Hills Hoist, it wasn’t as fun (or safe) to swing off, but kids still did!

Those lawns didn’t cut themselves and in the days before apps and services designed to do the dirty work for us, families usually got down and dirty with their own rotary mower. Some families had the pull-string variety, while many kids made their pocket money by keeping the yard and garden in tip-top condition.

In the days before dryers, it was pretty common for people to use a clothes mangle to wring water from wet clothes. While washing machines now have fast spin cycles, this was the fastest and easier way to reduce drying times. How times have changed!

Not to be forgotten, of course, was that almost everyone’s backyard had a mango, avocado or some other big and weathered tree to climb and build treehouses in. Having a tub for washing (clothes and humans!) and the remnants of an old car or two, plus some vegetable patches just added to the array of things to mess about with.

What do you remember playing in the backyard as a kid? What do you miss most about your childhood?