But we should remember that the Australian economy did not keep up with the rest of the world during this period: the growth in GDP per capita was lower than the OECD average in the 1950s and 60s. We also tend to underestimate just how poor we were compared with what we take for granted now.
Much of the post-war housing expansion into the newer suburbs involved building two-bedroom-onebathroom houses with external toilets: sealed roads, sewerage and telephones came years later. There are many other examples of the difference in living standards I could quote. The Present By the present I mean the economic expansion over the past decade which we are currently still experiencing.