When Cowboy owned Canberra

Canberra in the 70s was Dunlop Volleys, the Pine and Lime Splice, ads for the sexy cigarettes of Winfield - “Anyhow. Have a Winfield” - and a giant full forward for Ainslie called Kevin 'Cowboy' Neale

CANBERRA, UNLIKE Queensland, Sydney’s northern beaches, or the Pope’s place at Vatican City, is not (often) referred to as ‘God’s Country’. But growing up there in the 1970s and ‘80s was, to court vernacular of the day, ‘grouse’, even ‘ace’.

It was suburbia in the bush. It was Dunlop Volleys and the delicious Pine and Lime Splice at the pool, and ads for Tooheys Draught, Victoria Bitter and the sexy cigarettes of Winfield: “Anyhow. Have a Winfield.” It was tooling around on a BMX or your 10-speed Malvern Star on the purpose-built paths that weave around the place.

It was safe, easy to get around. It was full of  sports fields and golf courses. It was four hours to Sydney, two hours to Thredbo, two hours to Surf Beach at Bateman’s Bay.

Cold? You bet, for three months. Solid winter. Serious frost. But you didn’t know any better. That’s just how it was. In winter it was cold. And you could, you know, at any time don the invention known as clothing.