‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times’ is the opening line of Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities.

To continue to paraphrase Mr Dickens, it was certainly the ‘age of wisdom’ with university admission numbers growing. Between 1956 and 1962, student numbers almost doubled to 3800. 

It was the age of ‘foolishness’ with the state in the rampant heat of its second mining boom.

Where fortunes were made and then lost and where visionaries realised their dreams for the first stage of the Ord River Irrigation project.

It was also the season of ‘light’ as Western Australia blossomed on the world stage.

^{Guests and dignitaries at the opening of Arts Building at UWA}

On 20 February 1962, as astronaut John Glenn circles the Earth, the city of Perth turns on its lights and Glenn announces, ‘I can see the outline of a town and very bright light just to the south of it’. Glenn dubs Perth ‘The city of lights’.

Later that year Perth hosted the Commonwealth Games, with Australia’s gold medal tally at the end of the games at 38 (of 105 total medals), the highest score for any country in Commonwealth Games history up to that time!

It was the ‘epoch of belief’ that the world could be a better place. That we could make a difference.

Furthermore, it was a time of incredulity when it was discovered we had a voice and understood how to use it.

^{UWA Arts Building in 1966}

Look no further for proof of this than a deep dive into the archives of the Pelican student guild publication in 1968 in particular.

Telling times indeed, with spirited reporting on student led ‘Peace Marches’ in our city and robust journalistic argument, spirit of inquiry, if you prefer around the efficacy of marching for peace.

However, without doubt for some, it was a season of darkness as Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam War increased through the decade and into the early ‘70s.

As in other universities across Australia, life on our campus was also disrupted. Students and staff alike would experience unprecedented turmoil as national service was introduced in 1964, whereby, all 20-year-old males had to register with the Department of Labour and National Service, and their names were selected by the ‘birthday ballot’, in which young men were randomly selected for national service by their birth date. Those selected were required to serve for two full years. For some of our staff and students a temporary deferment could and would be granted.

Against this backdrop, life on our campus, was also the ‘spring of hope’. Why?

Because the peace marches, interestingly for us looking back, involved fully-gowned students, with banners and placards, silently marching along St Georges Terrace. Interestingly, what stands out is that they also had time for reflection and respect for each other as, Pelican, 1 August 1968 illustrates by publishing two sides of the march for peace argument. 

It was an era where the gender gap was closing. In 1960, 76 per cent of the student population of 3508 was male, by 1980 it was at 60 per cent with a student population of 9791.

^{Council of the UWA Guild of Undergraduates, 1969}

It was the era of voting in the first female Guild President and the first female President of a student organisation in Australia. Most importantly, this decade is characterised by the evolution of our shared values that continue today: Freedom to engage in open exchange in time of disruption and the fostering of tolerance and resilience.

By Karen J Worrall (BA '80)