27 e.g. MS; DM; BK; RP; NR; and VB Interviews.
AW and RP Interviews; Linge 'Fifty Years; Ragatz Canberra p2; In February 1957 the Federal Public Serv ice Journal published an article on inflated prices which 'stirred up a hornets' nest' and had the Secretary o f the Chamber o f Commerce 'virtually admitting pnces were higher in Canberra [than
elsewhere]'. Federal Public Serv ice Journal April 1957, referring to earlier article in February edition. 29 NCW Price Survey Report.
30 RP Interv iew. The Federal Public Sendee Journal in Feb 1957 reported that a 26 ounce bottle o f beer cost 6d more in Canberra than it did in Sydney but the same sized bottle o f wine cost l/6d more, while
incurring the same freight costs.
133
Nevertheless, perhaps the popularity of backyard vegetable growing in Canberra, w hich 1 w ill discuss later, did constitute buyer resistance to some degree.
A second complaint about shopping facilities concerned their opening hours. As one woman put it: 'Everything in Canberra was strictly 9 to 5.30, there was nothing . . . after those hours.'32 This may have been true in the early 1950s. However by the late 1950s, Canberra could boast o f being the only city in Australia to have Friday night shopping, and the practice o f Saturday morning shopping had also survived despite a
1949 attempt to have it abolished.33
During 1957 the Parliamentary Joint Committee on the ACT held an enquiry into legal shopping hours in Canberra, in the course o f which the ACT Branch of the National Council of Women argued in favour of either extending shopping hours further (including getting butchers to stay open through lunchtime) or at least keeping shopping hours as they stood (including both Friday night and Saturday morning).34 The reasons given were that mothers needed an opportunity to take school-aged children shopping with them for the fittin g of shoes and clothes, and that women wanted a chance to either leave younger children with their husbands while they shopped or to take their husbands with them 'to have jo in t inspection of major items' before buying.3'1
While these particular reasons for extended shopping hours were accepted by the Joint Committee, a third reason was not so well-received. The NCW argued that extended shopping hours would also benefit married women who worked outside the home and needed to 'get home to prepare the evening meal' on weeknights. The assumption of the NCW that a working wife was also responsible for cooking dinner is indicative of the level o f community acceptance o f this social expectation, but the reaction o f one Committee member went further. He thought these married working women were 'being a little selfish' in expecting the shops to stay open, thereby vocalising the kind of entrenched feeling that helped to keep women out of the paid workforce and in the home
32 NR Interview. "2 a
‘ In 1949 shop employees had tried to get Saturday closing of all shops, but the NCW had fought this 'tooth and nail' and won the case. Stephenson and Burmann 'History o f the NCW' p36.
a 1
~ Evidence of NCW to Joint Parliamentary Committee on the ACT 4 November 1957, NCW Papers File M l 23 Australian Archives. Butchers at that time were closed on Saturday mornings as well during the lunch hour. Stephenson and Burmann 'History o f the NCW ' p35.
33 The NCW claimed that taking school-aged children shopping after school on weekdays was
'impossible . . . when (they were] dependent on the the bus services to and from the shopping centres'. I w ill discuss inadequate bus sen ices later.
servicing the family.36
A final, widespread, complaint about shopping facilities in Canberra was the limited availability of certain goods, and the lack of choice that this engendered. Only one interviewee claimed to have had no problems with the range of goods available in Canberra in the 1950s.3 Most said that fresh fruit and vegetables were hard to find as produce generally had to be shipped from Sydney to Queanbeyan and then transferred to Canberra.38 Others backed up the statement that, 'the range of merchandise offered in most shops was exasperatingly narrow'39, with one woman claiming that 'If you wanted something special for a child for Christmas, you'd start looking around August, and hope you found it in time for Christmas.'40
Although housewives had been inconvenienced by the poor shopping facilities in Canberra for decades, it was not until after the findings of the Senate Select Committee were presented to Parliament in 1955 that anything was done. The Chairman of the Committee, Senator J.A. McCallum. reversed roles with one of the w itnesses at one stage of the hearings when he complained that.
Yesterday I wanted to buy a tie of a particular type. One shop did not have any ties. The others did not have the sort I wanted, and they said, 'Well of course, most people buy this sort of thing in Sydney or Melbourne.' All I wanted was a black tie 41
The fact that he could not get a black tie must have upset the Chairman quite a bit, as he had already related the same story to another witness the day before 42 And three days later he repeated it again to Kevin James Mulherin, a witness representing the ACT Progress and Welfare Council. He suggested on this occasion that what Canberra needed was a 'really big and important shopping centre'43, in spite of the fact that the witness he
36 Evidence of NCW to Joint Parliamentary Committee on the ACT, 1957.