I was a decade or so ahead of you estate. I was working full time in the steel industries in early 70s. good pay, reasonable prices as the legacy of Menzies' reforms and policies. Whitlam made some terrific improvements with Medibank and other reforms but screwed the economy and couldn't keep his ministers from making stupid decisions.
Stagflation would have happened with or without Whitlam. it was a global economic problem and it crippled or killed many businesses and unemployment rocketed.
so these "best of times' were also the worst times in Aus. it taught me to take the rough with the smooth and to make the best I could of what was available.
Croc Dundee was a tourism promo piece.... and it worked a treat. so was Hawke's multiculturalism push. Aus was developed by Japanese interests for tourism as Hawke enabled foreign investment beyond the UK/US.
the movie wasn't an idyllic Aus but a puff piece comedic/drama that gave Aus an exposure to the rotw and gave us a tourist industry.
but as
@Dochico. above put it, we are now in far better economic and lifestyle situation than at any time before.
