Living History

Television comes to Hobart

Television came to Hobart in 1960 and, apart from being a technical marvel, it forever altered life as it had existed up to that point. The following topics have been chosen at random.

Selling television sets
Some of the electrical retailers in Hobart got the idea of putting television receivers in their shop windows connected to a power time- switch as a sales gimmick. Passing pedestrians could look at the television screen through the shop window and could hear what was being said by means of a loudspeaker mounted outside the window. A time switch was used to turn off the power to the television set after about 9pm.

At the time, there weren’t many television sets in private homes and many would-be owners couldn’t find the money to outlay on a new set. Someone got the idea of, in effect, taking the family to the television set by driving the family car downtown and parking in the street outside a store with a television set in the store window. The car windows were wound down so that everyone could listen to the sound and blankets and a flask of coffee were taken along as well.

Conversation
There were many complaints that television was ruining the art of conversation. You might go out visiting at night and be shown into a darkened living room with a television set flickering away in the corner. You would have to step over the bodies of children and teenagers lying on the floor absorbed in a television programme. Attempts at conversation were usually unsuccessful and when you left later in the evening you might think to yourself that you could as well have stayed home and watched your own television.

Political meetings
From time to time an election would be called and the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition would travel around the country holding political meetings in each capital city to extol the virtues of their own political point of view. When television and, more latterly talkback radio arrived, such meetings became a thing of the past. Politicians found that they could get better coverage for their point of view on television.

Newsreels
Newsreels, or movies of newsworthy events which took place in Australia and overseas, were usually shown before the main picture at movie theatres before the advent of television. They were a victim of television, because who wanted to pay to watch news on a movie screen that they could watch for free on the television screen?

Movie theatres
When television arrived, it became a competitor with the other established source of visual entertainment, movie theatres. You didn’t have to go out and pay to get television as you did with the movies, all you had to do was to turn a switch and it suddenly appeared. With television, the programme changed every night, not like the movies which usually only changed once a week. The movie theatre owners countered with everything that they could think of, wide screens, elaborate sound systems and so on. Initially television was only in black and white, and the owners of movie theatres used to show films in colour. But, in the end, television was in colour and there are now wide screen television sets.

Transmitters on Mt Wellington
Initially there were two television channels in use in Hobart, the ABC channel 2 and the commercial channel 6. Both of the transmitters were located on top of Mt Wellington, which is about 1 270 metres above sea level. There were several problems associated with this site, for example, concrete mixes tended to freeze and permission had to be obtained to use ready mixed concrete. Another problem was the formation of ice on the steel towers which, from time to time fell off and damaged the antennae, made holes in the roof of the transmitter buildings and came close to hitting pedestrians. Everything for the two transmitters had to be carried on the road from Hobart to the summit.

A three- phase high voltage electricity power line was constructed to the transmitter site. It was sited so that it would have minimal visual effect on the view of Mt Wellington from the city of Hobart.

Patrick, Sandy Bay, Tasmania

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