Australians have reacted with sadness to a video of street interviews from 1988, with many blaming unwelcome changes in the decades since on mass immigration.
The clip, posted on the ABC Australia Instagram account, shows mainly young people being asked what annoys them, resulting in responses like “the service in Myers”, “terrible song on the radio” and “public transport.
Many of the children responded by bringing up their siblings, while others said “love”, “flies”, “unfriendly people”, “big slimy wogs”, “pollution”, and “early buses”. A passing policewoman answered “TV cameras”.
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The video racked up hundreds of comments on how the Australian accent has changed, how innocent the answers were, and how the country seemed to worse now than 38 years ago, with one writing “What we have lost” and another saying “better times unfortunately”.
“It’s so sad how they destroyed this country,” read another popular comment.
“Oh how I miss hearing my accent in young people today. Now it’s American twang and competition and self-obsessed people being fake and performing, then it was more innocent for young people and you spoke straight,” remarked another Aussie.
“Don’t realise how much our Aussie accent has been watered down until you hear how it used to be – took me straight back to my childhood, we all had these strong Aussie accents. Some of us still do,” third said.
Others highlighted the effects of decades of non-stop immigration from the third world and said “I bet you won’t find one Aussie” on the same street today.
“Weird seeing so many people that were born in Australia,” read one of many similar comments.
“Remember when this was our country? It was awesome,” said a second.
“Life was so simple back then. The governments have really failed the people.”
Header image: Left, right, people interviewed in 1988 (ABC).
