Australia’s First Dash Cam, And New Matilda’s Temporary Home For A Few Weeks

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If you’re a Sydney-sider who happens to be a lover of the NSW South Coast, then this film is either going to make you smile or cry. Or possibly both.

The restored 8mm time lapse was shot in 1971, and shows a road trip from Revesby, in Sydney’s south west, all the way to Dolphin Point, on the edge of Ulladulla.

The trip used to take over four hours, and was almost 300km in length. Today it’s 200km, and takes just two and a half hours. Unless you try to leave on boxing day… in which case it’s back to four hours again.

New Matilda will actually be coming to you over the Christmas break from the beautiful South Coast of NSW (at a generous friend’s house, a little further south, although precisely where remains an official state secret, punishable by being locked in a room with George Brandis for 24 hours).

Over the festive season, we’ll continue to publish most days – both via submissions, occasional stories and regular updates on The Insider (our new official blog) – with the occasional digest thrown in for good measure, until we return to Sydney (and the daily office grind) on January 18.

If you get a break, enjoy it, and make sure it’s a safe one.

From the producers of the film:

Most likely the first Dash Cam in Australia long before the modern dash cam!!!

This restored 8mm film shows a road trip taken in 1971 from Revesby to Dolphin Point, Burrill Lake.

The original film was only about 1 and a half minutes long. I have slowed it down to about 6 actual minutes. Wish I had taken more but whoever thought there would be a thing called Youtube????

In those days there was no F6 Freeway down the south coast, barely any dual carriage ways and hardly any other road improvements.

See if you can spot the areas that now have dual carriageway bypasses, especially around Kiama!!

It use to take 4 hours and you can see it in 5 minutes….

Launched in 2004, New Matilda is one of Australia's oldest online independent publications. It's focus is on investigative journalism and analysis, with occasional smart arsery thrown in for reasons of sanity. New Matilda is owned and edited by Walkley Award and Human Rights Award winning journalist Chris Graham.

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