New People, New Ideas and New Attitudes: Melbourne’s Long Sixties*

For that most iconic of twentieth-century decades, the 1960s, start dates, end dates, and the significance of particular events have spawned a mini-version of a wider historical debate about the usefulness or otherwise of dividing the past into neat temporal periods and defining moments. So, too, just who and what constitutes the 'Sixties Generation' is subject to debate and constant reinterpretation. This article charts the stories of various people, places and events in Melbourne's 'Long Sixties' to assess the short- and long-term impacts of these on the city's history and continuing sense of itself.