Join Richard Glover, one of Australia's most well known journalists and broadcasters, as he talks about how this country used to be. In his new book, The Land Before Avocado, Glover takes us on a journey to an almost unrecognisable Australia, including an early Canberra.
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He spent his teenage years here after his parents bought a local newsagency. His father was friends with the other local shopkeepers, including Gus, who ran the the iconic café around the corner in Civic.
Glover recounts that on one bright autumn day, in March 1970, Gus decided to pop a couple of chairs on the pavement outside his premises. He thought people might care to take their refreshments in the sun and watch the passing parade as he’d seen people do in Europe. According to his father, Glover writes, the police soon arrived in force, ordering the handful of chairs be taken back into the café.
“Gus – Viennese born, a refugee from the Nazis – acquiesced. He understood how to treat a uniformed man,” he writes.
“All the same, a public debate ensued.”
Just recently Glover was in Canberra.
“Garema Place is now a sea of outdoor tables and chairs. I wondered if any of these restaurateurs – Korean, Lebanese, Indian – knew the story of the 1970s and the Battle of the Chairs.”
Join Richard Glover for a two-course “retro 1970s meal” with wine, tea and coffee, on October 27, at 7pm. An ANU/Canberra Times Eat Drink and be Literary event. $78. University House. Bookings at anu.edu.au/events
