The family car is packed to the brim and everyone inside is starting to fidget, praying that the hours-long journey is almost at an end. And just as you start to consider another round of I Spy, there it is, beckoning you in the distance: the motel's neon sign. You have arrived.

If ever there was a country that was destined for family road trips, it's Australia. From the sweeping plains to the ragged mountain ranges - as Dorothea Mackellar so famously pointed out - this sunburnt country is not in short supply of new landscapes to discover. And in a lot of ways, the easiest way to explore these places is by jumping in the car and driving there.

Of course, this was not always the case. There was a time when not everyone had a car.

There was a time when family holidays involved schedules and strict train timetables, only to arrive at country hotels with shared bathrooms and little privacy. But as post World War II optimism was on the rise, so too was car ownership, which made way for a new type of holiday.

It was a holiday that began with the sight of that motel neon sign, promising a private room with en suite, air-conditioning, an in-room radio or even a colour television, a swimming pool, convenient parking and in some instances even wall-to-wall carpet in the bedroom. It may seem like low stakes by today's standards but this was the height of luxury for a family holiday in the 1950s and 60s.

The heyday of the motel offered Australians - and those in America, where this innovation was born - the ultimate freedom to roam. It's a freedom that's explored in a new exhibition from the National Archives of Australia and comedian and design nerd Tim Ross, Reception This Way: Motels - A Sentimental Journey.

"Prior to mass car ownership, you were tied to a timetable so the railways were very much driving the tourism industry," National Archives of Australia curator Catriona Donnelly says.

"You would get the train to your destination, there would be a whole bunch of guesthouses that you could stay at, but you were always with a lot of people."

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Motels also gave more privacy, were family-friendly and, when they were first introduced, brought in a new level of luxury.

"When you stayed in a hotel in a country town, you would have to walk down - as you still do today - where you would have a shared bathroom. But in a motel, you had your own private en suite," Donnelly says.

"You could just drive up and park your car at the door so you didn't need to lug bags halfway down the street."

While there are still motels going strong - and in some instances, experiencing a new lease on life as people bring the accommodation into the 21st century - that initial iteration is somewhat of a bygone era.

Reception This Way takes visitors on a nostalgic trip back in time, no matter if their family holidays took them to the sunny beaches of the Sunshine Coast or the desert plains of Coober Pedy.

Inspired by Ross' book, Motel - Images of Australia on Holidays, the exhibition features photographs and promotional film footage from the archive's collection, placing the holiday lifestyle that played out in these Australian mid-century gems front and centre.

Along with his own memories of family holidays spent with a night in Gundagai to break up the top - "discovering the configuration of a new motel was all part of the holiday adventure" - Ross is all about the architecture from this time.

"[The show] is this pictorial love letter to a somewhat bygone era, capturing the glamour and convenience of the roadside motels, from the east coast to the west, during a time when Aussie families found the time to hit the road and take a break," he says.

"For a design nerd, these photographs are a real treat. Plenty of great examples of kitschy and quirky designs that sprouted out of this particular point in time, as motel architecture and furnishings shifted from American-inspired design to more local flavours and consumer demands."

The reign of the motel all began with Googie architecture, which landed in Australia in the 1950s. The eye-catching style, which gained its name from a Californian coffee shop, was inspired by the space age and looked right at home when used for buildings such as diners and motels (not to mention on The Jetsons). Whether you realise it or not, when you think quintessential motel style, you think Googie, with its geometric shapes, bright colours and materials including neon, glass and steel.

It's a very American style of architecture, but it makes sense that if Australia was going to adopt a US innovation, it would do so in the same style - at least at first.

"In America, motels were popping up all over the place, and so people were inspired by this new type of accommodation that was very convenient if you're driving long distances," Donnelly says.

"And there's that parallel between the long distances in the United States and in Australia, which you don't have that need, perhaps, in places like Scotland - where I'm from.

"A lot of the early motels are in more of a destination location. There are two types of motels. There are ones that might be a roadside stop, maybe in a country town where you stay one night and then continue on your journey the next day. But then there are the destination motels, which were more resort-style like the ones at Surfers Paradise, and on the Gold Coast."

The American style would also be reflected in the names, with both a California Motel in Bathurst and The California Hotel in the Melbourne suburb of Hawthorn.

But, not everyone was a fan of the Googie style of the early motels, believing this American influence was tainting the Australian architectural style.

Gradually, Australian architects such as Robin Boyd and Brian O'Connor started to design motels, pushing back against the American design. The result was a motel landscape that combined clear influences from the American Googie style and a purely Australian style that fed off of the natural surroundings.

"Robin Boyd coined the term Austerican because he was repelled by this influence coming from America," Donnelly says.

"And it's interesting to see the style of motels become a bit more sophisticated once Australian architects start to get involved and mid-century modernism starts to shine through in the late 50s, early 60s.

"There's the standard motel that we're all familiar with - the row of units, parking outside the door, and maybe a restaurant on site. That's the quintessential motel. In Australia, with our extreme summer heat, you start to maybe see some type of verandah popping up into the designs and also the inclusion of a swimming pool was a huge thing for Australia. And depending where the motel is located, the further inland you are, the more important the swimming pool is to have."

Take the Black Dolphin Motel in Merimbula. One of the few motels featured in the exhibition that survives today - albeit dramatically changed - this mid-century beauty was designed by Boyd who, when commissioned by developer David Yencken in 1958, was given the brief to capture the Australian character in the motel.

The result was a motel that Boyd described as an "architectural tranquiliser".

"He was turned off by all these bright garish colours and plastic and neon, so his design for the Black Dolphin used much more natural materials," Donnelly says.

"It was a much more sophisticated design and there were Japanese influences as well for the interiors. So that use of timber and trying to design the motel so that the view from your bedroom wasn't just out to the car park, but blending in with the natural landscape."

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It was 1956 when Canberra saw its first motel open. Sitting on Northbourne Avenue, it was the first in a chain of motels run by Accommodation Australia and was designed by Brian O'Connor after he won a design competition.

As part of its offering, Motel Canberra had a cocktail bar with big wide windows. At night, the darkness of the building almost acted as a picture frame, displaying the lit-up scene of partygoers enjoying a drink or two.

It was not unusual for motels to have bars or restaurants included, but for this particular motel, it did add to some confusion for some guests.

"On the side of the motel it had, 'Motel Canberra', and then underneath it had a tagline that said 'An AA House'," Donnelly says.

"That caused a little bit of confusion with some guests, with the initials AA also being Alcoholics Anonymous, I think some guests arrived at the hotel and were surprised that you were able to buy alcohol on the premises. They interpreted AA not as 'Accommodation Australia'.

"But it's a very sophisticated design. It has an enclosed courtyard, so not just the role of motel units, it was actually on a square block. And Brian O'Connor was a young Australian architect at the time and studied motels as this thesis."

But one of the most Canberra things to ever happen was the evolution of the Motel Astonaire.

Located in prime position, right next door to the Starlight Drive-In in Watson, the motel would go through a couple of names - first Motel Astonair, then Commodore Motel - before becoming the Chinese Embassy.

Reception This Way: Motels - A Sentimental Journey with Tim Ross is at the National Archives of Australia from May 27 to September 4.

As part of opening week, Tim Ross will team up with musician Kit Warhurst for the live show, Motel on May 27 and 28. For more information go to naa.gov.au.

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