Whitlam, Vietnam and colour TV: how Australia was redefined by the ‘hinge year’ of 1975

Children on a swing at Tom Price, Western Australia, 1975, a time when ‘Australia started to go in a distinct direction,’ says Guy Hansen, the National Library of Australia’s director. Photograph: Wolfgang Sievers/National Library of Australia

Seismic political shake-ups, international upheaval that reverberated across the nation and a vivid cultural renaissance – 1975 was one of Australia’s most pivotal years of the 20th century.

Five decades on, the National Library of Australia in Canberra is about to unveil a new exhibition spotlighting the year the prime minister was sacked, the Vietnam war came to an end and how, despite Hollywood telling us we’d never go back into the water, we did.