Can’t believe this was 30 years ago.I was only 11 years old 😮 Times were so much better back than.Im sure everyone would agree with me

Thanks for the memories. So much has changed. The 80s were the best time!

I was 22 years old and it was awesome growing up in sydney. Cheers for the flashback 🇦🇺💯👍

Would love to be back then, in my 20's enjoying life everything in Oz was great

No one looking down at their phones checking social media, just people looking up being social. The good old days for sure

Great video thanks for sharing. I really miss the good old days pre trackees, pre massive amounts of tattoos and most of all pre bloody mobiles. 😂🤣😂👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

Thank you for this great video, a good friend of mine was one of the guys who were singing carols in Martin Place, I just blew him away went I showed him this. Very cool !

Thanks for uploading this, My Home City. I'm so used to Circular Quay looking much different to in the film. Glebe Island Bridge, I can't remember seeing a car on it, I was still in school when the ANZAC Bridge was built. I remember going to the Sydney Aquarium for school excursions in the 90s & Underwater World Manly, on the ferry..... Sydney had character & charm then, now it's awful.

Having lived in the northern hemisphere all my life, it doesn't seem right seeing a Christmas tree and hearing carols in a hot climate! Christmas is all about winter, cold days and even colder dark nights! I'd like to say snow, but rarely in England at Christmas in my lifetime. Lovely video all the same!

Great footage! Interesting to see what Sydney looked like before I was born.

Oh how i miss the life and the look back then.

Fantastic footage of everyday Sydney. Thank you so much for sharing such a treasure.

19th December 1989, Good day that was as it was my 3rd birthday and was somewhere in Sydney my self. As we lived in Penrith at the time and at every opportunity Mum would take us into the city on the train on weekends, To go to like Manly or Darling Harbour etc for the day. Good times and only finally moved out of Sydney in 2012, Bus still go there at least once a year when I can.

Oh wow. I was 3 years old in 1989 and I remember Drummoyne exactly like what I saw on this video.

Sydney has barely changed in 30 years.. All the places are still so recognisable and familiar.

Lovely to see these scenes again after many years. Good on you for sharing!

There was absolutely no Christmas in Kogarah 2018. No decorations, no nothing. It was very weird. maybe this is the Sydney of the future? I love all the different cultures here in Sydney - but I still love Christmas. And I'm Jewish!

Ah hell...I knew it, I always knew that visiting Sydney in the 1980's was the time visit it especially during World Expo 88 or Bicentennial Day. There was just something magical about it back then. I tried to visit Sydney back in 2014 and I knew that I'd be disappointed but in reality it was just a plain old "MEH". Too long and too late.

incredible insight into my city

I was 21 in Sydney - great to look back on! The passenger ship looks small now compared to today's leviathans. This footage stirred in me existential contemplation - snapshots of days long gone by...people of the time going about daily business - that being, largely inconsequential and ultimately long forgotten about.

I was at Darling Harbour recently, after many years, and I can't believe how much it's changed. The Darling Harbour in this video is the Darling Harbour I remember. Also in 1989 I was able to catch a return train from Liverpool, see a movie, and have a Maccas lunch...a meal, for $20. Granted I was a high school student, so we are talking half fare train tickets, and movie tickets.

Love the footage from Central station at the end- memories of the old orange seats inside the terminal, the original XPT logo, the U-boat set at the interurban platforms and of course the old red rattlers! What also stands out to me is the pedestrian mall footage around the 9 minute mark- there's barely a noticeable difference from the same scene over 25 years later apart from two things 1. Some of the women's hairstyles and 2. Everybody is taking in the summer day around them, as opposed to having their head buried in their tablet or smartphone!

Only just discovered this channel Great footage!

Good god, I was 7 when this footage was filmed... how times have changed.

Thankyou soooooo much for sharing this video, since then I terribly miss the 80’s ,,, so sad to see Sydney how I enjoyed it , yes the future has brought many innovations and , the future is inevitable and it’s path, new buildings , transportation, etc.. But I miss it so much , and watching this has showed how times were enjoyable and NOT over crowded how it is today , today for me is terrible and definitely Sydney has lost it’s beauty due to the ugly side of just to many people in one spot , Nsw in general has become another victim, thanks to instability of money injected from overseas buyers of property and segregation due to mass landings and deepening religious conflicts brought tp this shore tearing apart people and creating phobia, whether it’s colour of skin or wealth, religion, these have worsen living in Sydney, and sadly , I’ve witnessed it not from media , but at work and even seeing it in my neighbourhood. I am of ethnic heritage and grew up , born in Stanmore , but sadly this revolution in this age , compared to when my parents came out tp Australia 1961 and learnt the language, assimilated with the new culture and mixing in with the ‘ Australians ‘ But still retaining there heritage and us growling up having both cultures, before I’m labeled a racist, please note , the next generation of people that come to make this part of the world and make it there home , what will the present feel when another culture is thrust into the community and they become the minority and and the unbalance of living and mass crowding effect everything that takes part in there daily life , what then ? Your video brings a sense of medicine that makes me feel better that I was able as a small boy to experience growing up in sydney and viewing your video shows just , stepping back in time , from my kitchen table for a moment how times were fantastic and I Thankyou deeply, and cherish this post , especially the time table board at central , I showed my children this board which is now displayed at the power house museum , Thankyou Mr Hicks , please forgive my rant. Godbless

1980s was the last decade when Australia was still Australia.

I only started exploring Sydney on my own in 2014. Nothing looked familiar from when I was with my parents driving around Sydney in the late 90s. That made me sad.

And that’s kinda what Perth looks like now, so I guess it’s inevitable for it to turn out like Sydney eventually

Better Days.

I am not a fan of today's Sydney, and this is from somebody that is grew up in Sydney in the 70's and 80's. I am not sure if I miss this period of Sydney though. I like the late 70's and early 80's when you could sneak into gigs and see real bands like INXS, Cold Chisel, Radiators, Midnight Oil, Divinyls, Split Enz. I saw them all. By 1989, it was a completely different music scene, and asides from some indie bands like Hummingbirds and Ratcat, it was pretty dire with the uprise of doof doof dance music (which was starting in the year this video was made). I don't miss the open racism and the homophobia. That said, I feel it's a become a bit of a bland monoculture of a city, and quite depressing.

Sydney's CBD has barely changed, yes the mono rail has gone and the fashion has changed but all the beautiful building haven't changed

The building with the 4 chimneys shown at 2:30 is Pyrmont power station. This was later demolished and there's now a casino on the site.

Newtown nightlife in 1989 was alive i was 23 living in the inner west.

Amazing

Everything was similar in the 80s, but the 70s were a lot different. The 80s made lots of changes and looks a lot similar to modern society especially the traffic lights. The only difference is that the train station signs are different and the speaker especially the finished off 70s red trains and 80s to 90s silver Tangara trains begin

Oh I miss the 80s so much. Was just a kid. Shops looked so busy and people really embraced the Christmas season. There waa no woke. Much better times. Wish we could go back.

where are all these people now??? please don't tell me Melbourne.....

I visited Sydney in 1996 for the final two nights of speedway at THE Sydney Showground. I stayed at the Thoroughbred Motel on Alison Road and would go to a little cafe called Argies for a good, cheap breakfast most days. It was on a road nearby, in like a small shopping mall. But when I returned in 2008, I could not find either Argies or the mall itself. Does anyone know this place to confirm I was not dreaming?!

The days before the third world landed on our shores

Go the Fruity Lexia!!!!

Blimey. I must've been 5 when this was shot - and I remember Central like this! I was train-crazy, I remember being bought a train book from that gift shop place. There's nothing there like it now. Central's quite depressing. Not even the Hungry Jack's of more modern times is there anymore. Just nothing.

No Chinese people!!! Incredible, that's nice. What happened later?

Thanks for sharing bring back those years of freedom and laughter. Not a mask or a qr codes insight .or receiving health advice from a government that kills innocent baby's in a mother's womb. Take me back to the 80s

Hey, could I get in touch with you regarding the use of this footage for a project? Credit would to go you. Cheers.

👍

No rules and toooo much fun😎

Just before it became a Chinese enclave.

Is this 1989 or 1998? The beginning of the video says 1998 but the video title says 1989.

1989 I was buying smokes at 5 dollars a packet.

Less Asian immigrants and no SUVs. It's not racist it's FACT.

I know the guy playing the flute at 10:06

This was roughly 2 years before I was born.

Were things better ? It’s a good question :) nostalgia can play tricks. There less people so it probably was :)

sydney has not upgraded a single bit since this video was taken, and in fact has only gotten worse

I love Sydney, but what really surprises me is how many racists are commenting on this video, not lamenting on how beautiful the city was and how its changed, but how its now not as "white" as it used to be. I don't think that reflects how most Sydney-siders feel about Sydney today, but I'm disappointed there are comments like these are here in the first place.

Looks like sri lanka 😂😂