BODGIES AND WIDGIES
MELBOURNE VICTORIA AU
195Os --196Os
Bob Hawke was nicknamed the Silver Bodgie by the Australian media for his thick silver-grey hair worn in the bodgie style and loutish behaviour before entering politics
Australian rockers usually wore tight jeans, with the legs taken in.Stove Pipes
Footwear common to Australian rockers included black ripple-soled suede shoes and black boots. Many rockers wore RM Williams leather elastic-sided square-toed boots, and some wore pointed shoes.
Australian rockers were typically working class and fairly reactionary. Typical interests were alcohol, girls,music and cars. They were known as troublemakers and street fighters, and there were several rocker groups. It was not uncommon for rockers to fight members of other subcultures, such as surfies, mods, skinheads.
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Bodgies, widgies and moral panic in Australia 1955 – 1965
Victoria Police Force Had A Bodgie Squad To Clean up The Street Gangs From Dandenong Hot spots Springvale - Clayton - Oakliegh- To Name The Worst --Hangouts---
JANE CUNNINGHAM: 40 years later, it hardly seems to matter. The tribal culture that started off like this in the early '50s evolved over the decades and finally turned into this. Take away the colour and there doesn't seem to be much difference. So, perhaps we should leave the last word to that original bodgie from the western suburbs of Sydney.
COL JOYE: Nothing's new. Everything old gets new and everything new gets old
: In the '50s,60s I was A bodgie. I was proud to be a bodgie, and my girlfriend she was a widgie. Bodgies an widgies, were in the milk bars.on the streets dance halls every where
ROCK N ROLL When we dance we dont count as we dance to the beat of the music fast or slower.We dance traditional 50s-60s rock n roll 50s-60s there was no counting of steps ,its a rebel dance no right or wrongway of dancing it,everyone has there own style thou!
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I grew up in the Mid-1950s and1960s -Even tho the teens of today may think we were stupid or whatever, we did have moral values and values that today's teens do not have. Just look at the prolification of sex and violence in music like that Rap shit and the movies that today;s teens like.
Bodgies, widgies and moral panic in Australia 1955 – 1965 Dr Keith Moore, Humanities and Human Services, QUT Introduction In the latter half of the 1950s, concerns that Australia’s teenagers, and especially workingclass teenagers, were becoming delinquent reached a crescendo. Law-abiding citizens observed with concern bodgies and widgies congregating in milk bars and on street corners. Violence and sexual license were their hallmarks, they believed, with alarmist andsensationalist media reports having established and fuelled these understandings. Without recourse to reliable statistics, many people embraced the opinion that a substantial proportion of the country’s teenagers were uncontrollable. Some advocated punishments such as sending ‘bodgies to the Nullarbor to work on a rail gang’ (Perth Daily News, 7 October, 1957), sending them ‘to sea under a tough [navy] skipper’ (Perth Daily News, 16 November, 1957) and inflicting harsh corporal punishment upon them. Others, however,were more concerned about the adoption of preventative measures. Parental alcohol consumption and gambling, lack of discipline, high wages and youthful access to unsuitable comics, horror picture shows, and after 1956, rock and roll music were among the factors that generated delinquency, they suggested. Their views, popularized by sensational press reports, contributed to a ‘moral panic’ throughout the Australian
