Sydney traffic in the 1920s

Sydney traffic jams. They're a source of frustration for Sydneyites and schadenfreude for those who live outside the New South Wales capital.

Sydney's population recently passed five million people, so we thought it would be fun to go back in time and look at how easy drivers had it back in the 1920s when the population of Sydney had only just reached one million.

But, wait - it looks like there was plenty of traffic then too!

In new clips published in the Sydney Time Capsule curated collection, we see what looks like carefully orchestrated chaos with police officers in white helmets directing traffic on Anzac Parade. Buses, trams, cars all wait for their turn and pedestrians just run for their lives near Railway Square (then called Central Square).

If you think trains are crowded these days, check out how busy the trams were after a race at Randwick Racecourse!

Also new to the collection are clips from Tom Zubrycki's Waterloo (1981) about the building of the housing commission towers in Waterloo, and two clips from Pat Fiske's Rocking the Foundations (1985) about the green bans of the 1970s.