On the road to retro heaven, Tim Ross pulls up at the motel door

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'It seems unbelievable but people would drive past just to look at the Oakleigh Motel, because it was so new and modern.America had come to town.'

If the billboard-sized signage and Vegas-inspired arrows didn’t attract you to Victoria’s first motel, owner Cyril Lewis devised an unusual ad campaign to entice travellers: "Your car in your bedroom."

"What was incredibly interesting about the early motels in Australia was that they were all based on drawings or photos in magazines," Ross says.Credit:Ross affectionately describes Australia’s motel pioneers as "cowboys" and "chancers". Alongside Lewis, people such as Bernie Elsey transformed the Gold Coast into the playground for Australia’s east coast, spicing up the beach culture with pyjama parties and meter maids. "It was frontier stuff," Ross says.

It’s not all glamour. Ross remembers trying "to fall asleep to the sounds of trucks rumbling by outside, their bulk rattling the wafer-thin windows and their headlights sneaking through the top of the nylon curtain to dance across the motel room ceiling"."What’s interesting to me is the concepts of the experiences that unite us nationally," he says. "Every state has similar emotions when it comes to the idea of going to a motel.

Now home to the Vibe Hotel in Royal Parade, this mid-century establishment summed up the feel-good spirit of the times.His book captions even recapture the cheesy postcards that document the Australian travel experience. "It flourishes best of all in Australia, which is already half overtaken by the hysteria," the acclaimed architect and cultural commentator wrote. "Austerica’s chief industry is the imitation of the froth on the top of the American soda-fountain drink. Its religion is ‘glamour’ and the devotees are psychologically displaced persons who picture heaven as the pool terrace of a Las Vegas hotel.""Robin was deeply out of touch on what people liked," he says.

 

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