Motel: images of Australia on holidays. Tim Ross. 2023.

If any country was born to holiday, it’s Australia. Sun, space, beaches - the desire to hit the road and “get out of town” remains a strong and enduring part of our cultural identity. Many of us remember the summer ritual of packing up the car with half the stuff we owned and heading for our chosen ‘spot’ in often incident-packed road trips.

In Motel, Tim Ross captures the heyday of Australia’s motels via a deep trawl through the National Archives of Australia, presenting a fascinating slideshow of Australians on holidays between 1950 and 1989.