Let’s be real: most kids’ birthday parties in the 1980s happened in the backyard with a packet mix cake from Shop-Rite and a billion kids on a trampoline with no nets.
But sometimes, somehow, mum and dad would have a bit of extra cash available and you’d be allowed to have your party somewhere special.
These were the places we chose.
Canberry Fair
Kids getting off the Gravitron feeling a little worse for wear. Photo: Canberra & District Historial Society.
Once upon a time, Canberra had a theme park. And it was heaven. If you were allowed to have your party there, you were basically Canberra royalty.
You and your friends would get a wristband at the entrance that gave you unlimited rides: the Gravitron, the pirate ship, the dodgem cars, and a rollercoaster Canberra had scored second-hand from Luna Park. You’d all have lunch at Clancy’s Pub and get award-winning sunburns riding the swan boats and running between carnival games.
At the end of a long day, you’d all pile exhausted into the station wagon. More often than not, Dad had to pull over on the way home so someone could spew. It was the best.
Rehwinkels Animal Park
What’s that Skip? A great place for a party? Photo: Chen Te.
Rehwinkel’s was the kind of venue that promised “fun for the whole family” and delivered in spades. Entry was a gold coin or something close to it: barely enough to keep the 500-plus animals fed, let alone keep the electric fences from malfunctioning.
Mum and dad would unpack a loaf of Tip Top, and a buttload of sliced devon and Cottee’s lemon cordial from the esky, while you and your friends tried not to get nipped by a rogue emu. If you were obsessed with Skippy, like me, this was your Disneyland. Feeding kangaroos out of an ice cream cone was just the beginning. The place had turtles, camels, wombats and even peacocks.
It was wild, dusty magic.
McDonald’s (Dickson or Weston)
Canberra’s second restaurant opened in Weston in 1985. Photo: Jimm Bo, Facebook.
Given there were only two McDonald’s restaurants in the whole of Canberra, there was no status symbol more potent than a birthday party in the designated party room.
The kids scoffed nuggets, chips and junior burgers while a teenager in a visor and a forced smile led games. And the pièce de résistance? The Peters Neapolitan ice-cream cake of course. (Which you can still buy in your weekly grocery shop at Woolies and tastes exactly the same.)
Pizza Hut
My best friend’s birthday party at Pizza Hut Queanbeyan in 1987. Denim-themed, of course. I’m sixth from the left. Photo: Supplied.
Chequered tablecloths, Pepsi, pizza, gingerbread men and fun showbags for the kids. Like Maccas, but way more exotic.
Macquarie Pool
Photo of Macquarie Pool aka Big Splash on the day the brand-new slides opened in summer 1983. Photo: Supplied.
This was only an option for kids who had birthdays in summer. Which made it even more special.
From braving the dangerous transition from the Family Slide to the Kamikaze, to bruising your tailbone on the Hurricane Twins, a birthday party at Macquarie Pool was fuelled by Bubble-o-Bills from the kiosk and pure Australian sunshine.
(Although the worst part was when there were long lines. You’d be at a standstill inside the genie tower on the third flight of steps and water from other people’s bodies would be dripping all over you. Gross.)
For the little kids there were those slides that you lined up in the cave for – what was that area called again? – and the red lotto ball. And if your mum or dad got a wristband, you were giddy.
Phillip Ice Rink
Not many made it out on the ice like this. Photo: Weekend Notes.
Speaking of bruised tailbones … ice skating birthday parties were a bit of a waste of money. You and your friends would spend 89 minutes of a 90-minute session clinging to the barrier like terrified baby deer. And just as you all figured out you could hold hands and hold each other up (kind of), it was over.
Pancake Parlour
All kinds of fancy. Photo: Capital Pancakes.
“One Alice in Wonderland for me and 10 of my friends please!”
Pancake Parlour was fancy and so magical with its chequered floor and that giant chess set. Birthday parties here were a sugar-drenched fever dream – maple syrup, crepes, whipped cream, hot chocolate. But only after everyone had had a huge fight over who got to sit next to the birthday girl in one of those tiny booths.
Honourable mentions go to Mugga Lane Zoo, Commonwealth Park, Phaser Strike and the revolving restaurant at Telstra Tower.
