It was no small change when Aussies moved to dollars and cents

On February 14, 1966, Brisbane residents woke to a world where one of the most ordinary parts of daily life had changed.

Overnight, pounds, shillings and pence were replaced by dollars and cents, in what became known as Changeover Day or ‘C Day’.

The change was simple in principle.

One Australian pound became two dollars, and the new system divided money neatly into 100 cents.

Yet, for those who lived through it, the reality was far less straightforward.

Every wage packet, bank balance and shop price had to be recalculated at once, affecting transactions everywhere from corner stores to stock exchanges.

In Brisbane, as elsewhere, the public had spent months preparing.

The Courier-Mail ran a regular column, ABC of Decimals, which advised the public on conversions, as well as practical applications.

Schools taught children the new system and the Retail Traders’ Association held special lectures for members.

There was even a telephone service – known as the ‘Dollar Jills’ – to answer practical questions from confused consumers.

Much of the education campaign centred on a cartoon figure named ‘Dollar Bill’ whose catchy television jingle explained how the new money worked.

The tune and opening lines became so familiar that many Australians can still recite it decades later (“In come the dollars and in come the cents …).

A shopping card produced by the Decimal Currency Board, held in State Library of Queensland’s collections, offers another (somewhat convoluted) rhyme to aid consumers:

One and two remain the same,

The only difference is the name,

Three to nine lose one, it’s true,

And for the rest, you take off two.

Despite this preparation, reactions were mixed.

A Courier-Mail street survey at the time found some Brisbane residents unimpressed by the new notes, with one remarking that they looked more like “lolly wrappers” than real money.

Another man expressed his indifference, saying: “I wouldn’t really care if Ned Kelly’s portrait was on them, as long as I have enough.”

Behind the scenes, the scale of the operation was enormous. New coins and banknotes had to be produced and distributed across thousands of bank branches, while machines such as cash registers and petrol pumps had to be modified to accept the new currency.

All these preparations paid off: the changeover was remarkably smooth.

The then prime minister Harold Holt said Australians deserved a “pat on the back for the good-natured way they have accepted decimal currency into their daily routine”.

Brisbanites can take their share of the credit, though there were a few complaints due to confusion over conversion and suspicions of overcharging by some shopkeepers.

Over a short time, however, the new currency simply became part of how Queenslanders paid for everyday life.