The experience of representing one’s country at an expo might be compared to that of an athlete at the Olympics, but for a much longer period and without the competition. Like the Olympics, each country has its own living quarters and distinctive uniforms. At Expo 70, the Australian women wore yellow and white mini dresses, with a grey coat in winter, and the men wore yellow shirts and green blazers. We all wore soft white 'digger' hats.
Expo 70 Commencement Park
© Sam Sheffield/Flickr
As hosts and hostesses, our work involved greeting the thousands of visitors passing through daily and offering them information about Australia in general, as well as about tourism and trade opportunities. In between shifts, we enjoyed visiting the pavilions of other countries in order to meet their representatives and view their exhibits. Since the Iron Curtain still divided East and West, we were particularly curious to meet the Soviet delegates, despite warnings not to fraternize with them (no doubt, the warnings were mutual). So we would enter the vast, imposing structure – with its statues of model workers, 3-D panoramas and space capsule of first cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin – rather timidly and engage in small talk and the exchange of badges from our respective countries.
Another enjoyable pastime was eating. Some of the pavilions had restaurants, and it was particularly interesting to taste the cuisine of those countries and cultures. We liked to frequent the New Zealand restaurant because of the delicious lamb and ice cream they served, but Japanese food was ubiquitous and like the tens of thousands of Japanese visitors, we, too, often enjoyed a bento, a traditional Japanese lunch of rice, fish or meat and pickled vegetables packed in a lacquered box.
Overall, some 64 million people visited Expo 70 (Expo 2010, Shanghai, 73 million), which was, at the time, a large record for international expositions.