Australian design at Expo '70, Osaka

In the history of industrial design in Australia, early British influence gave way to American influence in the late nineteenth-century. This transition was clear by WWII as America became the dominant design voice in Australia’s war effort. In the peacetime of 1948 the new American-inspired Holden motorcar showed this influence on the streets with its large ‘streamlined’ body and prominent chrome grille. In peoples’ houses, however, a new source of influence was emerging. Japanese craft and industrial design practice offered an alternative to the dominant British and American hegemonies of taste and this was especially evident in electronic goods and cars.