Photography of an Adelaide flasher: through the lens of Vic Grimmett

South Australian life in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s

The son of Australian cricketer Clarence ‘Clarrie’ Grimmett and Elizabeth Egan, Vic Grimmett was born in Melbourne, and moved with his family to South Australia when he was nine months old.

Vic attended Rostrevor College and joined the Engineering and Water Supply Department before joining the Royal Australian Air Force in 1942. He captained Wellington, Halifax and Lancaster bombers over Europe and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross in 1945.

On his return to Australia he returned to the E&WS but soon realised that this wasn’t the life for him, so he turned to his hobby of photography, hoping one day to become a professional. He worked as a professional photographer from 1953 to 1993.

Vic donated his extensive collection of approximately 250,000 negatives, along with the rights, to the State Library of South Australia in 2014. The collection spans almost every aspect of life in South Australia, from royal visits, politics and weddings to the arts, sport and debutantes.

Although very well arranged and indexed, there are many photographs for which we have little description. As they are uploaded to our catalogue we hope that South Australians will assist in identifying people, places and events.

The Vic Grimmett collection can be viewed here: https://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/find/vic+grimmett  More will be added as they are digitised and described.