1962 Games Village

The 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games introduced a new feature: a purpose-built village for the athletes, as seen in the newsreel excerpt.

In previous Commonwealth Games, competitors had been housed in hotels or billeted in private homes but the Western Australian State Housing Commission decided to use the need for accommodation to develop a modern housing development. In 1959, the council set aside 65 acres of land in City Beach. The area is now a Perth suburb, but in the early 1960s it was still mostly bushland. 

The houses themselves were not luxurious; most didn't have a television and there were no telephones. Boy scouts and girl guides worked as runners taking messages.

According to the newsreel, the Games hosted 1200 visiting athletes from 35 countries, representing 660 million people. The housing project cost was estimated at £1 million.