One thing that caught my eye reading Keenan's book on the SE Sydney lines
is that in the very last couple of years tram patronage started rising
again on the SE lines as new families established themselves and the baby
boomers reached school age, resulting in building of new schools and the
introduction of special school tram services to meet the growing demand.
Coming so late in the process to close the whole system down, this reversed
trend must have brought panic to the eyes of the state's transport
bureaucrats. Lucky for them then that they got in ahead of the massive
explosion of student numbers at UNSW in from the mid sixties onwards, for
which the new bus system was hopelessly inadequate, resulting in many
students driving and biking to university instead. It was a transport
planning disaster.

Here are some photos from Vic Solomons and Rob Caldwell collections and
others, showing the obvious physical evidence of the boom in the background:

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nC-8QZrsr5c/UQYdudL589I/AAAAAAAAAqo/Q8drxmODkPU/s640/P+class+tram+returning+from+La+Peruse.jpg

https://www.randwick.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/image/0010/196516/768x350_Maroubra-tram.jpg

https://www.abc.net.au/news/image/9621712-3x2-940x627.jpg

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-y8YNtB0QfHU/UMRik28SbFI/AAAAAAAAAJA/FoaCCJFflCI/s640/AnzacPde-LongBay-OclassMU(auto).jpg

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WPfAOXzVzBQ/UMRl2vhj-sI/AAAAAAAAAJQ/jlXYekLIvtQ/s640/dia_0008.jpg

And the last ditch attempt in the late 1950s to stop the disaster happening:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2zF_L4x2g5Q/UMRjs9xsYBI/AAAAAAAAAJI/YFbGJiOumAI/s640/58-CaldwellPlanMap.bmp

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iIrRQPB4XNg/UMRdtJHEfGI/AAAAAAAAAIo/fzebrk9EWhM/s640/caldwell-plan-liberal-randwick-ad.png

Note the 14 minute trip Quay to Randwick. That's 14, not 40 !

Tony P