During the early 1900's, most Sydneysiders saw "Eternity" written on their pavements by an unnamed identity. In the late 1900's, most baby boomers had met the Sydney Streamer Man on the city's cruise ship wharves.

From the late 1950's to the late 1990's, Frank sold streamers on board all the cruise ships from the QE2 to Fairstar, the fun ship. Staying on board until the final call, before joining his growing number of assistants already selling streamers to the visiting friends and relatives gathered to say farewell to the passengers.

Special permission was granted by all the shipping companies to be on board as well as local government authorities to sell from the wharves on the day of departure. The only condition was to clean up all the streamers after the ships had sailed away. With the help of all the assistants, including wife and business partner Sally, and their seven children, wharves were usually cleared after two hours. On rainy days, four hours. During Sydney's busy cruise season this was repeated up to three times a day across wharves at Sydney Cove, 13 & 20 Pyrmont & Wooloomooloo. During the later decades other wharves included Darling Harbour & White Bay.

Manufacturing and selling streamers on Sydney wharves was started by Sally's father, Arthur Thomas. His first successful day selling streamers on a wharf was in 1908 when the Australian Rugby League team left Sydney for their first tour of Great Britain. You could say he was streaming 100 years before Netflix and would be very proud of his great grand daughter's current achievements in the NRLW.

The A.J. Thomas business was passed down to his son Arthur and Sally. Some time later, the business name changed to Austreamers as Frank & Sally re-opened a defunct souvenir shop at the Sydney Cove Passenger Terminal when ships were in port.

In the heyday prior to 1983, friends and relatives joined passengers on board ships before the usual early evening departure time. Many bottles of champagne were shared as visitors celebrated with passengers in their staterooms and cabins. It was a great atmosphere, but it all came to an end when war broke out in the Falkland Islands. Security measures were put in place, resulting in a passenger-only policy on all cruise ships. Visitors continued to see off passengers into the 1990's but numbers had declined after the introduction of RBT (Random Breath Testing) in NSW. The Fairstar sailed out of Sydney for the final time in 1997. Streamers were banned at the Darling Harbour passenger terminal due to its proximity to the Sydney Aquarium.

During the 1990's, the Australian National Maritime Museum requested assistance for a History of Streamers display that would be exhibited for six months. Due to popular demand of the display (that included an "invisible man" version of Frank with his white coat & tie, hat and streamer bag), the display was retained for more than ten years.

Austreamers still continues today with Frank (90-something) & Sally (80-something) supplying streamers to the Sydney Opera House, various individual entertainers and wholesalers.

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