If television isn't the most influential invention ever created, then it surely has to be high up there.
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When television first burst onto screen around the globe it changed the way the world operated.
Sure we could hear what was happening before through radio, and then we could see what was happening through film, but now we could do both while sitting on the couch in our lounge room.
When television started in 1956 in Australia, any innocence we had as an outpost at the bottom of the world was gone.
Our men and women had fought in two World Wars but for the rest of us, they were stories that we didn't see, we really didn't understand.
But now this thing in the middle of our homes was beaming all the joys, and tragedies, the world could muster.
Television started in Australia for the 1956 Olympics, but its spread to rural areas took a longer time. It wasn't until the early 1960s the ABC was rolled out to most country regions.
In Warrnambool, we had to wait until April 1962 to have access to a commercial television station.
On April 27, BTV6 Ballarat started transmission, becoming the voice of western Victoria.
It was a huge event, with a 19-page supplement in The Standard providing all the information on this momentous occasion.
The opening night of transmission included the classic movie The African Queen.
Local Australian stars Johnny O'Keefe and Bert Newton both had their own shows screening in the first week, while Pick-A-Box was the first game show.
The first big serial television show was Bonanza.
The advertisers had seen how monumental this new thing would be, with a raft of television makers and sellers getting their name in the supplement.
There was Astor, Philips, AWA and Krieler as the televisions brands.
The local stores stocking them included Swintons, Homecrafts, L.J. Kermond, A.G. Smith and Phillpot & Tucker.
So television was here, but it was so revolutionary it took many years to become a common sight in Warrnambool homes.
The cost was still high, particularly for Warrnambool's many working-class families.
Stores selling televisions would have one operating in their front display windows.
For big occasion broadcasts, crowds would gather round on the footpath and look at the television in the shop window.
The prestige and value of a television was evident through the fact it would often be put up as a prize for a big local raffle, or as an item community groups would work to pay for then donate to organisations that needed them.
They were also presented as a trophy for major sporting winners.
And as time went on there was a choice in the type of television on the market.
In 1975, television screens turned to colour and the smaller portable televisions became popular for those who could maybe afford a second television in the house.
But a snapshot of houses in Warrnambool in the 1970s and early 1980s would have almost universally found the same type of television in the lounge room.
It was a chunky device, with a dial to flick between the two channels and a volume knob.
The sound came out of the front and it was a heavy beast usually on four legs, meaning it was staying where it was.
From these earliest days, top of the range televisions came with remote controls, but it wasn't until the late 1980s that the masses in towns like Warrnambool could afford such a thing.
But the remote control wasn't really needed that much, with Warrnambool having only the ABC and BTV6 to flick between.
This only changed in 1992, when country Victoria finally had access to four commercial channels, plus ABC and SBS.
This triggered another golden era in the popularity of television, but this was a story that was never going to stand still.
Now, free-to-air television faces its biggest challenge yet, with the arrival of pay-tv and streaming services.
The ability to access these on phones, PCs and laptops means in many houses the humble television is often left dormant.
But write off this giant at your peril, this story has more twists to come.
