Doris Godwin

Interview with: Doris Mary Godwin (nee Clarke)

Date of Interview: 3 August 1987

Interviewer: Felicity Nappa

Transcriber: Tapuitea Hartogh

Tapes: 1

Doris attended the Beerwah State School in 1916 and later attended Caloundra State School in 1921. Doris's father started a fishing business in Caloundra and also building the first ice works. Doris enjoyed playing tennis at the Kings Beach boarding house tennis courts with many other locals. Doris married George Godwin whose father had the fish factory on Bribie.

Image: Doris Mary Godwin.

Audio

Doris Godwin oral history - part one [MP3 74MB]

Doris Godwin oral history - part two [MP3 5MB]

Transcript

Tape 1/Side A

FN Good morning Mrs Godwin. Would you like to give me your family history, starting from your great grandparents?

Well, my Great Grandparents were John Palmer Clarke and his wife was Jemima, and they came to Australia in March 1873, on the ship Ramsey. They landed at Maryborough and then went to live at Upper Caboolture, with their five children. Their son, William Jesse was fifteen years old. There were four girls, and they later became Mrs McNamara, Mrs Boustead, Mrs Townsend and Mrs Collins. William Jesse Clark married Marion Lee and they had six children: Gwen, Evan, Owen, Llewellyn, Wally and Marie, and Evan was my Father. Evan Jesse Clarke married Grace Jane Hotten and they had nine children. They were Clarence, Jim. Jack, Doris, Grace, Lloyd, Jean and Marie.Marion Lee. Who was my Grandmother, came out to Australia in 1873. She worked at the Upper Caboolture Hotel, and later married William Jesse Clarke.

FN You were telling me Mrs Godwin that they went to live in Beerwah.

Yes, and my Father later married my Mother and we lived there until we came to Caloundra in 1921 to live. My Father was already fishing in the passage. He was a fisherman.

Can you remember how he started in the fishing industry, what instigated that?

No, I don’t know. I would just think that it was in his blood. He reckons that our relatives got sent out as convicts, he reckons for tickling trout, but it’s not correct. But, anyhow it seemed to be in their blood and it was always in our family, they all liked the fishing.

FN You were telling me that you went to school at Beerwah State School. What year did you start school?

Well, at five years old.

FN That would have been 1916.

Yes, my brother who was the eldest, Clarence, he went there, as were my other brothers, Jim and Jack and then when I became five, I started school.

FN Hop many pupils were in the school, can you remember?

I suppose there would be about thirty at that time I would say.

FN With just one teacher?

No, we had two teachers when I was there. There was a Mr McPhail and then a Mr McCamb and then a Mr Burton. Then a Grace Simpson, she was only a young teacher when she started, she came and I was in her class. I believe that she was a pupil teacher.

FN What sort of thing did they teach you at school, was it just your basic “Three R’s”?

Well, we learned our alphabet. Well, everything, we seemed to learn off parrot fashion, all tables, everything was parrot fashion in those days. Oh no, I think we had a bot of everything around. You know, pretty good General Knowledge I think it was.

FN So you started school at Beerwah State School, did you complete your schooling at Beerwah State School?

No. We came to Caloundra when I was ten.

FN So that was in 1921?

Yes, and I went to Caloundra School for a little while, and I eventually went back to Beerwah School, and then from there, I went to Brisbane, to school, until I was fourteen when I left school. I came home and I went to Nambour Rural School for a while. We learned sewing and cooking and all that type of thing. And the boys all seemed to learn a bit of carpentering and all types of things like that. It was called Rural School because of the fact that most of the pupils came from the land.

FN How did you get from Landsborough to Nambour?

Well, my Father used to go into meet the train with a load of fish and we would catch the train up to Nambour and then come home. It was the ten o’clock train in those days they called it. And then it was the four o’clock, we would come back down on that in the afternoon and we would have to get out at Landsborough. Sometimes I couldn’t get out and I would have to go to Beerwah if nobody was a there to meet me, and stop with a girl friend that’s I used to go to school with, and then come back up the next day. So it was a real business getting to school and home. But, anyhow we did, I learnt how to sew and have always made all my clothes and all the children’s clothes.

FN When your father used to pick you up, you were saying that you had the first “T” model Ford.

Yes, he had a “T” model Ford, one of the first ones.

FN Do you remember much about that?

No, But I can remember once, that he went to wash it, and this was at Beerwah, and took it down neat the creek. It was a fairly deep bank, and he must have forgotten to put the brakes on, and when he got out of it, the thing started to run and it ran down into the creek. And Mum cried, and oh, I’ve never heard such a commotion. We were all upset that the thing was in the creek. But it wasn’t right under. It wasn’t deep enough for that, so he jacked it up on blocks, started her up and put some planks along and he got it out. A he ran it right around the paddock and ran it up under the house and he said “Stop there you bugger!”

FN Prior to you having the T Model Ford, how did you get around, can you remember how you got around then?

Oh yes. When I first was a little girl and came to Caloundra, we rowed. We didn’t even have a motorboat then, and we rowed and stopped one night up at, it was called Westaway’s then, up there where Roy’s orchards are today. Well, we stopped there the night and then rowed the rest of the way down. This was for Christmas holidays, and I wasn’t very old, because I can just remember that and I thought it was awful. I didn’t like that part, sleeping on the straw we had to sleep on.

FN Was it a tent or a shed?

No, it was a little house that the Westaway’s had built. They used to have a lot of cattle roaming around there, and they used to seem to camp in it when they were down that way. And of course we stopped the night, anyone could use it. And there seemed to be a lot of straw on the floor to sleep on and I didn’t like it one bit anyhow, that part.

FN It must have been quite a convoy of yours, with all the kids?

Yes, oh the whole lot, in a boat, a rowing boat. And then later on, we had a buckboard we used to do call it, and two horses. Well, we’d come by road then, down. And when we got to Little Mountain, we used to have to get out of the buckboard, and walk up the mountain so that would help the horses get up the hill. It was fairly steep in those days.

FN Now, with the nine children, how many children were born at home, can you remember?

There were eight of us eight of us were born at home. Marie was born after we had come to Caloundra.

FN She is the youngest? So she was born in Caboolture Hospital?

Yes. She was born in Caboolture Hospital. But a Nurse Hume brought us into the world.

FN Can you remember her first name?

No. I only know her as Nurse Hume and she was a marvellous lady. People would come for her in the middle of the night with a horse and she would get on a horse and ride right up to Maleny or all round the district, only on a horse, horse back, and she’d ride and bring a baby into the world. My Mother said that she deserved the Victoria Cross. She was such a lovely, marvellous person.

FN Can you remember any of the home births, because you were the fourth in line, weren’t you? Can you remember Grace and Jean’s birth?

Oh, I can remember them being born as such. We were all, you know, chased away.

FN Did your Father send off for Nurse Hume?

Well, she used to come and generally stop at our place. And stop for about a week before Mum was due to have a child. And Mum always sewed for her that week, made here a few dresses and that did her until next time she came back. My Mother was a good sewer and she would always make her some dresses, so she was generally at the place. Once, Mum had to get another mid-wife, a Mrs Winkle, Granny Winkle se called her. Nurse Hume never liked any child delivered by Mrs Winkle. She never called it, “Her baby”, “It wasn’t one of her babies, and she used to say. (Nurse Hume lived near Peachester, in the vicinity of Alf’s Pinch, just under the Range).

FN Whereabouts in Beerwah did you live in your old Homestead?

We lived on the old Gympie road that was built, that was what they used to use when the gold rush was on, on that road, old Gympie road, cross the road from the school, we lived there.

FN So that is down further from Bankfoot House going towards Beerwah? Bankfoot House is on the Old Gympie Road, where Cobb & Co. used to stop.

No, there was only the old Coochin Hotel, we just lived near that, not far. You could look across, I suppose for about half a mile away. But we lived near the old Hotel, and that was where the Cobb & Co. used to stop, at the old Coochin Hotel, as it was called then.

FN So, you came to Caloundra in 1921, you had done most of your schooling at Beerwah State School and you came to live in Caloundra. Where about did you live when you moved to Caloundra?

When we first came to live at Caloundra, we bought a house from a Mr. Redfern, it was right on the Bribie Island Passage where the Iceworks operated for the next fifty years. And it was just a little house, we put some extensions on that and we lived there for about five years, and then we built a real big house on the same site.

FN Whereabouts on the Bribie Passsage?

Well, how can I explain it? It is the only allotment that’s right on the water’s edge, along the Passsage. Well, we had right from Caloundra House, but they wouldn’t know I suppose where Caloundra House was, but it was from there along, my Father owned all that, eventually he owned about four allotments there. But there are big units on the block today, our house was taken away quite a few years back now and units were built on it. But my brother still lives along further on some other allotments that he lives on today.

FN That’s Lloyd?

Yes, that’s Lloyd.

FN So you came to Caloundra and your father started his fishing business. Would you like to tell me something about that?

Well, he’d always fished, but then he decided, like his sons, they all came into the business and they built the Iceworks, and fish and Iceworks, and they fished then, right through until my Father retired after the War. But during the war, the military took the Iceworks over.

FN Would you like to tell me where the Iceworks were situated?

It was right along, at the back of our house. We had the house at the front and it was at the back part of the allotment, right on the waters edge. Big jetty and all, there. It was on Maloja Avenue.

FN They were the first Iceworks in Caloundra then? You would have been popular people to come and see.

Oh yes. Yes it was. The butcher then was able to store his meat.

FN What was the butcher’s name?

Charles Eaton was the first butcher in Caloundra, and he used to come around with a little cart, and with a little roof sort of thing over it, you could go out to the cart and buy your meat, you know, instead of going to the shop.

FN Home deliveries?

Yes.

FN Was there anything else delivered to your home in those days?

Yes, fruit, a Mr. Batholomew. He lived up Buderim way, and he used to come down with a car.

FN Did he grow his own fruit?

Yes, well, he might have grown up around that area, and then he would buy some, and he used to come down once a week with fruit and vegetables. But of course, you could always go to Landsborough and get it. Well, we used to but it by the bag. There was such a big family, a bag of beans.

FN What size?

Oh, sugar bag that was, via somebody up at Bald Knob, and we always bought butter by the case, from Caboulture Butter Factory.

FN How much butter would you buy for a large family?

Well, it wasn’t real big, I don’t know, it could have been about fifty-six pounds of butter or something at the time. Of course we had the Iceworks to keep it in, see. But a pound of butter did not last very much. We had a boarding house all the time with our family and the men that worked for my Father. Of course it was Depression in those days and there was always somebody looking for a job, and we had different ones, quite a few men.

FN So, prior to the War, there were those five or six years of Depression, in the early thirties?

Yes, but I didn’t think we noticed it, as bad there, we seemed to make a living. I think fish got terrible cheap at one stage, but all the same. But we made a living. A lot of swagmen. We noticed them all, the swagmen, when we lived at Coochin there.

FN Why was that?

Well, they used to go looking for work. And they’d come, and they always seemed to stop just down at the hill and have their little fire going at night. And we would look

out, and we could see them. We’d say, “Oh, there is a swagman down there,” and nearly every night, there’d be a swagman down at the corner, but I think, they might have camped there. But I think they used to go up under the school to and sleep, especially if it rained, they would get up under the school. At night, after it had quietened down and had a sleep there, and then head off the next day. I can never remember them being involved in any wrong doings.

FN What sort of people were they? Did your parents ever warn you not to go near them?

No, never had anyone ever said wrong thing. No.

FN Were they just desperate people?

Yes, just looking for work. And they used to just walk and look and see if they could get a job and if they couldn’t, they’d walk on to the next town to collect their ration from the Government.

FN Did your father ever employ any swagmen on temporary basis?

No, we did not. Anyone we had were cousins of mine. They worked for us for a while, like Owen Baldwin, they were out of work and lived here. He worked for us for a while. It was all people like that, somebody that knew the family, and they wanted a job. My Father was only too ready to assist where he could.

FN So, what was it like, growing up with nine children?

Well, there was a lot of work, and a lot of washing. I can tell you that, but all the same, it was a lot of fun. We did have a piano and we had a lovely big home with a big verandah. My Mother got the verandah built extra wide, so that we could have parties and dances. Of course, in those days there wasn’t a lot of entertainment in Caloundra and of course that made our house fairly popular. People seemed to congregate there with the family. And then Maltman Hall, when the Maltman Hall came to Caloundra, I could say then we had the time of our lives.

FN I’ll ask you about that later on. Did you have Wireless?

There was a wireless. My eldest brother was a bit inclined, but they were great big boxes, nearly as big as a coffin. They were awful things, and that much static, but he loved it.

FN Which brother was this?

Clarence, the eldest one, and he liked that wireless, but all the same, I thought it wasn’t very good. I didn’t like “static business” and what came out of it.

FN It would have brought news to you from different parts of the world.

Oh yes, Yes, it was real good, especially when Kingsford Smith, flew across the Pacific and Landed. It was a real excitement. We were all out trying to see if we could see him.

FN Do you want to tell me about that? Can you remember what year?

I can’t remember what year, but I can remember, we thought he might have gotten a bit off course and come this way. But anyhow, we didn’t see Kingsford Smith arrive anywhere out in the horizon. But that was one good thing about the wireless, you could get a bit of extra news.

FN During the Depression years, were there many hours spent around the wireless listening to what was going to happen?

No, no. I don’t think wasted too much time there, we would rather be out getting around.

FN As a family of nine children, obviously, your jobs were shared and varied. I was asking you before if you ever went out with your Father fishing.

No, no. We didn’t, there were plenty of men to do that. But we stopped home, we got the food. As soon as they were seen coming down the Passage, my Mother used to say, “The men are coming, get their dinner ready,” or their breakfast ready, or whatever it was. And of course, we had to have it on the table when they arrived there. “It was like cooking for a boarding house every meal,” I said. “There was never anything left”, I said. “They will have that for tea.” There was never anything left for tea. You had to start cooking again. And plenty of washing too, and of course we did play tennis. There was a tennis court in Caloundra.

FN Which tennis court was that?

Well, there was one built around near the surf there. It was really down from the Perle Hotel now, on that recreation ground, you know. It was King’s Boarding House in those days, on that sort of reserve where all the caravans, tents, stop now. Well, there was a tennis court there. We used to go there and play quite a lot of tennis.

FN What families in Caloundra did you play tennis with?

Oh, well, there was Gertie Alderdice. She used to play tennis. Her father was one of the first bakers here. I think, there might have been somebody just before him. But he came, bought out and stopped. They were there for a long while, Alderdice’s were.

FN Were they children of your own age?

Only a girl, Gertie. She was a nice looking girl, same with Dulcie Birrell at the Lightrhouse. She was a tennis nut. She played a lot of tennis. And then Jean Mackay, she was another girl that came over here. Of course, there were always a few boys. My brothers loved tennis. I can’t think of just any more at the moment.

FN But that was a good social outlet?

Yes, yes.

FN How did you get over there, would you just walk over?

Yes. Oh yes, walk and then on a Sunday, sometimes, we would have a tennis match with somebody at Beerwah or Landsborough. They would come out and we’d have a light picnic, a meal. Everyone took something. It was lovely. And that was a tennis match we’d have there. And they used to play some cricket on what was called the Black Flat on those days, not Tripcony’s Park. And that’s where they had their cricket matches. Everyone in Caloundra turned out to that.

FN That was another social day?

Yes, that was another social day.

FN Was that a picnic day?

Oh, yes. Everyone always took food which was good. We’d put it all together, and it was a real picnic. Boil the billy, boil a great big kerosene tin of tea and that. It was lovely. That’s all the type of things that were in those days.

FN What other forms of recreation? You were telling me about when Maltman’s Hall was built. Would you like to tell me about the dancing there?

Oh, we had lovely dances there. Of course, not a band. There used to be a Mrs Billy King and there was Gertie Alderdice, and there was Jean MacKay. They could all play the piano, and they all took a turn; one would [play for one dance, and then somebody else would play for another dance. And that was the only music we had, and a bit of extra, sometimes, if anyone could play a violin or something, and Charlie Shaw, he was my husband’s step brother, he used to play the accordion, and it was lovely. Real old time music that he’d play occasionally.

FN That was Charlie Shaw?

Charlie Shaw, yes. He used to play the accordion and it was lovely.

FN What sort of dances would you be doing? Would it a waltz, fox trot?

Oh yes, waltzes and foxtrot and schottische.

FN What’s a schottische?

Well, it’s a bit of waltz and then you, oh, I don’t know, move your partner a bit and hold hands and go back, that sort of a dance. And then, occasionally, they had the lancers, but that was only once in a while, you know, square dancing. But only all that type of dancing. The Charleston did come in but it didn’t seem to take on here.

(Schottische, a German round dance to the polka music, with waltz like turns alternating with hopping gliding steps. The Military Schottische was a barn dance).

FN Preparing for these dances, would you make your own dresses?

Oh yes. We loved tot dress ourselves. We did dress up in those days, lovely. I mean, Lovely ball dresses, you know.

FN Where would you get the material and the patterns?

Well, you would buy them, but we occasionally went to Brisbane and bought one fore special occasions. Oh well, we could also go to Landsborough, to Tylergeigh’s, that was where, or Brisbane. That’s the only way you could buy a bit of material. There were no shops in Caloundra. Only Rinaldi’s back in the early days, and we could all sew, everyone seemed to do their own sewing, well you had to, otherwise you did not have anything to wear.

FN You’d always wear stockings, and would you wear gloves to a dance, a ball?

A Ball, yes, you’d wear your long gloves, but not to an ordinary dance. But men used to always wear a glove on their hand, a white glove, when they dance with you, so you wouldn’t get your dress dirty. When they used to, you know, [put their hand at the back, where they held you. They always wore a white glove, in those days to dance with you.

FN So, what was your husband’s name?

George Charles Godwin

FN And what year was he born?

Well, he was born in 1903, and his father had the Fish Factory.

FN Do you want to tell me just a little bit about that?

Well, he had the Fish Factory just on Bribie here. He moved it from Toorbul Point to Bribie where the Lion’s Park is today. And when they were children, he was only very young, about eight years old, when his Father was knocked off the boat by some part of the sail, and drowned. It had just got across the bay from Brisbane, it had been a bit of a bad night, and he had just got across.

FN So, you were telling me, your husband’s father, Charles Godwin was knocked off the boat when you husband was eight years old. Now, you were saying Mac Gosling…..

Mac Gosling was on the boat with him

FN How old was he then?

He was only a young man then. I don’t know how old, and he caught the boat, he’d been down underneath, George’s father, said to him, “You can have a rest now, if you like.” Because it was a bad trip, and after a while, he thought the boat was going a bit queer, and he came up, and he saw George’s father in the water come up once. And by the time he got the boat around, he never saw him ever again. But he was found. His body was found about a week later, and he was buried down at Toorbill Point. George was eight years old at that time, well then, they would have to go to school across the Passage. And they used to row themselves across, he and his sister, Evelyn Cochran, who was two years older than George, rowed across the Passage.

FN They would have been eight or ten?

Yes, and they used to walk then, right down along Golden Beach all the way up to the little school that was in Caloundra. And they did that for white a few years until they eventually built a house. They had some land just down below the school, George’s father had bought, because Bulcock’s owned every other bit of land right back to Arthur Street. And so, he bought that. He bought a couple of acres.

FN What year was that, can you remember approximately?

No. I suppose it would be about 1910. I don’t know. It was before I was born. Anyhow, that would be, because he was nine years older than me. But, anyhow they lived there, and eventually, when George got older, he took on carpentry. He became a builder, and he worked for Ernie Rinaldi, who had the shop. And George worked for Ernie Rinaldi, after he had done a bit of work in Brisbane, and went to the Technical College in Brisbane. He went to Brisbane and worked and did a course, went to the Technical College for a bit of extra training, and then he came back here and he worked with Rinaldi. He was with Ernie Rinaldi for years until he went out on his own.

FN Was that before you were married?

Yes, that was long before I was married. Then they built another little house. They pulled the one near the school down and built out of that and some new timber of course, one over opposite where the Fire Station today is, but of course, there was nothing there then.

FN Was that Bulcock Street then?

Yes, that was Bulcock Street then.

FN That was after the sub-division?

That was after the sub-division. They bought a block of land across the road for ten pounds. It was one of Bulcock’s blocks of land, and they built a house on that.

FN Now, after George’s father, Charles was killed, there was George and his sister, what his sister’s name?

Evelyn. She married Bob Cochran. She is still alive. I was talking to her last night.

FN Were there just two children in the family?

Yes. Well George’s mother was married twice. Her first husband whose name was Shaw died. He died, and then she married Charles Godwin. But my husband had a step brother, Charlie Shaw. I think he would have been quite a few years old when she married Charles Godwin. He was the one that played the accordion.

FN At Maltman’s Hall?

Yes.

FN You were telling me, growing up in a family of nine children there would be a lot of washing to do. Do you want to tell me how you got through all this washing for the fishermen and what have you?

Well, we had a copper and had to light the fire under it. And that was always lit early in the morning, and then, it was real day, the washing day was. So many got down to wash and, somebody had to stop up and cook the meal. So, it was either, my Mother generally went down and then we got, well enough off to have washer woman, but we had to work with her. They used to come and wash and we, some of us used to work with her and then we’d iron that afternoon. Once it was dry, we’d bring it all upstairs and we had a great big long dining-room table. And we had got to the stage where there were petrol irons, and they were marvellous things. With a petrol iron, you put petrol in it, and lit it and warmed it up and then you screwed it on, and kept the flame at the right height to adjust the heat. Oh, they were marvellous compared with Mother Pots irons. So we had two of those and we’d get one on each end of the table, and someone would bring them in and damp them down and the other ones would iron. We’d all have a go at ironing. There used to be a lot of cream pants in those days too, by regard to this tennis and cream silk shirts. Well, by the time you got about four or five pairs of cream pants in the wash, it was, oh, it’s a terrible big day. Good job it only happened once a week.

FN Was that one particular day, like a Monday or Tuesday?

Yes, a Monday. Always Monday if it was a fine day, yes.

FN What irons were there before the petrol? What did you say it was?

Mother Pots. Mother Pots irons. You stood them on the stove and warmed them up.

FN On the wood stove. Was it a slow combustion or was it just a wood stove?

Oh no. Just an ordinary wood stove. No, you just stood them of the back of the stove and had to stoke the fire up. It didn’t matter how hot the day was, you still had to stoke up to get the irons hot enough to iron. It certainly made it a hot job. We couldn’t stand in too cool a place, because the iron cooled off too quick. So washing and ironing was hard, but we eventually got a washing machine. They came on the market, but it was a wooden one. It had wooden sides and it had sort of little grooves all the way around it, on the sides. It was flat bottom. And, I don’t know how it just went, but it had four prongs that came down in to it, and you closed the lid over and these four prongs came down into it, and then you stood at the side and you worked it backwards and forwards by lever, and this just made it move. Rotated around backwards and forwards. But that was good for the coloured clothes, or the fishing clothes.

FN Would you put cold water in it?

No. Warm water, out of the copper, and suds, Lux. Yes, Lux in those days and put that in. And just make it nice and warm, and wash them that way. You’d start off with the lighter coloured ones and then you gradually use the same water until it got too dirty, and then you’d have to empty it out, and then put the fishing clothes through.

FN You were telling me about the fishing clothes. Now, that was different. You had to wash those separately. Why was that?

Well, because they were all wool, made out of wool. “Ipswich Flannel” it was called. And my Mother used to buy dozens yards of flannel and make all these for the men, because the fabric was warm against their skin in the winter time. And, see, anything cotton is so sold, and she used to make the pants and the flannel shirts.

FN Would they be long pants?

No, only just to the knees.

FN And they’d wear something on top of that?

Only a flannel shirt. Oh, they’d wear even warm coats over the top. But when they’re really fishing, I suppose they shed a lot of that.

But that was down to their knees, so that they wouldn’t be dangling around their ankles when they got in the water.

FN So, how did your father do his fishing? Was it with a net?

Yes, with nets.

FN In the Pumistone Passage?

Yes, all up the passage.

FN What time would he go? Would he have a strict routine when to go out?

Well, you worked to a tide. See, it got an hour later each day. So, you might start really early in the morning, but then a few mornings later, the tide was an hour later, and an hour later. You know, it was different times that you went out fishing, to suit the higher tide and then when there were big tides at night, especially in the winter time, you have big tides at night, well they used to catch a lot of bream down near the bar. They would come in there, and they’d all go down there at night. But that was only on those very big tides, that they could ever catch them.

FN What did he do with the fish once he had caught them?

Well, he took them in to Landsborough. H put them on the train, and they went to the Fish Markets, in Brisbane. And they were sold then at the Fish Markets, and then you got paid by cheque.

FN Can you remember any stories that he told you about it, or any fishing experience that he had?

Oh yes. Once, we had a man, working for us, a Dave Manners, and he was up the Passage. And there was a shark in the net, and I don’t know how, what happened, it was in the net. But anyhow, he must have got a bit too close to it, it came around and took a great big lump, out the back of his leg there. Well, they had to rush him from there, down to Caloundra, and get him in a car, or whatever we had, and take him to Maleny Hospital. We rushed him up to the Maleny Hospital, and just got there in time. He’d just about bled to death.

FN How did you get him up there, by car?

By car, we had to rush him tight up the hill.

FN What year would that have been? Before World War Two?

Oh Yes.

FN Late 1920s?

Yes. Well, before the War, that was. But anyhow he survived. Of course, they often got stung with a stingray or a fin of some of those John Dory’s, they were very severe and caused terrible pain for a while. But we used to use plenty of hot water and a bit of washing soda, my Mother always put in it, mere hot water and it seemed to eventually cure it. There weren’t many things in those days, home remedies were all we had to rely on.

FN Do you remember any other home remedies that they would have had?

Oh, I don’t know what. Depends on what you wanted to cure, I suppose. I know that they used some sort of cough mixture, you might have bought some little bit of mixture, but yo made your own cough medicine.

FN How would you make that?

I don’t know. You bought some little bit of essence type of thing and then you put all the rest of the things in it, and boiled it up and you would make great big bottles of it.

FN Was there little bit of kerosene that they used to use?

Kerosene used to be used a lot in different things. I don’t say in that, in medicine. But it was used a lot.

FN What sort of things? Can you remember?

Oh. I suppose a little bit in water, especially to wash your floors in. I know that would kill fleas. No, I can’t just remember, really what we used to use it for. Sore throats sometimes. They used to seem to put something on sugar, but I don’t know if it was kerosene. I think with a little drop, you know when you get a sore throat to cure that. But other than that, no, I don’t know much.

FN Getting back to the fishing. Were dolphins always protected? Did your father ever catch any dolphins or porpoises in his net?

Oh, they used to get an odd one. Occasional sharks, there were sharks in the Passage. In those days there would have been more sharks than there would be today.

FN What about the whale watch? Can you remember seeing the whales come close to shore?

Oh, Yes. We’d see them, spouting and that. You would see a real lo at certain times.

FN Do you want to tell me about the time you went up there?

Well, I’d tell you one time my brothers went out snappering in a boat.

That was different from the net fishing. We used to go out and snapper fish by line out here. And they were out there fishing and they’d seen a whale. And they thought, “Oh, it is heading towards the boat.” And anyhow, it went down, and they all got excited, and banged the boat, and made a terrible noise, and it went under the boat and came up and had all their lines dragging on its back. It had gone right under the boat. But anyhow, it didn’t upset them. So they were glad to get up their anchor and get out. But no, you would just see them spouting and that, going past. It was lovely to watch them, you’d see quite a few at a time.

FN What year would that be? Before you were married, when you were sixteen?

Oh yes. A bit older, from when I was sixteen to twenty six, but it could have been after that too, but I mean those were the years when I watched them.

FN Have you noticed a difference in the bush and the scrub around here?

Yes, because when we went to school, there were no houses further back than Bulcock Street. There was only an odd house, in Caloundra here and there. And there was nothing, it was only brush and there was lovely plain, well down from behind the school, down towards the supermarket, down towards Tripcony Park, in that area. There was a lovely plain, and all the beautiful wild flowers, boronia and all sorts of ground orchids, flowered beautifully every year. But that, you never see anything, now the orchids are long gone now. And when we came home from school, of course, we always picked a lovely bunch of flowers to take home for the house. You didn’t have many other flowers only what we picked.

FN What about wild life, can you remember seeing any kangaroos or koalas?

Oh yes, plenty, and there were koalas.

FN Koalas in Caloundra?

Well, around. I don’t say just here, but just around. Often on your way to Landsborough, you’d say, “Oh, look there’s a koala in the gum tree.” But they got cleaned out terribly, in the time that there was a season. They opened a season when you could shoot them for their skins and that killed a terrible lot, it was sad.

FN What year was that, can you remember?

Oh, I don’t know. It was in the Depression time and they used to allow people to shoot them. That was sad. Of course, kangaroos, they could shoot kangaroos for their skin, and the same with flying foxes.

There were that many flying foxes, and a big camp up the Passage and they could get their claws, and they paid them, it might have been a shilling, a pair or something, I don’t know if it was even that much. It might even have been more like a penny for their claws, but there was a bounty paid for flying foxes.

FN What would they do with their claws?

Well, they used to take them into the Council and they’d pay them. They were a pest, and to get rid of them. My brothers did a bit of shooting, but they used to do a bit of duck shooting and that. But of course, we used to eat the ducks. In fact we have tried a bit of everything. My brothers were always dying to have a bit of kangaroo tail soup. So he brought one home, but I didn’t like that very much. I was always a bit fussy on what I ate, but anyhow, he ate it and he said it was good.

FN Have you ever eaten wallaby? I have read a recipe for wallaby.

No, I haven’t, but Mum cooked a kangaroo and so I think it would be a bit the same. But porcupines, people used to eat those a bit in those days and they said that they were really delicious. But I have never tried one. But I know people that have and they said they taste very much like pork. But, other than that, you have to depend, well, a while back, on a bit of that sort of food, because there wasn’t always butchers. There wasn’t always a butcher shop in Caloundra. If you got a bit tired of fish, I suppose they tried a few ducks on the menu.

Tape 1/Side B

FN Your father, Mr Evan Jesse Clarke, when he came to Caloundra, he was involved with the Caloundra Progress Association. What sort of things did the Caloundra Progress Association do?

Well, they formed that years after we had been here a long while.

FN About 1930s

Yes. Well, they decided to build a School of Arts.

FN Where was the School of Arts built?

Built on the top end of Bulcock Street and Canberra Terrace, at that corner, just down there, near where the Post Office is today, but the Post Office wasn’t there then. It was up at the Lighthouse, running the Post Office was part of the Lighthouse Keeper’s job, in those days.

FN Why did they build the School of Arts? Was it a community hall?

Yes, to hold whatever. Dances and anything that was held in Caloundra. It was all held in the School of Arts, from then onwards. It took a lot to raise the money. It was hard to raise money, because we didn’t have many ways to raise money. I know we used to have moonlight trips. We had a boat, and we’d have moonlight trips and we would also do that for the church too, up the Passage. But most of the business people in Caloundra in those days, would put in, I think, a hundred pound. It wasn’t less, so I don’t know if it was anymore, and they lent that money free of interest until they’d made enough money and as they made a hundred pound, they would pay somebody off, raise a further one hundred pound, they would play the next one off and that just went on until everyone was paid off.

FN That would have been about 1930s that Caloundra was working as a community together in those days?

Yes, it was starting to. There were quite a few places going up over Kings Beach there, a little shop sprung up there.

FN What was the name of that shop?

Well, there was Fristrom’s and Farlow’s. Fristroms’s had more of a Guest House and a little café, with a shop underneath. And Farlow’s was on the corner. And they had a very big family. Very marvellous people, they were too.

FN What was Mr. Farlow involved with?

I don’t know what he was involved with when he first came, but he worked, he and Mr Henzell became partners. I think he’d sold land. I think Henzell came and they joined partners, and became land agents, selling land and that, until I don’t know, he seemed to be here for years. Mr Farlow was an agent prior to Mr Henzell’s arrival. There were a lot of boys and then they all, I think a part of them went away. Some went t Mt Isa. He got there, right up there in the north, old Mr Farlow in the end. But they left Caloundra eventually. There are a few of his grandchildren that still live in Caloundra.

FN Your mother was involved with the Methodist Ladies’ Guild round in the 1930s.

Yes. And I learned to drive when I got my licence when I was seventeen. And I went to Landsborough to get my licence because there was no Police Station here and a Sergeant Burke was the policeman in Landsborough, and I went in to him and said, “I have come to get my licence.” He looked at me and said, “Well, if your father will trust you with the car, I’ll give you a licence.” So, that’s how I got my licence.

FN You didn’t sit for a test?

No, I was all prepared to go, drive up Maleny range. But anyhow, he thought my Father was strict enough that he wouldn’t give me the car, if I couldn’t drive. So, I got he licence. But, Mum was on the Ladies’ Methodist Guild and of course I used to drive, and I became a member of the Ladies’Methodist Guild.

FN What was that involved with? You actually set up fund raised for the first Methodist Church in Caloundra.

Yes, to raise money to build the first Methodist Church.

FN Where was the first Methodist Church?

It was up near the lighthouse, just at the end of Arthur Street here and the lighthouse, that top end of the street.

FN Was it a very small church?

Yes, it was a very small place.

FN How many pews would it have, four on each side?

It wouldn’t be any more than that. I suppose it was twenty feet, eighteen feet long, twenty feet at the most, it wasn’t a very big place. But anyhow, we thought it was pretty good.

FN Did you have a resident minister? No, he lived in Landsborough. He used to come out here. The one I remembered mostly when we were building the church, was a Mr Carter. He was a real marvellous worker too. He used to have to come all the way out here, he did have a little old car and he used to always come out and he went to whatever was on if possible, and he had church on a Sunday.

FN Would he stay her for lunch with a family before going back?

Yes, he often came down to our place and had lunch. I suppose he went to other ladies at church too, but he’d come down to our place a lot. I think there were a lot of us, and he didn’t mind a little bit of a talk and a bit of nonsense.

FN So your Sunday would probably be church in the morning, a big lunch? Is that the way it would go?

Yes. We always had a sort of special dinner on Sundays in those days, baked dinners and all that type of thing.

FN Was everyone supposed to be home for lunch on a Sunday? I suppose it would be difficult if your father was fishing?

No, they didn’t fish Sundays, because over the weekend they couldn’t get their fish to market. So, they didn’t always fish of a Sunday.

FN You were saying that your father was a very strict man. In what way was he strict?

Well, he believed in, not breaking the law. He believed that whatever the law was, you should abide by it. He was strict like that. And of course, the boys used to like to do a little bit of things that they shouldn’t and of course he wasn’t very pleased with them when they did something that was a bit naughty.

FN What sort of thing?

Oh well, you know what boys do. I can’t just remember. I know he used to get very annoyed.

FN Did he have a cane or any sort of disciplinary measures like that?

No, no. I think they told us off by their tongue.

FN What about going out. You would have been, say probably sixteen, when you first started going out? Would you always have to go in the company of your brothers?

I went with my Mother and Father and the whole family. We all went together in those days. You never seemed to gout unless your mother and father were there, because they loved dancing too. And if I did go to anything, as I grew up, it was always with my brothers, yes until I met George. And I was well up in years then, you know, I wasn’t real young then. I might have known him then, but I wasn’t really, what would you say, going with him.

FN Can you remember the first time that you went out to a big dance? Was that a big occasion for you?

No. I can’t just remember the first time, no. You’d just go to Balls around the district. There were different Balls that came up, the Maleny Show Ball, or they might have one in Mooloolah. Some special Ball, and we’d go, seemed to have always liked to go to al those and not miss out on them. No. I can’t remember any special, I wasn’t a Deb anyhow. But they had Debutante Balls back in those days,

FN Did you ever go dancing at Glideway?

Yes, but I was married then, and there were more Fancy Dress Balls for the children. They always had one every year, and it was a big event and the used to have it in the Glideway, that was the school, Fancy Dress. We used to work for a week, dressing all our kids up, it was a real, good fun.

FN So you met your husband. What year did you meet your husband?

Well, I can’t just remember. We knew one another. We must have just got a bit friendly, and then we sort of got more serious.

FN Did you get engaged?

Well, we got engaged to an extent, but I said “No, I didn’t want an engagement ring. I’d rather have a lounge suite.” So he bought a lounge suite with the money. He built a lovely little home.

FN Where was that?

Right opposite the Police Station, that is today in Bulcock Street. But there was no Police Station then, there was nothing on that side of the road then. Well, there were two allotments on this side we owned, he bought. And he built a lovely little new home, which I was terribly proud of, and we had it nicely furnished, but like I said, “I’d rather have a lounge suite than and engagement ring.” So I ended up with a nice lounge. And we didn’t owe one penny on anything when we were married, because he was able to build a place, I suppose.

FN He was a builder. And did he go to your father and ask your hand in marriage? Was that the way that was done in those days?

I don’t know. I think he took it for granted that he was going to marry me. I don’t know. I can’t remember too much, but no, I don’t think there was too much of that done.

FN Did you get married in Caloundra?

Yes.

FN Which church?

In the Church of England Church, St. Andrews.

FN That is the same church that is there today? (1987)

Yes. See, my husband was a Catholic and I was a Methodist, so we compromised and got married in the Church of England, and our children were brought up Church of England.

FN In those days, you couldn’t really marry a Catholic because you had to convert, didn’t you?

You had to either do that or let the children be Catholic. Well, I didn’t want that and George didn’t expect it. I mean, we worked it out, that’s what they’d do and that’s how, we worked that out real good, no problems with that. But I go to the Uniting Church. After the children grew up, I went back to the Uniting Church. My husband didn’t go to church a lot, but he was a very good living man, he was very honest and lived a very good life.

But he didn’t think there was any need to go to church a terrible lot. Though his mother was a Catholic, and had the first Catholic service that was ever held in Caloundra, held in her little sitting room in Bulcock Street.

FN Is that right? Can you tell me any more about that?

Just that the priest used to come up from Caboolture, by train to Landsborough and catch the car out, it was a car in those days, and stopped the night. He’d have Church early the next morning and Mass.

FN Whereabouts in Bulcock Street was that?

That was right where she lived. Just few doors from me, opposite the Fire Station now.

FN So all Bulcock Street would be mainly little houses?

No, there weren’t many houses. They were just built here and there. There was an allotment between their place and ours and I lived near George’s mother until she died, next door, but one vacant allotment between us and her.

FN Your mother-in-law’s name was Mrs Maryanne Godwin, ands she lived in Bulcock Street, and you were just telling me that she started the first Catholic Church, or provided a room.

Well, she didn’t start it. She used to just let them use her sitting room for a service when they came. When the priest came down, of course, there was no other place.

FN Was that 1920s prior? Was it around World War Two or World War One?

Well before World War Two. In the 1920s. Yes, about the early 1920s I should think. And she used to provide the room for the priest.

FN What about Mac Gosling, a while back we were talking about him. He was a real private person, wasn’t he, something to do with his disfigurement or something?

Well, I don’t know whether he was a very private person. He was a very friendly man. He had a limp. I don’t know what caused that limp, George might know. But I don’t know if it was an accident. But he lived on Bribie, and his father was the Lighthouse keeper, a year ago, far back as I van remember, in the from light, and Robert’s had the back light, as they called it. One was closer to the ocean beach and that was called the Front Light, and his parents were on that, and then later, he grew up and took that job over.

FN So, he never really left Bribie?

No. He stopped there until he retired, and he eventually married. He had two daughters, and retired. I don’t know where the daughters are today, but he is long gone.

FN Well, Caloundra was quite a strategic point in World War Two, very strict with blackouts and that. Can you tell me a little bit about that? You would have had a couple of children then?

Yes. I had two children, when my husband joined up, and went away And he was away for nearly three years, he joined up just before I had my second child, which we thought by the time he got called up, she would be born, and we would be right. But they had him in the air force, quick and smart, and he was gone and up in Bundaberg and I was here, living in the little house in Bulcock Street, and I had one baby. But she was two and a half when the other one was born.

FN What was her name?

Lorna.

FN What year was she born?

1940. Faye was born inn 1942. And with that, all of a sudden, I had to get up in the night and I thought, I’m going to have the baby. And I had this little girl, and I didn’t want to wake her up in the middle of the night. So I left her there. And I did walk up to George’s mother and sang out and said to her, “I’m going down home,” I said, “but Lorna is in the house,” I said. So, I said, “Listen, she is fast asleep.” But I just wanted them to know that she was there. So I went down home and woke my family up, and the got up.

FN Where were they living at that time?

Right on the water’s edge, at the Iceworks. That was the Iceworks back in those days. So then, we came back up and I packed my port and away we went, and Lorna offcourse stayed with George’s mother, and I went up and had Faye. George had seen her just a couple of times, once when he was in Bundaberg, he came home for the weekend, and before they sent him away to New Guinea, he was home for Christmas dinner. He went away, and h was for nearly two years. And we never saw him all that time. She was about two and a half when he got home.

FN He was a lot older than you, wasn’t he? When you got married, you were twenty six, and he was thirty five.

Yes, he was nine years older than me.

FN So, when he went to war, he was almost forty?

Yes.

FN Why did he go in the end?

Why? Because the Japs had come into the war and I suppose he thought his country was worth the fight. He didn’t want them to arrive here, on the door step, so he went up there.

FN And can you remember where you were or how you found out that the news of the war had ended?

Well, George came home on leave. That’s the first leave he had in all that time. He came home, and that was a bit of excitement too. One morning I got a telegram, of course, in those days, you got telegrams.

FN How did you get the telegrams?

From the Post Office. And they came down with it and told me, it was a Saturday morning that he would be home that afternoon on the bus. And of course, he had to come from Brisbane, flew from Townsville to Brisbane, and had to catch the train back up, and bus out to Landsborough. And he got home about four o’clock I think it was. It was quite an exciting day.

FN How long since you’d seen him?

Oh, I hadn’t seen him for nearly two years, but he had been away nearly three years, not quite three years, the whole period from when he left.

FN That must have been an excitement?

Oh, it was! He was always telling me how when he got home, he’d “love a bit of steak, a grilled steak and apple pie.” So, as soon as I heard that he was coming, I rushed up to the butcher and got some steak, and made an apple pie that night for tea, and I suppose I got cream. I don’t know if I had cream of custard, whatever, but anyhow, it made him sick. It was too rich. He wasn’t used to the rich cooking, so he got sick.

FN When he arrived home, he also brought the news that the war was finished?

No, no. It wasn’t finished, but he was on leave, when we got word that the war was finished. But they told him up at New Guinea, they said, “After you do this next landing,” see, he’d done so many landings all up along the coast of New Guinea as they gradually took them in with an American unit, and they said, “If you go to Borneo, this last one,” they said, “then we’ll give you some leave. We promise you, we’ll get you leave.” So, of course, they went into Borneo, and he’d come out safe and got home and got leave. And that was the end. The war ended while he was home on leave. So he soon got out.

FN Were there many celebrations in Caloundra? Did they go dancing in the streets?

Oh, it was a big day. After that, when any of those chaps came home, as they’d come home, a Mr Parry, he had a taxi service, and he always went to Brisbane, he did this for nothing, went and picked them up. And when he got to Caboolture, he rang up and told the people in Caloundra that he was on his way. And we all got prepared in the main street and gave them a real welcome home. Everyone that came, that’s what happened. He was a marvellous man, Mr Parry, the way he used to do that. He did that all for free.

FN It sounds like Caloundra in those days, really worked together as a community, very close knit.

Yes, they did. There were some lovely celebrations and excitement, when the war ended.

Do you think things shave ever been the same since the war? Did you notice the change?

I don’t know. In fact, I had two more children.

FN How many children did you have in all?

Four girls.

FN So you had two after.

I had two after the war.

FN What are their names?

I had Faye, the baby born during the war. And then I had Diane, the one you met, and Susan.

FN What year was Diane born?

When did the war end? About twelve months after that I suppose, 1946. I think she is about forty now.

FN And then your youngest one.

Yes, she wasn’t invited, I always tell her .She came fourteen months after I had Diane, I had Susan then. We did never have a boy. We would have liked a boy, but anyhow, we got lovely sons-in-law, so that’s the main part.

FN You’ve lived here most of your life and you have seen a lot of changes in Caloundra and also the social side of it. How do you think things have changed in say, from the 1960s?

Well, I’d rather have lived in my day than these days, that’s all I can say because, I think the children of these days have a lot more to put up with than what we did. We could walk anywhere and nobody ever said a wrong word to us. But you can’t let your children run around today like that. And. It didn’t matter where you went, no harm ever seemed to come to us. But, could walk through the bush to school and back, all that sort of thing. Well, mothers seem to do nothing but drive children to school, drive them somewhere else. Everywhere they want to go, they seem to have to be drive, don’t they? But changes, I think the town, I still love Caloundra. I think it’s a lovely place. Some things they are doing, I don’t uphold, but of course, that won’t stop them from doing it, will it?

FN You don’t want to mention those?

Oh, I don’t mind mentioning it. I think Tripcony Park, for one thing, should never have been let got to developers. And I still say that the Civic Centre should never dell drink when there’s anything on for young people, they don’t let young people go under eighteen. “They cannot go,” I said, “because they’re not eighteen.” And my Grandchildren couldn’t go to concerts that young people go to, because they weren’t eighteen. And yet they put them on for young people. I don’t think they should ever sell drink. If they want it for the restaurant, yes. That should be what they use it for, that’s what it was put in for. But other than that, I thin it’s not too bad of a place, but that are just my two things that I don’t uphold.

FN Have you done any investigation into the sewerage outfall at all? Have you got any comments on that?

Yes. I’m against that, myself. They’ve run one out into the sea at Moffatt Beach. They were going to take it out twice as far and of course, they got it that far and I don’t know, it was a bit hard, I don’t know what happened, but they just left it go there.

FN So, it’s only gone half the distance than it should have gone?

Yes, than it should have gone. And my brother reckons now, that when the sea mullet come around, as soon as they hit that, they head straight out to sea. I think we are polluting up Australia terrible. The things we do, we don’t know what to do with it, and so we run it into the ocean.

FN Do you remember Tooway Lake when it was clean?

Yes, when it was clean and flowing, yes, I can. And I can remember Currimundi. It was the loveliest, cleanest place. You could swim in it any time. But of course with all that going on it now, you could not swim. And it used to open itself and clean itself out. But of course with all those big canals built back it doesn’t clean itself out like it used to. And it used to, if you got a lot of rain and that, run out, and it was a lovely and clean place.

FN They have got a sign at Moffat Beach now that says, that the lake is unfit for swimming in? It’s a very small sign.

Oh, it would be! I wouldn’t put my toe in it, let alone for swimming and that. Oh no, it would be awful to swim in that!

FN That’s only happened over the last fifteen yeas?

Yes. That was called Wilson’s Lake, in my day.

FN Why was that?

Because people by the name of Wilsons lived just on this side of it, and the lady, Mrs Wilson, was drowned in that lake, years ago.

FN Was she the owner of a guest house, was it?

I don’t know if it was a guest house, but it was a little house, it could have been a guest house. But I know it was a place that got burnt down before I came here.

FN And she drowned before you came?

Yes, oh, long before I came, but that was before it was changed to Tooway. And the same with Currimundi, it was Garamanda, till I think Sir Leslie Wilson, the Governor came, and he called his house “Currimundi,” and I think they decided to change the name of the lake to Currimundi.

FN What was it called before?

Garamanda.

FN Do you know the spelling of it? It’s an Aboriginal name?

Yes, I think it was Garamanda. I would think that’s how you spell it. It’s an aboriginal word and that was what it was. But when I say it now, my sons-in-law throw off at me and then I’d say, “It was Garamanda before it was Currimundi.”

FN So really, Sir Leslie Wilson is probably responsible for the change of that name.

Well, I don’t know if he was responsible but I think, he had Currimundi House, and I suppose they thought that would be a bit poshy.

Did you know much about the Wilson’s?

Yes, they used to come up here a lot.Yes, Sir Leslie Wilson.

FN Did you know Lady Wilson?

Yes, she a very ordinary lady and she loved a bit of fishing in the surf.

FN She did a lot of fund raising in World War Two?

Yes, and she used to come here. Sometimes we’d have a ball and they’d come to the ball, for just special things. The Governor was going to be there. I don’t know, and of course, just to draw the crowd.

FN What about when you first came to Caloundra. Were there any Aboriginals around?

No. not when I came. But when Allen King came, there were Aboriginals. I better not tell you the naughty stories that….

FN Go on.

Well, he was getting married. Allen King came here, he used to drive some other Governor. He was their chauffeur in those days and of course, drive a horse and buggy and then he decided to live here. And he started that Guest House. When he was getting married, and there were a lot of Aboriginals around in those days, and he said to them, “Now, listen, you’ll have to come, just, cover yourself up.” He said, “I’m getting married, and I’m bringing my wife, and you cannot come looking like that,” So, when the next time they came to see him, they had a jam tin. They were wearing a jam tin.

FN Over their essentials?

Yes, that’s how they covered themselves up. He told us that. He used to love to tell that story.

FN What happened to the Aboriginals in the area?

I don’t know, but there were the Daltons, who were living here. But of course, they were from a mission, they were a very nice family, the Daltons. Mr Dalton had a big family and they used to live around here, and got very friendly, we got friendly with everyone and they used to come to our place. The kids did a lot. And there was Herbie and my brother, I think it was Lloyd, and he used to go fishing, and they used to have a little boat, and they had a little net, and they fished, Herbie and him. And one time, Mum was going out. I don’t know whether it was Lloyd or Stan, it might have been Stan. But anyhow, she said, “Now, we’re going to Beerwah to see some sports.” So she said that Herbie could come.” She said, “Go down and have a shower.” So he got under the house, well, Stan scrubbed him that much, that he nearly scrubbed his skin off, to make him look white. But anyhow, he got handed out a set of clothes, as Mum always did.

FN Did they have clothes?

Oh yes, they had clothes. But Mum always didn’t mind when she’d dress one. She always saved clothes.

FN What year would that be?

That was early in the piece, it was only in the late twenties.

FN What sort of conditions did they live in? Did they have a humpy or a house?

Well, they had a little house. No, they had a little place here in Caloundra.

FN So, they were that civilised?

Oh yes, they were all civilised. They had a big family and their daughters eventually married. They worked for us, and Miss Lulu, as we used to call her. And she used to come and wash, they used to wash, to help us do our washing and work with us. She used to love the day there. Mrs. McEvoy, she married a chap McEvoy. But anyhow, she used to come. And so, I don’t know how many years ago but before I came up here to live, she’d come over there and she got to know I lived across the road from the Police Station. So, she came over to see me. She was that pleased, of course, she was an elderly lady then. She looked at me and she said, “Would you mind if I kissed you?” I said, “I’d love you to kiss me,” And she’d give me the biggest cuddle and she was lovely, they were all lovely. They were lovely family, those McEvoys.

FN Has she got a son Bill, McEvoy?

No. She didn’t have any children, that Mrs McEvoy, didn’t have any. And there was Dicky Dalton, and there was a Horace Dalton. No, he wasn’t really one of their family.

FN The Daltons and the McEvoys were intermarried.

Yes, the Dalton family married into those McEvoys, like she married a McEvoy and there was one, I can’t think of her name, she married a white chap, but he used to drink a lot, but they got to drinking later on, not at early stage, they didn’t drink, it was really later on.

FN I heard that most of the Aboriginals didn’t start drinking until much later.

No. But Dicky Dalton, he used to live out near the rubbish dump, as it is now. And he used to come in. He used to come past the house. But he would never talk when he was going up, but after he’d been to the hotel and come back, he’d always love to have a talk to you.

FN Which hotel was that? Was that the Old Caloundra or…

No, I’m talking about Perle. But years ago, of course, it was only the old Hotel Francis.

FN You were saying the other day about Sam Leach. He was quite a well know fisherman.

Well, there was Sam Leach, and there was Harry Leach. There were two Leaches.

FN Were they brothers?

I think so. And they were fishermen. They were here early in the piece.

FN Where did they live?

Down on the flat. They only had a little building. I think it was more on the reserve, they didn’t own the land, it was built on part of the flat.

FN Did Sam Leach do any fishing for your father?

No, not for my Father. He was a fisherman here early in the piece.

FN What about Mr Olsen? Do you know anything about him?

Yes, August Olsen. I can remember him when I was young.

FN He had one of the big houses?

He built a little house. George said he didn’t always live just there at Leach Park. He had a little house there, and I’ve probably got pictures of his little house. But he lived up at Golden Beach, and he eventually built that little place. But I only remember him when he lived there, at Leach Park, when I was a child. But George said he lived up further. He had no roof in his mouth or something, he was a bit hard to understand.

FN Was he a hermit type person?

Well, he was a fisherman, and he was a marvellous old chap, and I don’t know if you’d call him a hermit. No, he seemed to be very friendly with everyone around. But I think that because he was hard to understand, made him a little bit reserved. Then there an old Mr Hollingsworth. When I was a child, he only just lived down where the Hibiscus Park is. I remember we used to come down here for holidays that was before I lived here.

FN Before 1921?

Yes, and when he eventually built just out the road, nearly opposite Big Rooster, on the opposite side of the road, he bought that off my Aunty. I don’t know when she bought that, but we used to keep horsed on, when we came here on holidays, and it had a fence, they used to put their horse in there. But anyway, she wanted to sell it. And he got a bit interested in it.

And so she said. “I never let him out of my sight.” Once she knew he was interested in it. So he eventually bought it. And he lived there and he had bees and honey. And everyone went out there to but Hollis’ Honey. Well, you bought candied, you could buy the other. I think the blossoms round here, they must have all liked the blossoms. And the Hollie’s House, eventually, he sold that up, and bought a place on May’s Estate and lived in there. He calls it Hollie’s House.

FN Is it still there?

Yes, Hollie’s House is still there. Well, I think that’s about all I can tell you.

FN Would you just tell me a little bit about the Passage before we finish?

Well, I went up the Passage the other day on the Love Boat, I’ll tell you this bit of modern day, last Thursday, and I’d never enjoyed a day so much for years. I said, “That’s one place in Caloundra that hasn’t changed.” The Passage is still lovely.

FN You don’t think the Passage has changed?

No, I said, “Those old gum trees that were there, they were there when I was a kid. They were there before Captain Cook.” And I bet they didn’t look any different to him. And we went up to Roy’s orchards and looked around, were served a lovely lunch on the boat, and came back, and had afternoon tea.

FN So, you would say, out off all of Caloundra, one thing that has not changed, is the Passage.

Not changed is the Passage. It still is lovely and no different to what it was in my day.

FN Whereabouts does the Love Boat take you?

It takes you from there at Lloyds Wharf, and right up the Passage to Roy’s. And then, they have an orange orchard and that, and they have been there for years. He tells you the history of all the Passage as you go up. We went to Roy’s and heard all a bout that. And they’ve got a door there that was on the Westaway’s house. It’s over a hundred and something years old, they say, and I think that would be quite correct.

And it’s got all these names on it. So I took my cousin up wit me to show her, her mother’s name. Well, it was there, Yeo, her name, Ivy Yeo, she was, but she’d become a Mrs Warrick. And then we found a whole lot more names that must have been there during the war, on the door. I’d seen that name on it, and I didn’t bother looking for any more.

FN Well, thanks very much for your time Mrs Godwin. It’s been a pleasure to have interviewed you. Thank you very much.

End of Interview

CALOUNDRA CITY LOCAL HISTORY PROJECT

Interview Number: OH016

Name: Doris Mary Godwin

MaidenName: CLARKE

Date of Birth: 31stDecember 1912

Place of Birth: Coochin Creek (Beerwah)

Mother’s Name: Grace Jane HOTTEN

Mother’s Date of Birth: 7th July 1890

Birthplace: Castle Hill, Indooroopilly, Brisbane

Father’s Name: Evan Jesse CLARKE

Father’s Date of Birth: 4TH September 1884

Birthplace: Upper Caboolture

Mother’s Occupation: Home Duties

Father’s Occupation: Fisherman/Owned Iceworks, Caloundra

Date of Marriage: 11th November 1939

Place of Marriage: St Andrew’s Church of England, Caloundra

Name of Spouse: George Charles GODWIN born 1903

Occupation of Spouse: Builder/Carpenter

Names and Birth Dates of Children:

1. Lorna 7/9/1940 4. Susan 1/3/1948

2, Faye 27/4/1943

3. Diane 13/11/1946

Locality(ies) in which Interviewee grew up: Beerwah and Caloundra

Names of Educational Institutions attended: Beerwah State Primary School

Caloundra State Primary School

Bulimba State Primary School

Nambour and District Rural School

Interviewer: Felicity Napps

Date of Interview: 3rd August 1987 Number of tapes recorded: One