So many stories were floated during our session that it was very difficult to whittle them down to this. We are grateful. With thanks to Stockland.
There’s a show called ‘Call the Midwife’, which shows you exactly what our flat in Rotherhithe was like. We lived there until 1953. At primary school we had the cod liver oil tablet, spoon of malt, bottle of milk and your school dinner. They were trying to build up our systems because we were still on rations.
In the winter time the fog was smog. You’d have one foot on the curb and one foot on the road and had to work out where to walk but you still had to go to school whether it was foggy or not.
I was excited when we sold up and moved to Australia - an adventure. But in late 1967 foot and mouth disease had hit and people weren’t allowed to fly so there were 400 extra people on our ship, without their luggage. Poor people.
My ex got his first job on a farm in Babikan. We had quite a big cottage actually. The only problem was there was a toilet out the back. I went out one night and there was a fox. That was it, from then on we had a bucket in the shower. If I saw that fox, what else was there out there!
The farmer should never have taken us on. He didn’t like Poms. He made it very difficult for us. Eventually we just got in the car and drove back to Perth, made arrangements and said ‘we’re going’. We ended up in Boragoon. My ex actually got a job with this guy who got four men go build a house in the country for a farmer. He’d paid for all of the goods to be delivered. The workers went out to start building but never saw the guy again. He’d nicked off with the farmer’s money. For a week I didn’t even know where my ex was, as there were no mobile phones in those days. The farmer helped him get back to Perth.
Mum was working for a curtain mob and the boss said she wanted someone to do some sewing but she didn’t want someone to do full time. So I got into curtain making and soft furnishings, working from home; I had been a dressmaker in the UK. Eventually we bought a house in the new estate in Whitfords. It was a flattened sand pile. Waneroo Road was still a country lane. While we were there I met my husband. We ended up with six kids; three of mine and three of his. We worked together to have schools built in Kallaroo, Padbury, Craigie and Hilarys.