Janice Kelly

A Coolgardie baby, Janice moved to Perth in 1942. Apart from a short stay in Geraldton she lived in Kingston Avenue, West Perth until 1958. Janice was one of five children; one died in Kalgoorlie as an infant. She had four children and has three grandchildren. Her eldest son died in Paris in 1995. Growing up, Janice would think nothing of walking into Perth and she has great memories of the City through the 1940s and 1950s: the beauty of St George’s Terrace, two storey houses on Adelaide Terrace, Flower Day, parades, concerts on the Esplanade, the one o’clock gun from Kings Park. She recalls the ferries and the trams, linking the city to everywhere else in the north, and the trolley buses that one caught along the river. She says that community, especially after the war, was still very much in evidence, and she never felt unsafe. Janice talks us through some of these memories of Perth from the 1940s.

perth history social enterprise