Early Life – Young Years

I was born in Mitchell, Queensland. I have two older brothers – Dempsey who dies a couple of years ago and Kenny who lives in Brisbane. After my mother dies my father lived with another woman and they had two children – David and Lynette. David was killed in a car accident.

I lived on the Mission at Yumba which was out of Mitchell. The houses were two small rooms and we had to build on to them. We had no water at the camp so we had to go to the river for it. We had to bath in the river too. There was no electricity so all the cooking was done on the open fire and camp ovens. We used “fat lights” to see at night.

I went to school at the Mission School which was half way between town and camp. NO white people were allowed to go to the Mission School and no black people were allowed to go to the town school.

When we came home from school in the afternoons we would go hunting for food such as wild berries, and bananas and porcupine and we would take our shanghais and shoot birds. We would take matches and cook them while we were out hunting. Our parents used to catch goannas and Mum would cook kangaroo tail and porcupines. We used to for about a mile and a half to the slaughter yard. We would help the slaughter men and they’d give us all the ‘curly guts’ the innards from the beast and we would take it home and cook it up and have a feed before breakfast. We’d get the bullocks cheeks, brains and tripe, ‘running guts’ – we thought it was wonderful. We only bought other meat when we could afford it.

The houses at the mission were timber and iron. We got the sheets of iron from the rubbish tip, four-gallon drums and square kerosene tins etc. we would put them out and straighten them. Then nail or wire them on to the house. We spent some very sleepless nights if it was windy wondering if the house would blow away.

Sometimes to keep warm in the winter, we used to run and go after cows and stand on the ground where the cows had been lying. We would warm our feet up. We kept warm by the fire too – it was the main thing of the camp.

Moving Camp

Later the authorities decided to put the blacks and the whites together in school in Mitchell. The Council bulldozed down the mission houses. We were given a couple of weeks to find a house in town. The people didn’t want to move and they didn’t want to pay rent either.

Later we moved to Townsville and Dad got a truck. We went to Charleville and he built an Aerodrome up there. I went to a Catholic school for a while there. Later we moved to Roma where I went to school.

Working Days

I left school at 14 and got a job droving sheep. At the age of 18 we moved back to Mitchell and we all had bug hopes of working on the big cattle stations. I remember how hard we worked in those days.

We would go down and unhobble about 40 horses every morning in the wet dewy grass, our hands used to be so cold that we couldn’t move them. You’d come back to the camp and have to get going for the day. The boss would be yelling at you. We’d get paid about 30 bob a week that’s about $3. We worked unlimited hours and you’d have to watch the cattle through the night to make sure that they didn’t break.

In 1969-71 I came to the Coonamble district and I worked at Haddon Rig, burr cutting. By this time Jean and I were together. She had children - but I did not. Then later I worked on Warrena for 19 years, Merrimba then Kaituna and retired.

I feel sorry for all the young people because there is no work for them. When I was their age and you were prepared to work – there were plenty of jobs. If you were tired of droving or working on the stations, you could go out ring barking, fencing or burr cutting.