Auntie, Sister. Grandmother, Great-Grandmother,
Mother and Wife of German Descent
I've lived in Australia since 1959 together with my husband Peter. We have four children, eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. I started blogging because I wanted to publish some of my childhood memories. I am blogging now also some of my other memories. I like to publish some photos too as well as a little bit of a diary from the present time. Occasionally I publish a story with a bit of fiction in it. Peter, my husband, is publishing some of his stories under berlioz1935.wordpress.com
Big thanks to all who attended the launch of ‘Long Jetty, Short Stories, Volume 1, Before the ‘Rus’. The Savoy at Long Jetty proved to be the perfect venue with rumours that a handful of revellers kicked on and ended up at The Long Jetty Hotel. For some it was a very dusty Sunday, trust me I know.
I am thrilled to have had some great feedback on the book already. When I was reading through the final proofs of the book, I must admit to suffering from some serious self doubt about the stories. It’s all part of the process, apparently. Incidentally, my publisher, Stephen Matthews at Ginninderra Press, has just sent me the first galley proofs for Volume 2. So here we go again.
Special thanks to my three daughters, Hannah, who read a piece from the book, Bethany, who made a fabulous cake, and Bronte, who…
Today Frances arrived for the last part of the interview.
All went well. Now we have to wait for just a few weeks before we’ll be sent the finished disks. Not that I’m looking forward to listening to my recorded voice! Thanks to all the encouragement I have been given by Frances, I survived the interviews. But I’m glad it’s over now. Talking to Frances was great. I very much liked our conversations. It was just a bit difficult at times knowing what I said was being recorded. Still it was overall a good, enjoyable experience. Frances always tried to put me at ease before the recordings and helped me along by asking relevant questions.
Now you really are part of Australia’s history! This is a great idea, wonderful for future generations with no idea of what life was like in the past. I’m so glad you had the courage to go along and do it.
Wow, what a lovely comment, Cat. Thank you so much!
WordsFallFromMyEyes
This is hugely valuable, Aunty Uta, just like Catterel says. You surely know, I believe wholly in capturing your life while you’re in it, for others to know in years to come what it was like. This is so interesting – excellent!
Invigorating – very much so, dear IT. I wished I had the stamina to go there more often. Yesterday Peter and I went to Merrylands West again taking some more stuff out of the house. Gaby’s portable ramp, her portable respirator and a box full of stuff for the respirator was still left in Gaby’s room. We found an address where all this had come from and took it there. It meant we did a trip to another Western Sydney suburb. Most of things that were still left in the house, Peter took to a close by opp-shop. He had to do several trips because our car is only small. After an exhausting eight hour day we were glad to be home again. The villa is completely empty now and ready to be renovated for the next disabled occupant.
The Library’s Oral History and Folklore Collection dates back to the 1950’s and includes a rich and diverse collection of interviews and recordings with Australians from all walks of life.
Portrait of Smoky and Dot Dawson
Smoky Dawson interviewed by Rob Willis for the Rob Willis folklore collection.
Our Oral History and Folklore collection records the voices that describe our cultural, intellectual and social life. The collection consists of over 55,000 hours of recordings, the earlier ones dating back to the 1950s when the tape recorder became available. More than 1000 hours of interviews, music and accents are added to the collection each year. Increasingly the collection is available online or may be requested from the catalogue. You can listen to:
Folklore recordings – popular culture, traditional songs, dances, music, stories and more
Interviews with distinguished Australians – scientists, writers, artists, politicians and sports people
Interviews with people who have lived through significant social trends and conditions – unemployment, the impact of child removals from families, the Depression, and migration to Australia
Environmental sound – the historical sound of the built and natural environment.
Some interviews have transcripts or summaries and our online audio delivery system helps you search the content of our collection, which can be searched through Trove.
Highlights
Interviews by Hazel de Berg – 1,290 recordings of interviews and readings dating from the 1950s of prominent Australian poets, artists, writers, composers, actors, academics, publishers, librarians, scientists, anthropologists, public servants and politicians.
Folk music by John Meredith – over 500 recordings between 1953 and 1994 of traditional Australian folk music, songs, recitations, bush dance music, yarns and reminiscences. John Meredith was a foundation member of the Bushwhackers and helped form the Bush Music Club and the Australian Folklore Society.
Bringing Them Home oral history project – These include over 300 interviews collected between1998 and 2002 of Indigenous people and others, such as missionaries, police and administrators, involved in or affected by the process of child removals. Listen online to a selection of interviews.
Australian Paralympic stories– interviews with key people responsible for the growth and success of Paralympic sport in Australia. Listen online to Australian Paralympic stories.
The back of our home where we had morning tea with Frances
Our daughter Monika said the other day: ‘I knew, Mum, that you’d like Frances.’ She wasn’t surprised at all that I very much loved having her around. Peter and I were always very much looking forward seeing her here at our home. This was some weeks ago. Very soon now we should get the result of these recording sessions with Frances.
I think Frances saw our daughter Gaby just a few days before Gaby died. Sadly the planned interview with Gaby could not take place at the time. There was some difficulty with incoming calls Gaby was expecting that day. Apparently Gaby was reluctant to switch off her mobile phone!
Gaby’s passing must have been a shock to Frances as it was to all of us. Frances had already been looking with Gaby at some of her documents. She was aware how Gaby caught polio at age four, and that she had lived as a quadriplegic with breathing difficulties for over fifty years. After Gaby’s passing she was keen to interview someone of Gaby’s family.
Frances found out from daughter Monika that we, Gaby’s parents, had gone overseas soon after Gaby’s death and wouldn’t be back for quite some time. In the meantime Frances started interviewing Monika. This is how Monika did get to know Frances. Monika agreed to be interviewed about her life in connection with Gaby. So Frances recorded twice one hour with Monika. Some time later, after our return from our long overseas trip, Peter’s and my tale was recorded too. Peter’s took eight times one hour, mine seven times one hour.
Some time ago, I did actually listen to both discs, Peter’s and mine. Thanks to Frances the recordings sound rather interesting, So far, none of my children could be bothered to listen to any of the recordings!
After having been to the State Coroner’s Court of NSW for the past couple of days and hearing a lot about Gaby’s Life and Death I was reminded how Peter and I talked a lot about Gaby’s life when Frances interviewed us for the ORAL HISTORY recordings. We did get the finished disks sent to us as expected but we never listened to them yet! I guess I am too chicken to listen to my own voice, and Peter probably feels the same about the recordings of his voice. I was thinking the past few days that maybe Frances would be interested in the findings of the Coroner’s Court?
I wrote this on the 21st of February 2013;
“Today, Frances arrived for the last part of the interview. All went well. Now we have to wait for just a few weeks before we’ll be sent the finished disks. Not that…
This picture was taken on Monday, 11th May 2015, near Sydney University when we went to a court hearing in Glebe.
On the 11th and on the 12th of May we went to the Coroner’s court hearing about the circumstances of our daughter’s death.
State Coroner’s Court of New South Wales
The State Coroner ensures that all deaths are properly investigated. If necessary, an inquest into the death is held. Coroners can also recommend measures to prevent future deaths.
An inquest is a court hearing where the Coroner considers evidence to determine the identity of the deceased and the date, place, manner and cause of death of the deceased. Read more about the steps involved in an inquest.
Gates is circumventing a 1932 anti-corporate farm ownership law
Blogging Hounds
Bill Gates, who already owns close to 270,000 acres of land in the U.S., has been granted the legal authority to buy another 2100 acres in North Dakota despite protests by local residents.
Gates, already the largest farmland owner in the country, has secured the go ahead to buy the land for $13.5 million under his ‘Red River Trust’ company.(Click Here)
Gates is circumventing a 1932 anti-corporate farm ownership law by pledging to lease the land back to farmers after the purchase is complete.
The Daily Mail reports:
North Dakota’s Agriculture Commissioner, Republican Doug Goehring, previously said that many people feel they are being exploited by the ultra-rich who buy land but do not necessarily share the state’s values.
‘I’ve gotten a big earful on this from clear across the state, it’s not even from that neighborhood,’ Goehring told KFYR-TV…
I mention in this post, that the service on board the P & O Liner was excellent. Well, apart from the Irish steward, we also had a personal cabin steward. Because of the two babies, we were given a first class cabin on C Deck! There worked any number of dark coloured Indians on board this ocean liner. There was a bulletin published every day by the captain and crew. More than half the passengers were from Britain. a lot of them subsidized migrants to Australia. The rest of the passengers were subsidized migrants from Germany. In the cabin next to our cabin was a young German migrant family with kids the same age as our kids. We are still good friends with the rest of the family. Unfortunately, Karl-Heinz, the father, and Gudrun, their daughter died an early death. We met the other day Doris, the mother, and Michael the son. After ten years in Australia the family had gone back to Berlin, where Karl-Heinz established a well going business for alarm installations. Michael is leading this business now.
The SS STRAITHAIRD had come from Southampton via Cuxhaven to go to Port Melbourne, Australia. The voyage took five weeks. The service on board the P & O Liner was excellent. At mealtimes we had a table-steward to look after eight people at our table.
Our steward was Irish and always quick on the move. He assumed, everyone would be eating all three courses for every meal. That meant, he usually had the dessert already waiting on his serving table before everyone had finished their second course.
One day two people refused to have dessert. Our steward looked pleadingly at me and Peter, for he knew us to be good eaters: We always emptied our plates! “Please, would you like a second dessert? See, I am not supposed to take it back to the kitchen,” he said. My husband and I gladly accepted a second dessert…
“I have a foreboding of an America in my children’s or grandchildren’s time – when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what’s true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness.”
Do you think, the above is describing our times?
‘The astrophysicist Carl Sagan, who died in 1995, looked into our times in his book “The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark”. The book was co-authored by his wife, Ann Druyan.’
This episode and our expanded coverage are made possible thanks to our Supercast subscribers. If you can, please support the show above. Peter Zeihan, geopolitical strategist and author of The End of the World Is Just the Beginning: Mapping the Collapse of Globalization, joins The Realignment to discuss why 2019 may have been the world’s economic peak, which nations will rise and fall as globalization collapses, and why America’s lost interest in keeping the system going.
Now here is another video. Australian Kevin Rudd, the way he talks is very different from the way the Americans talk. He has a very different understanding about China.
June 2, 2022 — Asia Society President and CEO Kevin Rudd examines the ideological underpinnings of China President Xi Jinping’s worldview and how countries can create effective China policies. Asia Society Switzerland Executive Director Nico Luchsinger moderated the conversation. (1 hr., 11 min.)
We left the gardens of the restaurant after an excellent lunch to have coffee and cake in our little apartment. We had been very lucky that it had still been warm enough to sit outside for our meal.
WordsFallFromMyEyes
AuntyUta 