INTERVIEW WITH MOYNA PRICE (nee South) born 1930.
INTERVIEW DATE: June 1st, 1998

Moyna Price has a clear memory of her early life in the Pericoe and Towamba district. Her early school days and her recollections of locations of farming families and their members are clear. She was nine when the fires came through and burnt out most of Pericoe. Her parents came from Sydney during the depression and lived for a time at Yambulla and then moved to 'Nungatta Station'.
Moyna remembers clearly the home life of the woman on the land and how her mother made do with what was at hand.
A clear and interesting picture of her early days in Pericoe and Towamba.

KATE. I WOULD LIKE TO RECORD YOUR IMPRESSIONS OF HOW LIFE WAS WHEN YOU FIRST CAME HERE. WHEN DID YOU COME TO TOWAMBA?.
MOYNA. In 1932, but I don't remember much of that though. But we weren't in Towamba, we were out at Yambulla.
KATE. SO YOU LIVED OUT AT YAMBULLA?
MOYNA. Yes.
KATE. WHY DID YOUR PARENTS COME HERE?
MOYNA. They left Sydney in the depression times. There were still a couple of gold miners out there (Yambulla) when we were there. I think my parents left Sydney in '31 and arrived in '32.
KATE. WHAT DID YOUR PARENTS DO OUT AT YAMBULLA. DID THEY DAIRY?
MOYNA. No. They didn't dairy because it was too far out for dairying but they did have cows and I think they had a few pigs too. They milked the cow for house purposes.
KATE. SO THEY WOULD HAVE BAKED THEIR OWN BREAD AND.....
MOYNA. Yes. All that. Of course I don't remember any of that. Then we moved into Pericoe, on to that Station place, they were dairying and share-farmed there then.
KATE. WHAT PLACE WAS THAT?
MOYNA. It was owned by Alexander's.
KATE. OH, 'PERICOE STATION'?
MOYNA. Yes. We lived in their share-farmer's home because they share-farmed.
KATE. THAT WAS WHAT ENIE'S (Love) PARENTS DID. HER PARENTS WERE OUT THERE ON ONE OF ALEXANDER'S DAIRIES.
MOYNA. Yes. They were there long before that time. Earlier than that. Well, her (Enie's) mother's parents share-farmed there. Same people but before our time because they'd moved. Well we may've been the next ones that went there, but as I say, I was too young then. Then Enie's dad, he lived not far away from there. His people had a dairy there not far away from that place.
KATE. I'VE BEEN INDEXING OLD LOCAL NEWSPAPERS AT THE EDEN MUSEUM AND INDIGO MOUNTAIN IS MENTIONED. DO YOU KNOW WHERE THAT IS?
MOYNA. That's as you go out there (Pericoe) .
KATE. ON THE WAY TO FULLIGANS? OR TOWARDS THE IMLAY ROAD?
MOYNA. More back to your right, on the Imlay Road. It gets well snowed under. When you see snow up on Jingera, well there's snow out there on Indigo for sure. As you go on to Wog, that might take in some of the mountain.
KATE. WAS THERE A BIG PROPERTY THERE AT ONE TIME?
MOYNA. Oh, yes. He run sheep, the last people that owned 'Wog Station', they called it.
KATE. IN THESE OLD PAPERS, THEY TALK OF A PERICOE TENNIS TEAM, A TOWAMBA TENNIS TEAM, A WYNDHAM AND BURRAGATE TEAM, AND THEN A TEAM THAT CAME FROM WOG. I WAS GOING THROUGH ALL THE OLD ELECTORAL ROLLS....ALL THE PEOPLE THAT LIVED OUT THAT WAY......
MOYNA. There were quite a lot of people here in '39 when the bush fire went through. A lot less after that.
KATE. WERE THERE A LOT OF HOUSES LOST?
MOYNA. There were only two homes lost.
KATE. WHO WERE THEY?
MOYNA. Ours and Wilfred Ingram's
KATE. YOURS OUT AT....?
MOYNA. We were out at 'Daisy Hill' then. Where Colin Veness last lived. (behind 'Elmgrove' on the Pericoe Road.) We were leasing the property then. It was across the gully from where they lived.
KATE. AND WHO ELSE'S?
MOYNA. Wilfred Ingram's, back behind us. There were the two there and on the 'Two Mile', .....you've heard of the 'Two Mile'?
KATE. I'VE SEEN THAT NAME ON ONE OF THE FOREST TRAILS.
MOYNA. Yes. Well that was there on the hill.
KATE. SO THE FIRE CAME FROM OUT THERE?
MOYNA. Yes. The fire came from out Pericoe, yes. Came right through. They fought it and fought it and then there was a change of wind and they said, get out. There wasn't anything we could do. There were only the two homes. Enie's parents stayed with their home and fought it and kept it off. And then the Eltons and the Pericoe school got burnt down in that but the Pericoe school was closed earlier than that though. It was closed in '37 or '38.
KATE. THERE'S NOTHING LEFT OF THAT?
MOYNA. No. Not now. The pines have grown all over it. That's where I went to school first. Some of the mothers..... or even where he used to board, he used to board at Pericoe Station.....
KATE. WHO?
MOYNA. The school teacher. And they didn't like him, or they all thought they didn't like the teacher so they got a petition up and got him moved and got the school closed down on top of it!
KATE. DID ANYONE BOTHER TO SEND THEIR CHILDREN IN TO TOWAMBA?
MOYNA. Well some of the ones that went there, (Pericoe) came in here then. The others, they sort of moved out on account of that too which helped to make them move. That was '37 - '38.
KATE. WERE THE DAIRIES STILL GOING THEN?
MOYNA. Oh, yes. There were still dairies then.
KATE. SO WHAT STOPPED ALL THAT? WAS IT THE QUOTAS THAT STOPPED?
MOYNA. Yes. And the dairy updating. The dairies had to be updated.
KATE. THE HEALTH DEPARTMENT?
MOYNA. Yes. And they had to be updated and a lot then didn't bother and they just went out of dairying. Went into grazing and some went into sheep.
KATE. SO YOU DON'T THINK IT WAS THE RABBITS THAT CAUSED THE DAIRIES TO GO OUT?
MOYNA. No. I don't think so. No. It was just having to alter things and having things up to specifications and the cost of it.
KATE. YES. I SUPPOSE IF ALEXANDER'S HAD ALL THESE PEOPLE DAIRYING FOR THEM IT WOULD HAVE COST A LOT TO UPGRADE ALL OF THEIR DAIRIES.
MOYNA. Yes. Well there used to be, although it wasn't in my time, I'm remembering, a dairy there at the 'Two Mile', of course there were two or three or four families of Alexander's, they had a dairy, and 'Bonnydoon' had a dairy, and they shifted, moved out. I don't know why they moved away.
KATE. WHERE WAS 'HAYFIELD'?
MOYNA. 'Hayfield', there should still be a home in on 'Hayfield', I don't think that was pulled down. Its in behind the first home there, the Pericoe Station home, in further. Well that was another place.
KATE. DID ALEXANDER'S OWN ALL AROUND THERE?
MOYNA. Oh, they owned the lot up there. But there was only Alf Alexander when we came here. Only Alf, and I don't think there were any others. But the others did own all that and Alf bought them all out, finally. And some could have been left to him too because it was the original Alexander's place. I think some of the Egan's lived out there too but they might have
share-farmed before Alexanders'. Because there were quite a few. And where Ron McPaul is, that was another share farm. But there was only the one home on that and they lived in that home where Freddie McPaul...I don't know whether he ever lived there but he could've.
KATE. SO McPAULS OR THEIR PEOPLE SHARE FARMED. THEY'VE BEEN HERE FOR A LONG TIME THEN?
MOYNA. Yes. They've had that property for a long time. The original, like Ron's dad, may have lived there, they used to come to and fro but not in the dairying time.... later. So they share-farmed and I think the Holdsworths were the last ones on that. Now Keith Brodie is one of the Holdsworths sons. She lives up in Queanbeyan, Aileen. So there's been a lot of people there.
KATE. ON THE ELECTORAL ROLL THERE WERE A LOT OF BINNIES.
MOYNA. Yes. Heaps of Binnies, yes. Binnies owned this place up here where Jeff Knight is and Binnies owned 'Log Farm' and 'Dunblane' and where Masons are, ('By Jingo') both sides there and where, opposite 'Dunblane', oh, 'TanaKita', yes, and then there was another place further in, it did belong to 'TanaKita' and that was another share-farm dairy.
KATE. DID THE BINNIES CLEAR ALL THOSE PLACES?
MOYNA. They did. Yes, originally.
KATE. SO, FOR THE WOMEN, LIFE WAS VERY HARD...
MOYNA. Yes, because they went out and helped, yes as well as the housework. That's why they did their sewing and mending in the night after they came in.
KATE. BY CANDLE LIGHT...
MOYNA. ...or kerosene lamp. Yes.
KATE. SO ALL NEEDLE WORK WAS DONE BY CANDLE LIGHT OR THE KEROSENE LAMP?
MOYNA. Yes.
KATE. SO WHAT ABOUT HEALTH ISSUES. IF YOU WANTED TO GO TO THE DOCTOR...DID Dr. BLOOMFIELD USED TO COME OUT HERE?
MOYNA. Yes. Dr. Jones was ahead of him...and Dr....Oh there was one ahead of him too but I can't think of his name. Mother knew him in Sydney. Anyway he'd come out.
KATE. WHERE DID HE HAVE ROOMS?
MOYNA. Where Boller's are. (the old wine saloon and guest house) that's where the rooms were. The rooms were always there. Because that was a boarding house one time, and wine bar.
KATE. AND THE DANCES? THERE WERE LOTS OF DANCES?
MOYNA. Yes, there were lots of dances. But that was something I never really followed very much because when we lived right away over there well, going back then we only had the horse and sulky or ride the horses. The older ones did but not the younger ones. Only occasionally, perhaps, a picnic dance. School picnic dance. Because we used to double-bank the horse to school, both ways when we went to Pericoe and when we came down here after the bush fire. Of course, we had lots of moves from here out to there and then back here again.
KATE. YOU LOST EVERYTHING IN THE FIRE?
MOYNA. Yes. Only the things we stood up in.
KATE. AND WERE PEOPLE GOOD IN RALLYING AROUND TO HELP?
MOYNA. Oh yes, we got a few things.
KATE. I SUPPOSE THEY DIDN'T HAVE MUCH THEMSELVES.
MOYNA. No. That's right.
KATE. I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO FIGURE OUT, THAT IN THE OLD PAPERS, THEY TALK ABOUT TOWAMBA AND THEY ALSO MENTION STURT. NOW, DO YOU KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT STURT?
MOYNA. No. They still use Sturt in the Council.
KATE. WAS THE RIVER THE DIVIDING LINE?
MOYNA. I really don't know.
KATE. I THINK THERE WERE HOUSES OVER NEAR BOLLER'S, ON THAT CORNER?
MOYNA. Yes. Actually opposite Bollers in that corner where Connie has her garden. There was a hotel in there and there was also a hotel over on this side.
KATE. AT THE SAME TIME?
MOYNA. Yes, I think they were at the same time. They both got burned down, but different times. Then they made a tennis court there but that was back in the Parkers' time in the boarding....and back up in there, going past Bollers (up river) that used to be the Post Office. (Dalton's house) You see, our road wasn't going up where it is now, it went up there along the river and up through the flats there that Rollo owns, between, near the travelling stock route paddock. It was only a stone crossing, with high banks coming out of there, and that's where the road used to go.
KATE. AND DO YOU REMEMBER THE LOW-LEVEL BRIDGE?
MOYNA. Yes. The one that was there before this one? Yes.
KATE. AND IT GOT COVERED WITH SAND.
MOYNA. Yes. Eventually, eventually but when we were going to school, we could ride a horse under it.
KATE. ALL THAT SAND HAS COME DOWN SINCE THEN?
MOYNA. Yes. It used to get covered towards the end of it and then you couldn't get across it. The water would stay up only because of the sand.
KATE. DO YOU KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THE OLD TOWAMBA CEMETERY? THE LITTLE ONE ON THE FLAT?
MOYNA. Yes.
KATE. WOULD YOU KNOW WHO WAS BURIED THERE APART FROM THE ONE HEADSTONE THAT REMAINS THERE NOW?
MOYNA. They say there were only three buried there.
KATE. THREE. I HEARD TEN.
MOYNA. I was led to believe there were only three buried there. I think they were three of the same family. One was a Clements. The old original Clements was buried there.
KATE. THE NAME ON THE HEADSTONE IS AMELIA AND JANE MITCHELL, 1864. WAS CLIVE'S MOTHER A MITCHELL?
MOYNA. No. I think his mother was a Stevens.
KATE. SCHOOL, THEN. THE SCHOOL WAS A HALF-TIME SCHOOL, A HALF DAY, FOR A WHILE HERE.
MOYNA. Not when I was going to it. We only had the one teacher. The one teacher the whole time.
KATE. DID HE LIVE HERE?
MOYNA. Oh, yes.
KATE. WHAT WAS HIS NAME?
MOYNA. Mr. MacKenzie, Joe MacKenzie, yes.
KATE. SO HE HAD A FAMILY?
MOYNA. Yes. Two children.
KATE. WAS THE SCHOOL ALWAYS IN THE SAME PLACE?
MOYNA. As long as I can remember. Yes. But they say it was around this way somewhere (up near the Sports ground). My sister's husband's father went to this school around here somewhere. Around that way, over there. (pointing over towards 'Nereman', Macey's place)
KATE. I HEARD THERE WERE A LOT MORE HOUSES OVER HERE, (sports ground area).
MOYNA. There was the little house where Hanson's lived. It had a verandah but it fell off. There was only one owner I can remember in that house. A little old shed was there too. Weather-board place.
KATE. WHAT ABOUT THE LITTLE SHED THAT'S NEXT TO WHERE MITCHELL'S USED TO LIVE, OPPOSITE THE SPORTS GROUND? IS THAT WHERE THE McDONALDS LIVED?
MOYNA. Yes. You know Bobby? It was his mum and dad. It belonged to his grandma. Bobby's grandma. They built that there for the benefit of Walter and Mabel.
KATE. SO, WHO THEN OWNED THE OLD HOUSE THAT MABLE McDONALD LIVED IN TILL SHE DIED? (above Peter Knight's place)
MOYNA. Smith's. Oz Smith. No relations, I don't think, to Howard and Jenny. (Smith) And there was a racecourse. Did you know that?
KATE. YES.
MOYNA. There were the races and the picnic days. They were still there when we were over at 'Daisy Hill'. I can remember that there were several races when I was a girl.
KATE. 'GLEN OAK' WHERE ROLLO (Moyna's brother) IS NOW. DID IT ALWAYS HAVE THE SAME NAME?
MOYNA. No it wasn't called that. It was called 'Oaky Point'.
KATE. WHY?
MOYNA. Because there were a lot of those oaks growing down there, on the point.
KATE. AND THAT WAS A DAIRY TOO?
MOYNA. Yes.
KATE. AND SCHUMANNS TOO? (neighbour )
MOYNA. That was Ramsay's. We lived there for a time after the bush fire. It was a dairy before the fire. They left after the fire. We lived there for a while and he had mainly sheep. We rented so much of it and we dairied there for a little while. We just had sufficient to run the house and milk the cows.
KATE. DO YOU REMEMBER MY PLACE AS BEING A SHOP?
MOYNA. Yes.
KATE. SO WHEN DID IT STOP BEING A SHOP?
MOYNA. It was still going when I was at school but it closed down after, before I left school and then Butcher's, Elva and Teddy Butcher, Elvie used to run it really, and then they shifted it from there to over..... oh....
KATE. TO WHERE RAY LOVE IS NOW?
MOYNA. Yes. They ran a shop there for a while.
KATE. AND DO YOU REMEMBER MY PLACE HAVING ANOTHER SECTION TO IT, ON THE WESTERN SIDE?
MOYNA. Yes. You could go in underneath, they had a room in underneath there. I suppose they used that for storage. It had high steps to get up in it. There was no front fence to it then. You just went up the high steps into the shop.
KATE. DO YOU REMEMBER WHAT IT LOOKED LIKE? WHAT DID THEY SELL?
MOYNA. Oh, they sold everything.
KATE. WAS IT RUN AT THE SAME TIME AS THE ONE OVER THE RIVER?
MOYNA. Yes. Opposition. Yes.
KATE. I SUPPOSE THEY NEVER HAD A BOWSER?
MOYNA. No. They never had a bowzer there. Where they shifted to, Teddy Butcher, he had a bowzer there.
KATE. UP WHERE MATTHEWS'S ARE? (Barney Street.)
MOYNA. Yes. They did have a bowzer there but it was more or less for his own use because he was the mail man. And with a bit of opposition, things didn't run real smoothly with a bit of opposition. So he got his own bowzer in too.
KATE. SO YOU COULD GET ANYTHING AT THE SHOP?
MOYNA. Yes. You'd get flour in the big bags and sugar in the sugar bags. That's how you bought it then. You'd make your bread because you didn't have bread coming out here then. The baker did come out there at one time, after the fire. Didn't last long. They never ever lasted very long. They'd come but people always went back to making their own bread and it wasn't paying them to come. Same as the butcher used to come around. The butcher lasted longer than the baker did.
KATE. DID HE HAVE A SHOP HERE?
MOYNA. No. He used to come out from Pambula. And the baker, he'd come down from Wyndham, from the baker's shop at Wyndham.
KATE. AND EVERYONE HAD A COW, I SUPPOSE?
MOYNA. Oh yes. Milked the cow, made the butter. Got all the cream you wanted.
KATE. FOR THE WOMAN IN THE HOME, IT WOULD HAVE BEEN FULL ON FROM BEFORE DAWN TO AFTER DARK?
MOYNA. To well after dark. Yes.
KATE. YOU'D MAKE YOUR BUTTER, YOUR BREAD.....YOU'D BE CONSTANTLY BUSY..........
MOYNA. Every three days you'd make bread.
KATE. OH, IS THAT ALL?
MOYNA. Well, if you make it too long it would go stale.
KATE. YES, BECAUSE YOU WOULDN'T HAVE FREEZERS.
MOYNA. No. No fridges or freezers. Well, that was one thing that I said I'd never make, was bread. My mother made it for too long. But its not the task to make bread today, as it was then.
KATE. NO. THERE WOULD HAVE BEEN PRESSURE ON YOU THEN. TO HAVE IT THERE ALL THE TIME.
MOYNA. And if there was no bread, you made damper, or scones.
KATE. DID YOU MAKE USE OF THE USED FLOUR BAGS?
MOYNA. Oh, yes, Mum made a lot of our pants out of them. Yes. Under slips. Bleach them and rub them with kerosene. They were all put to use.
KATE. DID YOU SEE ANY ABORIGINALS OUT HERE? ANY WORKERS.....
MOYNA. No. I can't say that I have. Not in my time.
KATE. WHEN DID YOU GO TO SCHOOL? I'M TRYING TO GET AN IDEA OF WHAT YEAR MY HOUSE WAS NO LONGER A GENERAL STORE. SO WHEN DID YOU FINISH GOING TO SCHOOL?
MOYNA. In 1944 I finished school.
KATE. SO IT WOULD BE SOMEWHERE AROUND THE 1940's THAT THE SHOP CLOSED.
MOYNA. Yes. Somewhere around the 1940's. It would be, because it was still going after we came down from the bush fire. It still was a shop. In the early 40's.
KATE. DO YOU REMEMBER WHO HAD IT THEN?
MOYNA. Hartneady's.
KATE. AND AFTER THAT?
MOYNA. Jack McLeod was in it after that. Then Thelda McLeod. Thelda was a Hartneady. She was a daughter of them and they sold out and went down to Genoa. Yes. Well he used to be the barber. You still got the barber's chair?
KATE. NO. I HEARD IT WAS SOLD.
MOYNA. Well, Jack used to be the barber.
KATE. SO, WHAT WAS IN THE SECTION THAT IS NOW MY LOUNGE-ROOM? THE SECTION THAT WAS TAKEN AWAY, WAS THE SHOP IN THERE?
MOYNA. That was all shop, the far side. Who did Jeff Knight buy it from?
KATE. THERE WAS A PAGE FAMILY WHO OWNED IT.
MOYNA. Yes. They had it. I had an idea that Deveresi might have been their name. Where Lola and Terry are (Knight. Next to the church, east side.) There was a son and mum and dad and I'm sure one was in your place and one was in where Lola and Terry are.
KATE. THAT WAS A BEASLEY HOUSE ONCE, WASN'T IT?
MOYNA. Yes.
KATE. AND BOB AND ANNETTES'S HOUSE, (McGowan) UP THE BACK.
MOYNA. Doyle's lived in it the whole time of my knowledge. I think it was the original Doyle's home and Roger, he never married, and Tom never married and they had a crippled sister, Ethel, and they lived there and they were there when we used to come past there to go to school. They used to own where we were burnt out from.
KATE. DID YOU COME DOWN THE BACK WAY, DOWN THE YAMBULLA FIRE TRAIL?
MOYNA. Yes, down through the back of the Manning. (Manning Hill)
KATE. TOWAMBA STATION, THEN, DO YOU REMEMBER WHO WAS THERE? WAS IT A GOING CONCERN ...CAN YOU REMEMBER?
MOYNA. Yes. They used to dairy there but they changed that over. That's where we were headed for the river with everybody else when we were coming from the fire. And we had a car then at that stage. Rollo and Fred stayed back at the house and they had their horses that they were coming out on and Father and Mother and all of us came in the car. We were heading to the river and Dick Brownlie met us on the road and he was battling with sparks, it was coming in and dropping, so we went in there and I can remember putting the spots out with a bag. So that's only what saved that place too, with us being there to give him a hand. And, oh, flames, higher than this house, went through there where the old church was, right through there. I don't know how the police station didn't burn but it just went right through there.
KATE. WERE THERE ANY POLICE IN THE STATION WHEN YOU WERE THERE?
MOYNA. No. Not then. Not in my time. Now that Station house (Towamba Station) that had a shingle roof and shame they pulled it down. It had round timber in it too. It had a big room in it and in the centre of it there was a big round post, right down in the floor, I think it must have gone right down in the ground, right to the top. I don't know what it was there for. Nice big shinny post. It didn't prop up the roof.
KATE. IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE THAT YOU CAN THINK OF THAT WOULD BE OF INTEREST?
MOYNA. The school had a post and rail fence. Did you know that? At the school, our building, well there used to be a little privet bush, so long, just out from the school next to the school house and we also had a shadow stick but that was taken out, our shadow stick used to tell us the time.
KATE. SO EVERYONE WOULD HAVE TIED THEIR HORSES UP OUT THE FRONT?
MOYNA. No. There weren't that many. Gloria Clements (this Gloria Clements is Clive Clements' sister. Clive later married a lady with the same christian name) from down at 'Model Farm' she used to ride occasionally and the horse yard had been built down at the bottom of the school paddock near the river there. But we'd put our horse in the church yard. Unsaddle it and put it in the church yard. And if it rained our saddle got wet. We had pit toilets at the school too. We had an open fire in the school room. I can remember when they did up the bathroom in the school house and then they put a pump on the tank and we'd take turns in pumping that up into the top tank.
KATE. WAS IT A HAND PUMP?
MOYNA. Yes.
KATE. I REMEMBER TALKING TO WILF INGRAM AND HE TOLD ME THAT HE RODE TO A DANCE AT PERICOE ONCE AND HIS MOTHER RODE OVER AFTER HIM AND BROUGHT HIM HOME.
TOM PRICE. (Moyna's husband) Wilf was my cousin by my first marriage. He and my wife's mother were sisters.
KATE. SO WHAT WAS THEIR SURNAME?
TOM. Smith.
KATE. WERE THEY FROM AROUND HERE?
MOYNA. Well they came down from up top. From around Craigie and came down to here. They dairied over where Wilfred was living. (Widden Farm) There would have probably have been Cecil and Ethel......
KATE. WHO WERE THEY?
MOYNA. Cecil Clements. Yes, well, Florrie and Mrs. Ingram and...
KATE. FLORRIE WAS YOUR (Toms) WIFE'S MOTHER?
MOYNA. Wilfred's mother, they were sisters. Now this Ethel she married Cecil Clements.....
KATE. FROM 'MODEL FARM'?
MOYNA. No. Cousins, they were, from where Enie (Love) lived. ('Tyrone')
KATE. ENIE AND GEORGE (Love)? IN TOWAMBA?
MOYNA. Yes. They bought their place from Clements. And where Colin and Edna (Veness) are, they handed the farm over to the son, Cecil and they moved down here and bought that place, where Colin and Edna are now, because their time of working on the farm had come to an end. Cecil came back from the war and they let him have the farm but there was a drought, the '48 drought I think, and Cecil wasn't making anything and couldn't make ends meet, so eventually it was sold and George Love bought it. Then they went to Canberra (Cecil). Ethel would've been married down this way, I'd say.
KATE. JACK BEASLEY TOLD ME MY PLACE CAME FROM YAMBULLA AND THAT MY LOUNGE-ROOM WAS A STORE OUT THERE.
MOYNA. Oh, well, if Jack said so, it would be right.
KATE. HE SAID THERE WAS A BLACKSMITH'S SHOP OVER NEAR THE STORE. WAS THAT OPEN WHEN YOU WERE HERE?
MOYNA. No. Not in my time. And there was a shop over there, too, where Ronnie McDonald runs his bull. Do you know where he runs his bull?
KATE. YES.
MOYNA. Now, there was a shop there which was owned by Arnolds. They were up in Pericoe. They had a shop, fruit, and he used to be a pastry cook, too and he used to cook pastry besides his fruit. It was just mainly fruit and his pastry.
KATE. WAS HE THERE LONG?
MOYNA. Oh, he must have been there for a while, quite a while. But there's no remains of it there now.
KATE. I HADN'T HEARD THAT AT ALL.
MOYNA. Did they tell you there was a cream shed on the corner down there? (near the general store) And there was another blacksmith's shop on the other corner near Ede's too. Opposite the cream shed. And down the street here, near Colin and Edna's, there was a blacksmith's shop there.
KATE. WELL, THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN A ROARING TRADE WITH ALL THE HORSE AND BULLOCK TEAMS IN THE AREA THEN.
MOYNA. And originally, over there at the shop near the post office part, well at the back of the shop, the public telephone used to be there. Then they shifted it over on to this side and then on to the bottom of the steps. But what I was going to say was that the original road didn't come down there past Boller's, it went up through the oil shed, and came out up the top through Ede's and up on to the road there. Up there where Ray and Jenny (Love) are, too, in those sheds, there was a roadway, now the Dickie's owned that and between them they had a butcher's business there. Now the old people probably had that butcher's when Yambulla was going. Then they split up as butchers.
KATE. AND THERE USED TO BE A LITTLE SHED ON RAY'S (Love) FLAT AND A LARGE FAMILY USED TO LIVE THERE. IS THAT RIGHT?
MOYNA. Yes.
KATE. DID YOU EVER SEE ANY FAMILIES LIKE THAT?
MOYNA. Oh, yes.
KATE. SO, HOW DID THEY MANAGE? WOULD THEY HAVE HAD AN OPEN FIRE AT ONE END? DID THEY HAVE A CHAIN THAT HUNG A POT OVER THE FIRE FOR COOKING?
MOYNA. Yes. They cooked on the open fire. Yes, Mabel (McDonald) cooked on the open fire, in a camp oven.
KATE. ALL THOSE KIDS? HOW DID SHE MANAGE? HOW DID THEY SLEEP?
MOYNA. Well there would have been Gladys and Billy and Donny and Dorothy, and I think after that.... that would be the four eldest ones. They were still there when David was born so there was five there and they moved after David. He was only young. And they lost the twins.
KATE. SO THEY PROBABLY ALL GOT IN TOGETHER?
MOYNA. Yes, probably.
KATE. WOULD THEY HAVE HAD KAPOK MATTRESSES?
MOYNA. Yes. Or corn husks.
KATE. ENIE LOVE MENTIONED CORN HUSKS. SO THAT WAS THE LEAVES FROM AROUND THE COB?
MOYNA. Yes. You put them into the ticking.
KATE. ENIE SAID THEY PUT THAT ON THE BED FIRST AND THEN THE MATTRESS. THE CORN MATTRESS WAS INSULATION.
MOYNA. Yes. And Mrs. Love (Enie's mother) wouldn't give them away either. She was my mother-in-law.
KATE. SO YOU MARRIED.......
MOYNA. Enie's brother. Les.
KATE. OH, YES, LES. YOU LIVED IN THE SMALL HOUSE ABOVE ENIE AND GEORGE'S (Love) HOUSE ON 'TYRONE'?
MOYNA. Yes. Right up to the time she died she still had her kapok mattress and her corn husk one too. Yes, they didn't have any stoppers in them, they were just like a bag. You would shake it into shape. The kapok ones didn't either. You just bought the kapok and made your mattress.
KATE. I SEE. YOU DIDN'T BUY THE KAPOK MATTRESS READY MADE?
MOYNA. No. You just bought it and made your own mattress. Dusty old stuff too. And they would make their pillows with feathers or the down off the ducks. And ti tree brooms. But you'd have to get the wide leafed ones. They were better than the narrow leafed ones.
KATE. DID YOU HAVE CANDLES OR KERO?.
MOYNA. We had candles too,
KATE. WERE THEY BOUGHT CANDLES?
MOYNA. They were bought candles that I remember. But they could have made their homemade ones out at Yambulla. That was a long way out and a long ride into town.
KATE. ON A HORSE AND BUGGY IT TOOK ALL DAY?
MOYNA. I can remember going down to Eden with Father. We rode from there over to Dick Brownlie's on 'Towamba Station', and stayed the night there and went into Eden with him. And we did the same and went to Bega. That was the first time that I can remember going to Bega until after the bush fire, anyway. Other than that we didn't go, really.
KATE. DO YOU REMEMBER THE CARS COMING? WAS IT A BIG THING WHEN SOMEBODY BOUGHT A CAR?
MOYNA. The ones in the town had cars, like Arthur Love and Violet Love had their cars. We're talking Pericoe now. Bill Love had his car, that's Enie's dad. The Alexander's, their daughter she had a car, but she went away nursing but she came back home. Well the ones around the town down here had vehicles. They'd gone from their sulkies.... but down 'Log Farm' they had their buggy and Jack Sawers up at Burragate used to have his buggy and pair. We used to run up to the gate, I'm talking about when we were at Ramsey's, where Schumanns are now, we used to run from the house to the gate just to get a ride in the horse and buggy.
KATE. READING THE OLD NEWSPAPERS, THERE USED TO BE TENNIS, RIFLE SHOOTING, HORSE RACES, DANCING .....THERE WAS SUCH A BUSY SOCIAL LIFE.
MOYNA. Yes. Every Saturday there was tennis. Well down at Mitchell's creek, down there, well at the other side of that creek I've been told that that was all clear and there was a cricket pitch there.
KATE. YES. THAT WAS ON THE EDEN SIDE OF THE CREEK.
MOYNA. Yes. On the right hand side going to Eden. That was all clear and they had their sports there at that time.
KATE. WHO?
MOYNA. Towamba, and Burragate used to go down there.
KATE. SO, THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN BEFORE THEY HAD A GROUND HERE IN
THE VILLAGE.
MOYNA. Yes. Long before that. And then they used to have their cricket and football over where Boller's are. Did you know that?
KATE. NO.
MOYNA. You didn't know that? The cricket pitch was there.
KATE. THE GUEST HOUSE WAS THERE, RIGHT?
MOYNA. Yes. This side of it, this paddock (to the east of the house). Well, you see, probably before that was done, that was when they used to go down to Mitchell's creek. Because Enie's mother used to talk about it. It was Enie's mother we could remember telling us about it, telling different ones. You would hear the story more than once. Lots of times
they would walk so far, you see, because they had relatives, they were related to the Beasleys
and they'd walk to one point, and stay the night, and walk to the next point and go on. Through this way, down 'Log Farm' they'd go through there because there would be a brother or sister there and then they'd go from there across the river and it wouldn't be so far.

AND THAT'S THE WAY IT WAS.