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Interviewee

Place Recorded

Coffs Harbour-NSW

Interviewer

Sheridah Melvin

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Agency

Yarrila Arts & Museum (YAM)

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Joyce Franklin & Rex Gentle Interview

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IntervieweeJoyce (Evans) FranklinRex GentleInterview Date4 November 1986Place RecordedCoffs Harbour-NSWDuration1h14m09sAccession NumberLS2020.1.15Credit LineCoffs Harbour City Council, 1988.

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This is a combined interview at the request of Mrs Franklin. She felt there would be more recall by working together. The interviewees have known each other for a very long time. Mrs Franklin's father was one of the early blacksmiths and wheelwrights in Coffs, and she recalls his work in great detail, as well as her mother's work as a midwife and dressmaker. Mrs Franklin captures the feeling of community that characterised the young town.

Mr Gentle, born much later in the Depression, recalls the struggle of his family to manage, and how people enjoyed themselves without expensive entertainment.

InterviewerSheridah MelvinCollectionYAM Museum CollectionVoice of Time oral history projectAgencyYarrila Arts & Museum (YAM)SummaryStandard disclaimer. Visit the 'Voice of Time' web site to read or listen to the disclaimer (Internet link is below). Mr Gentle was born in 1927 at Sunnyside Maternity Hospital -- His first recollections of his Father. The tip-truck. The Depression -- The use of the truck; gravel for cement works -- Quarry work -- Rex's memories of Coffs Harbour as a child. The subdivision -- Jack Gentle, house painter and former blacksmith -- The bush round the subdivision; catching eels and crayfish from the bridge in Gundagai Street -- The sawmill near this spot. The sawdust stopped the growth of vegetables. The need to be careful with money during the Depression. The family's banana work -- "We lived in the packing shed ... the whole family" -- James "Hooky" had one arm. Jack Gentle made him an artificial arm. Tools were adapted for his use. This man was Rex's grandfather -- Living in the packing shed. "There were three of us in the bed". Tent for cooking -- Rex started school at the Jetty from the packing shed -- Duties at the family home, in town, later on -- Life in the shed -- The bicycle accident. Schooldays -- The school principal, Russell Hodge -- In 1939, there was tuition at all levels of the High School -- The role-played by sport at high school -- The Jim Smith pool near the Butter Factory -- The old swimming hole. The buttermilk in the water -- Rex's relationship with his Grandfather. The story of how he lost his arm -- Transport by sulky -- "There were cars but not for the likes of us who had no money" -- The various moves by the family -- Fishing with a bent pin because they could not afford hooks -- Wild fruits. Bushwalking -- Work on the 5-acre property and milking the cow -- Continuing education 'I went to college" -- Rex had to pass an I.Q. test instead of doing the Q.C. -- His sisters were encouraged to stay at school -- His awareness of the war -- Sergeant of cadets. Camping -- Target practice at the rifle range. Discussion of the invasion fears. High school debate on the issue -- Holiday times back at Coffs. Dancing -- Nugget made the coffee at the dances. The types of dances -- Alcohol was present; often outside the hall. The sly grog shop at Raleigh -- The strong sense of community -- Mrs Franklin's family's circumstances at the time of their arrival in Coffs Harbour in 1910 -- "Dad always had his own business". It was a blacksmith's shop -- Her childhood memories of the shop. "Ring the anvil for 7 o'clock" -- There were three girls in her family; one sister died later -- Childcare arrangements in the shop, the wooden box -- "We could see the sparks fly and see the bellows" -- Her Father got 8/- per set of shoes for horses. He made "a lot of wagon wheels and drays and beautiful sulkies" -- The bullock teams had iron rims on their carts -- The big stump between the shop and the house was used for pulling bogged vehicles out of Hacking's Corner. "The street was all mud". Wellington boots -- Washing clothes under these conditions -- Her mother worked in the forge -- Games; bat and ball, cubby houses -- "Because we were girls": restrictions on going away from home. "Dad's men" -- Joyce's mother did dressmaking. Her personality described -- Lessons at home -- Her first day at school. Miss Chapman -- Empire Day -- The medals given to the children, possibly on Armistice Day. Aboriginal people in Coffs near Gordon Street. "They worked for Mum in the kitchen doing the washing" -- Men from town would go to the camp to find things that had disappeared -- The Aboriginal Ball; "The white girls wouldn't dance with the Aboriginal boys", in the 1930 period -- The Aboriginal washerwomen washed the sheets and linen for Mrs Evans when she had pregnant women living at her home, as she was a midwife -- "The doctor came and they came there to have their baby" -- Joyce's mother was Grace Louisa Bones -- Surplus from Maternity Hospital were Mrs Evans' patients; no more than two or three at a time. It was at the Jetty -- Dr Woods visited her home in connection with this work. "They were all healthy, we never lost one" -- The womens' lying in was about four days -- The two different swimming places for Aboriginal and for white people -- Joyce did not play with Aboriginal children. The two towns; Top Town and Jetty. People from the wharves were called "wharf rats" -- The occasions when Joyce would be at the Jetty; Sunday picnics by sulky and fishing, near the Quarry -- Her daily routine at 13 when she began work as an apprentice tailoress at Charlie Walker's shop -- After her marriage, tailoring "began to die out as a trade". Joyce's pay ranged from 5/- a week to 30/- -- Joyce was not interested in tailoring, but there were three girls in the family, and one had to have a trade. They drew straws to decide -- She really wanted to be a schoolteacher -- Meeting her future husband. History of his work experience -- Courting activities; playing on the beach, fishing, dances at the Church of England Girl's Club -- She walked home with Mr and Mrs Heskett; not with her boyfriend. Her boyfriend's visits for Sunday dinner; playing the gramophone -- The secondhand wireless; Dad and Dave serial and cricket -- Joyce married in 1935. "We had enough money to buy a block of land" -- Mr Ben Patterson built them a four-room house -- Saturday night entertainment: "two shillings worth of fruit and sit on the front verandah and listen to the dances in the Parish Hall" -- Swaggies on the road. Working for what they received -- The difference between dressmaking and tailoring -- Joyce worked whenever she could. "My Mother and I made the first curtains for the Tasma Theatre" -- The gold mine at Mount Brown -- "They didn't have the right machinery to get it out in those days" -- The call-up for the Second World War. Her husband's participation. Joyce's experience of childbirth at Sunnyside Hospital -- The land army. Collectively buying a car to get to the fields -- The wages were piecework -- "My mother minded the baby until he was big enough to go with me. He used to have a tiny little hoe that my father made for him" -- Joyce believed that God would protect her husband -- "Then I had a war baby, a girl". Remarkable personalities; Charlie Walker, Jack Gerard and Mary Thomas -- Mary "was the first woman to ride a horse astride ... to wear trousers and to play cricket, she had a women's cricket team" -- Joyce's memories of Carrall's House -- Louie La Crosse -- "He made kites for us". Whistling the wind for him as he had no teeth -- He came from Madagascar -- Louie's trip to Australia -- "The people of the town paid for his funeral" -- Doubt about his gender; the town hooligans stripped him naked -- The Evans family's kindness to Louie.