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Interviewee

Margaret (Makinson) Herdegen

Place Recorded

Coffs Harbour-NSW

Interviewer

Sheridah Melvin

Collection

Agency

Yarrila Arts & Museum (YAM)

Related Person or Organisation

Sunnyside Maternity Hospital

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Margaret Herdegen Interview

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IntervieweeMargaret (Makinson) HerdegenInterview Date21 October 1986Place RecordedCoffs Harbour-NSWDuration1h33m01sAccession NumberLS2020.1.24Credit LineCoffs Harbour City Council, 1988.

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Description

Mrs Herdegen spent her early years at the Jetty. She met some remarkable characters of Coffs in her youth, whose profiles follow. After completing her degree, she returned to work for her father and later married and moved to a dairy farm in Orara, at Friday Creek.

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. Margaret was born in Mosman, Sydney in 1916 -- Her father was a solicitor. They lived at Middle Harbour. Memories of boating and the Prince of Wales' visit in 1920 -- The Aboriginal cave -- She was six when the family moved to Coffs Harbour -- The effect on Mrs Makinson. Arrived in 1923 -- They lived in a flat above Mr Crooks' home at the Jetty -- "I can remember seeing all this green grass" -- There were cows and horses wandering around. There were only two brick buildings; the Fire Station was one -- Conditions for transport and shopping. Anderton's Store -- The story of buying handbags with Betty Sykes -- Portrait of Billy Anderton -- "And yet when you had paid the bill, he'd probably give you a little bag of lollies" -- Shopping through the order system from Cox Bros. Anderton's was the "kind of shop where you could get anything" -- Other businesses at the Jetty, Ocean Street shops -- The fire in the Picture Show; the race to get her mother's violin. Margaret went to the Convent School. Sometimes they had pupil teachers -- Sister Vergilius and the other nuns -- One nun taught three classes in one room -- Margaret wanted to go to boarding school -- Discipline at the convent was strict -- The life at Mr Crooks house; the owner manufactured his own gas -- Paddy Burke supplied electricity. "The blink" at midnight -- The extent of electricity in Coffs. The move to Collingwood Street -- The design of the house was impractical -- Household arrangements. Annie Bowles was a maid for the Makinsons -- The original Jetty Beach; the dressing sheds, the Lifesaving Club -- Her one-day piano lesson -- "I hadn't heard that expression ... for twenty years". Games in childhood. The Fairy Ring -- The wild violets. Remarkable characters; E W Smith of Smith's Engineering -- "He was an important person in the community" -- "Wingie": Mr Wingfield, the Bell Ringer and Town Crier -- "Jetty Hall tonight"! -- Black Louie (La Crosse) -- Hector Lamb-Lyon, a "scion of the nobility"; mail contractor for many years -- The railway station at North Coffs Harbour; the tradition of stopping the train at this point on its journey -- The taxi rides to catch the train with Hector. Captain Cockle; "a very great buddy of mine". Stories of him and his family -- "A Lancashire man" -- "If a man did what he did these days there would be a general strike" -- Margaret went on board on just the rope and hook when she was 10 -- The story of the Captain's bad back -- The missing false teeth -- "You had to keep up appearances in those days". Activities on Coffs Creek; the Jim Smith baths and swimming lessons -- The tent-town at Red Hill -- The service cars before the railway came through. Byrne's Cafe -- Jim Smith. The swimming place near the old Butter Factory. The fences across Coffs Creek near the present Botanic Gardens. Lillipillies. The building of the Breakwater, as observed by Margaret. "The Jetty was interesting too ... a little sort of a room under there". Memories of the Depression; jumping the rattler. "They used to mark the fence". Holidays at Coffs where she was a boarder; tennis; growing up. "Young men ... were a bit scarce on the ground" -- Dances and parties from the age of 13 -- In supervised company Margaret went to parties; and later to dances -- Margaret met her future husband at a house party. The game with the show in the middle. In the 30s "we used to pile onto a lorry and all go out to what's now Sawtell and Bonville to dances" -- Hit tunes -- Mrs Minnie Franklin - a very important person in Coffs in the entertainment sphere -- The war years and their effect on people Margaret knew -- The VAD (Voluntary Aid Detachment). They met in the funeral parlour of Mr Everingham. Their actual activities; drill with Mr Graham -- Uniforms -- Hospital work in wards -- "We really weren't experienced or knew anything about it". She was 18 -- The military camp near the Hospital. Blackout restrictions -- Special cloth for blacking out light -- Meeting the troop trains at the railway. Memories of these battle weary soldiers; "haggard most of them" -- "We used to bring the stuff along in dixies ... mugs of tea" -- Bundles for Britain; children's clothes for homeless. The bombing toll -- The evacuation route through Orara -- A sharp change for Margaret in moving to the country -- "It wasn't the love of the cows". Her account of dairying in 1942. The Herdegen family -- The effect of the Depression on dairying. Old fashioned milking machines. Margaret's working day; milking, cooking, mending, gardening -- "I felt most inadequate", her joke with her neighbours. Mrs Sam Baillie -- "She acted almost as a mother to me ... and got me through all the vicissitudes" -- Heather Casson and Joyce Sinclair -- Floods. Friday Creek -- They made their own culverts over the creek. The paddocks on the side of Big Boambee -- Cooling off in the creek; later rinsing nappies -- The hydraulic ram; washing day. The maternity services in Coffs; no sewerage system at Sunnyside Hospital in 1943. Margaret had six children -- The doctors in Coffs -- Keeping up her earlier interests; writing and riding -- You can't hang a few children round a horse" -- Memories of early motherhood on the dairy farm -- Activities at the Orara Hall -- "Everything was an 'if' in my life". The limitation of no transport on Margaret's chances of being articled (as a Solicitor's Clerk) by her father -- "I suppose my husband didn't think it was important, probably" -- Her thoughts on marriage -- The attitude of the other countrywomen to Margaret. The type of praise -- "Once I'd milked the cows, I'd just collapse" -- Work in her father's office before marriage - 1937-1942 -- Thoughts on lifestyles today.