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Interviewee

Dulcie (Duncan) Martin

Place Recorded

Coffs Harbour-NSW

Interviewer

Sheridah Melvin

Collection

Agency

Yarrila Arts & Museum (YAM)

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Dulcie Martin Interview, 1987

Details

IntervieweeDulcie (Duncan) MartinInterview Date26 February 1987Place RecordedCoffs Harbour-NSWDuration1h45m26sAccession NumberLS2020.1.45Credit LineCoffs Harbour City Council, 1988

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Description

Mrs Martin grew up in Raleigh in the early 20s. She has a fund of marvellous stories and events and personalities. She was widowed in World War Two and brought up her son by herself. She has a unique view of society through her role as an educator who has always had a profound sense of community.

Photograph: Coffs Harbour Advocate, 26 November 1996, p.4

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. Pioneer ancestry and settlement on Bongil Creek in the 1880s -- Her relatives provided the timber for the Jetty; it was turpentine wood -- Her grandfather, a "dour Presbyterian ... sat on the steps of the Land Court in Bellingen ... and acquired with Mr Angus McLeod, the land for the Presbyterian Church in Coffs Harbour" -- In 1906 the family moved into Coramba Road. Dulcie was born in 1916. The railway works were going on -- Mrs Duncan missed her family, the Williams of Bongil Creek and so they returned. Dulcie describes her personality. Dulcie was an only child and told of the effects on her upbringing including the bag of sweets; "Whatever one had one shared" -- The Aboriginal child from the nearby settlement got Dulcie's dress. Her mother's dreams for her daughter, "I knew I had to achieve" -- Dulcie's father had "impeccable taste" -- Life at Raleigh near the Yellow Rock Aboriginal Settlement. Playing with children from there -- "The man in charge of the settlement wasn't particularly sympathetic to them". Christmas cheer and the morning celebration. Playing the gum leaf. Dulcie's awareness of their lore; pointing the bone -- Her total lack of fear. "They're my friends" -- Memories of Raleigh in the 1920s. The Postmistress steamed the letters open -- Mrs Martin's father contributed to journals all over Australia. "By the time I was 9 I could have almost written a thesis on Australian literature" -- A little white Anglican Church and a school. Shopping with horse and sulky. "She looked like the Queen Mother". Schooldays and riding a pony obtained by her uncle, Mr Bert Williams. 'Tiny" loved to eat on the way. She used to recite in her pony's ear -- "Terrible standard" of her primary education. She was the only child in the class -- The pupil-teacher had begun his working life as a bullock driver; "I often felt that's what he should have remained" -- Dulcie's father knew Miles Franklin and Norman Lindsay -- Getting the Primary Final and the trip to Coffs Harbour School. "I became the first child from my little village to go to Secondary School and therefore I was viewed with great suspicion". Awareness of the British Empire -- "The very first speech I ever gave (at High School) was on the 'Life and times of Queen Victoria" -- Travelling to school was not easy -- "I would see a lantern in the distance and it was my father walking to meet me". Boarding in Coffs Harbour with Mrs Boydon was a wonderful experience. Jack the Ripper stories. Boarding with Russell Hodge the Headmaster of the High School and his family. He was a magnificent educator -- The return to Raleigh on Friday afternoon and hearing the name 'Hitler' -- "History to me has never been dates and places, it's always been people, their actions, their interactions" -- "From then on I followed the rise of Hitler". The Depression years and the effect on the family. The sad-eyed men who called for food -- The traumatic experience with the stranger trying to steal her pony -- "I loved the people who were jumping the rattler". There were so many hopeless people walking the road -- Teachers College and special tuition. Memories of Coffs Harbour, "a divided town" -- The 'Backtrack' and the shadows cast by the sheoaks -- Land deals -- The profound effects of World War Two on Dulcie's life -- The night they announced their engagement the speech was made declaring Australia was at war with Germany. Her husband got called-up in 1940. She had the feeling "that he wouldn't come back". Her pregnancy at Evans Head and the discussion of plans for the baby. Her husband became part of the bomber crew in Britain. Their son was born. The telegram, "regret your husband missing in air operation over Germany" -- The end of the war and her illness after the birth. Having to fulfil their plans for their son on her own. Being a single parent in 1942 -- Her stay in Coffs Hospital. The secret room where military plans were made. Wartime suspicion. The special table for Dulcie and the officer - pretending they were at the Savoy -- Her mother brought the baby in to see her. The return home -- The role of Legacy in her son's life. Roy Riddell, the dentist, took her son out fishing and shooting. Boarding school -- "We didn't have the pressures of the young, single women have today". The importance of open friendships with men -- Only one of her husband's group came back after the war. The great importance of that original decision. The psychological health of fatherless children. Dulcie's way of keeping his father's personality alive -- The return of the log book. The 'adoption' of his father in England by the wealthy lady from Worthing -- The story of the tennis match. The presence of Aboriginal people in Coffs; Granny Ferguson -- Granny Ferguson felt that the whites would not accept her food. This was an accurate assessment -- The Kanaka people -- The Kumbaingirra tribe. Their decimation by western diseases. Homework sessions and picking up children for school -- Her father's memories of Aboriginals in Bonville. "They wandered in their natural state along the creeks". Personality portrait. Billy Mann as an elderly man in hospital. The slippers under Dulcie's bed -- Jack Box and his stories -- Dulcie's meeting with the Box brothers - like the Marx brothers. "No matter what was put to them they could cap it". Sitting on the Raleigh punt entertaining passers-by -- His hatband decorated with lace and flowers, a rose in his tie. "He was a rather large leprechaun that had been sent to the colonies" -- Dulcie's sense of community -- Her opinion of educators and education today. "We seem to be developing cardboard cut-outs".