Abc television

ORAL HISTORY RECORDINGS

State Library of SA

D5390 (Misc), part 4 Transcript of ‘Personalities Remembered. No. 64. Albert Edward Molineux. Talk by Marie Mune’. Radio 5CL, 22 August 1971, 5 pages. (Molineux’s private papers are held in PRG 881/1–4.)

OH 1 SA SPEAKS (State Library of South Australia Archival Database)

Interviews with 45 men and women who were broadly representative of the population of South Australia as it was in the first three decades of the 20th century. ‘S.A Speaks’ was a Jubilee 150 project conducted by Beth Robertson under the auspices of the History Trust of South Australia for two years and two months ending December 1986.

Title: ‘SA Speaks’: An Oral History of Life in South Australia before 1930

Quantity: 136 hours 10 minutes

Copy/publish: Copies may be made for research and study. Publication only with written permission from the Mortlock Library

Documentation: Full transcripts available (2521 pages)

Notes: Associated material comprises a collection of 163 photographs lent by interviewees to illustrate their interviews, and colour photographic portraits of eight of the interviewees taken for a display (1987). Additional associated material comprises various handwritten memoirs and newspaper cuttings provided as background information by interviewees (230 pp bound in 2 vols)

Subject: South Australia social life and customs; children South Australia social conditions; child rearing South Australia; home economics South Australia; food; dwellings South Australia; education South Australia; primary schools South Australia; secondary schools South Australia; family South Australia; courtship; marriage; mothers; fathers; parents; oral tradition South Australia; religious life and customs South Australia; transportation South Australia; youth employment South Australia; children employment South Australia; men employment South Australia; women employment South Australia; diseases South Australia; death; World War, 1914–1918; South Australia social aspects
OH 1/7 Interview with William Frederick Cook

William Cook was born in North London in 1911. In 1927 Bill’s father, a goldsmith, brought the family to South Australia in search of better work opportunities. None eventuated for him and he returned home within a year. His wife and youngest son soon followed. Bill Cook, however, embarked upon an eventful three-year initiation of bush life in Australia – from very brief stints on a Mallee farm and Kidman’s Myrtle Springs Station to life on the track in New South Wales en route to the working man’s Mecca, Queensland (never reached), and work in the Mount Burr forest. Bill Cook settled in South Australia, never returned to England and never saw his parents again.

Project: ‘S. A. Speaks’: An Oral History of Life in South Australia before 1930.

Quantity: 2 hours 50 minutes recorded on 28 August 1985

Documentation: Full transcript available (56 pages)

Subject: Cook, William Frederick, 1911–; British South Australia; return migration Great Britain; agricultural labourers South Australia Flinders Ranges region; forests and forestry South Australia South East region; ranch life South Australia Flinders Ranges region; immigrants South Australia; South Australia emigration and immigration; Myrtle Springs Station (SA); Mount Burr (SA)

OH 1/24 Interview with Heinrich Alfred Klingberg

Heinrich Alfred Klingberg (1898–), one of 11 children, was born to German parents on a wheat farm at Arden Vale, north of Quorn. The Arden Vale School closed in 1910 and after a further nine months at a German school in Emu Downs for his Confirmation studies, Alfred began work. He spent four and a half years on his brother-in-law’s farm at Wyacca before returning home when two older brothers went to war. However, by 1921 it was evident that the farm could not support the three remaining sons and his father settled him on a 30-acre block in Quorn. Alfred became a labourer in the Loco Sheds at the Railway Yards and he married a local girl. Their two children were born in 1923 and 1925. When the Commonwealth Railways took over the Great Northern Line in 1926, Klingberg was placed at the Mile End Loco Yard (he had requested Peterborough) where he specialised as an engine greaser.

Project: ‘S.A. Speaks’: An Oral History of Life in South Australia before 1930.

Quantity: 2 hours 55 minutes recorded on 11 February 1986

Documentation: Full transcript available (59 pages)

Subject: Klingberg, Heinrich Alfred, 1898–; Webb, William Alfred, 1878–1936; Commonwealth Railways employees; Germans South Australia; farmers South Australia Upper North region; horses South Australia; hunting South Australia; motorcycling South Australia; agricultural labourers South Australia Quorn Region; railroads South Australia Quorn repair shops; railroads South Australia Mile End repair shops; railroads South Australia employees; Arden Vale (SA); Quorn (SA); Hilton (SA); Wyacca (SA).

OH 1/42 Dix, Geoffrey Lancelot, 1909–

Interview with Geoffrey Lancelot Dix [sound recording] Interviewer: Beth M. Robertson.

'S.A. Speaks': An Oral History of Life in South Australia before 1930.

3 hours 15 minutes recorded on 22 July 1986. Full transcript available (58 pages)

Copies may be made for research and study. Publication only with written permission from the Mortlock Library.

Summary

Geoffry Dix was the fifth of six children of an Ethelton fettler. His mother was the effective head of the household, supplementing the family's income by teaching piano and encouraging the three youngest children's musical development. During Geoffrey's childhood they performed as the Dix Family Band. Geoffrey left school aged thirteen and a half to become an office boy at Howard Smith Ltd. A year and a half later his skull was smashed by a horse shoe thrown up by a passing car. His speech was affected and he did not feel confident enough to return to office work. Instead he took on a succession of labouring and delivery jobs. During the Depression Geoffry walked to Sydney seeking work and in the thirties he built up his own bread rounds. In 1938 he began a 30-year career with the T & G Insurance Co. Mr Dix married in 1932 and had two children.

Subject: Dix, Geoffrey Lancelot, 1909–; Howard Smith Limited (Adelaide, SA) Employees; Barwell Boys; Miners Western Australia; Music teachers South Australia Port Adelaide; Dance orchestras South Australia; Port Adelaide; Traffic accidents South Australia Port Adelaide; Migrant agricultural laborers South Australia Eyre Peninsula; Bakery employees South Australia; Depressions 1929 South Australia; Working class South Australia; Port Adelaide (SA); Ethelton (SA); Jervois Bridge (Port Adelaide, SA)

OH 77 Interview with Leo Michael Gleeson

Recorded January 1990

Subjects include farmers at Carrieton, SA, Balaklava, SA (Lower North).
OH 119 Soldier Settlement, Kangaroo Island.

16 tapes recorded c.1977. Interviewer: Janice Kelly. Some transcriptions: for example, interviewees Bald, Woolley (on the Township of Gosse), Childs, Fahey, Wallis and Habel.

OH 146/14 Interview with A. Mick Olsen 1917– [sound recording]

Project: Oral History of the Australian Fishing Industry: South Australian Interviews

45 minutes recorded on 29 January 1990 by interviewer Jack Darcey. Full transcript available (20 pages). Copies may be made for research and study. Publication only with written permission from the Mortlock Library

Summary

The following is taken from the introduction to the interview provided by the interviewer: After a distinguished undergraduate and post-graduate university education and having gained experience in other scientific research endeavours, Mick Olsen joined the Fisheries Division of the CSIRO, Cronulla, New South Wales and was then transferred to Tasmania where he began making contacts with fisherman in South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania and gaining and understanding of fisheries management in those states. He became Director of Fisheries in South Australia in 1967 and introduced many of the fisheries management policies and techniques that still persist. His contribution to the health of the industry is widely acclaimed. Now retired and living in Adelaide, he retains his interest in the industry and particularly in the biology of species it harvests.

Subjects: Olsen, A.M., 1917–; South Australia. Fisheries, Department of; South Australia. Fisheries and Fauna Conservation, Department of; South Australia. Agriculture and Fisheries, Department of; Fish Inspection; Fishery Law and Legislation; Lobster Fishing; Fishing Boats; Fish and Game Licences; Public Officers South Australia; Marine Resources Conservation

OH 169 Barwell Boys Oral Histories

Interviewer: Tony Evans.

37 tapes (32 hours 30 minutes) recorded between August 1992 and March 1996.

Summary

Interviews with men who came to South Australia in their youths under the Boy Farm Apprenticeship Scheme (1922–24) and the Big Brother Movement (1927–28), both of which were promoted by the governments of the day to encourage British boys to emigrate as farm labourers. They became known as Barwell Boys and Little Brothers. The interviews are life stories, of which the interviewees' emigration and apprenticeship experiences are a part. The interviews were conducted by Tony Evans on a voluntary basis after he became interested in the subject through his acquaintance with the first interviewee.

Interview log and partial transcript available for OH 169/1, interview logs and full transcripts available for OH 169/2–/10 (405 pages)

Subject: Barwell Boys; Little Brothers; Migrant agricultural labourers South Australia; British South Australia; Immigrants South Australia; Voyages and travels; Ocean travel; Farmers South Australia; South Australia Emigration and immigration.
OH 326 Perceptions of Lifestyle and Leisure of Rural Women in South Australia, 1940–1960.

62 hours 20 minutes (78 tapes); full transcripts and some additional notes available (1054 pages) recorded between 10 April and 27 July 1994. Interviewer: Neil Baron.

Copy/publish: Written permission required – apply to Mortlock Library for details.

Summary

A series of interviews with 36 women conducted as contributing research for a Master of Applied Science (Leisure Studies). The interviews focus on country women’s early married lives, and information about farm work and local communities is provided as well as descriptions of leisure activities.

Subject: Rural conditions South Australia; Rural families South Australia; Farmers South Australia; Rural women South Australia; Women in agriculture Australia; Leisure South Australia; Recreation Women South Australia; Sports South Australia; Handicraft South Australia; Women Employment South Australia; World War, 1939–1945 Women South Australia; Courtship; Marriage; South Australia Social life and customs.

OH 561/67 Radio interview with Sir Allan Robert Callaghan.

Interviewer: Lynne Arnold. Broadcast 16 December 1973. Quantity: 20 minutes. Transcript may be copied for research and study. All rights to copy the tape or publish the tape or transcript belong to the ABC. Subject: Callaghan, Allan R. Sir, 1903–; agriculturists South Australia; agriculture South Australia

OH 679 Interview with Tony Sharley, manager of Banrock Station Winery includes career as research scientist and work with Department of Agriculture.
OH 695 Prospect Hill Historical Museum Oral History Project (re dairying and the area)
OH 692 National Wine Centre ‘Treading out the vintage’: a collection of 179 interviews by Rob Linn on the history of the Australian wine industry
OH 689 History of Orroroo
OH 712 Interview with Tony Ryan who was born in Burra 9 November 1923 by Andrew Brown

Recorded on 29 October & 10 November 2004 on cassette (3 tapes) 2 hours 30 minutes (approx.)

Full transcript available (43 pages) Written permission required for publication.

Subject: Shearers

National Library of Australia

ORAL TRC 2876 Interview with Charles Robert (‘Bert’) Kelly (1912–1997) by Stewart Cockburn, 22 Oct. 1992.

Transcript: (17 leaves). Open access.

Bert Kelly was Minister for the Navy 1968–69 and for Works 1967. He was Liberal Member of the House of Representatives for Wakefield, SA for 1958–78. The subject of the interview, Charles Hawker (1894–1938), was a pastoralist, soldier and Federal Parliamentarian who was killed in a DC3 aircraft crash in Victoria in 1938. Kelly speaks of the Charles Hawker awards; Lilias Needham’s view of Hawker; the Kelly’s relationship with the Hawkers; Hawker and his father’s being wounded in World War I; entry into ‘agro-politics’; his father’s involvement with the Tariff Board; tariffs and employment; Hawker’s stoicism; Hawker’s interest in Kelly’s children; Hawker’s interest in farming; the plantation in honour of Hawker; Hawker as an Australian; Hawker’s attitude to his disabilities; the way Hawker helped people; Dick Butler’s standing for a seat; Hawker as a possible Prime Minister.

ORAL TRC 4900/30 Interview with Charles Robert (‘Bert’) Kelly (1912–1997) by Bruce Edwards, 1 Sept.– 9 Oct. 1968

Originally numbered as Pohp 30. Open access. Original recording 7 cassettes. Tape 1 and tape 2 side 1 have not been transcribed. Tapes have been destroyed at interviewee’s request.

Notes: Parliament’s Oral History Project is an ongoing project administered by the Australian Parliamentary Library focussing on retired parliamentarians and their political careers. Kelly held the seat of Wakefield, SA for the Liberal Party from November 1958 to November 1977. He was Minister for Works from 1967 to 1968 and Minister for Navy from 1968 to 1969. Kelly speaks of his beginnings in politics and his early career; political interests; politicians and political issues; policies; his political career; political events of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.