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Richard Young: Your name is Arthur? Arthur Wallace: Wallace. Richard Young: All the way down from Queensland. Arthur Wallace: Queensland yeah. Richard Young: Living there up in Queensland? Arthur Wallace: Yeah. Richard Young: Living there up in Queensland? Ok Arthur were you born here at all? Arthur Wallace: No I came here when I was about eight or nine. Richard Young: Gee, where did you come from where were you from? Arthur Wallace: Born in Western Australia. Richard Young: Western Australia and what your mum and dad came over here. Arthur Wallace: Prior to that and then we moved out here about 1928. Richard Young: To a farm or a…? Arthur Wallace: Yeah lived where Stocklands are. Richard Young: Oh right so you’re living down near Stocklands? So when did you move there? Arthur Wallace: In ‘28 Richard Young: In 1928. Arthur Wallace: Yeah 1928. Richard Young: Gee it must have been a different world then. Arthur Wallace: It was a real big area you know about three cars in the whole district (laughter). And we went to school to the little old school on the hill. Richard Young: At Bossley? Arthur Wallace: Yeah. Richard Young: Yeah I was just talking to Mrs Mulligan here earlier she was talking about her kids going up here, two teachers and 50 kids. Arthur Wallace: One teacher when I went. Richard Young: Do you remember the teacher’s name? Arthur Wallace: Robinson. Richard Young: Robinson, Mr or Mrs? Arthur Wallace: Yeah Mr Robinson. Richard Young: What a stern bloke or…? Arthur Wallace: No, the best teacher I think I ever had. Richard Young: What and he took you through a number of years? Arthur Wallace: Yeah he took me through until I went to Liverpool Tech. Richard Young: Oh right so you went to Liverpool Tech? Arthur Wallace: Yeah and then onto Granville. The first two years at Liverpool and they didn’t go to 3rd year so I finished up going to Granville Tech. Read and listen to more about TAFE >>> Richard Young: Your dad did he farm here? Arthur Wallace: Yeah he had a mixed farm, poultry and garden mixed farm yeah. Richard Young: Right because I was talking to Jean Grae you know (talking over)… Arthur Wallace: Just up the top on the hill there. Richard Young: How many chooks did you have at that sort of stage? Arthur Wallace: Oh dad didn’t have that many then I went farming up into Quarry Rd myself and I had a poultry farm and chicken hatchery there. Richard Young: And you sold, what, you sold your eggs to the Egg Board? Arthur Wallace: Well what I didn’t use for hatching to the Egg Board. Read and listen to more about farming in Fairfield >>> Richard Young: What about your chickens? Arthur Wallace: Well the chickens I sold them from here to Hong Kong. Richard Young: (Laughter) Right they got shipped away did they? Arthur Wallace: Oh everywhere you know (.. unclear .. ) everywhere around. It was a terrific quantity of middle size farms. All of them that sort of size drifted off have either gone bigger or out. Richard Young: When you were here did you ever see where that sort of thing changed from the small farms? Arthur Wallace: Yeah well that’s what I say it went from a lot of small farms the small farms disappeared and the big farms got bigger. 2.46 minutes Richard Young: Yeah but was there a particular time when that happened? Arthur Wallace: Oh in about the, what time… year if you want… approximately ‘58 it started to go to cage farms and bigger, bigger cage farms and the average smaller farms dropped out. And with the development of the area all the small farms that used to be between here and Fairfield and all those, Palmerston Road, King Road, Palmerston Road, what’s the next one? The next road, I can’t think of the next road… they all sort of drifted off because they were selling their properties and getting enough for it to retire. Richard Young: What was it like, I guess you would have seen a bit of the depression and (..unclear..)? Arthur Wallace: Oh yeah that was all on when we moved here it was depression time. Richard Young: What was it like living... was it hard? Arthur Wallace: No because you always got a... you’d have pigs off the farms, everybody looked after everybody. In this area anyway. Read and listen to more stories from Fairfield >>> Richard Young: Yeah what about the war years was that hard on people here or…? Arthur Wallace: No that was just the same, we looked after one another. I had enough ground I could run up... I used to go to Homebush buy a few average sheep bring them out top them off and kill one every 2 - 3 weeks since you got a leg and you got a something last time and you get a four quarter and you get a something else next time. With the meat rationing. Shouldn’t have been done but it happened. Read and listen to more about the war at home >>> Richard Young: What about petrol rationing was it easy enough to get or… (laughter)? Arthur Wallace: I better be careful (laughter). Richard Young: No, no that’s all gone… not going to know. Arthur Wallace: No well the primary producers got something like 10 or 12 gallons a month. Seeing I had a hatchery delivery chickens to here to there and back again I just used to go to the war agricultural department each month how many do you think you will need this month 20, 30, 40 whatever it might have been. I had no worries in that regard. 4.59 minutes Richard Young: I guess too after the war there must have been well the start of all the housing development, what was the sort of first area of Bossley that got sort of split up into houses sort of you could say was a development? Arthur Wallace: Well it still went pretty slap happy even right up to… They let it out in stages, they let it out from Fairfield let it out to Kings Road and they’d released it to somewhere else and they (..unclear..) I sold out in ‘73 they still didn’t release that until about… properly, until about 82. They wouldn’t release it until they put sewerage and everything on there was no sewerage with us yet it was all septic tanks before that. Read and listen to more about buildings in Fairfield >>> Richard Young: Gee you must have you must have met a few characters around too in those days? Arthur Wallace: There was always characters in the area you must realise that there is a clown in every circus isn’t there (laughter). You know some of the things that have happened over the years you wouldn’t credit it such as the egg carrier driving over a little homemade bridge at somebody’s gateway falling through the bridge with his back stack of eggs fell off over the back and he would give you a ring for everybody to come around and help him re pack them… what was left (laughter) and then the omelette on the back of the truck. Richard Young: I think it might have been Bob Crosby was saying they used to have dances down at the Progress Hall (..unclear..). Arthur Wallace: Whatever it was. Richard Young: Used to be called young, I don’t know what you call it at the time (laughter) people used to pull all the harness off and put it all in a big pile in the middle. Arthur Wallace: Well one of the first things I can remember the Water Board was working… doing a main up Quarry Road soon after the hall was built. The hall was built when we moved here and it was only a few months I saw it. Being an inquisitive kid going to school at eight or nine and my neighbours kid there was the pair of us walking around and this bloke had his sulky at the back of the horse and he had bags in the floor of the sulky. And we lifted it up, ah they had two sets of trestles that they pinched from underneath the hall (laughter) in their sulky. So first we went up to somebody that we (..unclear..) Mr George lived up the road he was the president of the Progress Association or something at that time… went up and told him and he went down and finished up seeing my father and he had one of the cars in the district they went into the police and brought the police out and collected the blokes (laughter). Just things would happen all the time it was an off set type of an area. Richard Young: Yeah it must have been good in an area I guess where… everybody… I suppose most people know each other. Arthur Wallace: Aw they knew everyone. It would have been I suppose it would have been lucky it was 200 population in Bossley Park and there was another lady Mrs O’Connell lived in Bossley Road at that time they had an orchard there. This mate and I as we go up to peach season we always went that way (laughter). She would know she’d say, "here’s my," she was Irish, O’Connell, she’d say, "here’s my little laddies," or something, kept a plate of peeled peaches ready for us at the gate every morning you know. Richard Young: Might have stopped you pinching them? Arthur Wallace: Well that was the idea I’d say. She made a good fellow of herself and gave us a few spec peaches already peeled and ready to eat on the way you know the 2 developed into about 6 after a few weeks after we told the others at school, "oh we get a plate of peaches every morning." Read and listen to more about social change in Fairfield >>> 9.30 minutes Richard Young: I guess from what I've learnt from a lot of people there were lots of orchards around too. Arthur Wallace: There was yeah. My wife’s grandmother had one of the biggest orchards around, she was in the Jeeves family and they had… between Bossley Road and Salters Road and another probably 30 acres up Quarry Road… peach orchards. Richard Young: What they took them in the market? Arthur Wallace: Yeah the old chap Jeeves up to about then about ‘27, ‘28 bracket, ‘28, 1928. He used to pick his peaches load them and every other day drive to City Markets with a horse and dray. Richard Young: How long would that have taken? Arthur Wallace: A few hours in and a few hours out that’s why he only went every other day. Read and listen to more about Fairfield’s landforms >>> Richard Young: So you’ve been on Progress Hall committee, Progress Association… how did you get started in that? Arthur Wallace: Well my parents-in-law had been in it and I went out living on my own and start my own farm. I was close to the hall and used to… until then we kept an eye on it as the saying goes, finished up as the secretary I just can’t remember exactly when but I know it would be — I was married in 41 — and it would be soon after that I can remember I started off into the secretary’s job probably left it and kept it at it I just trying to think if I did hand it over before I went secretary manager of St Johns Park Bowling Club, did 15 years there and my health let me down on the farm. I was told to get another job. 11.31 minutes Richard Young: You must have seen a few good many dances and shows and plays and things? Arthur Wallace: In the early days we used to have a dance at Bossley one week and a dance at Wetherill Park the next so we had a balance. Maybe not every week but that was the principal, here one time, there the next. And then there was another group used to use both halls, cards, Euchre parties, one week and Euchre the next and a sort of intertwined like that, no clashing, the age group wanted the cards, well they were there for them. Read and listen to more about dances in Fairfield >>> Richard Young: What sort of bands you have at the dances? Arthur Wallace: What sort of…? Richard Young: Bands? Arthur Wallace: Well actually my two sisters one was a violinist, one was a pianist and Charlie House who lived in Salters Road, was a cornet, had a cornet, no drums and that was an orchestra for a long, long time. First there was one… two ladies and they used to take it in turns there was a Mrs Price who lived down the end of Prairievale Road where it comes out onto Polding Street. Bill Price I think went on afterwards, Jack Price and Bill Price I think, had the bus run between them. Well she used to be the pianist, I don’t remember whether it was two and six or five shillings a night she’d go and play for them, or something like that you know. Richard Young: What sort of music did they play? Songs of the time I suppose. Arthur Wallace: The popular thing of the times and there was three of them, house where they got going. They did it for nothing for years, put the, put them on their feet, you know because they played for nothing. Richard Young: I’ll let you get going because… we will catch up with Bob and all the others but thank you very much. |
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