Malcolm Wheatley: Eastwood.

Malcolm Wheatley: Well I.

Malcolm Wheatley: I was born in Eastwood on the 16th of the first at St Edmunds private hospital. Mum and dad had built an all brick home at number, I don't know that, First Avenue. The home is still standing, the bay windows having been removed for modern aluminium windows.

Dad bought an Excelsior big X motorbike with sidecar. When I was aged about three years old and I can remember on one occasion he ran off the road into a fence owing to the bad roads. I was on the sidecar and sustained a cut finger. Later on he sold the outfit and bought a horse and (unclear) sulky.

A man went around each night lighting up the street lights carrying his little ladder with him as gas had come to Eastwood. In 1920 I went down to see the Duke and Duchess of York train climbing up the hill at Eastwood, the royal train.

After working a number of years for Ferguson, dad travelled to Fairfield to the general store and later when I was seven years old we moved to Fairfield. The time travelling for dad was three hours per day so grandpa asked Dad to join the store with his brothers Roy, sister... brother Roy, Les, Winnie and Greta. Aunt Greta was an operatic singer in... she was the leading Lady in a Gilbert and Sullivan's operas. The store at Fairfield built in 1922 comprised grocery, ironmongery, produce, shoes, haberdashery, etc. In other words, a miniature Anthony Horden's.

When moving to Fairfield we rented a home in Sackville Street. It was built on an area where wild flowers flourished. My brother Warwick would go out each morning and pick up mum a fresh bunch of flowers.

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The people next door built a little sulky for the goat to Paul and I have a photo of Warwick proudly driving it along. I had up a one mile walk to Fairfield School.

Dad bought a one-acre block of land at number 26 Station Street Fairfield where we had a tingle... bungalow built. The sight of the present Fairfield Forum shopping centre. The area comprised mostly ironstone gravel of three-inch diameter... three eighths of an inch diameter. It was used, this soil as aggregate for cement mixing plus cement. It settled hard and I can't ever remember it cracking. Huge gum trees covered the area from Ware Street to Cunningham Street and this is where we learnt the technique of forming grubbing and forming fence posts and we used a cross-cut saw (unclear) and wedges.

We moved to our new home when I was about 10 years old. Opposite our home at 26 Station Street Fairfield, Don Galani (name not verified), an Italian, had a sawmill and supplied wood for the final... fuel fires as gas had not come to Fairfield, no electric stoves.

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I attended Fairfield public school and the area from our house to the school was dense tea tree scrub.

Our annual picnic and games was held at Latty's picnic ground at Georges River. The big day arrived and we were all around... grouped and three abreast then marched to the picnic grounds. A band had taken the lead for one... over a mile walk with power tin mugs slung over our shoulders. (.. unclear ..) stopped on our way trying to fix up our cups and adjust them. Watering can two gallons were used or they were borrowed from my grandfather's shop to pour out the lemonade and ginger beer. I don't think the cans were ever washed out before they were used. Corned beef sandwiches, cakes and sweets were soon eaten up and the games followed.

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Fairfield being flat country, cycling was a popular sport. Every one month a push bike, I rode a push bike... the local book... I beg your pardon... everyone rode push bikes. The local bike shop was run by a chap by the name of Goodey. Goodey ran the races and supplied the prizes. The most popular show race and the best decorated bike. In other words the last person that arrived at the goal without putting his feet on the ground was the winner. The main street of The Crescent was closed off for three events with the band following us all the way along.

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Blue metal was extracted from Prospect Hill and brought by rail to Fairfield station to the main South line. The train was always seemed to blast its way across The Crescent in the busiest hours of the day and many a surprise driver would rush out of the shop to see if his horse drawn sulky or cart was the one that had shied at the steam engine blast as it crossed the road in the main line. I can remember in one occasion my dad rushing out of the shop and tucking his apron and coat in his pants beside the bolting horse. He grabbed the bridle bringing the horse to a standstill with everybody clapping on the... onlookers.

Electric trains came to Liverpool in 1929. The old steam trains were always crowded and many a night on my way home my mate Ron Hall and I rode the buffers, our legs dangling between the cars. I was working at the City Motor Company at this stage whether Lyceum theatre is.

Friday-night was a late shopping till 9pm. A band would move along The Crescent with the drums banging with Torry Edwards bursting his cheeks on the trump. Torry Edwards was the hairdresser in the billiard saloon.

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We had tough police men in those days. Sergeant Holman and Constable Noble, they maintained peace with their fists and a kick in the backside for the young hoodlums. On one occasion I was passing the hotel and the door burst open. Constable Noble and a chap we called Tiny, in tight embrace, spilled out into the gutter. Tiny kept banging Constable Noble's head in the greasy gutter. A taxi was called and they both finished up still fighting in the back seat of Leo Morris's Chrysler, rocking side to side with the onlookers clapping.

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A huge corrugated building near the station called The Butterfly was the venue for the silent films which was the first Theatre in Fairfield and a skating rink. The orchestra comprised two violins and a piano. They were positioned on a platform as you entered the theatre. There was a little ladder leading up onto the platform where they used to, think the place used to shake to its foundations. High above the seat accessible (.. unclear ..) in the light beam of the project all sorts of projectiles were flung in the air, whistling and roaring out at the baddies, the men, the boys and the men always whistling. Mostly westerns, the type we only went to see including grandad Wheatley. Constructed... being constructed of corrugated iron, during the silent break of the film, someone wielding a stick would run along the outside of the corrugation making machine-like noise and frighten the life out of us.

The second picture show was in The Crescent near Payne's butchery. And the first talkie film shown in Fairfield was the Greyhound Limited, with Monty Blue. The next theatre built still stands at the end of The Crescent on the site of Alf Bagley’s garage. The Crescent theatre on the corner of Ware and Spencer Street.

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On the the corner of Ware and Spencer Street, the old Post Office was a thriving peach orchard. There was no trouble with a fruit flies in those days... half a bushel... a-half bushel wood case of fruit cost four shillings. Fruit and produce was brought to the station from Bossley Park, Wetherill Park and Horsley Park for the Sydney markets. The Crescent at Fairfield was paved with concrete in the late twenties and was all laid by hand. Wooden barrows were used to convey the concrete.

Fairfield in the '20s was prone to flooding on the Prospect Creek. I can recall floodwaters 2 ft deep covering the area from Hamilton Rd through to Dale's Bridge. With the improvised drains the problem was overcome.

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Symbol brothers ran a four horse-drawn bus to Fairfield West. Passengers sitting on the side facing each other canvas flaps covered the side, the entrance was by the rear. A motor bus ran to Smithfield, chain driven Albion two decker open at the top. It ran on solid tyres which churned up the road. We boys used to like to rush up the top first and get the best seats. Horsley Park was serviced by a 1924 Dodge. The seats were on the side and carried about 24 people but most nights was overcrowding, you could barely make the Fairfield Heights via Station Street. I lived at 26 Station Street, I can still see the churning up of the red dust against the setting sun as it toiled up the hill.

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Malcolm Wheatley: Well, that's a good question. It was... I never can understand to this day why it wasn't put in cardboard boxes. It was all packed up into a little heap on a piece, on newspaper and wrapped up in newspaper and it was tied up with string. The string was suspended from the ceiling in a tin. You used to pull the string down and just wrap it up. And but... the point, the point of delivering the groceries, my dad for instance, he'd pick up the orders, he'd come into the shop, tidy it all up (.. unclear ..) notes, he'd make all the orders up. It was altogether on the counter, all the people, every, all the groceries. If you wanted something you put it down. And then his brother would come along when they were delivering it, with a huge box and it was all put in there at random you know, close to each other as it came up. And that huge box had to be put on the cart. Now I can't understand to this day why there wasn't arrangements where an individual customer had their order and was taken in. When they got to the... the customer's house, it all had to be counted out again, or sorted out in the cart out on the street. Instead of packing it in a box in the shop and delivering that and making arrangements on the cart to hold it. It was always put in this huge, it took two men to carry this huge box with all the groceries together and that I can't understand. I can't to this day, I'll often think about it, why?