STATE LIBRARY OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA J. D. SOMERVILLE ORAL HISTORY COLLECTION
OH 541/6
Full transcript of an interview with
SHIRLEY MILICH
on 14 September 1999
By Aileen Treagus
Recording available on CD
Access for research: Unrestricted
Right to photocopy: Copies may be made for research and study
Right to quote or publish: Publication only with written permission from the State Library OH 541/6 SHIRLEY MILICH
NOTES TO THE TRANSCRIPT
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WE REMEMBER DAISY BATES: J.D. SOMERVILLE ORAL HISTORY COLLECTION, MORTLOCK LIBRARY OF SOUTH AUSTRALIANA: INTERVIEW NO. OH 541/6
Aileen Treagus interviewing Shirley Milich on 14th September 1999.
TAPE 1 SIDE A
This is Aileen Treagus interviewing Shirley Milich at the home of Peg Mallycha in Loxton on the 14th of September 1999 for the Ayers House exhibition, We remember Daisy Bates. (Tape is blank for a few seconds.)
Shirley, could you please tell me your full name?
Shirley Helen Milich.
And what year were you born?
Nineteen twenty-six.
And were you born here at Loxton?
Yes, in the old Loxton hospital.
Were you? And what was your maiden name then?
Karsten [?]. My father came from Tanunda and married one of the local girls.
Did he?
I’ve lived here all my life. My mother was born here, too, in Loxton.
Was she?
Mmh’m.
Now, what did your father do?
My father was a motor mechanic at Hugo Japp’s Garage here in Loxton for many years.
And what work did you do?
Well, when I left school I worked in the Westover’s Bakery, in the shop, and I did a bit of fruit picking and then I went to work at the hotel as an upstairs maid and waitress. And then in 1944 I joined the Navy, I had two years in the Navy, and I came back to Loxton and worked at the hotel again until I was married in 1948.
Oh, thank you for that. So you had quite a rounded career.
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Well, I was an only daughter and a bit lonely, I suppose, and I thought I’d like to get away for a little while, do my bit for the King and Country! (laughs)
Yes.
No, I had two good years.
Where did you serve?
Well, I joined here at Adelaide, and I had six weeks’ rookies at Port Melbourne, and then I was drafted to Townsville for ten months and came down again and three months at Balmoral Naval Depot in Sydney and the last three months in Flinders Naval Depot, where I was discharged from there.
Oh, thank you for that. So at which stage of your career did you become interested in Daisy Bates?
Oh, that was back in my school days, about the mid-1930’s, I suppose it would have been, and a girlfriend and I used to ride down to Pyap on our pushbikes that was only five miles down and we’d pop in and sit with Daisy for a while and watch her feed her possums. (laughs)
Where was she living?
Down at Pyap on the riverbank.
Can you describe her home?
Well, I thought she was in one tent, but I realise that it must have been two two tents that she lived in. Right on the bank of the river, and surrounded by lovely gum trees and .
Beautiful place.
Yes. But we used to sit with her for a while and then ride home again. Not much to do in a little country town. And then, later on, when I started going with my husband, and I found that he lived at Pyap and he used to visit her and became quite friendly with her. They used to walk along the riverbank and find sharks’ teeth and their middens, fires, and .
And Daisy and he walked along together
Yes.
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and searched for them.
Yes. I can well, I can still see her now in her long, black dress and her buttoned up boots. (laughs) This is from what I remember of her. She was a lovely lady, and very well spoken and interesting to listen to.
Now, you have brought along some artefacts here that your husband found in his walks and explorations with Daisy. I wonder if, maybe although we can’t see them you could just describe what they are? What’s this largish stone here?
This one’s got an indentation in it here, and that was where the thumb would have gone to make it easier to throw and, you know, after their .
A throwing stone?
Yes, a throwing stone. And this one has got a sharp edge, so it would have been used as a cutting stone. And this larger one would have been had a handle tied to it with the sinews of kangaroos’ legs, and that would have been used as a hatchet
I see.
or like a little axe. These are some sharks’ teeth that we found along the banks of the river, too. (rattling sound, as of teeth being spilled on a table)
Quite a collection of them.
And these little (sound as of matchbox being opened) stones like this with sharp edges, they would have been used for skinning their (sound of items being dropped onto table)
It’s extremely sharp.
yes for their little roos and rabbits, whatever they caught.
Was Daisy searching for signs of maybe Aboriginals who might still be living there, or ?
She probably would have been. On the other side of the river there was what children around the place here used to call the Aborigines’ graves, ‘blackfellas’ graves’, and on the Saturday afternoon I know a lot of the young lads used to walk across to these graves looking for bones and things you know how young boys are
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and I do remember seeing skulls and things that they’d brought back from these expeditions over the river.
Did your did Daisy ever go over there?
Well, I know she went over the river several times with Ivan in the boat, but I don’t think she would have walked that far because that would have been a couple of miles [to the cemetery]. I don’t think she would have gone right over. But she did walk along the river on this side with Ivan on occasions, and she showed him campfires or what they used to call ‘middens’, the stones, the burnt black stones, and the still ashes there of the fire. I remember Ivan telling me about that many times.
Daisy would have been interested to have found those things.
Oh yes. I think she probably well, she lived her life among the Aborigines. She must have thought there were more here, but there weren’t not of latter years that I remember. Would have been some earlier, probably.
Do you remember her discussing the Aborigines or her life among them?
No, I don’t really I think I would have only been about twelve, fourteen years old at the time. Can’t really remember much of what we were told.
But you did go down to her tent sometimes, and .
Oh yes, yes, we often went down there. We used to enjoy going down there.
And she welcomed you?
Yes, yes. And we’d sit on a log outside and she’d make her little possums come down the tree.
So they were her pets?
Yes, she’d put bread out on this little ledge that she had, and they’d come down and eat the bread that she’d put there for them. I don’t remember when she actually left Pyap. I think I must have sort of grown out of those visits.
Yes. I think she came and went a few times.
Mm, perhaps she did.
Did you go back to Pyap much in later times?
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Yes. After the War I started going with Ivan. We often went back to Pyap and out on the boat fishing and yabbying in Katarapko Creek. And then on Sundays my family my Mum and Dad and my brother we’d spend the whole day down there yabbying and cooking yabbies, come home sunburned. (laughs)
Yes. Were there any signs of Daisy’s camp there?
No, no, there weren’t. That was all gone by then. See, this would have been about 1946, mm.
Yes. But you remembered her being there?
Yes, we often spoke of her. It’s named ‘Daisy Bates Reserve’ now, there.
Right. She seems to have been remembered by everyone who knew her.
Oh, yes.
What would you feel, you know, your strongest memories are?
Oh, just to see her in her black even on a real hot day she had her long, black frock on, long-sleeved, and her black boots and stockings. And we had next to nothing on (laughs) just our bathers, a lot of times.
Yes. Shirley, how do you think Daisy coped living in all the Loxton or Pyap heat in all that clothing?
Well, it didn’t seem to worry her. She always seemed comfortable enough. We couldn’t stand it, though, because the temperatures used to be well, up to the hundred degree in those days now it’s . It didn’t seem to worry her, but she must have got used to it to be living in Ooldea in the desert (laughs) with the heat over there.
Yes, indeed. I’m interested in those artefacts you brought in, and your husband obviously was, too.
Probably her interest made him interested in it, because he’s always picked up and kept things that he’d picked up around the area. Possibly was started by Daisy Bates.
Have you got any other memories of Daisy you’d like to share?
No, I think that’s about all I can say.
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Well, thank you very much, Shirley.
TAPE ENDS
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