OH805 GOLDSWORTHY, Reuben

STATE LIBRARY OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA J. D. SOMERVILLE ORAL HISTORY COLLECTION OH 721/3 Full transcript of an interview with BILL LASLETT on 27 January 2005 By Robert Thompson 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 721/3 BILL LASLETT NOTES TO THE TRANSCRIPT This transcript was created by the J. D. Somerville Oral History Collection of the State Library. It conforms to the Somerville Collection's policies for transcription which are explained below. Readers of this oral history transcript should bear in mind that it is a record of the spoken word and reflects the informal, conversational style that is inherent in such historical sources. The State Library is not responsible for the factual accuracy of the interview, nor for the views expressed therein. As with any historical source, these are for the reader to judge. 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Discrepancies between transcript and tape: This proofread transcript represents the authoritative version of this oral history interview. Researchers using the original tape recording of this interview are cautioned to check this transcript for corrections, additions or deletions which have been made by the interviewer or the interviewee but which will not occur on the tape. See the Punctuation section above.) Minor discrepancies of grammar and sentence structure made in the interest of readability can be ignored but significant changes such as deletion of information or correction of fact should be, respectively, duplicated or acknowledged when the tape recorded version of this interview is used for broadcast or any other form of audio publication. 2 J.D. SOMERVILLE ORAL HISTORY COLLECTION, STATE LIBRARY OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA: INTERVIEW NO. OH 721/3 Interview with Mr Bill Laslett recorded by Robert Thompson at Port MacDonnell, South Australia, on 27th January 2005 for the The State Library of South Australia’s Mount Gambier Region Oral History Project. Also present is Bev Perryman. TAPE 1 SIDE A This is an interview with Bill Laslett on the 27th January 2005. Also present are Bev Perryman and Robert Thompson. Bill Laslett was born on the 9th November 1918, he was the fourth child of William Manger Laslett and Lillian Rose Laslett. Bill is my mum’s brother, and this year is the 150th anniversary of the original George Laslett arriving in Australia on the Fulwood. Do you know anything about that side of the history, Uncle Bill? LS: (sound of garbage truck) Of the history of George? The original George coming out to Australia? LS: (laughs, referring to vehicle) They don’t take long. Well, no, I don’t know that I know a great deal, Robert, with the exception that Grandfather Laslett came over to – was in Adelaide. He worked as a guard at the Yatala Prison Farm before coming to the South-East. I understand that they came by bullock dray from Adelaide to Mount Gambier, then they put in a bit of time out at Wye and then moved into Allendale. And I remember Grandfather; I don’t remember Granny, not at all, because I don’t know just when she died – – –. Yes, 1917, so it would have been a year before you were born. LS: Before, yes. Well, as I say, I’ve got no idea. I think that Jack and Reg, they remember Granny. But then old Grandfather, I remember him very, very well in that he was a – well, not a tall man, but a squatty man. He had an illness, supposed to be a heart attack. Well, of course a heart attack those times was something pretty serious and he took to the chair. And the old cane chair was in the house at home for as long as I can ever remember. But he used to walk around with two sticks, identical sticks, one on each side, and he never did a day’s work, I don’t think, from that time that he had his heart attack he mustn’t work, you see, so – – –. He’d have a thirty years’ spell! 3 LS: Yes. Well, he sat down in the chair for thirty-odd years. And as far as Granny was concerned, well, I don’t know anything like of the Langford family but I guess that a lot of that has already been tabulated as far as the history of the family is concerned. And, as you said there, they had seven or eight children. Yes, eight. LS: Eight. And my – – –. Well, nine actually – the first one died. LS: First one died. Yes. There was Auntie Lottie, Auntie Lil, Auntie Em, Uncle George and Uncle Dick, Uncle Alf, Auntie Fanny and Dad. That right? Yes, that’s right. LS: Dad was the youngest of the family. And Auntie Lottie was the eldest of the family, and Lil Kerr was her daughter that married Alec Kerr, and so when Dad was born he was already an uncle. Yes, he was already an uncle because Auntie Lottie had had her first daughter before Dad was born, because their family must have been spread out over a fair period. BP: Twenty-two years. Yes. It says in Rosalie’s book that she’s just put out that they were at Caroline, which is Wye, is it? LS: INTERVIEWEE: Yes, Wye, yes. – in 1866, and then there was a letter written from Allendale on the 19th June 1867, so we assume he’s in Allendale by 1867 and some of those children, Em and George, were born at Allendale, but Dick was born at Caroline. So they must have still – Dick was born after those two, because he was born 1872, so they must have still had that – – –. LS: Yes, because he would have been younger. Dick was younger than Emily and George. And George, yes. So they still must have retained that Caroline country for a little while, anyway. LS: Yes. I don’t know just exactly where it was, but I always understood that it was there somewhere in the Hunt’s area, it’d be round where the – Donovan’s Dairy’s 4 just taken over a bit of that country now. There was a cemetery supposedly there, too, in there. Oh, right? LS: BP: That’s on Hunt’s property. INTERVIEWEE: That’s on Hunt’s property, yes. In that tape that Collie Bone – that you’ve got, Bev – he talks about Old Man Laslett being down next to his – I don’t know whether it was his grandparents, I suppose – at Wye. LS: Oh yes, yes, it’d be his grandparents, yes. Yes. He said it was half a mile or so south of Tony Hunt’s house, so would that be about – – –? LS: South of Tony Hunt’s? BP: No, wouldn’t be Tony; Jim’s. Would it be? LS: BP: Yes, Jim’s. INTERVIEWEE: Yes, it’d be Jim Hunt’s. Oh, right. LS: Yes. I would say it would be Jim, because if you go – BP: South of Tony’s you’d be in the sea. INTERVIEWEE: – south of Tony you’re getting almost down to the sea. Are you? LS: Yes. No, I always understood that the cemetery and that out there was somewhere in the vicinity of what they called the Stony Flat, in that flat bit of ground there, and which would have been south of Jim Hunt’s. Oh, right. So they must have only been there for a year or so or something like that, and then moved into Allendale itself and – LS: But they still retained – – –. – retained that land at Caroline for a while, anyway. 5 LS: Well, it looks like it according to that, doesn’t it. Yes. Because Dick was born there. Or maybe he was just registered there. LS: Oh no, they possibly did, they possibly retained that ....

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