Thanks to all those who have contributed articles for this edition. Others who have helped with typing, copying, collating and stapling. This issue is much more interesting because of the visual illustrations provided by Helen. Thanks, they're great.

EDITION 9 June 1984 A GOLDEN AFTERNOON r

The afternoon of Thursday 3rd May, saw a happy gathering in the Dining Room at the Coolibah Centre for a Community Sing-a-long,

The Coolibah Centre members were joined by members of the Fitzroy Elderly Citizens, Cameron House, Collingwood Elderly Citizens, Burnley Nursing Home and the Home of the Good Shepherd who came with the Sunshine Club, . ,

More than 100 joined in the singing led by Mona McMahon and pianist John Hoare. The songs included: "You made me love you", "I'm in the mood for love", "Heart of my heart", "When Irish Eyes are smiling", "My blue heaven", "Ramona", "Tea for two", "After the ball is over", and "Ain't she sweet".

Preparing the afternoon tea in the kitchen earlier were Iris Conway and Carmen Magro. Others who joined in the preparing of scones and mixed sandwiches before the singing were Alice Cross, Roy Bartlett, Sally Ryan, Marilyn Roper, Kathleen McBride, Simon Martin, Norma Anderson, Lillie Bishop, Jean Rouse, Rita Chenhall. and Lou Chung, Thanks to everyone who helped,

Tony de Clifford

* Check the yellow program for the next Community Singing Day.

lo\xj . BsiTe , U^r-j or 'S MOTHER - 1923

In Shepparton when I was young, I once cut me foot on a beer bottle and I was taken over to Mooroopna Hospital. I was there for two weeks and not allowed to put me foot to the ground. So, I'm hopping around on one leg, I went to hop up a step, just misjudged it and kicked the top off the toe of the other foot. Well that meant I had to stay longer. They told me I'd have to stay until it healed over. I was dying to get home so I ripped the loose skin and scab off.so they wouldn't make me stay in bed any longer. They wouldn't let me leave until my parents came for me and paid the bill.

It happened to be Shepparton Show Day. At last I went home and went to the Show with me mother and father. This old lady happened to be standing about twenty or thirty feet away from me, I never spoke to her but she was pointed out to me as Mrs. Kelly, Ned Kelly's mother. I remember her being dressed in black.

We were talking about this incident among the family later. See, because of my foot, it was just me at the Show that day with my mother and father and when I told my brothers about seeing Mrs. Kelly they wouldn't believe me. A few years later, I picked up a book which happened to mention Mrs. Kelly being at the Show, not with my name or anything. I showed them and A- ■

Now Ned Kelly's uncle was the reprobate, actually. Ned got blamed for what his uncle done. Remember Frank Clune who wrote all the Ned Kelly books? Well, he said that his uncle was a reprobate, a real old doer. They used to blame Ned Kelly for what he'd done. But then, on the other hand, Ned Kelly was a real wild bloke. He got this gang together and he was supposed to have robbed the rich to give to the poor - a kind , ,of Robin Hood story. There was Ned and Dan Kelly, and . The reason that Ned killed the policeman was that he raped Ned's sister Kate. Kate and his mother used to ■ go and take food to Ned when he was on the run and they put Ned's mother in jail so as to trap him, but they didn't. She was there for three years. When they eventually caught him, he was tried and they hung him in Old Jail. He was 25 years of age.

I worked out that I was 13 years of age that year when I was at the Shepparton Show. As it turned out, it was only about a week before Mrs. Kelly died. It's strange that by chance seeing Mrs. Kelly at the Show, I had a link with Ned Kelly and events that happened 30 years before I was born - someone who has become such a colourful figure in history in the 1870's, more than a hundred years ago now. i'.*• ft: - HARRY BATES > Surely many of you have had similar contacts with interesting people from our past. Maybe yarns you've heard or perhaps had passed on from your parents or others. Please dig into your memories and tell us.

AND NOW A STRANGE DREAM ...

I once dreamt that I got into a taxi, you see, and the driver comes up to an intersection and the red light's against him. He goes straight through the red light and I go crook at him. "Oh", he says, "that's all right, my brother's a taxi driver too." Well, he goes up to the next red light and I abuse him and he says, "Don't worry, my brother's been a driver here for 25 years and he always goes through the red light." I said, "What's he do that for." "Well", he says, "you beat the other taxis, you get more fares and you make more money." So, he goes up to the next intersection and he stops at the green light. I says, "What are you stopping here for now?" "My brother might bo coming tiv other w v", he nay-. 6"

MEETING HITLER

by Cath Hunt (as told to Bob Telford)

I travelled widely in my early years, mostly with my father, who served as a British special agent in the Diplomatic Corps. My father had a roving commission, and as I had lost my mother early in life, I accompanied him on his many journeys and did service as his hostess when the occasion arose.

Of all the European countries we visited I loved Germany best, especially Berlin. We had our own private residence in Berlin and next door to us lived a very handsome, young fellow, Gottfried Von Cramm, the famous tennis player. The Von, as we called him, was such a fine fellow and he and I soon became close friends.

One day, the Von told me that he had been invited to a garden party at the Reichstag where he was to meet the Reichchancellor, and he being unmarried as I was>asked me to accompany him.

Knowing nothing about politics at that time and quite unaware of the identity of this Reichchancellor, you can imagine my surprise when I stood face to face with Adolf Hitler.

I was not at all embarrassed at the meeting. After all it was only a social event, and I was very much impressed by Adolf's charming, old world courtesy and polished manner. It was his personal magnetism that got me in and as a young girl of nineteen, thought him fine.

But Von Cramm, there is still a corner in my heart reserved for him. We continued to see each other, but as the war clouds gathered, I went back home to Scotland. But that was not the end - whenever the Von was in England he always came to see me and we went about quite a lot.

o 0 o lo. - FANTASTIC FISHY FEATS

Amazing tales by David Meyer

This story is about the two most unusual incidents I experienced in my younger and teenage life. They may sound a bit fishy, but are nevertheless true incidents.

The story starts back in about 1915. My father worked as a fitter on one of the dredges which operated on the Morce's Creek at Wandiligong, where I was born, three miles from the township of Bright, . There were many spots where gold was dredged for along Morce's Creek and the Ovens Valley at that time My father had been working there for about three years when the dredge closed down, the first World War was going on and the gold petering out.

My father was out of work for some time when he received a letter from an old workmate who had gone over to South Africa and was working in the Rand mines in the Transvaal. He told my dad there was plenty of work for tradesmen at the mines there.

So my dad went to South Africa where he got a good job working at his trade, leaving behind my mum, little me who was just coming on to four years old, my sister who was six and my brother who was nine. We had our own home on seven acres planted with walnuts, plums and apple trees.

But as time went by, my mother became very depressed and lonely as friends she knew were starting to leave Wandiligong. Then our old home was locked and boarded up, and we all went on a big ship and over to South Africa to my father. My first memories come to me after I had been in South Africa for about a year.

My father had learned to speak one of the Kaffir languages (of which there were many dialects among the black tribes). Dutch, German and English and many other languages were commonly used among the inhabitants of South Africa. The blacks were segregated from the whites, where we lived in Nenoni and probably in most other towns too.

On account of my father being able to speak Kaffir, he had several black men working under him in his job, some of whom invited him and me into their compound one night to go to a picture theatre, which as far as I could remember was like what we call a barn. I will never forget the picture that was on.

Co/vf It was the first production of Tarzan of the Apes, 1918. It was mostly about the zulus chasing Tarzan around with assagies (African name for spears) and did the blacks in the theatre cheer every time Tarzan got into trouble. It was a silent picture, just as well for the noise and excitement.

Well as time went by and my youngest sister was born. My mother became restless and homesick. What with the different languages and scary happenings in that country, lucky for us, she decided to go back to Australia. In 1920 we boarded a ship at Cape Town heading home.

One day, as the ship has heading well on its way into the Indian Ocean, a lot of the passengers on deck rushed to the side of the ship. I squeezed my way through to the rail to see what was going on. Everyone was looking at a disturbance in the sea, several hundred yeards away. It was two large sharks jumping in the water and fighting one another. Then a most unusual incident occurred. 1 o o v o u U A large whale appeared and swimming in line with the ship. It started to spout water all over myself and the other passengers. I will never forget the incident - it was 27 November, my eighth birthday. I have been bathed by black mammas and white mammas, but it was the first and only time I have been bathedj^by a whale. Believe it or not, but it was an actual fact. \

V---- V . ------______As time went by, we had arrived back home m Wandiligong. After about a year had passed by, my father arrived back from South Africa. He got a job as a fitter in the boilerhouse of the old Melbourne Hospital. There was no work for tradesmen at that time in the country. But then a very sad thing happened for all of us. Our mother was taken to the hospital in for an apendicitis operation but contracted peritonitis and passed away. Father sold up the home in Wandiligong and we moved to Abbotsford for a while, near where he worked for a while. At that particular time the Police were out on strike, about 1922-23.

My father could not settle down after the sadness he had gone through, losing our mother. So, we were off once again. This time he took my brother and I to Ayr, a town in the sugar cane growing fields in North Queensland. He then worked in the cane crushing mills. When I was 14 years old, I worked in a bakehouse in Ayr. We used to start work at 2 a.m. to knead the dough and bake the bread. We finished work about midday. As I did not like to sleep in the day time, sometimes I would go out with one of the drivers delivering bread to the farmhouses in an old Chevrolet van. He liked to have me for company and to open and close the gates.

One very hot and sultry afternoon, we were driving about four miles out from Ayr, when a very strong wind and rain storm came upon us. As we drove into the rain another strange incident occurred. To our amazement, live fish about 3 to 4 inches long were coming down with the rain and flapping about on the road.

We learned later that a tornado had come in from the ocean- As it came across the Coral Sea, it formed into a strong sea spout sucking the water and fish up. It moved towards the shore and three miles inland to where we saw the- fish, it petered put, and the fish dropped with the rain.

David Meyer

A' STORY BY EILEEN SCATCHARD

Many years ago while having a few days holiday with my uncle and auntwhen we saved all the year for a visit to relativesand sadly people "out of work" had to go almost anywhere they could to be employed.I .still find an experience we had a very difficult one to forget.

My uncle, a doctor in a small town called Coolimon when they rarely recieved any money sometimes a chicken or meat or fruit,often a thank you, although they did help him when he was older.

At midnight the telephone rang he had to go to Marrar eight miles away to an accident in a really old car it was unbelievable.

My aunt and I sat up until he returned at "five minutes past six" his face was"ashen" and drawn. 9 The young man in his twenties from Marrar had no money for his fare to Junee twenty three miles away to get a job.

The train had no passengers, fifty eight empty seats ! and he tried to"jump the rattler".

He tried but did not"make it" on to the rails and had his right arm and right leg completely cut off.My uncle had to wait at Marra and try to comfort him until the ambulance came from Wagga.

When my uncle came in the door we made him tea and toast he just could not eat truly.

He turned and said "I love you Eileen dear but where is this God of yours now.

He had said this so many times to me over the years, They were always so kind to me but I still say my prayers and I believe in God, I believe He created us,but He cannot rule our lives.

> r

SHEARERS' STRIKE 1948 MURNPEOWIE STATION

We were at Murnpeowie Station when we had a shearing strike which lasted 10 weeks.

We had no smokes and played cards^ two-up and went for walks to pass the days as the stike went on and on, some of us went to Bourke where we were stranded and could not move from the town as they would tell you off as a scab looking for work.

We got short of food as we had no money and the cook a could not cook for us. Just after the tenth week we \ / I went back to work. We were glad as the stike had ended. \\ V \ . 1 Sally Ryan, our new Co-ordinator, has been here two months. This is not really news but she hasn't had a resounding •Echo' welcome yet. Welcome Sally! Welcome Sally I welcome saiiy

Centre Worker, Laurel Allwell, left in April because of poor health. It has been decided that this position will be changed and it will be advertised shortly.

We will welcome Marilyn Roper back next week. She has recently returned from Europe where she has been travelling with her husband.

Gwen Lovel has left. She worked with Roger in the kitchen at weekends. Sarah Perry, who has been filling in for Marilyn in the office, has taken Gwen's place.

Ron Johnson is another new face here. Ron will work here each Thursday as part of a Preliminary Pastoral Involvement course. This course is for people who would like to join the clergy before they apply to study theology.

Shirley Walters is leaving the Coolibah Centre but she is not leaving the Brotherhood. Shirley will work (on the first floor) one day a week with a view to encouraging the travel industry to provide better choices for disabled people as an integral part of its information about travel and facilities.

The fish are now bathed in light! Many thanks to Rhonda Hamley for donating a fish tank light. The fish can give more pleasure now they are easier to see. "A bit of Country Life"

Many years ago, we lived on a small farm about three miles from the township,

We had about twenty head of dairy cattle, three of the best farm horses, hens, chickens and turkeys, and three dogs,

It was quite a busy life, but we loved it.

Our parents were hard working people. We were a large family, and had wonderful fun.

We walked three miles to school and home again - I attribute our life in the country to the good health we enjoy today,

We had three large water tanks, for drinking, and all other household uses.

We had a garden, but the water was carried in large cans by horse and sled from the creek nearby for that,

In winter, we used to have heavy frosts which covered the countryside in a blanket of white and the sun just rising made it look like a picture postcard and the robin red breasts perched on the fence completed the scene,

The spring was a lovely time in the country, lovely wildflowers everywhere, Lots of birds used to nest in the hedges and trees around the house.

Some of the men from the township used to come out to fish in the creek on warm nights, You could see them with their hurricane lanterns, waiting patiently for a catch. Later, we would hear them talking as they wended their way home, their lanterns swinging,, making it seem like fairy lights in the darkness.

We used to grow potatoes and corn in one paddock and in another we put in a crop to ensure feed for the cattle.

We loved taking tea and scones or buns for the men's morning and afternoon teas.

We used to have a great time playing chasey or hide and seek after the hay had been tied in sheaves and stacked in the stooks.

SHIELA D'ELIA

- o 0 o -

WORTH OF CAPRICORN

by Bob Telfotd

Take, me back foA fonty s emmets To the place whete I was bom To those aolLing plains of Queensland To the Nonth of CapAicotn To that land of wide adventure That was mine so long ago Whete the plal.ns have {oJi hoAizons And the big Gulf tlvets flow.

Whete my heatt had Aoom foA dalliance And my youth a love sublime Vo A the land that lay befoAe me And my head was lu ll of thyme With a ll Its hopes and heattbAeaks How I t fascinates me s t i l l When I see I t In my dteamtlne And I know I evet w ill. Recollections crowd upon me When those fion. days I recall And this murky Melbourne winter Shrouds my sprlrlt In Its pall When I dream oh old acquaintance On past tracks so travel man And the happy yeans we squandered To the North oh Capricorn.

I have dreamed oh shear blades clicking In that old shed In the-scrub I have clasped the hands oh comrades In an old back country pub But there comes a lingering sadness When I wake at early morn Then to learn I'm only dreaming oh the North o{\ Capricorn.

They are mine these hours oh dreaming Oh those-days when dreams came true And our world was a ll behore us In this land we loved and knew. Dreams 'ties said are Insubstantial Let I t be so as I t may Should I lose my yen hor dreaming I would hret m,J heart away.

But I ' l l never more see Queensland I'm an exile, this I know From that land oh h0^ horizons Where those big Gulh rivers blow. Set my being there In s p irit There to dwell hor ever more While Its hhlekeAlng Image stirs me And my memory holds that door.

Though I doss In rooming houses Though I've lounged In hbrst saloons And I've camped on lonely sandhills Under ghostly western moons Vet where ever night shall hind me When I wake at early morn I shall hind I have been dreaming Oh the North oh Capricorn. . l^h "Who's Who”at the Coolibah OUR KITCHEN STAFF

No picture of the Coolibah would be complete without the mention of Iris and Carmen. As the kitchen in the opinion of many has always been considered the most sensitive department in any organisation, it is self-evident that these two girls have for many years been the mainstay of our Centre. Always ready to give their very best and responding to every challenge the occasion presented. No-one could wish for better service than that.

Iris first came to the Coolibah as head of the kitchen staff in 1976 and has fulfilled the responsibilities of that position in a very capable manner since the first day of her arrival. And in making good use of her gift for organisation, Iris has made a difficult task look easy and can always spare the time for a hello and a chat with the oldies.

Iris has a husband Jack and a family of sons and daughters, who often visit us at the Centre. And let us not forget Penny, Iris's ten year old granddaughter, who loves to act the part of waitress whenever she is with us.

Carmen was first to join our large and ever growing family and is now the longest serving member on the Coolibah staff, having first entered the service of the Coolibah Club (as it was then) in 1969, and has been serving tea and coffee to those multitude of oldies who have passed through our club since those years.

Carmen has a husband Nick who has not been in good health for some years now, also a daughter Vivien and four charming little granddaughters, the eldest being Sharon, aged 10 who often pays us a visit during school holidays. Sharon and Penny are great friends.

Iris and Carmen are a great t^am^and I am sure it is the wish of IS

"Who's Who"at the Coolibah

THE KING OF THE MOVES

Dennis makes his move and we sit and stare but it's only draughts and he's so very fair.

He's always a move ahead and with more in mind but he's fun to play and he's so very kind.

So allcomers have a go and you might just win but I bet Dennis will chuckle nVa«

Now Bob had a right dodgy hip But the surgeons have chiselled and chipped. His new hip is plastic. He now walks fantastic. Without any stumble and trip.

Marj Grady ADVANCE AUSTRALIA FAIR

At last after eighty-four years of soul searching and culture cringeing, we Australians have identified ourselves as a people. We have our own National Anthem. An event of great historic and cultural importance to those Australians who believe their first loyalty is to the land that gave them birth.

It is indicative of our maturity and of our increasing aware­ ness of our particular identity as Australians, that we no longer feel ourselves to be exiles or mere sojourners from the continent of Europe which, for one reason or another, some of our ancestors decided to leave behind them at some distant date in the past. And as hundreds of thousands of recent arrivals are still coming in from that same direction, we are forced to conclude that those reasons that prompted our ancestors to up stakes and get on the move must still be valid. | .

The history of Australia cannot be fully understood unless we accept the fact that we are a migrant people. All people have been migrants since the first pair of homo sapiens, finding the pressure on their food supply too great in their ancestral locality, ventured to ford the home town stream and set out for the blue hills that beckoned beyond, to found a new colony.

The great migrant wave that began in 1947 has had considerable impact on our society and has greatly influenced our economic and cultural outlook, and for that reason is memorable to us. But it was by no means the first such wave to cause a ripple on the calm surface of this continent.

In the mid fifties of last century, the infant city of Melbourne was increasing in population at the rate of 30,000 a year, mostly from overseas sources, until it began to outstrip Sydney in size in the eighteen sixties, thereby earning the title of "Marvellous Melbourne".

At last we have begun to accept the fact that we are a multi­ cultural people in a state of flux. it has taken us almost 200 years to make up our mind on this matter, though we began that multicultural hike the day that Captain Phillip began to unload his cargo of bond and free settlers at Sydney Cove in 1788. It was us, the white European usurper who began it all, by introducing an alien European culture into this continent of some 300,000 aborigines who had enjoyed their own particular choice of culture undisturbed for the previous 50,000 years. But we have seldom looked at such things from the aborigines1 point of view, such mental gymnastics are not in our line.

But the mainland aborigines were migrants also, and usurpers of another people's land, like us. When the mainlanders first arrived on this continent some 50,000 years ago, they found the almost extinct Tasmanian in possession. This was probably the first culture clash to have taken place on this continent. The mainland usurpers won the battle by virtue of their superior weaponry, the boomerang and woomera, and drove the Tasmanian south until they crossed Bass Strait on the land bridge that existed during the last Ice Age. So, the main- landers remained in full possession of their territory until we came along, using our Chinese invention of gunpowder to scare the wits out of a people whom we had outstripped by many thousands of years in the rechnological race.

Thereby hangs a tale. It can be seen from the foregoing paragraph that from the first day of the arrival of the first fleet we have been a multiracial and a multicultural people. Multiculturism and multiracism is the inevitable result of the foundation of any new colony by immigration from distant parts, and it was not until the 1840's that the number of white settlers began to outnumber the aborigines on this continent.

Why have we for so many years ignored this so obvious fact? I don't know. It has never been the practice of the successful invader to indulge in much soul searching. We are by nature egocentrics. But I do believe this multicultural leaven could be good for us in stamping upon us a particular identity of our own*

Our climate and our close proximity to the Pacific Islands and the great land mass of Asia and the inevitable racial mixture that must result from this proximity will tend to make us different from our forebears in time. Those emerging differences are already observable to those with eyes to see.

"Everything happens for the best," said Dr. Pangloss to Candide, and I wholeheartedly agree with Dr. Pangloss.

So let us tend our garden and await the unfolding of events, which brings us back to our first point, the appropriateness of the British National Anthem for a people such as us.

Bob Telford IaM\ Oj 0 vA 1/ & W o wj f

\,\)W.gO^ arc ^(/.r 41\ otA^kv^ ^ i

h v KdC jC^v CO'A.-^-T' ( C>w^-S

0^ a ^re^V Ur-^\ 'A<~| jTorks •

rrr|0 [[/ Wof'IVv.'JWilo

U t/ A o W^lrJjT i*J2-€\/"

U k v c W A\a v ^ S CjOv-v A o y's.l/ (l(^jL/

Aw^ 4W- Vw v^S. tjo (kj d\££^