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Dictionary of Sydney

The Dictionary of Sydney
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Economy
Economic Cycles
Depressions
1930s Depression

The Dictionary of Sydney was archived in 2021.

1930s Depression

Subject

La Perouse

Transcript: Mr Carl Borowsky talks about 'bag town' in the 1920s

Transcript: Mr George Bates on working at Ashcroft's Butchers in Liverpool during the Great Depression

Transcript: Mr George Bates talks about the Ancient Order of Foresters during the Great Depression

Transcript: Mr Norman Woodward recalls working conditions as a spinner during the Depression

Transcript: Mr William Kennedy recalls collecting the dole at Liverpool Town Hall during the Depression

Transcript: Mrs Amy Everett recalls moving to Chipping Norton during the Great Depression

Transcript: Mrs Constance Jewell remembers economising with meals during the Depression

Transcript: Mrs Constance Jewell remembers social life in Hammondville during the Depression

Transcript: Mrs Evelyn Chapple remembers surviving well during the Great Depression

Transcript: Mrs Lillian Watson remembers her arrival in Hammondville during the Depression

Caddie

Prevention and Relief of Unemployment Act 1930

Tell Morning This

The Hungry Miles

Cadwell, Bob

Frog Hollow

Hammondville

Happy Valley

Hill 60

Billy Hughes at Hammondville c1935

Canon Hammond at Hammondville September 1936

Children and families at 'Happy Valley' in the sandhills at Brighton-le-Sands, November 1933

Children in fancy dress at the opening of the 50th home at Hammondville 2 December 1934

Eviction at Happy Valley, 24 March 1939

Grocery store on the corner of Riley and Fitzroy Streets during bread price war in the Depression, Surry Hills 21 August 1934

Group of families outside a shack in the sand hills at 'Happy Valley', Brighton-le-Sands 1933

Happy Valley, La Perouse, early 1930s

It can't happen here.... Scenes in inner city Sydney during the Depression 1938

Man busking with a one-string fiddle made from a kerosene tin, Sydney, 1929

Man living in a tent in the Domain during the Depression of the 1930s

Official opening of Hammond's Hotel, November 1930

This village stands as one man's memorial 1946

Unemployed match-seller's sign, Sydney c1935

William Roberts, an original Anzac, and his family evicted from their Redfern home during the Depression 28 September 1934

Carl Borowsky, interviewed in 1986, talks about the 'bag town' near Liverpool that provided housing for families during the Depression

Excerpt of oral history interview with Jane Lanyon about life as a child in the inner city during the Depression, by historian Sue Rosen at Redfern, 19 November 1994

Mr George Bates talks about the Ancient Order of Foresters during the Great Depression, interviewed in 1986

Mr George Bates, interviewed in 1986, on working at Ashcroft's Butcher's in Liverpool during the Great Depression

Mr Norman Woodward recalls working conditions at the Challenge Woollen Mills during the Depression, interviewed in 1986

Mr William Kennedy recalls collecting the dole at Liverpool Town Hall during the Depression, interviewed in 1986

Mrs Amy Everett recalls moving to Chipping Norton during the Great Depression, interviewed in 1986

Mrs Constance Jewell remembers economising with meals during the Depression, interviewed in 1986

Mrs Constance Jewell remembers social life in Hammondville during the Depression, interviewed in 1986

Mrs Evelyn Chapple remembers surviving well during the Great Depression, interviewed in 1986

Mrs Lillian Watson remembers her arrival in Hammondville during the Depression, interviewed in 1986

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1930s Depression

La Perouse

Traditionally owned by the Kameygal, whose descendants still maintain their connection with the land, La Perouse has a history of both invasion and survival. Unwanted by the early colonists who thought it unhealthy, the area was an Aboriginal camp throughout the nineteenth century, though also used for government purposes, such as quarantine and signalling. During the 1930s Depression, unemployed people set up camp there. Repeated attempts to move Aboriginal people away from La Perouse failed, and since 1984 the reserve has been Aboriginal land.

Transcript: Mr Carl Borowsky talks about 'bag town' in the 1920s

Mr Carl Borowsky, interviewed in 1986 for the Looking Back at Liverpool: An Oral History of the Liverpool Region 1900 to 1960 project, came to live in Liverpool with his family in 1923. He talks about so-called 'bag town', which provided housing for families during the depression.

Transcript: Mr George Bates on working at Ashcroft's Butchers in Liverpool during the Great Depression

Mr George Bates was born in 1912 and was interviewed in 1986 for the 'Looking Back at Liverpool: An Oral History of the Liverpool Region 1900 to 1960' oral history project. He remembers finding work at Ashcroft's Butchers in Liverpool during the Great Depression.

Transcript: Mr George Bates talks about the Ancient Order of Foresters during the Great Depression

Mr George Bates was born in 1912 was interviewed in 1986 for 'Looking Back at Liverpool: An Oral History of the Liverpool Region 1900 to 1960 ' project. Here he talks about a friendly society called the Ancient Order of Foresters, which was active in the Liverpool area during the Great Depression.

Transcript: Mr Norman Woodward recalls working conditions as a spinner during the Depression

Mr Norman Woodward was born in 1918 and interviewed in 1986 for the 'Looking Back at Liverpool: An Oral History of the Liverpool Region 1900 to 1960.' He went to work at the Challenge Woollen Mills in Liverpool during the Depression in 1932.

Transcript: Mr William Kennedy recalls collecting the dole at Liverpool Town Hall during the Depression

Mr William Kennedy was born in 1910 and was interviewed in 1986 for the 'Looking Back at Liverpool: An Oral History of the Liverpool Region 1900 to 1960.' He remembers crowds of men gathering to collect the dole at Liverpool Town Hall during the Great Depression

Transcript: Mrs Amy Everett recalls moving to Chipping Norton during the Great Depression

Mrs Amy Everett, interviewed in 1986 for the 'Looking Back at Liverpool: An Oral History of the Liverpool Region 1900 to 1960' project, remembers her mother's reaction to moving to Chipping Norton from Artarmon in Sydney's northern suburbs, during the Great Depression.

Transcript: Mrs Constance Jewell remembers economising with meals during the Depression

Mrs Constance Jewell was born in 1896 and interviewed in 1986 for the 'Looking Back at Liverpool: An Oral History of the Liverpool Region 1900 to 1960.' She moved with her husband to Hammondville, a housing settlement for families in difficulty during the depression. She recalls economising with meals during that time.

Transcript: Mrs Constance Jewell remembers social life in Hammondville during the Depression

Mrs Constance Jewell was born in 1896 and interviewed in 1986 for the 'Looking Back at Liverpool: An Oral History of the Liverpool Region 1900 to 1960.' She moved with her husband to Hammondville, a housing settlement for families in difficulty, in the Depression. She remembers a rich social life in the community there.

Transcript: Mrs Evelyn Chapple remembers surviving well during the Great Depression

Mrs Evelyn Chapple, who was born in 1896, was interviewed in 1986 for the 'Looking Back at Liverpool: An Oral History of the Liverpool Region 1900 to 1960' project. She remembers surviving well during the Great Depression of the 1930s because of income from real estate and her husband's employment at the Challenge Woollen Mills in Liverpool.

Transcript: Mrs Lillian Watson remembers her arrival in Hammondville during the Depression

Mrs Lillian Dulcie Watson was born in 1904 and interviewed in 1986 for the 'Looking Back at Liverpool: An Oral History of the Liverpool Region 1900 to 1960.' Mrs Watson remembers her arrival in Hammondville, a settlement developed near Liverpool during the depression for families in need.

Caddie

Film that charts the life of a woman struggling to make it on her own in the 1920s and through the Great Depression. Based on the book of the same name published anonymously in 1953.

full record »

Prevention and Relief of Unemployment Act 1930

Legislation that established the Council for Prevention and Relief of Unemployment which had wide powers to establish schemes for unemployed workers during the Depression.

full record »

Tell Morning This

Novel set in Sydney's slums that describes life among the unemployed during the Great Depression.

full record »

The Hungry Miles

The Hungry Miles is a documentary made by the Waterside Workers' Federation Film Unit. It documents industrial relations on the waterfront since the 1930s and includes dramatised scenes of working conditions during the Depression.

full record »

Cadwell, Bob

Balgowlah resident who helped establish a Depression village at Crater Cove.

full record »

Frog Hollow

Depression camp at the northern end of the beach at Frenchmans Bay near the Aboriginal reserve at La Perouse, where many Aboriginal people moved during the 1930s. It later housed new migrants after World War II.

full record »

Hammondville

South-western residential suburb established in 1932 by Anglican minister Robert Hammond. Inner-city, rent-paying families evicted during the Depression were provided with homes through a rent-purchase program.

full record »

Happy Valley

Shanty town established on land owned by New South Wales Golf Club at La Perouse where over 350 people lived in flimsy shacks during the Depression. The last of the residents were evicted in 1939 and the shacks demolished. Similar camps existed along the coast around the city, including Yarra Bay, Brighton-le-Sands, Malabar and Middle Harbour.

full record »

Hill 60

Shanty town at Botany Bay, one of several which housed unemployed and homeless families during the Depression.

full record »

Billy Hughes at Hammondville c1935

full record »

By

From the collections of the

State Library of New South Wales

[a218026 / PXE 789 (v.17), 53]

Canon Hammond at Hammondville September 1936

full record »

From the collections of the

State Library of New South Wales

[hood_13224 / Home and Away 13224]

(Mitchell Library)

Children and families at 'Happy Valley' in the sandhills at Brighton-le-Sands, November 1933

full record »

By

From the collections of the

State Library of New South Wales

[hood_06601 / Home and Away - 6601]

(Mitchell Library)

Children in fancy dress at the opening of the 50th home at Hammondville 2 December 1934

full record »

By

From the collections of the

State Library of New South Wales

[hood_01205 / Home and Away 1205]

(Mitchell Library)

Eviction at Happy Valley, 24 March 1939

full record »

From the collections of the

State Library of New South Wales

[ON 388/Box 035/Item 192]

Grocery store on the corner of Riley and Fitzroy Streets during bread price war in the Depression, Surry Hills 21 August 1934

full record »

By

From the collections of the

State Library of New South Wales

[hood_04530 / Home and Away 4530]

(Mitchell Library)

Group of families outside a shack in the sand hills at 'Happy Valley', Brighton-le-Sands 1933

full record »

By

From the collections of the

State Library of New South Wales

[hood_06599 / Home and Away 6599]

Happy Valley, La Perouse, early 1930s

full record »

Contributed By

Sydney Living Museums

(Justice & Police Museum ; 031)

It can't happen here.... Scenes in inner city Sydney during the Depression 1938

full record »

Contributed By

National Library of Australia

[PIX 9 July 1938 p 4-5 via Trove]

Man busking with a one-string fiddle made from a kerosene tin, Sydney, 1929

full record »

By

Jorma Pohjanpalo

Contributed By

National Library of Australia

[PIC/14446/12 LOC Nitrate store PIC/14446]

Man living in a tent in the Domain during the Depression of the 1930s

full record »

By

Image courtesy of the

State Library of Victoria

Official opening of Hammond's Hotel, November 1930

full record »

Contributed By

National Library of Australia

[nla.news-article16733389]

(Sydney Morning Herald, 26 November 1930, p18 via Trove)

This village stands as one man's memorial 1946

full record »

Contributed By

National Library of Australia

[news-article47505391]

(The Australian Women's Weekly, 22 June 1946 p18, via Trove)

Unemployed match-seller's sign, Sydney c1935

full record »

By

From the collections of the

State Library of New South Wales

[hood_33000 / Home and Away 33000]

William Roberts, an original Anzac, and his family evicted from their Redfern home during the Depression 28 September 1934

full record »

By

Lethington Maitland

From the collections of the

State Library of New South Wales

[hood_00870 / Home and Away 870]

(Mitchell Library)

...

full record »

Mr Carl Borowsky, interviewed in 1986 for 'Looking Back at Liverpool: An Oral History of the Liverpool Region 1900-1960' project, came to live in Liverpool with his family in 1923. He talks about so-called 'bag town', which provided housing for families during the depression.

Transcript

INTERVIEWER: Where was 'bag town'?

CARL: Well it took in, now what they call Calabro Street and up as far as Webster Road, and there was only one street in it, not like there's two now, there's William Street and Thelma Street, there only used to be Thelma Street in it. And that was all sold in the depression. Forty pound a block, no deposit, two bob [two shillings] a week, and that's how people moved out of Liverpool and how it got its name 'bag town'.

Anybody that built a shack they had to cover with bags and threw tar on, hot tar on it and sand or anything like that. But a lot of people moved out from Liverpool to there, [there's a] a lot of kids today that were reared there, good area. They lived in better than tents, had a good roof over their head, the sides admittedly were only bags of tar on it or white wash.

INTERVIEWER: Had they been floored?

CARL: Oh yes, they'd have a bit of a rough floor on it I suppose. I don't know what their kitchens were like, mightn't have had anything in it. When you've got no option to do anything, you've got to do it, don't you?

Contributed By

Liverpool City Library

(Detail from interview with Mr Carl Borowsky and the Borowsky family from the 'Looking back at Liverpool : an oral history of the Liverpool region 1900-1960' conducted in 1986 by Liverpool City Council, editor and project co-ordinator Catherine Johnson ; researchers Angela Imbrosciano, Verica Miiosavijevic, Kathleen Smith.)

Excerpt of oral history interview with Jane Lanyon about life as a child in the inner city during the Depression, by historian Sue ...

full record »

Jane Lanyon was born in 1920 in Chippendale and moved to nearby Redfern when she was six. In her interview she recalls many facets of her childhood: local industry, poverty, midnight ‘flits’ to avoid the landlord, and many other survival strategies. In the excerpt below she recalls the ingenuity employed by local children to gather free food during the Depression.

TRANSCRIPT:
Interviewer: As a kid were you expected to contribute to the family in any way? You mentioned before going around and scrounging a few things.

Jane: Yes.

Interviewer: Was that sort of an expected thing or was that just what you did?

Jane: No, I used to do that with the other kids from the school – you know how kids talk at school – but of a Saturday my father and my sister and I used to wheel a pram down to Paddy’s Markets and come four o'clock in the afternoon the markets are finished. The vegetable people used to wipe their stalls of the vegetables and there used to be big heaps of vegetables that would have went to the tip. So we used to go through there and put in the pram what was eatable and what was good and one time a chap took pity on us and gave us a watermelon and we got as far as the old Empire Theatre in Quay Street and my father dropped the watermelon and, of course, rather than waste it we all sat on the steps of the Empire picture show and with our hands we scooped the watermelon out and ate it. So we weren’t going to waste a darned good watermelon because my father was careless.

But that’s what we used to do of a Saturday, go down there, and we used to get, as I say, a pram, an old pram filled with groceries or speck [marked] fruit and we used to bring it home sit at the table, cut the specks out and make fruit salad out of it. Well, that was something for nothing and just something we used to do.

By

Courtesy:

City of Sydney Council

[Sydney Oral Histories: Jane Lanyon]

(This interview is part of the City of Sydney's oral history project: Life in c20th South Sydney)

Mr George Bates talks about the Ancient Order of Foresters during the Great Depression, interviewed in 1986

full record »

Mr George Bates was born in 1912. He was interviewed in 1986 for the 'Looking Back at Liverpool: An Oral History of the Liverpool Region 1900-1960 ' project. Here he talks about a friendly society called the Ancient Order of Foresters, which was active in the Liverpool area during the Great Depression.

Transcript:

GEORGE: In those Depression days I joined that very good Ancient Order of Foresters. Now that used to take the place of what Medicare does today. They done it for the goodness of people and everything like that. And I joined that Ancient Order of Foresters, raised to the honour of, right up to the general of it, the headmaster of it. And one thing I got a great distinction from that of getting the Ancient Order of Foresters and that was renowned in the Depression days round Liverpool. You joined the Foresters, a subscription to it, and if you had doctors, sickness or anything like that it covered like Medicare does today, and that was renowned the Ancient Order of Foresters. Even recently I had reason to be working for the St Vincent de Paul here in Hillview, paying their accounts, being the treasurer, and a lady noticed that I was paying an account and she said 'you are Mr Bates'? I says 'yes'. She said 'my godfather, good luck to you. I can remember you helping my mother in the Ancient Order of Foresters forty years ago, helping with that family and it gives me great distinction to say hello to you, you helped them and you're doing that to this day. Great credit to you'. And it gave me a great privilege for her to say that to me.

INTERVIEWER: How many people belonged to the Foresters in Liverpool?

GEORGE: Approximately, well say, for instance, if you joined up all the area around Liverpool, it'd be up to approximately fifty families.

Contributed By

Liverpool City Library

(Detail from interview with George Bates, from the 'Looking back at Liverpool : an oral history of the Liverpool region 1900-1960' conducted in 1986 by Liverpool City Council, editor and project co-ordinator Catherine Johnson ; researchers Angela Imbrosciano, Verica Miiosavijevic, Kathleen Smith.)

Mr George Bates, interviewed in 1986, on working at Ashcroft's Butcher's in Liverpool during the Great Depression

full record »

Mr George Bates was born in 1912 and was interviewed in 1986 for the 'Looking Back at Liverpool: An Oral History of the Liverpool Region 1900-1960' oral history project. He remembers finding work at Ashcroft's Butcher's in Liverpool during the Great Depression.

Transcript

GEORGE: Depression came and I decided to hit the track and I hit the track, in other words the swag, on account of the Depression coming on very hard, and I landed in Liverpool right at the railway station with my swag and everything and I camped there for quite a while under the trees there. Then I used to go down to the Old Men's Home, go down and have a meal and one thing and another and then, whilst I looked around, and I got the fortune of getting a job at Ashcroft's Butchers in those early days and just sweeping and doing the papers and then giving a hand with the sausages and I eventually got the great distinction of working there for twenty years. So I've seen Liverpool grow like one thing. In those early days Ashcroft's was a tremendous big butchery there, and they had approximately, of a morning, about twenty butchers minding their big butchery in Liverpool, and they'd supply all the hotels and that in Sydney and one thing or another, institutions and that. And they'd start at four o' clock in the morning the butchers would.

Contributed By

Liverpool City Library

(Detail from interview with George Bates, from the 'Looking back at Liverpool : an oral history of the Liverpool region 1900-1960' conducted in 1986 by Liverpool City Council, editor and project co-ordinator Catherine Johnson ; researchers Angela Imbrosciano, Verica Miiosavijevic, Kathleen Smith.)

Mr Norman Woodward recalls working conditions at the Challenge Woollen Mills during the Depression, interviewed in 1986

full record »

Mr Norman Woodward was born in 1918 and interviewed in 1986 for the 'Looking Back at Liverpool: An Oral History of the Liverpool Region 1900 to 1960.' He went to work at the Challenge Woollen Mills in Liverpool during the Depression in 1932.
Transcript

INTERVIEWER: What were the conditions like working there?

NORMAN: Atrocious. There was no locker rooms, there was no showers, no lunch rooms, and the only place you hung your coat, you banged a nail into the wall at the end of your machine and you'd hang your hat and coat there. No place to wash when you finished work; and lunch time, well you just sat down at the end of the machine and ate your lunch because there was no dining rooms. There was unions then but the Textile Workers' Union was known in those days as the weakest union in Australia. It had to be weak then because there was no work and you did what the boss told you. If you didn't you're kicked out and there was two hundred waiting at the gate to get your job. So you just had to take it.

INTERVIEWER: And what did you do there?

NORMAN: I was a spinner, worked on machines spinning yarn, woollen yarn.

Contributed By

Liverpool City Library

(Excerpt from interview with Mr Norman Woodward, from the 'Looking back at Liverpool : an oral history of the Liverpool region 1900-1960' conducted in 1986 by Liverpool City Council, editor and project co-ordinator Catherine Johnson ; researchers Angela Imbrosciano, Verica Miiosavijevic, Kathleen Smith)

Mr William Kennedy recalls collecting the dole at Liverpool Town Hall during the Depression, interviewed in 1986

full record »

Mr William Kennedy was born in 1910 and was interviewed in 1986 for the 'Looking Back at Liverpool: An Oral History of the Liverpool Region 1900 to 1960.' He remembers crowds of men gathering to collect the dole at Liverpool Town Hall during the Great Depression.
Transcript

WILLIAM: The point of issue for the dole was the old police station. It was taken over then by the Department of Labour and Industry, they administered it. Then there was that many coming on to the dole that they had to move then to Liverpool Town Hall. And the crowds kept increasing. More and more were coming on the dole. You were issued with a dole ticket, not money. You had to wait until your name was called and you'd walk up through the crowd of people, get your dole ticket which was worth five shillings, later it increased to seven [shillings] and sixpence. Then you could only get the items that were listed on that ticket: bread, meat and so forth. Then on the other side of the ticket was a list of alternate items if the others weren't available. Men would be sitting around the Town Hall in the hundreds and they'd be addressed at different times by agitators. There were always these people coming along. And the names of some of the leading Communists that came along at that time were [Tom] Payne, [Jack] Sylvester, and Bella Weiner, she was a woman, a Jewess. Men were more receptive to listening because of their position, they listened very attentively to these fellows and a lot of them thought that was where their hopes lay.

Contributed By

Liverpool City Library

(Excerpt from interview with Mr William Kennedy, from the 'Looking back at Liverpool : an oral history of the Liverpool region 1900-1960' conducted in 1986 by Liverpool City Council, editor and project co-ordinator Catherine Johnson ; researchers Angela Imbrosciano, Verica Miiosavijevic, Kathleen Smith)

Mrs Amy Everett recalls moving to Chipping Norton during the Great Depression, interviewed in 1986

full record »

Mrs Amy Everett, interviewed in 1986 for the 'Looking Back at Liverpool: An Oral History of the Liverpool Region 1900 to 1960' project, remembers her mother's reaction to moving to Chipping Norton from Artarmon in Sydney's northern suburbs, during the Great Depression.

Transcript

AMY: We lived in Artarmon; my father was a builder, was a carpenter actually. Work was impossible to get so they decided to try and get a farm. He had been a farmer earlier on and they had to ballot actually for this place at Chipping Norton, but they did get it, for a thousand pounds. They had to put their names into the Department of Closer Settlement and they were picked out of a hat.

INTERVIEWER: And what did you father have on his land?

AMY: Poultry.

INTERVIEWER: Was it successful?

AMY: They didn't make money, but they survived. My mother had lived in Artarmon for a long long time and she didn't greatly appreciate living in Liverpool. Chipping Norton was a lovely place to live but it was very isolated. There was no social life as such. She'd had a very wide circle of friends and been interested in church and Red Cross and all that sort of thing that a woman normally does in suburban life and it just wasn't her, especially in Chipping Norton. She didn't greatly like it. I think she got to like it afterwards but not at first especially. We'd had a very nice home in Artarmon, a very nice home, and we'd had to sell that and go. There was no work. You had this terrible feeling of failure, that you had to sell your home that you'd worked so hard for, and go out and start again, at that age, neither of them of course was young.

Contributed By

Liverpool City Library

(Excerpt from interview with Mr Stanley and Mrs Amy Everett, from the 'Looking back at Liverpool : an oral history of the Liverpool region 1900-1960' conducted in 1986 by Liverpool City Council, editor and project co-ordinator Catherine Johnson ; researchers Angela Imbrosciano, Verica Miiosavijevic, Kathleen Smith)

Mrs Constance Jewell remembers economising with meals during the Depression, interviewed in 1986

full record »

Mrs Constance Jewell was born in 1896 and interviewed in 1986 for the 'Looking Back at Liverpool: An Oral History of the Liverpool Region 1900 to 1960.' She moved with her husband to Hammondville, a housing settlement for families in difficulty during the depression. She recalls economising with meals during that time.
Transcript

CONSTANCE: In the dole days you had to be so careful because you had to stretch things. Three penneth of neck o' mutton and three penneth of soup vegetables and a handful of barley made a good dinner. The woman next door she put her dirt tin out one day and it was full of tins! I said 'What are you doing with all the tins?' She said 'Eat, of course!' I said 'They're twice as dear as what two dinners are the way I cook.' Sometimes you'd put a dumpling in it, sometimes you'd buy a neck of mutton and chop it all up and make a stew and then lift the bones out of it and that type of thing. Or you'd buy bacon bones and make pea soup. We used to make a cake, we couldn't afford eggs or anything like that, but I had one that I didn't have to put eggs in it. It was dripping mixed with sugar and you'd beat that up. And if you had eggs you were lucky. You put that in and a handful of fruit or whatever you had and some flour and a pinch of baking soda to darken it.

Contributed By

Liverpool City Library

(Excerpt from interview with Mrs Jewell from the 'Looking back at Liverpool : an oral history of the Liverpool region 1900-1960' conducted in 1986 by Liverpool City Council, editor and project co-ordinator Catherine Johnson ; researchers Angela Imbrosciano, Verica Miiosavijevic, Kathleen Smith)

Mrs Constance Jewell remembers social life in Hammondville during the Depression, interviewed in 1986

full record »

Mrs Constance Jewell was born in 1896 and interviewed in 1986 for the 'Looking Back at Liverpool: An Oral History of the Liverpool Region 1900 to 1960.' She moved with her husband to Hammondville, a housing settlement for families in difficulty, in the Depression. She remembers a rich social life in the community there.
Transcript

CONSTANCE: We had a great time there. We had a Younger Set, and a gymnasium class. Mrs Jones, Mrs Laura Jones of Stewart Avenue, Hammondville, she ran the Younger Set for us. And we had a ball here and they all went to the ball. I can't remember who they [debutantes] were presented to now, I really can't. In those days the hall was up where the shops are now. Mrs Brasnet gave us that hall for recreation and we ran dances up there, some for the Liverpool Hospital, some for the ambulance [service], and some for the Harmony Club; the Harmony Club consisted of a lot of men that used to like to come and sit and have talks and games and one thing and another. The ladies had the Black Cat Club and we all used to belong to that. The younger ones had a Younger Set and they had quite a lot of games and one thing and another, you know, to occupy their minds.

Contributed By

Liverpool City Library

(Excerpt from interview with Mrs Jewell from the 'Looking back at Liverpool : an oral history of the Liverpool region 1900-1960' conducted in 1986 by Liverpool City Council, editor and project co-ordinator Catherine Johnson ; researchers Angela Imbrosciano, Verica Miiosavijevic, Kathleen Smith)

Mrs Evelyn Chapple remembers surviving well during the Great Depression, interviewed in 1986

full record »

Mrs Evelyn Chapple, who was born in 1896, was interviewed in 1986 for the 'Looking Back at Liverpool: An Oral History of the Liverpool Region 1900 to 1960' project. She remembers surviving well during the Great Depression of the 1930s because of income from real estate and her husband's employment at the Challenge Woollen Mills in Liverpool.
Transcript

EVELYN: I was married in 1917, it's a long way back.

INTERVIEWER: So you had a family when the Depression came?

EVELYN: Yes, we had family and we obtained houses around and were letting property. Don't I know it. They [tenants] went out and left us owing money. One family owed us two years' money. My husband was soft, he'd say 'poor devils, you can't be hard on them, we've got money coming in and we've got a living and they've got nothing' and he'd let them go.

INTERVIEWER: Your husband's job wasn't affected at all?

EVELYN: They [other employees] went on three days a week, but my husband never ever went on any short time because he was making blankets and flannel for the military.

INTERVIEWER: So you wouldn't have noticed too much of a difference financially?

EVELYN: No, not at all. We had the same income coming all the time. The only thing is my husband wouldn't get any overtime once the Depression was on.

INTERVIEWER: What about the general feeling in Liverpool?

EVELYN: Well I never ever noticed it, because it didn't affect me at all.

Contributed By

Liverpool City Library

(Excerpt from interview with Mrs Evelyn Chapple in 'Looking back at Liverpool : an oral history of the Liverpool region 1900-1960' conducted in 1986 by Liverpool City Council, editor and project co-ordinator Catherine Johnson ; researchers Angela Imbrosciano, Verica Miiosavijevic, Kathleen Smith.)

Mrs Lillian Watson remembers her arrival in Hammondville during the Depression, interviewed in 1986

full record »

Mrs Lillian Dulcie Watson was born in 1904 and interviewed in 1986 for the 'Looking Back at Liverpool: An Oral History of the Liverpool Region 1900 to 1960.' Mrs Watson remembers her arrival in Hammondville, a settlement developed near Liverpool during the depression for families in need.
Transcript

LILLIAN: We got to Liverpool and we found out there was no bus, no transport, nobody knew where Hammondville was. So I said to my husband, 'What do we do, do we go back?' He said 'No, we've come this far, we might as well go the rest of the way.' So we decided to walk to Hammondville.

Well, we got, now, there was a factory where Leyland's factory is now, along the road. From then on it was practically a dirt track, horses and carts used to come out along the road, there was no traffic along the road, it was bush, and there was a few scattered houses. And we got along the road there and there was a dairy there. Mr Smith was the dairyman at the time, and we asked him where Hammondville was. 'Oh' he said, 'You've got a quite a long walk yet, you better keep going,' he said, 'You'll come to it.'

Well, we eventually got to Hammondville and it was just bush Ã¢â‚¬â€œ there was houses built along Walder Road where the school is now Ã¢â‚¬â€œ there was one room, was the school, and a little shop. And the office [for Hammondville Homes] was there. So we went into the office and he brought us down to look at this place here. There was a great big log right across the front of it, no fences, and I gave one look at it and I thought 'Oh boy'. Anyhow we eventually made up our minds we would come and give it a go.

We had a fuel stove, had to chop our own wood. The kids thought it was fun though, they were only little babies really, and they thought it was terrific, look out the back door and all you could see was bush. The house next door was nearly finished. Well we thought it was great for a week and of course it started to get very boring because there was no lights, only kerosene lamps, and no transport; the bus used to go to Liverpool of a morning and come back in the afternoon.

After a week I was going back to Bexley rain, hail or shine; no way was I going to stay in this place. Because it was so different, you know what I mean, there was nobody to talk to, you didn't know anybody. And then they had a chap used to come out here from St Barnabas' church [in central Sydney], a minister, an old chap, a Mr Morris and he was a lovely old chap, and he said 'Well, you've not been here very long. Give it a good three months at least'. Well, in the end I had to stay. We had no alternative 'cause we really had no money.

Contributed By

Liverpool City Library

(Excerpt from interview with Mrs Lillian Watson from the 'Looking back at Liverpool : an oral history of the Liverpool region 1900-1960' conducted in 1986 by Liverpool City Council, editor and project co-ordinator Catherine Johnson ; researchers Angela Imbrosciano, Verica Miiosavijevic, Kathleen Smith)

Depressions