FROM THE ORAL HISTORY OF CHILDHOOD PROJECT
Access conditions: Open access
Dr Gwenda Davey AM is a folklorist and former university lecturer in child development, multicultural studies, and folklore. She has carried out a number of oral history and folklore research projects, and in 1998-99 acted as project manager for the pilot of the National Library's Bringing Them Home Oral History Project. She was made a member of the Order of Australia in 1988 for her services to the protection and preservation of traditional culture and folklore in Australia. The following recordings are from one of her projects, The Oral History of Childhood, representing a number of interviews carried out in 1988.
Selected excerpt from this collection
Mrs Ethel Beed describes street play in Newtown, Sydney, before 1914.
We played on the street with the family next door - hopscotch, ball games, marbles and chasey. There were practically no cars then. Ball games were mostly catches or hitting against a fence. The Presbyterian Church had a new hall, the Coronation Hall, which was good for ball bouncing on the wall. We played skipping - you would run in and do ones then twos. If you stopped it, you took an end. You would do Pepper, Salt, Mustard by yourself ... we played Diabolo when we got a set for Christmas - there were two sticks with string between the sticks. It had a reel and you had to catch the reel on the string. One of our uncles made spinning tops, like an egg with a metal pin and thin twine. We used to put coloured chalk on the tops to make pretty colours as they went round.
Children's folklore items found in this collection
TRC 2295/3. View record
Mrs Ethel Beed, born 1904. Describes her childhood in inner-Sydney (Newtown). She speaks of play on the street, including hopscotch, diabolo and tops, dolls including peg dolls and indoor games. Recorded in Melbourne in 1988.
TRC 2295/5. View record
Mrs Maxine Ronnberg, born 1920. Describes her farm childhood in Mortlake, Victoria, where her father was a landowner and stock and station agent. She spoke of imaginative games, such as playing hospitals, building cubby houses in asparagus fern and the cypress hedge, and giving concerts in the dining room. Recorded in Melbourne in 1988.
TRC 2295/2. View record
Mrs Belinda Williams, born 1941. Describes her Catholic childhood in Brisbane, including imaginative play such as looking for fairies at midnight, and playing Mass under the house. She recalls the state school children chanting 'Catholic dogs etc'. Recorded in Melbourne in 1988.
TRC 2295/4. View record
Mrs Daphne Mathews describes her childhood in South Yarra in Melbourne where her father and grandfather worked in timber yards. She was a lonely only child, and talks about still playing with her dolls after she started her first job in a knitting mill at 14 years of age. Recorded in Melbourne in 1988.
TRC 2295/8. View record
Mrs Jean Phillips describes her childhood in Canberra's first days (from 1927) where her father was a doorman at Parliament House. She speaks of her father making taws for hopscotch, and also stilts. Recorded in Melbourne in 1988.
