The Way We Were - The EMU Tree - Oral Histories

James Maitland - The Barossa Village Oral History Project , 2024

James Maitland DOB 14/1/1948 James and Prue talk about life as a young jackaroo, life on the land, local council and community roles which result in a very deserved AOM.

James Maitland AOM,

"We had chooks for egg production, we sent away up to 20 dozen eggs a week, we had 250 chooks".

Gordon Weibricht -The Barossa Village Oral History Project, 2024

Gordon Weibricht DOB 3/12/1944 A fascinating chat with Gordon and Cheryl about early Barossa memories, life and families in Moculta, Holden cars and building a 132' water bore.

“I got a Morris 14 which had the same basic motor as what the MG had at the time, used to go alright too!” 

Elaine Scott - The Barossa Village Oral History Project, 2024

Elaine Scott DOB 26/3/1938 Elaine discusses life growing up in regional districts including Peterborough, Naracoorte and Kapunda.  "I just loved swimming, my dad he taught me to swim, we would go to the beach every summer, they didn't seem to have pools at that time!"

Colin Henschke - The RSL - A Time To Celebrate

DOB 4/1/1925

Colin Henschke - “We had an observation post at Loxton. We had all these planes on the walls so we could identify them as they flew over. Sometimes the pilots would muck around abit! We had to report this, we had a clear sky, I was only a lad then, yes those were the days!”

Brian Grummett - The RSL - A Time To Celebrate

DOB 22/1/1926

First impressions of Borneo “ When you are young you’ve got no comprehension of what can happen, we were ahead of the battleships, I thought it was a fireworks display! There were shells going over over heads! Whoosh, whoosh, I thought it was a great deal of fun!”

Clement McArdle - The RSL- A Time To Celebrate

DOB 24/3/1923

"The call up came for the Air Force,I went down to North Tce, I would have been 19/20? My brother was joining the Air Force also about the same time. He was ten years older than me"

Graham Liebelt - The RSL - A Time To Celebrate

DOB 22/2/1933

Korea - “When we got there oh hell, we were in our normal battle dress, this was the first time I’d ever been in the snow! We hadn’t been issued any winter gear, we had to wait for weeks”

Hazel Carpenter - The RSL - A Time To Celebrate

DOB 24/11/1924

“It was 1933 when I was living in Chain of Ponds, there was an old garage and the Morningstar Hotel, a blacksmith, there used to be tearooms there as well”

Leslie John Dawson - The RSL - A Time To Celebrate

DOB 18/8/1922

How long were you a POW? “ three and a half years, one day after another. At least six hundred prisoners in that camp, we worked in a coal mine, 3 shifts”. “All of a sudden the Japanese were gone, we looked in the guard house, there were all the rifles, we thought they must have landed on the Island, we didn’t know the war was over!”

Jennifer McIntosh - The RSL - A Time To Celebrate

DOB 6/9/1934

Born in Melbourne Jenny recalls her early childhood memories and also reflects on the early days when she met her husband Bob and becoming a pilot.

“I learnt to fly at Meekathara, we used to fly down to Sandstone once a month for a service”