1930s
1930
Ruby Janson nee Reynolds (a descendant of Darug grandmother Mary Thomas from Wilberforce) runs a hotel with her husband Walter Janson at Jones Island Taree. The children go to buy lollies in town and the two darker boys, Neville and Ken are told to wait outside the shop because ”we don’t serve Blackfellas here.” Neville Janson’s brother Noel pulls his younger brother’s shorts down “look he’s white not black, he’s got a white bum”. The children don’t wear shoes until they are 8 years old.
The family then move to Chatswood. The family of 20 plus, live in one big house with a farmyard of chooks, horses, goats, dogs and garden. They ride horses down the Lane Cove River Park to shoot rabbits for dinner. Neville picks up oysters from the river bank and fishes and catches crabs.
Families living in or moving to the Gully at Katoomba include Tom Miller and his wife and three sons Cyril, Robert (Roza) and Kevin. They have a cow with a bell around its neck that they have to chase to milk it. Every Saturday the families walk up Bungalow Hill to the shops. Jack’s grocery shop is always open. The Stubbings family also live in the Gully. Many Koories work in the Paragon chocolate factory.
Others include the Shears family. Ethel Rose Cooper (Lock). Molly Keenan is born in a tin house in the Gully. Ernest Henry Tucker (Bubby) lives with Nana Eva Agnes Webb, so do Harold and Kenny Webb. Dudley Webb is a cousin. Walter Green lives with Aunty Jean Skeen. Vinny Shaw (Jim Castle) lives in the Gully as does Mrs Robey a white woman lives down the road from Nana Webb. Another non-Aboriginal family are the Millers. Joan Cooper marries Alfred Everingham.
.JPG)
