1940s

Right to receipt of child endowment for Indigenous Australians restored under the Commonwealth Child Endowment Act 1941.

The Blacktown Native Institute site, supposed to be a gift in perpetuity from Governor Macquarie, is revoked, even though the APB has evicted the last residents (of the Locke family) fifteen years earlier (J.L.Kohen, The Darug and their Neighbours, Darug Link, 1993, p. 120) See video, ‘We lost it once, we wouldn’t want to lose it again‘

Neville Janson at age 17 years joins and serves in the Australian Army. He fights in Tarakan, Borneo. Digger Cooper also serves in the Australian army.

Henry Locke, former soldier, dies. (see Aboriginal History vol. 12 1-2 1988 p. 63 and of the Royal Australian Historical Society Journal, 4, June 1989 p. 13).

Gordon Briscoe and other children from central Australia arrive at what becomes the Mulgoa Aboriginal Children’s Home. They are war-time evacuees. Video ‘From Central Australia to Mulgoa’

Aunty Val Aurisch recalls life at the Gully: “The homes are made of tin, mostly kerosene tins flattened on a wooden frame. There is usually a kitchen with an open fire or wood fuel stove. The walls are lined with white clay and newspaper. Water is collected from the well. Nan cooks in big black pots on an outside fire”.

Gordon Briscoe has vivid memories of the church and dormitory at Mulgoa. (Videos, ‘The Mulgoa Dormitory’ and ‘St Phillip’s Church, Mulgoa’.

Gordon Morton born. Until 1955 he lives at Rooty Hill. Video ‘Growing up in Rooty Hill’.

Julie Janson’s father Neville preserves the family secret. Video, ’My father’s secret’

Diane O’Brien is born at Wagga, and after three years adopted. Her adopting parents move to Granville.

The Sackville Reserve #28,546 is revoked. (NSW State Archives records 1981)

Joan Cooper recalls, about the Gully at Katoomba, “we had our own bush remedies. Mum would go with her sisters and collect a certain kind of leaf that healed burns. It was the women who used to find all the medicines that made us feel better. They would rub tea tree oil all on the burns and then wrap the leaves around the burns and in two days the burns will be healed and gone. … Mum used to make us stand in line to have Sarsaparilla every day. Because of this we were never sick. She used to collect the Sarsaparilla plant, boil it and bottle it.” Johnson, p. 77. See video, ‘Visiting Grandma at the Gully’

Uncle Gordon Morton is living with his mother at the old ‘Police Paddock’, Rooty Hill. Video, ‘Growing Up at Rooty Hill’

Birth of Robyn Smithers nee Janson in Chatswood. Her father, Noel Janson is a descendant of Mary Thomas and Mary Ann Reynolds nee Bartle from Windsor .

The Stubbings boys are banned from entering the Trocadero, a dance hall in Katoomba Street because they are “blacks from the Gully”. Johnson, p. 128.

Terry Locke enlists in the Australian Army at age 16 during WWar 2, 1941. Re enlists 1948, rank of Sergeant discharged in 1957.

Walter Brooks (Jacky) is working in the kitchen of the Carrington Hotel. Eva Agnes Webb works in the laundry.

Carol Cooper, “We didn’t talk about ourselves as being from different nations then. We were together back then… I mean we knew we were Aboriginal and all and we called each other sis, brother and coz but there was no division on what nation you were.” Johnson, p. 117.