Christine Graham 1965-1990
I am Christine Graham and I was born in Leigh Creek in 1965. My sister Lynette was born in 1967, and my brother Richard in 1970. I remember Dad sitting Lynette and I on the air conditioner outside the hospital ward Mum was in when Richard was born. This was the only way we could see him and Mum.
My parents are Jon and Joyce Graham, (Joyce passed away 6/9/1997 and Jon 25/4/2005). I’m not sure when Dad arrived in Leigh Creek, Mum joined him after they married in 1964. We lived at 13 Third Street, between Skip Ahmet and Johnny and Desa Dejanovic. We spent a lot of time next door at the Dejanovics. We swam in their pool and ate capsicum straight from the garden like apples. Desa had a beautiful garden and a large Jacaranda tree in the front yard. Ladyfinger grapes grew on the carport. On the footpath in front of Skip Ahmat’s house was a huge Peppertree which we called the monkey tree. All the kids in the street used to climb in it and sit in it in summer.
On the other side of Skip was Barb and Don Matthews who later moved to Karratha / Tom Price area. I kept in contact with them until Barbara passed away. I have since contacted Bill and Ruth, their eldest children, through Facebook. Across the road were the Gill, James, Sbona and Gangell families. On the corner opposite the State Bank of SA lived the Bock family - Michael, Colleen, Bernadette, Julie and Kieran. Later on Lynette and I became local babysitters for families such as Ahlin, Smith, Blythman and Reye.
We had an outdoor toilet, chooks and a lot of fruit trees. Several of the fruit trees produced more than one fruit, thanks to Skip’s grafting. We had a navel orange tree which grew next to our outside toilet. Dad took a photo once of a matchbox next to an orange. The matchbox was about one third of the height of the orange. They were always juicy. We grew up eating fresh rabbit purchased from local boys and goat from the local aborigines, also chicken from our yard. Dad would often kill chooks. Once it was bled we would help pluck it, what a horrible job. Mum would then cook it for Sunday roast. I remember a story that was often told about a party at the Manager’s house - possibly Ray Gray? He had made all these party pies as part of the spread. Everyone raved about them. They were told after they were all eaten that it was goat’s meat. A lot of the guests then went to the back fence and threw up. They had said that they would never eat goat or that they didn't like goat prior to consuming them.
We had an open fireplace in our lounge room and a woodfired stove in the kitchen, along with an electric stove. Weekends were spent going on a barbecue with friends and their trailers to a local creek to collect firewood to fuel the stove mainly. We would often go to Aroona Dam for barbecues as well. Here we enjoyed yabbying at the base of the dam. We also often spent weekends at Myrtle Springs with the Sandersons. We cooked fresh ribs on the fire, celebrated Guy Fawkes in the creek, chasing emus etc.
One year there was a baker strike so no bread was available. As Dad was a shift worker Mum always packed his lunch. Due to the strike she started making her own bread, the woodstove allowed her to press beautiful bread, nothing better than warm fresh bread with butter on Vegemite. From then on Mum very rarely purchased bread. As Dad was a shift worker he sometimes helped out at the Four square delivering home deliveries. As teenagers we all had a stint at delivering the Topics.
At Kindergarten my teachers were Mrs Shirley Knott and Mrs Gladys Miller. My friends were Andrea Khan and Elizabeth Bogucki. In Grade 1 our teacher was Mrs Maple. Her husband was the local policeman.
The school was at the other end of the street, we were able to walk to school and even go home for lunch. Some of the many teachers I remember from Leigh Creek are Chris Leane, Paul Griffiths, Chris Ferguson, Miss Bonner, Miss Scragg, Miss Franklin, Mr Joy, Mr Vasiluas, Miss Fidock, Mrs Ilchef, Leo Coulthard (school bus driver and grounds man), Di Daulby, Annie Docking, Lorraine Walford, Mrs Haddad, Maxine Brazel, Chris Hughes, Mary McHue, Mr Probert, Mr Lambert, Don Franks, Graham Aird, Lois Burrows, Carrie Motley and Mrs Beal. I still have contact with some classmates and friends, Andrea Khan, Trudy Storey, Jaymze Delaine, Liz Clarke (Bogucki), Roger Ziegeler, Michael Hoare, Christine Lang, Ralph Ilchef, Bernadette Bock, Cheryl and Tania Abbott, Thomas Dejanovic and others. The original school building housed reception, Grade 1 and 2, and the sickbay. Annie Docking, I think looked after the sick bay. We would also have regular head lice checks. Later Joy Ford was the school nurse. We had a banking day once a week where we took our passbook and our money, one dollar or two dollar note. Our bank books were taken to the bank and we got them back the next day. Sometimes a teller from the bank came to school and did all the necessary stamping etc. We used to get a tetra pack of milk daily and it was triangular. This was discontinued as there were issues with milk going off. I don’t recall any off milk though. There was a large Peppertree in the school yard where we used to sit. Sometimes we played marbles in the dirt here in the shade. Mrs. Beal was our Grade 4 teacher. If you didn’t know your times tables she wouldn’t pass you into Grade 5. We used to have a spelling test and a math’s test every morning. The school produced two good musicals that I remember, Godspell and Jesus Christ Superstar, they were presented in the cinema. I loved school continentals and sports days where everyone was involved in something. We always had an obstacle race, we had to do activities including crawling under a tarpaulin. I remember school swimming carnivals where we had a cork race where everyone jumped in, collected as many corks as possible, the team with the most won sports day. One of the activities held every year was a painting competition. Whiteboards were attached to the school fence then entrants painted on them. Sir Mark Oliphant came to visit and we had all assembled in the quadrangle. He was late and it was quite hot that day. When he finally arrived, and gave his speech, he then closed the school for the remainder of the day.
In 1976 or 1977 we had a school trip to Port Lincoln. Mum and Shirley Heinis came as camp cooks. We stayed at North Shields. Our bus driver played Neil Diamond for the whole trip - Mum never listened to him after that trip. On another school camp we had a damper making competition, we made a milo damper with tinned peaches. I was also involved in athletics at school. When I lived in Port Pirie for a short time in 1981, I joined Little Athletics and represented my school at SAPSASA. I am still involved with Athletics Australia and Oceania, New Zealand, and Masters Official.
There was a large gymnasium alongside the playground and opposite the Catholic Church. We used to go here for both gymnastics, and Brownies and Guides. I was a Brownie, Kay Byron was Brown Owl. I then went on to the Guides, I think Pam Schmidt was our guide leader.
Mum was a member of the parents’ group at Leigh Creek School involved in fundraising, catering, etc. She played tennis, badminton and table tennis. I also played tennis, badminton, hockey, netball at school, volleyball and basketball. Dad was also a St John’s ambulance volunteer, as we grew older we also became St John’s cadets. I continued this until I married in 1985.
My parents were very involved in the local churches, we often went to Copley or Nepabunna with Florence and Bill Hathaway to participate in church services. Ted Hathaway, son of Bill and Florence (missionaries at Nepabunna later based in Copley), lived with us when he went to high school. He used to practice shooting his slug gun at the outdoor toilet door. Mum used to tell us that we could only drink powdered milk because that’s what Ted drinks. He later went to Canada, Bronco riding.
Mum was a dressmaker; she had an old caravan under the veranda which was set up as her sewing room. It was often used as a spare room. Any phone calls were made through the switchboard. We had no TV until late 70s early 80s, except for when we went on holidays, and then it was only black-and-white. In the late 70s a studio was erected on South Terrace. This was used to transmit TV. Programs were taped in Adelaide and flown to Leigh Creek. The news was always a day late. During the week at 1.20pm Mum would always listen to Blue Hills on the radio. Then at 6:30pm Mum and Dad always listened to PM on ABC radio and we knew they were times that we had to be quiet.
Parties were always a big thing - Dolly Varden cakes, fairy bread, sausage rolls, little boys in tomato sauce, lemonade or raspberry cordial (bobos). Mum used to make home-made ginger beer and lemonade. One night a bottle exploded in the laundry and Richard found a piece of glass in his bed in the sleepout. After this Mum would keep them under the tank outside. We used to go to a house in Fourth Street and Jackie Collins would cut our hair. If someone was getting married we would all make our way to whichever Church - Anglican, Uniting or Catholic - to check out the bridal party. Every Christmas there was a town Christmas party which was held in the cinema. All children received a gift and a bag of lollies. Carols by candlelight were held on the lawns of the admin offices, always well attended and the same carol books were used year after year. Val Rappold always played the music. I also remember taking our glass Coke bottles to Earnshaws to exchange for a big bag of mixed lollies. One of my favourite things was to go to the comic shop. I loved reading Phantom, Casper and Archie comics.
When it rained everyone would flock to the creeks to watch the water come down. It’s truly an amazing thing to see. I loved when all the wildflowers came out - Hops, Sturt Peas, Billy Buttons, Pussy tails, etc. Sometimes after the creeks flooded we would go to one of them, Windy Creek I think. We would walk in from the road and forage for fresh mushrooms. Shop bought ones have no colour or flavour compared to field mushrooms when you cook them.
Mum and Dad didn’t have a car until the late 1970s. We used to catch the Ghan from Telford to Port Pirie or Adelaide for our holidays. If we went to Adelaide we always stayed at the Henley Beach ETSA flats. Many winter school holidays were spent camping at Wilpena Pound (can’t recall how we got there since Mum and Dad had no car). I remember one trip to Port Pirie with Mrs Miller. The road to Hawker was still dirt and gravel. We got two flat tyres. She only had one spare. Dad hitched a lift to and from Hawker to get the tyres repaired.
I loved the freedom of life in Leigh Creek - we climbed trees, played in the dirt, played on the road without any worries. Summers were spent at the pool. Dad was a shift worker so we could use it outside public opening hours. We would have five cents to buy a bush biscuit before we either walked or rode our bikes home.