Living History

Recollections of the Great Depression

Bruce was born in 1927 at Roseville. In 1928 his family moved to a rented house in Balmoral. By mid 1929 his father who was in a partnership in a printing industry supply house, closed the door of the business in Clarence Street, Sydney and simply walked away. There were no customers and no one would buy the stock or the company.

His parents then rented a small shop with rooms above in the Esplanade, Balmoral. The shop provided, sweets, ice cream and other like items, hot water for tea, however this fell apart as no one could afford such luxuries.

Just after Christmas 1930, Bruce’s parents made the decision to send him to Adelaide to be in the care of his maternal Grandparents, two aunts and an uncle.

Bruce vaguely remembers the journey accompanied by a friend of his mother. Some time in 1931, Bruce’s mother travelled to Adelaide to live and his father obtained accommodation with a family in Ryde. He remembers his father telling of walking to the City in search of work and probably to pick up the Dole payment.

Bruce commenced school in Adelaide (paid for by Grandparents) at St. Augustan Kindergarten, Unley in 1932.

When the family had to move out of the rented house due to the Depression, Bruce’s parents were lucky enough to have friends who stored their furniture and personal possessions.

Some time in late 1933, Bill (Bruce’s father) secured a job as a commercial traveller with S. Cooke Pty.Ltd. in Kent Street Sydney and in the early part of 1934, Mirrie, (Bruce’s mother) and Bruce returned to Sydney to a rented house at 35 Dalton Road Mosman and Bruce commenced school in that year at Mosman Primary School.

Bruce remembers, after he had eaten an apple, a boy at school asking "give’us ya core mate". The boy had no shoes or socks in winter time.

The years of hardship taught them, and many others, the art of scraping and scrimping and it became a habit for the rest of their lives. They just could not get out of this way of life because they thought it could happen again.

Bill continued working for S. Cooke Pty.Lt.d. until he died in 1954 and Mirrie then went back to her early home in Adelaide to live with her sisters and brother. She died there in 1967.

A lasting effect of the separation of Bruce and his parents was that he always thought he had two sets of parents and two homes. This had a profound influence in his life for years and was only discovered during professional counselling in 1970. In some ways the way of life during the Depression years and the problems his parents had to face still effect his outlook on finance and ownership.

Bruce still remembers the Unemployment Camps at Chinamans’ Beach and Pearl Bay, now Beauty Point, Mosman. Hundreds of makeshift shacks made from old tin and Hessian bags, with one water tap for many to share. Who knows what toilet arrangements there were!!!

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