The Life of Riley

OLIVE’S FORTY FIFTH POST

Newsflash. Don’t forget Eric reads Ollie the comments on Friday mornings. So, if you want to be read aloud to our oldest blobber, just turned 108, be in by friday, M..

Olive

Good morning everyone!

Mike

I must report to our readers that Ollie is sitting up in bed, and has just poked her tongue out at Katya for some reason as we discuss how she’ll thank you folks for all the get well wishes.

Olive

Did I poke my tongue out?

Mike

You sure did. Here’s the photo.

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Mike

But before we tape your thanks, Ollie, I’ve got something exciting that’s just come in.

You remember the story I told about Talbotville, the abandoned gold mining town I found in the wilds of Victoria when I was a young bushwalker?

Well, we’ve been sent some photos of Talbotville, taken in the years when there was still gold in the river.

They are from about the time of your birth, even before, and they’re fanastic Ollie,

For example, here’s a mineshaft at the edge of the Crooked river.

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Mike

Here’s two miners in front of “home sweet home.” The gold was very strong for a while.

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Mike

Talbotville’s main street, populuation about 20 at this time.

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Mike

But here’s the real Gold, Ollie. I’ve found the perfect bloke for you, Mick Murphy.

They say he discovered the fabulous, The Good Hope Mine .

He looks like he’s pushing 100, so the age gap is not bad for you at all!

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Mike

Mick Murphy and Olive Riley, were ever two names better made to go together?

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Olive

I suppose I could give him a try.

Mike

Wait! Here’s another gander at the same fella, just to be sure.

Mick’s dressed in his best this time. Looks like he’s a good traveller, Ollie.

He’s got his stick and a swag roll on his back, ready to go!

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Olive

Yippee!

Mike

Enough of that!….. Those of you who want to hear the Talbotville story in full, you’ll find it at the end.

Let’s start the thank you tape. Ready Katya?

Action, Olive Riley!

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Mike

Eric was telling me, Ollie that you have a great story about market gardens in Broken Hill.

Olive

Well, there were many market gardens up our street in Broken Hill. I used to go up there all the time.

Good flat land there was, all laden with vegetables. And they’d take them to the markets.

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Mike

Were the veggie patches watered by a hose or sprinkler, do you know?

Olive

Oh, they just used watering cans.

Mike

Only watering cans? Really?

Olive

Yeah, up and down they’d go, up and down the rows.

Mike

I love market gardens. They’re so neat and lush. You feel like you’re inside a a salad.

It’s such a pity that kids today don’t have them close by to see things growing, like your kids did in Broken Hill.

This Chinese garden in Malaysia, really captures the beauty they have.

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Mike

Did you ever speak to the gardeners?

Olive

Oh, yes, I used to do their exercises for them at the end of the year.

Mike

Exercises? You did chinese exercises? What, like Tai Chi?

Olive

No, I used to write it out…..what do you call all it? The thing you do at the end of the year.

The thing you write out like a will.

Mike

You helped them with their funerals?

Olive

No, no! The thing you send to the goverment to find out if you owe them any money.

Mike

You mean, Taxes?

Olive

Yeah, that’s it, Taxes. I used to do their taxes, did them for all the Chinese there abouts.

And they were so grateful, They wanted to give me money, but I wouldn’t take any money from them .

So they gave me pounds and pounds of vegetables.

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Mike

Did you accept the vegetables?

Olive

I couldn’t help it. They used to leave them on me doorstep.

I’d open the door of a morning and there’d be fat Cauli’s, and Spinach, and Tomatoes, all piled up on me doorstep.

Mike

That was lucky.

Olive

Now, one of the little chinese girls had a sort of funny roof to her mouth

Mike

A cleft palet?

Olive

Yeah, that’s it, and so she couldn’t talk properly . They didn’t know what to do with her, poor things.

Then, her father said to me, he was a very well spoken man. “I don’t know what to do, Mrs. Olive.

“It’s going to be horrible whan she grows up and can’t talk properly. It spoils the look of her face too, and she’s a sweet little thing.”

“I’ll tell what we’ll do,” I says to him. “You’re going to take her down to the hospital and let them look.”

“How’d I get there?” he says. They never went to the hospital, yer know. “I’ll take her, then,” says I.

He was all for that. I was the one who could do anything in their eyes, ‘cos of the taxes yer see.

Anyway, I took the child down to the hospital, with the mother of course.

Well. they hadn’t seen anything like that before, they said, but they started working.

They kept the little thing there at the hospital for 6 weeks.

And when she came home, she said “My Mummy, My Daddy.” She could talk.

The family thought it as marvellous. “Look, Ollie, she’s talking.”

(This is not the actual girl. But it is a child of the right age, successfully operated on for a cleft palet.)

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Mike

It was the first time she talked?

Olive

It was indeed! Talked properly, that is.

Mike

Did you ever see her again?

Olive

Oh, yes, she used to play with my kids. She used to sit on the fence and watch the horses with them.

Mike

The Chinese who were doing the gardens, were they the only Chinese in Broken Hill? You had Chinese restaurants, I guess

Olive

Restaurants? Oh, yes they had them but I never went to a restaurant, Chinese or otherwise.

Mike

Never?

Olive

Not till I left Broken Hill, and I was in me late twenties by then.

The Chinese were terribly hard working people. My sisters learned dressmaking off the Chinese.

Mike

Did they?

Olive

Yes they did and they turned out to be very clever dressmakers too.

Mike

Was there any prejudice against the Chinese? There was in other places, you know.

Olive

Not that I remember.

Mike

What happened to the dresses?

Olive

Well, the Chinese dressmakers would pack the extra dresses in bags, and they’d trail from house to house, selling them.

Sling the bag over their shoulder, walk around and show the women at the door, they did.

They knew what to say too. “Madam, you want a house dress? You want a pretty dress? A, go for a nice walk, dress?”

Then, whatever the woman would say, the girl would would just bring out the right one and hold it up.

Mike

Wouldn’t the dresses be all crumpled, being in the bag?

Olive

They’d be crumpled but still they’d hold them up

Mike

Did you ever buy one like that?

Olive

No, my sisters did all our sewing. I had 7 sisters, remember, and I was the youngest.

To change the subject, I did a video clip the other day for my friend, Charmian Gadd..

She has a violin shop in Sydney. Katya and I made a movie about her for TV. Remember I told you about her?

Olive

I love violin playing

Mike

Well, she told me she had a violin the same age as you.

Olive

Did she play for you?

Mike

You’ll hear some playing in a minute.

Anyway, I was curious about this violin from 1899, so I went to have a look.

The fiddle, they call them fiddles, even the very good ones, was not exactly your age, it turned.out But around about your age.

Charmian’s shop is also interesting because she tries to feature Australian made violins, like those made by my friend, Harry Vatiliotis, the speedy Cypriot.

He was in our move too. We called it, The Little Box That Sings. Katya is so proud of that film..

Charmian showed me some of the Aussie fiddles she’s selling . Some are getting amazingly valuable because normally, everone wants nothing but Italian instruments.

The A.E. Smith violins, he was our most famous maker, now go for about $60,000 each.

Here’s Charmian telling all that, she’s so nice, and after that a glimpse of Harry Vatiliotis at work in his studio at Concord.

That’s just near Stratfield as you probably know.

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Mike

So, here’s Harry, making a fiddle, something to watch for those who really like the topic.

There are lots of stages skipped, though, I’m afraid.

He’s a very funny guy, is Harry. I wanted you to meet him, Ollie. Maybe someday.
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Mike

I know this is really a long post, like a novel.

Let’s finish with a few more photos of Talbotville and the story of me and my friend, Wolfgang, discovering it.

First, a quaint slab hut, someone’s castle on the crooked river.

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Mike

Could these be the owners?

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Mike

And how Talbotville looked just before being abandoned.

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click here for Mike telling the Talbotville story

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Olive

You’re a good story teller, I’ll say that for yer!