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REDFERN RESIDENTS FOR RECONCILIATION

ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEWS ABOUT THE BLOCK – 2002



27 March 2002


PETER GOLDING


Peter Golding is an Englishman who had lived on the Block for many years with his Aboriginal wife, Ali Golding and their children.  This is his story.





Now Peter I’m just going to ask you about your memories of The Block, or your memories of living here in Redfern with a bit of background, where you first came from and how you first came to be here.


Peter Golding: My name is Peter Golding and I’m originally from County of Kent in England and I came out to Australia when I was seventeen years old. I spent my first couple of years up in Queensland before I moved to New South Wales. I first met Aboriginal people in Queensland and I used to work with them, I used to have a few drinks with them in pubs up there. I always had the urge to travel so I thought I would move on a bit so I moved to New South Wales where I got a job on the railway and they sent me out to a place called Byrock, about forty-eight miles this side of Bourke. I settled in there all right and I was a porter on the railway station there. There was only three trains a week, that was Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and the rest of the time I used to grease the points and the railway lines and that. There was only one hotel in Byrock, it is only a small place, two stores, a pub, garage, post office, and I used to drink over the Byrock Hotel, the publican was an Irish man and his wife. I met this old Aboriginal fellow there, Jim Morris, and he was a good lad, well spoken, to me he was a gentleman. Any way I used to drink with him and used to have a game of darts and have yarns and he said to me one day, “Pete me two daughters are coming up from Dubbo to stay with me for a while.” I said, “Oh yeh Jim that’s good, I’ll come round and meet ‘em.” I watched the train come in and I was saying, “Tickets please,” and these two Aboriginal girls got off and they gave me their tickets and I had a feeling who they were I thought they must be Jim’s daughters. Saturday evening I was down the pub and Jim came in and he says, “Pete, come on we’ll grab a couple of bottles and you come up and meet my daughters.” I said, “Righto Jim.” So I went up to meet Jim’s daughters, one was Alice and one was Judy, and days passed and I was starting to fall in love with this Aboriginal girl, Alice, and I said to Jim one night, “Jim can I take Alice to a woolshed dance?” He said, “Yeh, yeh, yeh.” So I went to the woolshed dance with her and we got to know one another well. We ended up getting married in Bourke in the Court House there, Registry Office. We moved to Bourke, I got a job on the main roads. While we was up there we had two children, Phillip and Peter. We lost Allie’s father there.

In 1966 we moved to Sydney and while we was in Sydney we had another five children, Ricardo, Craig, Honey, Vicky and Linda. We was living up in Newtown most of the time and round about 1980, 1981, we moved down to the Aboriginal Community in Redfern. It wasn’t called The Block then, it was called the Aboriginal Community. We moved into 52 Eveleigh Street, which is not there now, and the houses were pretty well maintained then, they were livable and we liked living there, living in the community there. The people were good, like they all respected me and Ali, although I was white, I think I was the only white man in the community at that time. Anyway I got on well with them. Then as time went by things started to get a little bit militant, like the activists used to come in and stir the people up to go for their rights. I don’t blame them, I dare say they deserve better conditions that what they were getting at that time. We moved out of 52 Eveleigh Street and moved round the corner into Vine Street, still in Aboriginal company. We stayed in Vine Street. Then as the years went by, the houses started to deteriorate, the Housing Company wouldn’t restore them and they gradually went to ruin. That is why all the houses in Eveleigh Street have gone now, they’ve all been pulled down. All my children grew up in their community.

The reason I think it was called the Block, I think that was the media’s name for it. The media called it the Block because they used to print all headlines of bad things on The Block but they’d never print anything about the good things on the Block.

Why do you think that was so? Why do you think that happened?

Peter Golding: Well they were racist against Aboriginal people, that’s my opinion of the media. They used to like printing all the bad things but wouldn’t print any of the good things. As time went by new faces came into the Block, like people who didn’t know me. I was robbed twice in the dark walking home by people who didn’t know me, they did it, because when I told all the lads I knew they were looking around for them, trying to find them. If they had found them, they would have bashed them up, but they couldn’t find them.

Any way things were bad in the community amongst the Aboriginals at one stage in the 1980s. They used to pinch cars, steal cars, burn them, the police used to come in and small riots took place. But after a while, when they demolished the houses in Eveleigh Street, a lot of people moved out. There are a lot of grassroots people still here, left in the community, who are good people. It will be good to see when the new houses go up that they get good houses and accommodation.

So there was a good side to the Block and a not so good side. Can you talk a bit about the good side, what made it a good place to live in.

Peter Golding: The good side was my children were happy. My boys, four boys, they all played rugby league for the Redfern All Blacks, which me and my wife used to look forward to going and see them every weekend. Me girls, Vicky and Linda, they played netball and it was good to go and watch them play. We used to look forward to the weekends for the sport. We used to have some good barbecues up at the park at the top there sometimes, you know get together and talk, it used to be a good thing.

So you are pleased with your children, how they’ve turned out?

Peter Golding: Oh yes, I’m quite happy the way me children have turned out. Naturally they have found husbands and wives and everything has turned out for the best for them. Me boys have just retired from the football now because they are getting a bit too old for it now.

I think I heard a story about how you adopted a boy. What is that story?

Peter Golding: Well Les Reid he was a great friend of me boys, Craig especially. His mother, from Bathurst or somewhere out west, disowned him and we took him in, more or less. He always tells everybody that me and Ali are his mother and father like, real proud-like.

So you were his mother and father, you were taking the place of his mother and father.

Peter Golding: Yes we were taking the place of his mother and father. He is a good boy. He is out at Cowra now, God knows what he is doing.

Was there any funny things  you can remember that happened on the Block, or that happened in the family, things that you could smile at?

Peter Golding: Well you take life as it comes, you have your good days, you have your bad days. I can’t remember any special thing that amused me. We have just lived out life as it came. We have had our ups and downs.

What about family celebrations, family get-togethers and celebrations?

Peter Golding: Even today when all me kids are married and got children of their own, we still have family Christmas parties, but we usually hold them down at The Settlement down in Edward Street, not far from the Community. Oh yes we have good times, good family get togethers, bring a few friends too and make it one big happy party.

That’s lovely. Is there anything else that stands out in particular? You weren’t always living in this house were you? You were living in other places on The Block, weren’t you? How many houses did you live in?

Peter Golding: Well, we lived in 52 Eveleigh Street, 1 Vine Street. Then when they were going to do repairs to that, they moved us into 9 Vine Street. My son and his wife live in that house now. Ali got this one for us.

It’s a bigger house. This is a Swish house isn’t it?  Is there anything else that you would like to talk about now?

Peter Golding: I’d like to tell about my daughter. My daughter had a baby seven years ago and she couldn’t look after her so me and the wife adopted her. She put her into our care and we brought her up. She’s grown up to be a nice girl, good-looking and a well-educated girl.

She’s a lovely little girl, isn’t she?One of the nicest little girls I have ever met, Katrina is.

Peter Golding: She is well liked everywhere she goes, Katrina.

So you have really given her a good start. It is a wonderful thing to see such a beautiful little girl growing up. The Block is despised by a lot of the white community, they are scared to come down here, and yet you’ve got several families here who have made a success of living here on The Block, which is a good thing.

Peter Golding: All my sons are working. Two of them live on The Block now, all the others have moved out. They’ve got jobs. One works in Redfern RSL and the other one works with the Sydney City Council, has been there for many years.

What does he do in that job?

Peter Golding: In the council? Road maintenance. Peter is a barman at Redfern RSL.

What about the others, have they got jobs?

Peter Golding: Craig works on the CDEP, that’s the Work for the Dole Scheme, in the Community, Aboriginal Corporation. Phillip he is on a pension, his legs are not the best and he is on, more or less, an invalid’s pension.

How many grandchildren have you got now?

Peter Golding: Twenty-three and one great grandchild.

Who is that?

Peter Golding: That’s Peter’s eldest boy, he is a Peter too, and the baby is called Peter too. Four Peters.

Well, it is really lovely to talk to you.

Peter Golding: While I have been speaking here memories have come back of our kids growing up on The Block and how well they have come through it all, I’ve come through it all, Ali has come through it all, we survived.

Can you describe what Ali is doing now, she’s away isn’t she?


Peter Golding: Ali is up in Darwin doing a course to become a pastor. Also she’s doing a course where she is going to get a diploma for marrying people in Aboriginal tribal ways, dedicating babies in Aboriginal tribal ways. Once she gets her certificate, that is going to be a business to retire on.

That is what she always dreamed about doing. What about you, you do a job, don’t you?

Peter Golding: I work down in The Settlement where all the Aboriginal kids go of an evening after school. I do the cleaning there. I go in the morning and clean up all their mess.

It is the cleanest I’ve ever seen it. You do a bit of maintenance there too.

Peter Golding: Yes I do a bit of maintenance. Any locks want fixing, or light switches, or anything like that. I maintain the back yard, lawns and keep it clean.

How do you see the future of The Block? Is there anything that you’ve heard that might be happening on The Block?

Peter Golding: Well from what I’ve heard they are going to build new houses on the Block. As they build new houses, they’ll put tenants in. What they are going to do, it is going to be drug free. It is going to be hard to do that, but it is a good intention.

Do you think there should be a rehab built near the Block so that these drug...

Peter Golding: Where that old Wilson Brothers site, they could build a rehab centre there. It is not only that, more or less, an activity centre to keep the younger people’s minds occupied instead of just roaming the streets looking for drugs, they would have something else occupying their mind.

Yes I think that is possible. I really feel a rehabilitation centre would be good if it is properly managed and it is more or less close where they are. They don’t like to go away.

Peter Golding: That’s right. They’ve got a couple of places over in Waterloo but it is too far for them to travel. They want one in the community here.

Well thank you very much Pete. Nothing else you want to say?

Peter Golding: No I think that is about it. I’ve enjoyed talking to you, Sister Pat.

Interviewer: Sr Pat Ormesher
     
   
       
     
   
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