Laws varied from state to state. In 1931, the federal government declared Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory an Aboriginal reserve as part of a new policy emphasis to try to segregate traditional Indigenous people and make decisions governing their lives.
The Aborigines Act Amendment Act 1936 (WA) gave the Minister for Native Affairs the power to take Indigenous people into custody without trial or appeal, and prevented Indigenous people from entering specified towns without a permit. In some places Aboriginal men who refused to work for nothing but rations at large pastoral companies were chained and taken to prison for refusing to work. The killing of Indigenous people by white people was often ignored or not investigated.
Few Indigenous children got any education. Indigenous children weren’t allowed in most schools for ‘whites’. In some places Indigenous children had their own schools, but the teacher usually wasn’t qualified, and the students were only taught how to do ‘manual’ jobs or servant work or carpentry or blacksmithing. They weren’t given the sort of education that would lead to work in an office or entry to university to become a teacher, doctor or politician — occupations that would mean they had some power to help another generation or change their people’s status.
Large areas of Indigenous land were still being leased to white people who paid the government — not the people who had lived there and to whom it belonged.
WIRELESS SETS
The first radio station in Australia to broadcast was 2SB (later to be called 2BL) on 23 November 1923 in Sydney. On 26 January 1924 and 13 October 1924, 3AR and 3LO went to air in Melbourne. But even though the first ‘wireless sets’ made in Australia could only pick up one station, suddenly it was becoming possible for people who’d never heard a concert or a play to listen to one in their own homes, or their neighbour’s.
‘OUR DON’ BRADMAN
Sport was a favourite pastime in the 1930s. Cricket was popular and many suburban streets might have had their own cricket team. Don Bradman was Australia’s cricket hero.
Sir Donald George Bradman (27 August 1908–25 February 2001) was also known as ‘The Don’ which meant ‘The Great One’. He was perhaps Australia’s greatest cricketer, not just for his skill but also for the dedication and sportsmanship he brought to the game.
Donald Bradman was born on 27 August 1908 in the New South Wales country town of Cootamundra. When he was two, his family moved to Bowral in the Southern Highlands. Don went to Bowral Public School, which didn’t have much organised sport for its students, so the small boy invented his own sport, hitting a golf ball against a tank stand with a cricket stump.
Don left school at fourteen, like most kids in those days. He didn’t start playing serious cricket till he was sixteen. But in one of his first matches he scored an incredible three hundred runs. He was selected to play for New South Wales and then Australia.
When he was twenty, he was selected to tour England. Don got seasick even before the ship sailed — but he scored an incredible nine hundred and seventy-four runs in the series. The team, and Don Bradman, came home heroes.
When he was twenty-one, he broke the world’s batting record for the highest score in first-class cricket at the Sheffield Shield match in Sydney by smashing four hundred and thirty-seven runs, the the previous record held by Bill Ponsford. Bradman scored four hundred and fifty-two runs not out in under seven hours. At the same time he also made a thousand runs for the season.
Bradman married his childhood sweetheart, Jessie Menzies, on 30 April 1932, and he later described their union as the greatest partnership of his life.
In 1932, England toured Australia. The English team was desperate to find a way to stop Don Bradman. So they came up with ugly tactics — the ‘Bodyline’, where the bowlers try to hit a batsman’s body or head with a hard fast-ball.
It worked (though the team have been scorned as cheats ever since — at least in Australia). Don’s batting scores were down. England won.
Don was made Australian captain in 1936. In March 1948, he captained The Invincibles — the greatest Australian team in history. They won every match during their eight-month tour of England.
More than ninety-four thousand people crowded Melbourne Cricket Ground in early December 1948 to watch Bradman in his final game, in which he was bowled second ball for a duck. If he had scored even four runs he would have retired on an average of a century — instead he retired with an average of 99.94 runs per innings!
Sir Donald Bradman died on 25 February 2001 at the age of ninety-two. In 1988, the Australian Confederation of Sport voted him the greatest male athlete of the past two hundred years. He is still a legend.
1930S RECIPES
In the 1930s, refrigeration was finally becoming popular, though few houses had electric fridges. The iceman arrived once or twice a week, holding a large, very heavy rectangular lump of ice from an ice factory in his metal pincers. The iceman wore a leather apron to protect him from the cold. Ice chests were mostly kept in the laundry or scullery, not the kitchen, as the metal tray under the ice chest which caught drips from the melting ice tended to overflow unexpectedly, flooding the floor. Laundry floors were made from concrete or brick, not lino that might buckle or timber that might stain from water damage.
But at least you could buy or make ice cream and keep it cold! The following were popular reciepes during the 1930s
A REDBACK SPIDER
1 glass creaming soda
2 scoops chocolate ice cream
Fill a tall glass with ‘creaming soda’, a red soft drink. Add two scoops of chocolate ice cream and watch it foam. Then drink your spider and eat the frozen bits at the bottom with a long spoon.
PUMPKIN SCONES
1 tsp grated orange zest
2 cups self-raising flour
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp honey
½ cup milk
1 well-beaten egg
1 cup mashed pumpkin — as orange and sweet as you can get it
Mix the orange zest with the flour; work the butter and honey in with your fingers. Add the milk and egg and pumpkin; work mixture as little as you can at this stage. Now cut into thin rounds — about as thick as the width of your thumb. Brush with milk or beaten egg, bake in a hot oven at 200°C for 10–15 minutes.
These scones should be eaten fresh. If there are any left over, toast them for breakfast (I loved toasted breakfast scones when I stayed with my grandmother) or cut them into slices and bake in the oven till crisp and crush for very superior ‘breadcrumbs’.
CHOKO TO TASTE LIKE PEARS
3 peeled, cored and quartered chokos
3 cups sugar
1 cup water
juice of one lemon
1 vanilla bean
Choko doesn’t taste like anything much, but one well-fed vine can give you a lot of fruit! They were traditionally grown over the dunny.
Simmer the prepared chokos till tender in syrup — 3 cups sugar to 1 cup water — with the juice of the lemon and the vanilla bean (split lengthways), taken out as soon as the fruit is cooked.
PUMPKIN CHUTNEY
1 kg pumpkin
500 g tomatoes
500 g chopped onions
700 g brown sugar
2 tsp each black peppercorns, whole allspice, ground ginger
6 cloves chopped garlic
1 L red wine vinegar
Slice the pumpkin in thin neat pieces. Skin the tomatoes by throwing them in boiling water. Add all the ingredients together, simmer — don’t boil — till thick. Stir often as this chutney sticks easily. Bottle while hot. Keep sealed in a cool place for up to three months. Toss out if it grows mould or ferments or looks or smells odd.
GRANDMA’S PIKELETS
2 eggs
2 cups self-raising flour
1½ cups milk
(Grandma also added sugar, but I don’t, as the jam is sweet enough.)
Mix the eggs into the flour gently, then add the milk slowly so you don’t get too many lum
ps.
Heat a frying pan; grease with butter. Make sure the pan is HOT before you add the butter; pikelets need a hottish pan.
Pour in spoonfuls. When bubbles appear on the top, turn over and brown on the other side. The bottom should be brown. If it’s black, turn the heat down; if it’s still pale turn up the heat.
If your pikelets seem stodgy or brown, you’ve added too much butter to the pan (a non-stick pan doesn’t need buttering, of course).
If they’re hard, the temperature was too low.
If they’re too fat, add more milk. A pikelet should be thinner than your finger . . . but not paper thin like a crepe.
PLUM JAM
1 kg plums
1 L water
750 g sugar
Halve the plums and remove the seeds. Stew in the water till soft. Take the pot off the heat, add the sugar, stir till dissolved. Warm on a low heat, stirring all the time, for about 20 minutes or till a spoonful of jam wrinkles when you drop it on a cool plate and push it with your finger. Make sure the jam does not burn on the bottom of the pan!
Pour hot into clean jars and put lids on at once. Store in a cool dark place for up to three months, or throw out if it looks mouldy, ferments or looks or smells odd.
APPLE PANCAKES
½ cup self-raising flour
2 tbsp caster sugar
1 cup grated apple
1 tbsp lemon juice (optional — sprinkle it on the apple so it doesn’t go brown if not using right away)
1 egg
½ cup milk
Mix dry ingredients; add apple, egg, then milk; stir till smooth. Drop spoonfuls onto a hot greased pan; cook till bubbles appear; turn; cook other side till golden brown. Serve hot with butter or lemon juice and sugar, or cold with butter and jam.
BAKED BANANA CUSTARD
2 cups peeled and chopped banana
2 cups milk or cream
4 eggs
8 tbsp brown sugar
a pinch of ground nutmeg
Place banana in an ovenproof dish.
Beat the milk/cream, eggs and sugar with a fork or egg beater for three minutes. Pour over the banana. Dust on a little ground nutmeg. Bake at 200°C for half an hour or till firm. Serve hot.
PUMPKIN FRUITCAKE
125 g butter
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 cup mashed pumpkin
2 tsp vanilla essence
500 g sultanas or mixed dried fruit (I prefer just sultanas)
2 cups self-raising flour
Line a large cake tin with two layers of baking paper.
Cream butter and sugar; add eggs one by one; then pumpkin, vanilla, dried fruit, then the flour.
The mixture should be quite moist, but if it seems too dry (which it may be if the pumpkin is stringy) then add a little milk or water.
Pour the mix into the tin; bake at 200°C for one hour or till it’s brown on top and a skewer comes out clean.
This cake is rich, moist and very, very good.
BREAD AND DUCK UNDER THE TABLE
whatever stale bread you can find
dripping (the fat poured off baked or grilled meat — if possible, use the moist, meaty bits which have sunk to the bottom of the dripping)
Spread dripping on the bread. Divide it among everyone waiting to eat and hope there is enough for everyone to get a slice.
About the Author
JACKIE FRENCH AM is an award-winning writer, wombat negotiator, the 2014–2015 Australian Children’s Laureate and the 2015 Senior Australian of the Year. In 2016, Jackie became a Member of the Order of Australia for her contribution to children’s literature and her advocacy for youth literacy. She is regarded as one of Australia’s most popular authors and writes across all genres — from picture books, history, fantasy, ecology and sci-fi to her much loved historical fiction for many different age groups. ‘Share a Story’ was the primary philosophy behind Jackie’s two-year term as Laureate.
jackiefrench.com
facebook.com/authorjackiefrench
Also by Jackie French
Australian Historical
Somewhere Around the Corner • Dancing with Ben Hall
Daughter of the Regiment • Soldier on the Hill • Valley of Gold
Tom Appleby, Convict Boy • A Rose for the Anzac Boys
The Night They Stormed Eureka • Nanberry: Black Brother White
Pennies for Hitler • Pirate Boy of Sydney Town • The Ghost of Howlers Beach
General Historical
Hitler’s Daughter • Lady Dance • How the Finnegans Saved the Ship
The White Ship • They Came on Viking Ships • Macbeth and Son
Pharaoh • Oracle • Goodbye, Mr Hitler • Just a Girl
Fiction
Rain Stones • Walking the Boundaries • The Secret Beach
Summerland • A Wombat Named Bosco • Beyond the Boundaries
The Warrior: The Story of a Wombat • The Book of Unicorns
Tajore Arkle • Missing You, Love Sara • Dark Wind Blowing
Ride the Wild Wind: The Golden Pony and Other Stories
Refuge • The Book of Horses and Unicorns
Non-Fiction
A Year in the Valley • How the Aliens from Alpha Centauri
Invaded My Maths Class and Turned Me into a Writer
How to Guzzle Your Garden • The Book of Challenges
The Fascinating History of Your Lunch • To the Moon and Back
The Secret World of Wombats • How High Can a Kangaroo Hop?
Let the Land Speak: How the Land Created Our Nation
I Spy a Great Reader
Miss Lily Series
1. Miss Lily’s Lovely Ladies • 1.5. With Love from Miss Lily: A Christmas Story
2. The Lily and the Rose • 2.5. Christmas Lilies • 3. The Lily in the Snow
The Matilda Saga
1. A Waltz for Matilda • 2. The Girl from Snowy River
3. The Road to Gundagai • 4. To Love a Sunburnt Country
5. The Ghost by the Billabong • 6. If Blood Should Stain the Wattle
7. Facing the Flame • 8. The Last Dingo Summer
Shakespeare Series
I am Juliet • Ophelia: Queen of Denmark
The Diary of William Shakespeare, Gentleman • Third Witch
My Name is Not Peaseblossom
The Animal Stars Series
The Goat Who Sailed the World • The Dog Who Loved a Queen
The Camel Who Crossed Australia • The Donkey Who Carried the Wounded
The Horse Who Bit a Bushranger
Dingo: The Dog Who Conquered a Continent
The Secret Histories Series
1. Birrung the Secret Friend • 2. Barney and the Secret of the Whales
3. The Secret of the Black Bushranger
4. Barney and the Secret of the French Spies
5. The Secret of the Youngest Rebel
Outlands Trilogy
In the Blood • Blood Moon • Flesh and Blood
School for Heroes Series
Lessons for a Werewolf Warrior • Dance of the Deadly Dinosaurs
Wacky Families Series
1. My Dog the Dinosaur • 2. My Mum the Pirate
3. My Dad the Dragon • 4. My Uncle Gus the Garden Gnome
5. My Uncle Wal the Werewolf • 6. My Gran the Gorilla
7. My Auntie Chook the Vampire Chicken • 8. My Pa the Polar Bear
Phredde Series
1. A Phaery Named Phredde • 2. Phredde and a Frog Named Bruce
3. Phredde and the Zombie Librarian • 4. Phredde and the Temple of Gloom
5. Phredde and the Leopard-Skin Librarian
6. Phredde and the Purple Pyramid • 7. Phredde and the Vampire Footy Team
8. Phredde and the Ghostly Underpants
Picture Books
Diary of a Wombat (with Bruce Whatley)
Pete the Sheep (with Bruce Whatley)
Josephine Wants to Dance (with Bruce Whatley)
Emily and the Big Bad Bunyip (with Bruce Whatley)
Baby Wombat’s Week (with Bruce Whatley)
The Tomorrow Book (with Sue deGennaro)
Queen Victoria’s Underpants (with Bruce Whatley)
Christmas Wombat (with Bruce Whatley)
A Day to Remember (with Mark Wilson)
Queen Victoria’s Christmas (with Bruce Whatley)
Dinosaurs Love Cheese (with Nina Rycroft)
Wombat Goes to School (with Bruce Whatley)
The Hairy-Nosed Wombats Find a New Home (with Sue deGennaro)
Good Dog Hank (with Nina Rycroft)
The Beach They Called Gallipoli (with Bruce Whatley)
Wombat Wins (with Bruce Whatley)
Grandma Wombat (with Bruce Whatley)
Millie Loves Ants (with Sue deGennaro)
Koala Bare (with Matt Shanks)
Dippy’s Big Day Out (with Bruce Whatley; concept by Ben Smith Whatley)
When the War is Over (with Anne Spudvilas)
Happy Birthday Wombat (with Bruce Whatley)
Top Koala (with Matt Shanks)
Dippy and the Dinosaurs (with Bruce Whatley; concept by Ben Smith Whatley)
Copyright
Angus&Robertson
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, Australia
First published in Australia in 2020
by HarperCollinsPublishers Australia Pty Limited
ABN 36 009 913 517
harpercollins.com.au
Copyright © Jackie French and E French 2020
The right of Jackie French to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her under the Copyright Amendment (Moral Rights) Act 2000.
This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced, copied, scanned, stored in a retrieval system, recorded, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
The Ghost of Howlers Beach Page 13
