Stan Parkes (1913-1990) - Historian, writer and teacher. Recorded 6 December 1984. Part 2/3.

Tape 207A STAN PARKES

00:14
Marguerite Fernance was Stan's wife

00:17
Cecil John Fernance was her father 

00:19
Doris Kathleen Fernance was her mother

1:50
Description of relief teaching, Grafton Public School formed the central school from which he covered surrounding schools. He'd ride on a push bike from Grafton to outlying schools if there was a teacher absent. He then got a position full time at Limeburners Creek. 

3:06
Joined Air-Force 1942 for three years.

3:32
He returned to New Lambton to the Duke of Wellington pub. 
He tells of a gang of slouch hatted men from the 6th Div. singing "There'll always be an England"   
Stan has learned not to listen to what a man "mouths" rather "what he does in critical, crucial situations". "Patriotism is not about running a flag up a pole".

5:22
He worked on radar in the air force. 

6:04
He was trained at Richmond Air Base. He was amongst a group who heard the force badly needed men in radar. He was older than the average man. 
There were quite a lot of teachers in the group. 

7:00
The group were stationed near Darwin from Bachelor to Port Keats, 150 miles SW - they sent out to the various islands like Bathurst Is, Peron Islands, Milingimbi. 

8:09
He was 7 miles west of a Catholic Mission Station run by Fr Docherty. http://www.indiginet.com.au/wadeye/wadeye_history.htm  
He recalls the priest sending the nuns south. The men from the Aboriginal Station who came and did odd jobs. Stan learned to write in phonetics and copied down their words citing the example of "biga". He wanted "to know 
what made them tick" - Jack says we have to understand that they belong to a different culture. Stan agrees saying "they're a sharing people. It is the whole basis of their lives...we're acquisitive....sometimes Christianity mitigates this perniciousness...."

12:38
After the war he and Marguerite became head of Aboriginal Station, Gundagai 

13:43
Aboriginal Land Rights debate - Jack expresses his reservations. Stan explains that the Europeans are seeking to understand the demand for Land Rights in terms of what they understand as Land Rights. "To us, when you 
have Land Rights, you signify your proprietary interest in the land by whacking a fence around it - Aborigines don't put fences around it. By owning the land they don't mean what we mean....what they mean is to preserve the ancient interest, allegiance to land, their loyalty to the land. The land is the earth mother." The conversation extends.

17:48
Diseases in tropical regions - from Darwin then to Borneo

18:07
Service in Borneo (Kalimantan) - aircraft were busy spraying the jungles with DDT - "we went into a quiet jungle, not a bird - they were all dead."
He was there for 8 months. 

20:21
Recollection of the dropping of the Atom Bomb - "the full enormity didn't hit us straight away.....then the second one..." 

21:56
Stan then returned to Newcastle, taught at Lambton 

22:03
Marguerite and Stan married November, 1944, Lambton

22:23
They lived in Regent Street, New Lambton

22:48
Stan recalls applying for teaching position - he was sent around to the 
Superintendent of Aboriginal Welfare. He was well received.

23:43
Recollection of homestead at Gundagai - Brungle Aboriginal Station. 
"Marguerite's no sissy - she could take it"

24:48
Suzanne Parkes - their daughter 

25:16
Brungle Aboriginal station - they asked him "you wouldn't be a bung basher would you?" Before Stan arrived there they had a South African, as manager who was educated but who used to walk around with a swish cane. 
He didn't use it but the threat was there.
Stan and his family spent three years there. 
Stan talks about how the Aborigines ostracised those who were half caste.

30:05
Discusses what Aboriginal tribal territory means. 

30:50
Wiradjuri Tribe territory.

32:20
Aboriginal tribal territory (cont.) Prof. Norman Tindale’s maps
http://www.slsa.sa.gov.au/site/page.cfm?c=4026 

The tribal line, in the 1850's, became land locked - the whites were cutting across their tribal line. "They learn not to move because they run foul of the Europeans." "The Aboriginals who are available to them for marriage are reduced" - so half castes are produced. They are learning to do seasonal work for the white man. "The half castes are not outcasts, they've been left high and dry." 

Jack talks about the segregated hotel/restaurant at Rabbit Flat (in the Tanami Desert) now closed where the Aboriginal customers were served.

Chinese Take Away food from a heavily meshed area. "Isn't it 
preposterous" laughed Stan. "Right in the middle of the desert!" The owner had a microwave oven and he was importing these frozen Chinese dinners. 

38:00
Recollection of Fr. Docherty, Port Keats. 

38:46
He lived at Cooks Hill for three years 

39:02
Then he lived at Adamstown. 

39:13
He taught learning difficulties to children from all over Newcastle. He was there for 6 years. Looking after his parents at the same time.

40:10
He then taught West Wallsend Central primary. He loved it.

40:40
Ken Marheine

42:15
Lloyd Crawford  

42:23
Ray Mulhearn

42:32
Brian Andrews 

44:36
After West Wallsend (the classification of the school changed) and he was posted to Millfield Public School. 

45:33
Rev. Peter Greaves - 1964. 

46:00
Community Historical Project

Tape duration: 46:50