Dances were popular entertainment in cities and country towns through much of the twentieth century. Often the dances served as fund-raisers for local community groups, or during World War II, for the Fighting Forces Comfort Fund and the Red Cross. Read More …
Before the introduction of television in Australia in 1956, going to the pictures was a popular entertainment. The first permanent cinema in Adelaide was established in 1908: West’s Olympia Theatre at 91 Hindley Street.* A further fifteen cinemas opened in Read More …
Describing the Meadows oval as a sports oval in the early- to mid-1900s is probably being overly generous. In common with ovals in other small towns, it had its shortcomings. Harry Portlock recalled that in the 1940s: The oval was Read More …
Sue Gibbs and Peter Zajicek spent their childhoods in Woomera, 450 km north of Adelaide, in the 1960s and 1970s. The isolation of Woomera made it an ideal place to look at the stars, free from the light pollution of Read More …
Woomera is a dry place – most of the time. Sometimes however it is inundated with rain, and then the landscape changes dramatically. Plants that have laid dormant come to life, and seeds from ephemeral plants germinate and grow. I Read More …
Peter Kolomitsev is an audio engineer working at the State Library of South Australia whom we met in previous posts, talking about his job and providing his top tips for making excellent quality oral history recordings. In this post, I Read More …
Audio engineers working in collecting institutions are in a superb position to provide valuable advice to oral historians, since they look after recordings, and ensure they are stored safely and made available to researchers. They have extensive experience in sound Read More …
I recently went behind the scenes at the State Library of South Australia to interview audio engineer, Peter Kolomitsev, about his job. It quickly became apparent that in helping to preserve the state’s audio heritage, he encounters a diverse range Read More …
The Meadows poultry settlement was established in May 1934, as I described in a previous post. Twenty-four families with a total of 130 children moved in. At this time, the population of Meadows was about 290, so the settlement suddenly Read More …
During the Great Depression of the1930s, several Unemployment Relief Scheme settlements were established in the Adelaide Hills. A contemporary newspaper report predicted that the settlement in Meadows would achieve “success and prosperity.” Settlers were expected to earn 300 pounds per Read More …
