The Springs, an itinerants’ camp during the Great Depression – Joyce Williams

There were a lot of people at The Springs [an itinerants’ camp just south of the city during the Great Depression] – about fourteen families, not only Aboriginal families; there were white people as well.
The water at The Springs was beautiful – they couldn’t have given it a better name than The Springs. I’ve never tasted water like it since – we loved it.

Joyce Williams, The Springs

I was born in Wellington. I might have been about nine or ten when I went to Orange. There were a lot of people at The Springs [an itinerants’ camp just south of the city during the Great Depression] – about fourteen families, not only Aboriginal families; there were white people as well. They all got on well together.

The water at The Springs was beautiful – they couldn’t have given it a better name than The Springs. I’ve never tasted water like it since – we loved it.

The water was cold. It ran right down to the creek and on to the railway line.

We cooked on open fires. Our floors were dirt floors. Some people got bits of wood from the tip for flooring. Everybody had horses and sulkies out at The Springs; nobody had a car.

We used to go up around the Pinnacle and all around Orange and pick blackberries in summer. We used to have a little bat and knocked the blackberries off into a tin. We’d pick on the creeks too because that’s where the best ones were. It took a lot of work to fill one tin.

It was cold at The Springs in winter time. There would be snow around. Everybody wore boys’ shoes because they were warm.

We left there and caway. I don’t know what happened to The Springs.

Interviewed by Elizabeth Edwards