From the Oral History collection: Andrew Moffat
Audio transcript
Andrew:
Yeah, I was born in Marrickville, Meeks Road Marrickville, on the 12th of December
1914.
Barry:
And did you grow up in Marrickville?
Andrew:
Yes, in Meeks Road. My father was an engine driver in the power station and my
mother was home, you know, but she died when I was about seven and a half. I
was brought up by my father with my two brothers and my sister and my
grandparents. We went to Marrickville Chapel Street School and then to
Marrickville Tech High in Eleanor Road.
Barry:
Were you born into a labour type of a family?
Andrew:
Yes I was. My father was a labouring man.
Barry:
Was he in the Labor Party?
Andrew:
No because he… he was but he didn’t take an active part because he had four
children to look after. That’s what turn me to socialism in the Labor Party was The
Depression. I saw people get thrown out of their homes, had to lay in board in that
moratorium, they were losing homes. And it was a pretty bad time. People only
got… they were out of work. they got 10 shillings a week for a married man and the
wife got 10 shillings… a single bloke got 6 shillings at week and then the pension
wasn’t much for old age pensioners. They got a pound a fortnight.
I didn’t like the idea of the way people were being treated in The Depression. If you
were out of work. You had to take a… they’d take a sugar banger or bag down to
the wharf down near Circular Quay and get a week’s supply of food and they didn’t
have the money to pay their fare they had the scale a tram and if the driver or the
conductor let them stay on the train and they got into trouble with the [inaudible
00:01:48], the inspectors. They weren’t allowed… they had to walk in a lot of
cases, Circular Quay to Marrickville carrying their food. That didn’t impress me.
There’s got to be a better way than this.
Barry:
Did you actually see people being evicted?
Andrew:
Yes I did in, in my street. Well they didn’t get evicted, they were just told to get out.
But then after when things got pretty bad, a lot of landlords let them stay there
because otherwise the place got wrecked. People would come and pinch the lead
pipes and the gas and the brass taps and things, anything to get a quid to feed the
kids. There were bad [inaudible 00:02:26]. There were a couple of women I knew,
young women, that were selling themselves for 5 shillings each to feed the kids
because their husbands were on a tracker out in gaol. It wasn’t a very nice time at
that time. sometimes casual work could be picked up at the bottom of Erskine
street. The labourers would be on this side and you’d be on that side and they’d
come out from Nickel Road, [inaudible 00:02:51] and all those shipping companies
and they’d you, you, you’re like a dog, you know, so it didn’t go down too well.