Pam and her sister and brother were born at home in 1 Ada Lane, and later lived in Clara Street. The Hammond family were neighbours at both addresses. “I remember lots of kids in one house, and we’d try our hand at cooking, hair-cuts, family card games,” Pam said. “My brother used to retrieve balls off the factory roof. We collected bottles, newspapers and old rags for pocket money.”
Gail, Pat and Maureen sat together beneath the shade of a large umbrella. At their table they enjoyed looking through several large albums of photographs. The earliest photographs were dated 1919. They remembered growing up in an inner-city suburb renowned for brickmaking, market gardening and tanning industries, trams and working-class values. They remembered milk and bread deliveries, homemade ginger beer, clothesline poles, blocks of ice for refrigeration. Stories were shared about ball games in the street, skipping, marbles, hop-scotch, making billy carts. The small piece of grass in Ethel Street had a swing-set, they recalled, and was a site for fireworks and bonfires (and cooking potatoes in the embers).
They remembered happy days at Erko Oval watching Aussie Rules Football. “In 1982, the Newtown Club celebrated 100 years,” Gail recalled. “Some people might not know that this was AFL country – it still is!” Local pubs too were scenes of fond memories – the Rose, the Imperial, the Australia, the Kurrajong.
Len, Max and Paul, good friends and reunion regulars, enjoyed this year’s get-together that attracted about 350 people, some from as far away as Queensland. Reflecting on the gentrification of the area, they agreed that what was most important was for new arrivals to appreciate the history of the suburb.
“When they renovate the Victorian terraces, it’s important they know something about the workers who lived there, the people who built them,” Paul said. “It’s not just the houses, it’s the character of the place.”
Pam has established a database of historical information about the terraces and their residents, past and present. In this way she hopes to build bridges of understanding between all people who call Erko home. “Two people came to this year’s reunion looking for their [birth] mothers,” Pam said. “With the help of the database, one woman was able to make a contact and is now continuing the search for her mother.”
“Another woman, a bluegrass musician, who used to be a nurse at Prince Alfred Hospital, is trying to trace her family tree. Her grandfather was originally from England. She made a connection at the reunion with someone who knows her family. How wonderful is that?!”
