Howell Walker interviewed by Barbara Blackman [sound recording]
- Bib ID:
- 2075715
- Format:
- Audio
- Author:
- Walker, Howell, 1910-2003, interviewee
- Online Version:
- National Library of Australia digitised item
- Access Conditions:
- Access open for research, personal copies and public use.
- Description:
-
- 1987
- 2 cassettes (ca. 116 min.)
- Summary:
-
Howell Walker speaks about his family history; his first visit to Australia in May 1941; writing an article on the ANZACs for 'National Geographic' in 1941; journalism; places visited in Australia; learning about how Australian boys grow up; informal relationships between men in the Australian military; Australian "mateship"; friendships; questioning and observing Australian people; the toughest places experienced in Australia; travelling to Darwin from Adelaide with a military convoy; breaking a leg in Darwin; contracting Dengue fever; leaving Darwin one day before the Japanese air raid; writing 'Life in Dauntless Darwin'; the Australian character ; the Australian landscape; Australians' eating habits; the expedition to Arnhem Land in April 1948; Aboriginal people in Arnhem Land; becoming grounded on a reef for ten days while travelling by boat to Groote Eylandt; communicating with Indigenous groups; Catalina sea planes; joining the United States 5th Air Force, and involvement in air sea rescue out of New Guinea; an attack on the Catalina sea plane by Japanese fighter planes; observing expedition members and indigenous peoples at Groote Eylandt; expedition anthropologist Fred McCarthy and leader, Charles Pearcy Mountford; the expedition as a joint American and Australian venture; photography on the expedition; being a journalist among scientists on the expedition; food on the expedition; living alongside Aboriginal people at Oenpelli; bush tucker.
Walker discusses staying with Fred Gray on Groote Eylandt; Fred Gray's teaching of farming techniques to the Aboriginal people of Groote Eylandt; the school run by Marjorie Gray; visiting Fred in Darwin in the late 1970s; writing the article 'From Spear to Hoe on Groote Eylandt'; the effects of the teaching of agriculture and western crafts on the local Indigenous culture; Fred Gray's excursion by boat up the Roper River with a group of Aboriginal children; visiting and writing about Tasmania in 1954; meeting Denis King; returning to Tasmania in 1974 and the changes he observed; visiting South Australia in 1968-9; staying with friends of Nobby Buckley; travelling on the Ghan railway; drawing hot water from the engine to make tea; deciding to live in Australia upon retirement in August 1975; meeting his wife Sheila in Sydney in 1942; writing a brochure for Tubemakers of Australia; cameras used on assignment from the 1930s to the 1950s.
- Notes:
-
- Recorded on September 1, 1987 at Port Piper, N.S.W.
- Also available online http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-216498539
- Index/Finding Aid Note:
- Timed summary (6 p.)
- Subject:
- Occupation:
- Other authors/contributors:
- Blackman, Barbara, 1928-, interviewer
- Copyright:
-
In Copyright
You may copy under some circumstances, for example you may copy a portion for research or study. Order a copy through Copies Direct to the extent allowed under fair dealing. Contact us for further information about copying.
- Reason for copyright status:
- Until 2057 [Created/Published Date + 70 Years]
Copyright status was determined using the following information:
- Material type:
- Sound Recording
- Published status:
- Unpublished
- Creation date:
- 1987
Copyright status may not be correct if data in the record is incomplete or inaccurate. Other access conditions may also apply. For more information please see: Copyright in library collections.
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