Dawn White (nee Dunstan) shared her memories with the Yarrawonga Mulwala CLC Oral History Group. Here she is pictured on Show Day in Yarrawonga in 1948.
The YMCLC Oral History Group invites you to take a step back in time as they reach into their files to present a story from days gone by.
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Dawn White is the focus of our article. She was interviewed in July 2011.
Dawn White nee Dunstan was born in 1931 at Cobram.
I started school in 1936 at Yarrawonga State School. I recall very clearly the first day children were sitting along a long veranda and they were playing jacks.
When I went into high school it was all the same school. I stayed there till I was 15.
It was a bit crowded about the year the weir was built, because there was a big influx of children.
What sticks in my mind was the epidemic of diphtheria. Nearly every kid in Yarrawonga got diphtheria. They used to send them to Corowa. That was the isolation hospital in those days.
Another memory is that several families were sent to Yarrawonga and they were refugees from Singapore. After the war they all had to return back to England or wherever.
Mr Doubleday was the headmaster and his way of catching your attention if you were having a little dream at school was to throw a piece of chalk.
There was also Miss Bruce who was a local girl, but one that sticks in my mind most was Miss Jenkins. One day, when I was sitting in the shelter shed, with my overcoat on she come through and said, ‘Dawn Dunstan, I’m tired of looking at you sitting here with an overcoat. Take it off and come along and have a game of basketball.’
I played in the school team but I also played in a team called the Congregational.
We played a game called Rounders. Another sport we used to play was a game like deck tennis.
Coming from a home that weren’t great sports people, they were musical, she really put me on the right track. I could run pretty fast, and very soon she had me
really into sports, running for the school. I owe her a lot. She was a very dedicated teacher not only with me.
When they decided to send her off to another school, we all got together and wrote a letter to the Education Department, but she still had to go.
A young Dawn White with her father, Joe Dunstan in 1932.
At one stage in my life, I was learning the piano. An English lady used to ride her bike from Numurkah. It was for just a little while. I learnt to read music. I wasn’t all that interested. I was too sports minded.
I left school and went to work at the Mayfair Café, which is where The Chronicle office is now. I didn’t know much about cooking, and I owed the cook at the Mayfair Cafe a lot because she taught me how to work. I stayed for about 12 months.
Mr Williams who was the owner, was a bit disappointed with me because now that I’d learnt to do things, I was moving on. I squared off with him because I went back on picture nights and did the lolly counter. I did that for years.
I went to work at S.T. Bowles in 1943. It was the big store in Yarrawonga.
The majority of their staff were away at the war, so we had to take over and do the best we could.
The original Bowles was Stan Bowles. There were two brothers running that place. Bert Bowles and Les Bowles. Joyce Bowles was the head girl in the office. Pat Corboy and Ann Walsh were the two other girls in the office.
Eric was in the army entertaining the troops in Bougainville.
My second eldest brother, Cec joined the army.’ He went to Rabaul. Alan joined the Navy. He was on the HMAS Australia. Lee joined the Air Force the day he turned 18. He went up north into the Islands.
Mum was sent a badge with four stars on it because she had four sons serving in action at one time.
I got married in 1949. I met Alex at a carnival day in Cobram. He was with a number of Yarrawonga boys, Charlie Rudd and Robbie Steele. He was a very good dancer, which attracted me to him.
Alex was a returned serviceman. He was in the 43rd Battalion, 9th Division. He served his time in New Guinea and Borneo.
My eldest child, Bill, played with Yarrawonga and got a Best and Fairest. Lexi, my daughter, married a New Zealander and she lives in the Bay of Islands.
John also played football for Yarrawonga. He won the Yarrawonga Best and Fairest twice.
The Yarrawonga Mulwala community and Learning Centre Oral History Group are currently seeking new members to join our group.
If you have skills in Basic IT, Typing, and/or Audio Editing it would be an advantage.
Training and support are provided.
Please contact the Community Centre on (03) 57443911 for more information.
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