Born 12 November 1909

Nell was born on the 12 November 1909 and she is talking on her early life in the areas of Subiaco and Wembley.

I was born in Subiaco and I went to Subiaco Primary School right through until I was 14. Everyone left school then and the majority got a job. My first job was working for a dressmaker in Subiaco. That only lasted a short time. Then I went forward and got a job in Perth. I went to different places there, sewing and learning. You learn, but you're not an apprentice, you go in as a junior and you learn until you get up to a senior position and then you please yourself what you do, where you go.

After that I went East for a while and when I came back I had a job in Perth working for a dressmaking firm. I wasn’t too happy there, so the family suggested I go out on my own. Then in no time I got a shop in Cambridge Street, Wembley, where I stayed for four years until I got married.

At school in those days our classes would have 40 to 50 children in one class. It was a very good school and used to have a lot of sport. Before we went into school, we would all have to line up in the yard and do a bit of drill and then we marched into class. Drill was like exercises and we did this every morning - if it was a wet morning, all the classes lined up in the school hall – and then we went to class and carried on there for the rest of the day.

We used to have a fancy dress ball once a year and we had to do our own thing there. Sometimes your parents would dress you up in some fancy costume and all the kids would go along and have a lovely time. All the ladies used to sew because there were very few shops to buy children’s clothes and nearly every mother sewed and made her children’s clothes.

As I grew up, maybe 14 or 15, I still had these fancy dress balls to go to and I would take a group of eight kids and dress them up in something. We went as Silver Star Starch one year and we would teach the dances and then we had to do a grand march for the judges. Then we used to have a ball once a year for the ex-students. I used to go that. That was a dressing up occasion. A friend of mine got us all together and we went as eight columbines – fairy sort of dresses and we got a prize. They were the good days. Everyone was doing that in those days, not only in Subiaco. There wasn’t anything else to do. On Friday nights at the Regal Theatre, which used to be the West Theatre then, it was children’s night. They would go with their parents – a family event. There was no school the next day which is why they had it on Fridays.

They used to have picture shows – the silent, black and white pictures. It was when the pictures first started to come in. It was very enjoyable. By that stage, I was getting past the children’s shows but my mother used to take the younger children on a Friday night.

There were a lot of local dances in Subiaco and as you got older you went into Perth. There used to be a dance in the Town Hall in Pier Street. They had dancing teachers and they used to run these dances. In Subiaco, there was Goldsworthy’s Hall. A Mr and Mrs Goldsworthy used to teach ballroom dancing. On a Saturday night, they’d run a dance. We used to walk or catch a tram. The trams only came to the Subiaco Hotel at first and then they continued down to the gates and then finally there were a few trams going right through to Nedlands. I would catch a tram to the dances and then catch the five to twelve home or you’d have to walk. And then the next one, they called the "rattler" used to leave Perth at 1.00 am so you could go on that. All the suburbs had a late tram and you’d have to catch that to get home.

Sometimes we would go with just girls but other times with partners. You would meet your partner in town and then he’d take you to the dance. Half the time, he’d have to put you on the tram because he would have to get home himself. Things changed as it went along because there were firstly motorbikes and then cars. The trams and buses were forgotten then.

One of my friends lived in Victoria Park. I would go out there on a Monday after work and stop at her house and we would go up to the local football dance on a Monday night. Different suburbs had these dances and they were very popular and everyone would go there. You’d make an effort and get there somehow by different transport. I didn’t learn to drive till later - I wasn’t interested in driving.

I left the sewing job and worked in the Levinson Buildings in Perth at the fur and glove company there. A man was making kid gloves and he taught me how to make them. He had a special machine and he also used to do fur repairs. In those days, people used to wear furs around their neck and fur coats. Well if any wanted relining I would reline them. I don’t know how I came to work there. I suppose I thought I’ll have a change of jobs and there was a very very nice chap – a Jewish chap he was – and he learned the trade overseas many years back. He came here with his wife and he started up the business. He ended up with about 4 people working for him. I stayed for quite a few years. I left there and went over East. When I came back my sister was working there – I got her a job there but I didn’t want to go back to working there so I went back to dressmaking. I worked in Bon Marché Arcade and then went to a William Street warehouse until I went out on my own.

I had help to start my own business but I had customers at home – I used to sew at home for them – and they came to me and it just got around. I had quite a good clientele. I did quite well really. It was in Cambridge Street opposite Reserve Street. There are units there now but there was a vacant shop and a delicatessen. I took the vacant shop. Then I got married and so I gave it away then.

The war was on and jobs were hard. We lived in Scarborough during the war years. It was very hectic. I was 32 when I got married so I was no spring chicken. I found it very hard because things were rationed such as meat, butter and all that. You had to get coupons for them and not having any children I only got coupons for two people. You could always cadge some off someone else though. There was always someone willing to give you something. Sometimes you knew the people who owned the shop and they would give you things over the counter without a coupon. Really, we didn’t go without.

After my marriage I didn’t go back to the shop. I kept on sewing though, and I made a few wedding dresses in my day for friends. When I was at Scarborough I used to do quite a bit of sewing – I had quite a big clientele and would do it at home, which brought in extra money for us. I made several wedding frocks for clients and relatives such as my niece. Things were getting short and they were very dear. They used to bring their material and everyone knew if you were getting a frock made, what yardage you would need to make a frock and they would bring the piece along. You would work out a pattern or style for them and just go ahead. At one stage, I did some cutting. Shirley Thomas, that was her maiden name, she was an expert on dressmaking around the Perth area. She was running a workroom and she taught me a lot - how to cut and how to drape. We used to drape frocks on a dummy if you were making individual frocks, then for manufacturing you would have a lay up and cut half a dozen of them at a time. You got a lot of experience and that helped a lot. I had to make their workroom pay so they gave you a wage but they put a price of machining time on each garment and you had to make this garment in that time. At one stage, they were allowing an hour machining time on a frock. They were easy frocks but you were battling to make eight a day. There used to be about 13 machinists – it was like a factory workroom.

Now everything’s imported. There are very few manufacturing companies in Perth - it’s either from the Eastern States or overseas whereas years ago there were several workshops in Perth that made frocks for all the big stores like Boans, Moores, Bon Marché shops and Foy & Gibsons. They all had their own workrooms and made frocks to sell in their shop. As the trade got bigger and bigger they cut all that out and bought the frocks in. Now there are hardly any private dressmakers.

I was talking to a friend of mine from the bowling club and she said that they needed people at the McAuley Centre so I went up there and found out what was going on and I was working with Sr Philomena at the time. She was doing mending and so forth. They had a workroom up where SkillShare used to be and would do repairs for the nursing home and the orphanage they had. I got in with Dot Harris and we got together and made things for stalls to raise money and we would go around to all the shopping centres and Win Sullivan would join us and we would do different shopping centres. We would make all sorts of things like children’s clothes. Dot was a great one for making cushions, she used to do a lovely job on cushions.

I think that lasted about 10 years and then Dot’s husband Bill retired so she gave it away and I didn’t want to carry on and Win didn’t want to carry on and so I had a break but now I’m back, still doing whatever they want – mainly from the nursing home and child care. We don’t do a lot mending but if anything wants to be fixed they send it down and we do it. There are four machinists now. I go in once a week for all day.

I have had a long association with dressmaking and I’ve been working with a new crowd for about three years raising money. We have about three stalls per year but we don’t bother to go around the shopping centres like we used to, it’s a bit of an effort now.

This year (1999) I was given the Citizen of the Year from the Town of Cambridge. I received it at Perry Lakes and McAuley Centre nominated me for it. I was very fortunate to be acknowledged as I’m sure there are a lot of other people who do exactly the same thing and I only hope I can keep going for a few more years. (Editor's note - Nell is 90 this year and still volunteering).