When Ron came on his motorbike; I thought it was a big Harley Davidson motorbike from what my thoughts were. But it wasn't, it was this tiny other bike! I still have the photo of us from that day. Shirley had red hair, I had auburn hair, and Ron had dark hair and dark skin. The other boys were all gingery blonde. Ron was a lovely, lovely brother, and very talented. He did artwork all around Adelaide and Tasmania and he never boasted. He had four boys. A brother in Darwin had five boys, another had four boys and one girl and the other brother had two boys. Shirley and I had three kids. One girl, two boys each.

My brother, Ron, told me about our two older brothers. Through the years we got to find out where they were. We didn't really have the chance to bond with them. We bonded with Ron.

At one stage we were taken to our mother's; she had a boyfriend, and he used to walk around in his singlet and underpants. We never had anything to do with men. My sister said, “don't you let him go near you, Gloria.” She found a piece of rope, tied it round my waist and her waist, and we went together everywhere! Tied up with this rope, even to the toilet, which was out the back. That only lasted two or three days until we were taken into the welfare remand. We were only laughing about it the other week, she could remember that when I happened to say something, she said she wasn't going to let that dirty old man get to me.

We didn't have a really good time at the home. It was very strict. I learned at a very early age that you kept your mouth shut and you don't get into trouble. Shirley was different. She tried to break the rules any time that she liked, so she was always getting into trouble. We went to Parkside primary school, then to Glenelg school and I went on to high school at Brighton.

We would go to church in the morning and Sunday School after church. If there was a night meeting, you'd go back at night to this. We'd walk all the way from Fullarton to Parkside to go to the church.

In the Salvation Army, you give your life to Christ and put your life in God's hands. At the morning meetings, you were asked to come down to the front, kneel and give your prayer. Usually, it was adults. Shirley, being Shirley, and her friend, would go down to the front. I asked one day “why are you going down the front?” She said, “to get a hug!” The only time they got a hug was when they went down to the front.

I didn't dare go down. I didn't go there because they'd get told off, I mean, and I hated being told off. Gosh, I tried to keep so out of the way. But not Shirley. She always went up the front, she was a character.

They only used to have about 50 girls in the home at one time. Maybe a handful of Aboriginal girls. But we never called them that. There was never any difference, they just had darker skin than us. Girls came and went. Some might have been put there for respite, the family might be in a bit of trouble or something.

Every year, around Christmas time, we would put on a pantomime. The public was allowed to come, and usually a big group was there. I used to ask Shirley; “I wonder if our mother's going to come and see?” But she never did. I didn't know when my birthday was. We just thought it was about the 15th of December, and this was somewhere around the time we'd have this pantomime, it was when I celebrated, and I treated it as my big party. It wasn't until I was 12 that I found out my birthday was on the 13th.

Mother came one day. It would have been just before we left the home, whether she knew that we were going to be leaving, I don't know, but she came and took us to see our grandparents. The first time ever we knew we had grandparents. I mean, we must have, but we just didn't think along those lines. It was just Shirley and me against the world. Anyway, we went to see the grandparents because the grandfather was dying.

The next time I saw our mother was when my sister wanted to get married, and she had to ask for permission because she was under the state age. I just sat in the car not talking to our mother, and she said; “and what's wrong with you?” And I said; “you have the right to ask, don't you?” and that's the last time I ever saw her.

And the father, I've seen him once. We know they both came from around Snowtown Bute area, but we've never followed up. Our brother Ron tried to get the family tree together, but he's gone now. he was a gorgeous man. He really was.

It was an interesting upbringing. We learned to knit on roofing nails. Find whatever bits of wool or cotton we could get and make little doll scarves. We used to get a tiny doll and a matchbox would be its bed. We'd make little sheets, cut them out or tear them out, and then we knit the doll a little scarf or a little blanket on these damn roofing nails. I went to Grandparents Day when I used to help at the Cummins school with Leonie Phelps. I only went in the classroom, because I just didn't do big things. I took these dolls and their match box and showed them to the kids. Oh gosh, there was so much wonder in their eyes. We made up our own fun with what we had.

When you turned 14, you were of workable age. When Shirley was of age, the Salvation Army Officer took us to our mother's place and said, “we've tried to contact you, your children must come back to you now.” She said, "I can't look after them.” Within three days, we were taken to the welfare department and put in another home down at Seaforth, and that's where we started to get separated.

The no separation order on the Salvation Army records didn't apply to the welfare department. Shirley was of working age, and she got sent out and lived with different people and did housework. I went to different people's homes.

I lived with a lady down at Glenelg, and I was told that I had to call her mother; well, ‘mummy’, and I put my foot down. I said, “You are not my mother.” I was 12, and she said; “Well, when we go out in public, you can call me that... I want them to know.” I thought, why? I think it was just the people that she associated with were in big circles, lots of money and whatever. I gave her that.

I was 14 and a half when I went to work for Jack Kitson and the family. I worked in the Post Office and Telephone Switchboard in Ungarra. It was a long way. We went by plane. I'd never been on a plane before. I was scared stiff. I still don't like planes. We weren't told what was going on. When we got off at Port Lincoln, a man came up asking if we were Gloria and Shirley. He said, “I'm coming to pick you up to take you out to our place at Ungarra.”

Shirley and I thought we were going together, but no, a man pulled up; it was Bill Noske. He said they were picking up Shirley to come out to the farm for babysitting and housework, I was left in Ungarra. I didn't mind it, I was glad I wasn't on the farm, because I'm just not a farm person. Shirley went out to Bill and Doreen Noskes at Butler Tanks but didn't like the farm. She played up and they sent her back to Adelaide. She ended up on the Yorke Peninsula and married a farmer there and I stayed on Eyre Peninsula.

The Kitsons were very, very kind to me. I did love it there. It was a bit like a foster situation. I was to work in the post office and do housework. I met Joan Goodes, she was working there too, we are still friends to this day, she said I was like a little sister to her.

When I turned 18, I got discharged from the welfare department with a letter saying ‘now you are 18; welcome to the world. We wish you luck!’ and that was that. The Kitsons said I could stay there for as long as I liked. I stayed another year and then I got a job at Tumby Bay Hospital as a wards maid. It was like cleaning the wards, sometimes I used to do the cooking on a weekend, because the cook didn't want to work. I said, I can't cook. The matron said it's easy, but it wasn't really because she had all different diets for patients. I had no idea, but anyway, I got through it. I don't even really enjoy Cooking!

Daryl was working on Ellis Pugsley's farm at Ungarra, who was a cousin to the Lawrie's. Daryl's Mum was a Lawrie. He would come into the post office with his cousin. We got introduced, and a week later, Jimmy the cousin rang up and said, “Oh, would you like to go to the bonfire with the church group.” I said “OK.” He came picked my girlfriend and I up and we went to the bonfire. I looked through the flames of the fire and saw this little Elvis Presley looking young man in the flames and thought, ‘yep, I got him’. The rest is history. He was a gorgeous bloke. Daryl and I were the last couple to be married in the Ungarra Methodist Church.

We left Ungarra to work for a share farmer, John Fauser, at Stokes. We had Carolynne, our first child, three years after we were married. Steven two years after and Darian six years later. We bought the Brooker Post Office; the house and land. When the telephone exchange closed, we still lived there because Daryl was a shearer, and he'd go shearing and working on farms.

At one stage, one of my brother's partners wrote and said that your mother would like to see your children. My first thoughts were, she has no right to see those children. I had Carolynne at the time. I said no. I didn't think she was worthy of it.

Our mother died when I was pregnant with Steven. I had about three weeks to go to my due date and had to get the doctor's orders to be able to travel on the plane to go to her funeral. I wasn't going to go because we didn't know her. Anyway, my sister sent me the money for the plane so I could go over, so I did. I didn't have any feelings at the funeral. I've never ever asked why. I thought, well, if they wanted me to know, they would have told me. My sister was very emotional, which she always was. She was the only one that looked in the casket, but afterwards, she said she wished she hadn't.

We fostered Daryl's three nieces for two years when we were living in Brooker after a family breakdown. They were going to go to get put in a home and I said no! We wrote back and forth to the welfare department and said we'll take them. We had to build another room on the house at Brooker so that they could sleep there. We had them for a couple of years, and then they went back. I am still in touch with them.

Daryl got the CBH bulk handling job for the silos in Yeelanna. He was in charge. We bought Ron Breed’s house in Yeelanna and lived there for three years. The two kids went to school and kindy at Cummins.

Daryl then got a job at Minnipa in the same bulk handling company. He was maintenance fitter for the top of the EP; Nunjikulpina, Ceduna, Thevenard, and he traveled around a lot up there. We sold the Yeelanna house and moved up to Minnipa and I got a job at the hotel. I wanted to do waitressing, but I got asked to go as a cook. I said, “I can only cook home meals. I don't know anything fancy.” She said, “we don't want fancy cooking!” They needed someone to fill in because the owner of the hotel was going in for a back operation and needed somebody virtually straight away. I was thrown in at the deep end, I tell you.

In Minnipa, we were what they called ‘the passing people’ like the bank managers. We became one of them, which is a different life altogether. We got invited to all these parties at different people’s homes; on the farm or in the town or whatever. When it was an away match, we would come back and have our own little gatherings. We used to make our own fun.

We stayed there seven years. Daryl's mother was getting older, and she was in the units at Tumby Bay. We decided that we would apply for the position at Cummins with bulk handling, to be near to her. We came down here. I got a job at the hotel. They came and asked me if I wanted a job cooking!

I worked there until I had an accident in the kitchen. There was a heater in the little galley way that the cleaner had put there and there was dirty linen in front of it. I wanted to get to the shelf behind. I reached over the heater and the linen slipped and I went down. I tried to stop my head from hitting the heater. I did my back in and damaged the bone right up in the top of the neck. I’ve spent years trying to get over this back and still haven't got over it.

When the bulk handling closed down, we bought the house I am still in. Daryl went working for different farmers, Minhard’s and Green’s until he was retiring age.

Daryl was diagnosed with throat cancer in May 2011. He was a very heavy smoker from about the age of 14. The next four years we went back and forth to Adelaide until they took his voice box out. He died in 2015. He made his 70th birthday and we enjoyed a bit of a do on the front veranda.

I've been on my own for 10 years.

I always wanted to be a mother. I never worried about not having children. I took to mothering well. I even had my two children's names picked when I was 15. When we had Darian six years after Steven, it made it interesting!

We've now got eight grandchildren. The youngest is only five and we've got three great grandchildren.

It gets a bit lonely now, everyone else is busy doing their own thing. I enjoy catching up with my grandson and watching his football. I even got little great grandsons who are very good at sports and watch them too.

I've been to the Philippines. It was a real eye opener. Darian’s wife Jen is a Philippine girl, and they had a beautiful wedding there. Everyone was just so accepting and welcomed you with open arms. I keep in contact with Jen's mum. She comes over to Perth every now and again to see her two daughters and we chat on Facebook.

I had a surprise 80th birthday last December. Steven and Caro organised it. All I wanted was a quiet family meal together. I told them I did not want anything big. Renae was in on it as well. She said, “we've decided we're going to have lunch at one of the pubs in Lincoln.” I saw Seth's car when we got there, and Amber mentioned he had a work dinner. We walked in, and they were all hiding. Caro and Steven came out, and next thing, "surprise!" Everyone was there, bar my sister, because she wasn't able to travel. It was just a lovely, big surprise and lovely, lovely lunch.

I don't like parties and big places, I'd rather close friends and family, grandkids and great grandkids. I was going to try and sell my house, but after 12 months I decided I wanted to stay in Cummins where I'm safe with family around and then they all went and moved to different places!

Caro used to live next door but has now moved down to Wangary. Steven built a house behind me, but he's hardly ever home, working away in the mining business and Darian went over to Perth to work in the mines and is still there.

I am a crows fan true and true. I have a panda called Andrew McLeod. It was given to Caro by Daryl's Brother when she was 18 months old. I'm keeping it. The only present I can ever remember getting as a kid was when I went to this couple that were offering to take kids out of the home for the weekends or school holidays. The man was an Army Sergeant, they were a beautiful couple. They gave me a doll. My first Christmas present I ever remember getting as a kid. I've still got the beautiful, old doll. It had long, brown hair, a little bonnet, a little dress, little booties. I thought I was ants pants.

I've always held this stigma of being a home girl, not that a lot of people know here in Cummins that I was a welfare girl. They did in Ungarra. I used to walk down the street in Ungarra with my head down hoping no one would see me. This farmer pulled me up one day after having said ‘G'day’ to me and I didn't say hello back. He said, “In our little country towns we are all very friendly. When you are spoken to and someone says hello, you say it back.” It was very hard because I was a real loner.

I work at the op shop every Wednesday afternoon. I do enjoy going out to the op shop, although I find it a bit difficult now because my back is really giving me beans. I enjoy sorting photos on my computer and playing solitaire games, I don't mix much.

I enjoy sitting in my own company. There's nothing wrong with that. I like watching informative television programs and Bold and Beautiful. Beryl Taylor also works in the op shop with me, and she's a Bold and Beautiful fan too, we get there, and we have a little catch up. We can say what's going to happen and we've got it all planned out. We could write the story!

I do enjoy going to the bakery, having my cup of cappuccino and I get on well with the staff. They're all very friendly. When Kath Proctor was alive, we used to go in there and we'd sit at table seven for a couple of hours trying to solve the world's problems. Never really got anywhere much, but we had coffee and biscuits. I miss her so much because she knew all my history and she was just such a lovely lady.

I ring Joan Goodes. Joan Dearman now. When I was working with her at the Ungarra Post Office, like I said, she classed me as her little sister, and we still ring each other. She can't leave her house. She's on a farmhouse at Lock, so she can't drive, and I'm trying to plan to get up there and take my photo albums and show her, we'll work it out.

Shirley is my dearest person in the world. I mean, you love your own family and kids, but she's just got this special place. It's hard seeing her how she is now and what potentially is to come, she has dementia. The funny thing is that in the home, we had to sing hymns. You weren't allowed to read comics or anything. You had to read the church or Salvation Army paper. Shirley and another girl were asked to sing at a concert for the old men's Salvation Army. They sang ‘The Old Rugged Cross’. Because we knew the words off by heart, we just sing them all the time. When she came out of anesthetic after a fall and fractured her hip in three places, she started singing a hymn. It was this hymn that they sang as kids, and she sang word for word. Her husband David asked me what song she was singing and I recognised the hymn. I got on the phone and we both sang this hymn together. Even now she says, ‘Gloria let's sing a hymn.’ So when I ring her every night, we sing a different hymn together from your memory, we knew them all.

Shirley and I talk about our time in the home when something might come up, we often say ‘remember when...’ But of course, there are lots of things that she doesn’t remember now. They say that it will get worse. I'm putting an album together for her, but I've got to write in it. I'm trying to find the special album, so that I can write down the sides. I did take photos over without writing last time I went, you could see her mind trying to work it out. It's just strange how the brain works. I ring her every night, and she tells her husband David when he comes in, no one comes to see one, no one rings me. I know that I've rung her, but it's, it's just so sad.

My body retains potassium at a high level, so my diet's got to be controlled to keep it down. I get Meals on Wheels twice a week, because I just lost all the desire to cook and even eat. I get a bit confused in my head as to what I can and can't have. It's a bit overwhelming. Keeping track of that and appointments is a bit overwhelming. I just don't know where I am. If I don't write it down, I forget. The diary has to go with me everywhere!

I'm a very reserved person. Always have been. I was a good girl. I always did as I was told and as I said, I never asked why and I still don't ask myself today why it's happened. I made the most of it. I am happy with what I've done.