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Oral History |
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Mick Haigh Mick Haigh went to live on Maria Island when he was four years old and stayed there for five or six years. His real name is Leslie James Haigh but people call him Mick because when he was a baby his Nan thought his red hair made him look Irish. Mick had three other brothers besides himself: Fred, Stan and Kevin. |
| Mick came to our school to talk to us about living on Maria Island in the "old days". He also showed us an old photo album. He is Natalie's great uncle and a well known local personality. |
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In those days on Maria Island they didn't have
a real doctor so when something really bad happened to them like breaking
a leg they had to light three big bonfires on top of the hill near Darlington
to attract the attention of fishing boats. When the fishing boats saw the
fires they came ashore to see what was wrong.
There was a man on the island called Mr Cobb who, even though he wasn't a doctor, knew a lot about first aid. If you had a toothache or needed a stitch or two, Mr Cobb was the person to do the job. Every night before he went to bed he would light a red hurricane lamp that he would hoist on a rope pulley up a gum tree, just like a lighthouse. He had two spaniel dogs that he taught to sing. At school on Maria Island when Mick was there, there were only about sixteen children . Some of them where in different grades to others but only one teacher taught all of them. The teacher that Mick remembers was Miss Rall. When Miss Rall was giving them lectures she often got really bad cramps in her legs and toppled over. The school building was quite small when Mick went to school there. The old school house had already been moved to Triabunna and is now the Performing Arts Centre at Triabunna District High School. He remembers going to school with the Elley girls, four or five Atkinses and some Foxes (who were "nointers"). He said they were all little devils and they spent more time swimming than doing school work. When Mick lived on Maria Island he used to wag school a lot and so did most of the other kids. He said they had a lot of freedom, but not much education! On some of the days when Mick was away from school he and his friends used to climb into the old abandoned trolleys that used to go to and from the old cement works. They called them "skips". Two of their mates would give them a push and they would go flying down the hills. They had no control at all and the only way to get off was to jump from the moving skip. Finally they would come full pelt down the hill towards the the big wharf. Once they got to the end of the wharf the boys had to jump out before the skip went flying over the jetty and straight in to the water. Mr Haigh says that "he doesn't know how they didn't drown". None of them could swim. One day when Fred and Mick went wood chopping the axe was so blunt that there were only chips coming away from the wood. Fred put his hand on the wood to get the chips out of the way so that Mick could see where he was chopping and Mick came down with the axe and accidentally chopped the top of Fred's fingers off. They took Fred to Mr Cobb's. Mr. Cobbs wasn't really the doctor but he was the only one that knew enough about medical things to help the people living on the island. Stan was his dad's pet. One day Mick and his brothers and their dad took horse and cart to go and get some water. Because Stan was his dad's pet he didn't have to get off the cart. Mick and Fred had to though, and they were soon happy that they did because when their Dad was loading the cart the water got too heavy and the horse stepped back a little bit and went tumbling into the water. Of course Stan was standing in the cart and went tumbling down with the forty gallon drums filled all with water on top of him. He had to be taken to Mr Cobb to make sure there weren't any bones broken. Mick is now 76 years old and still is quite a good talker. He lives in Triabunna with his wife Eileen and they have a beautiful garden.
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Ernie French |
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Mr Ernie French lives in Orford. He is now retired and lives with his wife Denise in the house that he used to call a shack. From 1936 Ernie lived at Chinamans Bay until he was 17. The land belonged to the Bernacchi family. He came to school over here at Orford from the ages of 7 to 12. His family stayed in their beach house in Orford. |
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On Maria Island there was no electricity and no telephone.
The only communication was one crackly old radio. People on the island
had to rely on shipping for everything they needed.
The Frenches lived in McRae's mansion for three years. It had 28 rooms with bay windows. It was made out of weather boards. When Ernie lived on the island his favourite things to do were exploring and searching through ruins. He often found old convict artefacts. It was a great place for fishing. |
| The French family were the only people on the island who had horses. The horses were used to go from French's Farm to Darlington because the only other way was to walk. This is Meegan standing in the doorway of what is now called French's Farm. |
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Once when Ernie's brother Ted was climbing
a tree, a limb fell and hit him on the head. It knocked him
out of the tree and made him unconscious. There was no way to get
help except by attracting the attention of a fishing boat. The family
lit three fires on Middle Beach. On the first night there was no
response.
The next day they saw a boat off the bluff. They got a double barrel shotgun with two cartridges of black gunpowder. They tied it to a tree and pulled the triggers with fishing line. A huge cloud of dust rose and when it settled all they could find was the wooden bit of the shotgun. They got the attention of the boat by waving a white sheet and it came into shore and rescued Ted. Ernie said that if you look very hard at the Painted Cliffs you can see a nativity scene with an angel , a reindeer and a sleigh. In 1946 Ernie's father became sick and the family lived in Orford for three weeks. During that time their house on Maria Island was wrecked by a fishing party. The windows were shot out, the staircase was wrecked, plaster kicked off the walls the door stolen. The French family built another house out of the old one. This is still standing as well as the original shearing shed. You can still see it today.
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