Life Stories with Carmel Murphy

I have written My Life Story as an example for you. Of course it’s up to you what you want to say during our time together. As a journalist I am a good listener although I might prompt you for a tad more information. 

I can’t remember a time when I didn’t belong to a big family

I came into the world in Euroa 3 March 1953 the third of seven children born to Max and Maureen Faulkner. Mum used to say I was the only one planned and the others were lovely surprises. Over the years I took pleasure in threatening my three sisters Loretta, Angela and Joan and my three brothers Terry, Ian and Michael, that I was the only one entitled to inherit the family wealth. An empty threat as raising a big family on carpenter’s wages was a week to week proposition.

Early years in Euroa, Tasmania, Coburg and Pascoe Vale

During WW II Dad had been a POW in Singapore and like most soldiers after they were repatriated he was keen to find a bride and start a family. He built a home in country Euroa. Dad’s people never forgot the inhumane suffering meted out to their much loved son and brother by the Japanese army. For several years he was reported as ‘missing in action’ in Siam and while the Red Cross was active no letters got through to anyone. It must have been harrowing for the families back home. 

While Dad’s general health was excellent he suffered PTSD that caused him anxiety and depression. We kids weren’t aware of what caused his angry outbursts and the times he spent at the Repat till we were adults. Overall he was a good Dad and often worked two jobs, his favourite at the Carlton and United Brewery. Dad and died aged 68. Mum had died three months before him aged 59.

On the move

The family moved to Tasmania about 1957 where Dad’s forbears settled in the early 1800s where they left their mark on the community in several ways but that’s another story. The growing family returned to the mainland to Coburg in 1956.

We went to St Bernard’s primary school a short walk away. The classes were large, about 70 kids, and I was terrified of the nuns in their black habits that only showed their hands and mostly angry faces. Despite this we could all read and write and I grew to love books and writing stories that stayed with me for life. I used to read the Famous Five in Nanna MacDonald’s garden where I pretended to be a fairy hidden in the foliage. Nanna would call me for tea or to pick camellias and rhododendrons from the large garden but I often didn’t hear her as I was too absorbed in my imaginings which she readily forgave.

We moved to a house beside the railway station in Pascoe Vale in 1962 and attended Blessed Oliver Plunkett primary school, a long walk up a very steep Gaffney Street. Mum drove us to school a couple of times and she didn’t get out of second gear. Kids were walking faster than the car and we ducked our heads in embarrassment.

Dad ‘whistled’ us home for tea

We moved to a ‘commission’ house in Reservoir when I was ten and attended Holy Name primary school. Mum was sad about the move but it was all they could afford. It was a rough area known as ‘Little Chicago’ with hardly a shrub or garden to make the ugly concrete houses look more appealing. Nevertheless we played chasey, hidey and football in the street until Dad’s whistle called us home for tea, the last one in got a playful kick in the rear.

Family meals were tasty and different

Mum and Dad were great cooks and we ate real spaghetti bolognaise, curries and rice, baked fish and food ending in ‘ini’ (linguini, zucchini) when most families ate tinned spaghetti, sausages and mash on Monday, chops and three veg on Tuesday. A Sunday treat for us was roast lamb with home-made mint sauce or roast chicken. Dad’s sharp knives meant that one chicken sliced thinly fed us all and Streets ice-cream in a cardboard box rushed home from the milk-bar wrapped in a towel and tinned fruit salad. The only takeaway back then was Chinese food like sweet and sour pork and special fried rice brought home in saucepans for reheating – much better for the environment!

My early education and sport

During Grade 6 pupils sat for a scholarship to an all girls’ school, Santa Maria College, Northcote. I was offered a scholarship to pay for books but there wasn’t enough money for a uniform or camps so I went to Preston East High. I wore my primary school uniform during Year 7 and could only attend the school camp due to a special fund so our family was one of the poorest. Fortunately I was bright and very good at sports, particularly netball, so I was able to make friends through sport.

I tried out for the Under 16 Victorian netball team but at 5’7” I was at least 5” too short! One of my granddaughters, Abby, is a first class netballer winning Best & Fairest and Zone Championships but she is shorter than me so unless they make an under 5’6” team she’s destined to shine locally.

Tertiary study wasn’t on the horizon for me as it was important to become financially independent in such a big family. I left school at 16 for my first job as the junior girl at the Trades Hall in the Textile Workers’ Union. I left to get married as the union didn’t employ married women. My husband Allan also comes from a big family of seven children – Allan, Pat, Steven, Peter, Kathy, Christine and Margaret.

I worked as an office temp until I had my first baby – Cathryn, followed by Greg, Brendan, Damon and Erin – I did say I’d always belonged to a big family!

We lived in Kew, Templestowe and Reservoir

We lived in Reservoir for 26 years where the family grew up. Allan ran his own printing business in Coburg and we managed fine on just one salary. We both loved sport and the friendships that we established over the years, many of them still ongoing. Allan was president of the local YCW football team and I played, umpired and coached netball for years then took up tennis which I loved. I remember the looks on the regular players’ faces when I turned up at Cranross Tennis Club wearing a netball skirt, rippled runners and carrying an old wooden racquet. The runners had to go as they could damage the red gravel courts. After about a year of playing social tennis I improved enough to earn a place in a low grade team where I learned that the older players were really sneaky on the court. If it was over 30 degrees they cancelled the game claiming 2 points each instead of 4 points going to our younger team.

Community involvement and kids activities kept us busy

Over the years Allan and I supported the local primary school and colleges with fetes, parent participation programs, cubs, scouts, brownies and gumnuts, sports of all sorts with lots of driving around the suburbs and further afield. Brendan played A Reserve basketball for the Eltham Wildcats and Damon sang in the St Patrick’s Cathedral Choir for several years that paid for his fees at Cathedral College and later St Kevin’s College. Our oldest son Greg is a carpenter and during Covid gained a qualification as a Building Surveyor. Brendan has gained his Builders’ Licence.

Damon was apprenticed to his father as a graphic designer which amazed me as he wasn’t just colour blind but colour deficient. When Allan retired Damon went to uni to study teaching majoring in Information Technology and Outdoor Education. He’s been working in very remote Indigenous communities in the NT where his Dad and brothers occasionally visited and enjoyed fishing for barramundi and meeting the locals. Damon took the school boys out camping and one night he was bitten by a scorpion. The second night he was bitten again on the same leg and much to the boy’s delight he scrambled out of the sleeping bag yelling, shook it vigorously and the scorpion fell out and stomped on. Antibiotics and bandaging the lower leg didn’t stop him from riding around Bali on a scooter.

Cathryn works in Aged Care and has recently become a sub-contractor providing clients with home care. Erin lives in Strahan, Tasmania and doesn’t know what she wants to do when she grows up while working from home and part-time study.

I became a mature-age student at RMIT

I mentioned I was a journalist and that came to be after I’d studied as a mature-age student when the kids weren’t so demanding of my time. By the time I was 40 I’d studied Year 12 English and English Literature at Northern Metropolitan TAFE. After a demanding application process I studied Professional Writing & Editing over four years gaining a Diploma of Arts. It was a new course attended mostly by adults, many of whom went on to bigger and better things in the industry.

The family has grown up with families of their own

All the kids have partners so it’s Cathryn and Justin with two daughters Kiera 16 and Abby 14; Greg and Jen have one son Seth 14; Brendan and Ann have four children – Nathan 18, Oscar 14, Bella 13 and Archie 6 who is really cute – it’s a shame they have to grow up!

Escaping to Queenscliff

After a couple of editing jobs in Melbourne I became ill and needed minor surgery. We had bought a house in Queenscliff in 2003 and planned to use it as a holiday home then retire here. While recovering from the surgery in Queenscliff, the local paper, the Queenscliffe Herald came up for sale, so I bought myself a job that lasted 17 years and retired in July 2021. Allan’s years in the printing industry and working in newspapers meant the layout and design of the Queenscliffe Herald was very professional and I did the rest – interviews, photography, ad sales, attending events, giving council a smack when needed and giving the locals a voice on contentious issues – I loved it.

Covid was almost the end of the paper but due to Jobkeeper and the support of two local MPs we managed to produce a 12-page monthly edition until June 2021. It’s now owned by three young guns who plan to take it Bellarine-wide.

Compassionate Hearts on the Bellarine

When volunteering with Compassionate Hearts on the Bellarine came along I attended the training sessions and discovered that writing clients’ stories was something I could do.

Writing your story

I hope this example of My Story encourages you to think about Your Story and what you might like to say. It could be very different to mine or focus on specific areas of your life, your family, your travels, your work, what brought you the most enjoyment in life, how you would like to be remembered.

It will be your story.

I look forward to telling tales with you – Carmel Murphy