Nita Hughes Interview

Nita Hughes’s life in a builder’s family in wartime Queensland from country towns to Brisbane provides glimpses of the hardships experienced and the resilience needed. In these clips, Nita shares childhood memories of her life and early schooling – note the mention of the dilly bags issued to Queensland school children during World War II. For further information: https://www.slq.qld.gov.au/blog/children-world-war-ii

This interview was recorded on 11 December 2023.

PART 1: Pre-school life in Dad-built house on stilts in Bundaberg, children playing shops under the house after school, frogs sitting around the bath.

PART 2: Garden with chooks, brothers to milk factory for a can each of milk and butter – chickens locally – yabbies – no food as wartime and Dad not enough work.

PART 3: At school – trenches with dilly bag around necks with peg for nose, rubber to bite on, cotton wool for ear plugs in case of bombing – West Bundaberg SS.

PART 4: Contact with Aboriginal people – Mother’s helper and lots of children at school – “Oh! Where did they come from?”

PART 5: Mum might give us a penny to buy something – a meat pie and sugar donut to share among 4.