Burrinjuck April 1, 1931
The job situation seems really to be improving. That is, for Sverre personally, not in general, unfortunately. During the past week a great amount of material has arrived on the scene of the job, which means that most certainly, more people will be needed. I imagine they will start after Easter. There will be ten holidays, however, since the people have been working on holidays earlier on. That means it can't be before May 15. So I will wait until then before going to Sydney. If Sverre has a job, I will have the courage to spend a bit more money. Otherwise, going to Sydney wouldn‘t be too much fun. The fishing business has improved lately, and we have earned quite well this last week. However, the season ends on May 15, and after that we're not allowed to fish any more. If work starts right then we'll be terribly lucky, since not so few people have been living without any income at all for over a year.
Sverre has just gone over to Frasers in the "town". Mrs Fraser has a great pile of good corrugated iron lying in her yard, and she said we could take as much as we wanted. Sverre is picking it up now, and is going to construct another building for us. This is going to be a wash-and bath house. An iron oil barrel, cut vertically through the middle, and framed with wood to cover the sharp edges will make a fine bath tub which costs us nothing. In Taemas we never had such luxury. Mrs Fraser is also giving us an iron stove and two tables. Sverre is going to make the house big enough so he can use it as a workshop as well, anybody orders another boat from him. We have already had potential cust0mer, who greatly admired our new Peer Gynt model.
We have been trout fishing several times. Sverre was lucky, he caught six yesterday, but I have no patience and I swore I’d never go with him again to fish trout. It is just too boring when they don't bite.
At Easter the McDonalds from Taemas are coming. Mrs Mc's mother and brother will be visiting them and driving their own car. So they will all be making the trip over here. We have invited them to stay in our new house, but I wish they wouldn't. They are quite nice and friendly but I love no one in Taemas, and I would be quite happy never to see anyone from there again.
Sverre has not yet come back. He shaved and changed his clothes before he left. He is probably flirting with Ann and Elsie, Mrs Fraser’s pretty daughters. I think Ann, in particular, has made an impression on him. Unfortunately I have no opportunity here for such activity. There isn't one male creature around that I would bother to look twice at. They are all like empty pots,
Poor Jip is suffering from tapeworm and is under treatment i.e. he is living on dry bread and Arica nuts. He looks quite miserable and is hungry all the time.
Burrinjuck, April 8, 1931
It is now winter. It is uncomfortably cold. Even though the temperature during the day is 20° it does not feel like May in Europe when the wind is blowing as it is now. The summer heat has thinned our blood, most likely. The worst thing at the moment in that we have been unable to get glass to replace a window which was broken a few weeks ago. So we are forced to choose between sitting in the dark or in a draught.
We have been with the Taylors a few times, despite the fact that we had decided not to mix with anyone. They invited us and we went. We like both of them very much. They have travelled quite a bit and are a little more broadminded than most people, for which reason they are not popular in Burrinjuck. In Taemas everyone was so terribly narrow minded, it's a real pleasure to experience the opposite for a change. At the end of this week, Mr Taylor is going to row with us about ten miles upriver to a place where Mr Masey has a weekend cottage. We will be staying there for three days. In the evenings the two men plan to go fishing (with nets, lines and spinners) while I lie around and read or open cans. We will be back here early Monday morning to watch out if there is work to be had.
Qh yes. It's been Easter! We hardly noticed. On one day Ola Nordmand took us for a trip in his motor boat, across the lake and a bit up the Goodradigbee River. There, halfway between here and Wee Jasper in a real slum of a camp, lives a Norwegian called Snowie on account of his almost white hair. He is quite young, not much over 30. For the last three years he has been living there in total isolation. His face resembles a mine field. His house has no door, and inside it looks horribly neglected. He fishes, and once a week he goes down to Burrinjuck in his motor boat and sends the fish by mail to the Sydney market. He looked most unfriendly when we arrived, but later he thawed, and even seemed to enjoy the rare experience of having visitors. He showed us a 60 lb. cod he had caught. He had put a ring through its nose and it was swimming around on a leash. What a monster! Snowie has a cat, an absolutely beautiful dog, Skipper, and four ferrets. He puts these animals in front of rabbit burrows. The animals creep into the dark passage and the rabbits come out through another exit, where you can either shoot them or catch them in a net. If the ferret gets hold of a rabbit, it sucks out its blood. Snowie demonstrated the whole business
It was very interesting.
Sverre has now finished building the wash house. The next thing will be a decent dwelling for Jip.
Burrinjuck, April 14, 1931
Everything is still much the same. Sverre still doesn't have a job, and the whole situation looks somewhat problematic. Mr Taylor, in whose house Mr Townsend (the foreman) lives, told us that Mr Townsend won't be back from his vacation before the beginning of May, if he comes at all. It is possible that another man is going to take over. They are definitely going to hire more people, but there are so many applicants already on the list and we don't know how Sverre stands. Well, we're not letting our hair turn grey over it. If Sverre doesn't get work, the chances are even smaller elsewhere, so I will try for a while in Sydney if I can get a job, and if that doesn't work, we’ll go to Canada. Taylor lived there for a number of years and has three married daughters and good friends over there. He will recommend Sverre.
It would be a pity to leave Australia without seeing more of the country, but we can always come back if things change for the better and we feel like it. Working conditions are not attractive here at the moment.
Firstly, because there is no much nepotism, and secondly because you have to be able to crawl for the bosses, and accept insults with a gentle smile. In some places, the labourers even pay their own bosses £1 a week from their wages, in order not to lose their jobs. These and similar rotten conditions are so common and everyday here, that nobody even questions them. So not everything in the garden in lovely. Having been here this long, I must say that the percentage of educated and decent people is not very high. Many people in high positions have only a thin layer of polish, covering a bottomless pit full of crudity. We were very lucky to meet such nice people in Sydney, but since then we have had countless disappointments. Whenever anything is written about Australia it always sounds so wonderful: here any only personality counts. What rot! It is not true. The only people who get on in the world here, are the ones who have money and good connections, or who are able to crawl on their bellies and flatter. Something Sverre is incapable of. Even if Sverre does get work here, we want to look around for something else.
This week we went on two trips. One was an all day trip with Mrs Andersson. We rowed across the lake to a deep bay where a little brook runs out. We had lunch and then went up, following the creek through a beautiful gully, passing several waterfalls till we came to a small pool where we caught a lot of crayfish. It was most enjoyable and Mrs A. was good company. She is, as you know, Mrs Fraser’s daughter and we like all the Frasers very much. They are from Scotland. We agreed to go again next Thursday to the same place so Mr Andersson can come too. Last Thursday he was on the day shift.
On Friday we went on our big fishing trip. Sverre and Mr Taylor rowed a big ordinary boat, and I rowed our little tin shell. It took me 2 ½ hours. The gentlemen did it in 1 ½. Taylor has nets, lines etc., so every evening the men were out while I stayed in the little cottage, lazed around and read. We were lucky with the weather. For the whole three days it was just like summer. They caught about 50 lbs of fish: cod, trout and silver bream. The trout have wonderful pastel pink flesh. Taylor is salting and smoking them and we will get our share. The largest trout weighed 7 lb, a beautiful fish. Sverre sold all the fish here in Burrinjuck which gave us over £1 each. Taylor says it was a bad catch. They want to go again this coming Friday for another three days. Maybe I’ll go too - and maybe not. While we were away we met a farmer who lives about 20 miles from here, Mr Shannon. He is frightfully rich and owns a large white motor boat with a cabin and kitchen. He had come where we were in the boat. He and his two sons were interested in ordering a boat like ours. Sverre made them an offer of £5. They said they would let us know.
Despite all our precautions, our Jip looks as if she is expecting. The little beast must have slunk away for a moment when we weren't looking. Disgusting!
Burrinjuck, April 27, 1931
There is nervousness in the air. Mostly about the question: to work or not to work? With this terrible unemployment, you can imagine how everybody is watching everybody when a chance for work crops up here or there throughout the country. All along the lake, tents and makeshift houses like ours are cropping up everywhere, like mushrooms out of the earth. The unemployed live there, waiting for the signal. Now the permanent residents of the area will have precedence when they start hiring people. By "the area" they mean within a radius of 20 miles. To be regarded as a "resident" one has to have lived in the area for at least twelve months. Taemas is further away, but nevertheless belongs to the district. That means Sverre has a chance of getting hired, but with conditions such us I mentioned earlier, one never knows. Mr Townsend came back today, but as yet no one has been hired, since the bank (Government Savings Bank of N.S.W.) in closed for a few days. It is said that it is merging with the Commonwealth Bank in order to prevent the communist government of N.W.W. from getting its hands on the funds. We have our money in this bank too. I hope we won't .lose it. As soon as the bank reopens and money is available, work is support to start. We're pretty keyed up about what will happen next. After all, we are damn foreigners.
Sverre and Mr Taylor were out fishing all last week. Then Mrs Taylor got sick, she has kidney trouble, and Mr T. had to come home. However, since all the nets etc. were still out there, I accompanied Sverre out there for a day and a night, until Mr Taylor could return. .And on this very night, lying in the tent beside us, Jip had her pups. Three of them, one small black male and a brown female. The third pup Jip just left and didn‘t lick clean and it died. Now the little beasties are a week old and quite adorable, fat as a pair of sausages. They wiggle around and whimper just like little children. We will probably have to do away with the brown one, but the Frasers would like to have the black.
Last Saturday nine adults and three children were packed into our house. Imagine what a tight fit that was! A car full of people from Taemas came to have a look at the dam and the power station. McDonalds came along too, although they have already seen the place. They just wanted to visit us, mainly, I think, to ask Sverre to keep an eye open for a job for Mr McDonald. Afterwards all the others came over to our place too. It was frightfully crowded.
At the same time we had yet another visitor a Mr Tierney, who teaches at the local school. He stayed on for a couple of hours after all the others had left. He is very young, not much more than 20, a small, pale, good looking fellow. We like him, but he came without being invited. We don‘t invite many people but when they come all the same we generally enjoy their company.
Yesterday we were out all day with the Anderssons. We went back to the crayfish pool where the fishing was such fun. I spent a whole day with the Anderssons last week. They have such a nice house. In the kitchen everything is electric. They have a wonderful bathroom, which they offered to let me use to develop my pictures. Mr Andersson earns a little over £6 a week. They pay £1 a week for rent, and with the remainder they scarcely get by. They are both terribly un-economical. They break a lot of crockery, lose their silver spoons and silk handkerchiefs, and keep buying all sorts of useless articles they quickly lose. It's funny to see - funny for me, that is. Sverre reckons I should give them some advice. Heaven forbid! It's none of my business. Besides they are both very happy.
NEXT: May 1931