by J. B. Rowley
My youngest brother’s reaction was more complex than ours. In the typical fashion of an Australian country male, he does not freely share his emotions and feelings and so has not spoken about it. However, I believe Peter was initially in denial about Mum and her first three children. I think it took him some time to come to terms with the truth.
As far as I know, my two older brothers, Bobby and Maxie, are not aware of Mum’s secret as they have not been in touch with the family for many years despite our efforts to find them on several occasions. Their life-journeys have taken them far away and they have not yet found the track back home.
It is only through the writing of Mother of Ten that I have come to realise how important it has been for Bertie, Audrey and Noel to know more about their mother and to connect with her other children. They were thrown asunder in the world. Any additional piece of knowledge about their roots and any extra family member they know about helps to anchor them and reassure them of their worth as human beings and family members. Even this small comfort would have been denied them had Mum not revealed her secret by leaving the relevant papers where my sister and I were sure to find them after her death.
I asked Mum’s friend Cathy, who is now an Indigenous Pastoral Care Officer, if she had known my mother’s secret but she said she had not. However, she does recall a conversation when Myrtle seemed to want to tell her something. Perhaps Mum had reached that point where, with the right prompting, she might have shared her secret. Sometimes in later years separated mothers feel able to talk about their loss.
Cheryl King, in Releasing the Past, states, ‘I have tried for so long to bury my loss deep within myself and have not shared it with anyone until the last few years. It will always be with me. My first son will always be a part of me, just as he is a part of my other two children.’
However, Mum did not open up to her friend. Cathy regrets that at that time she did not have the skills to ask the right questions that might have opened the door for Myrtle to reveal what was buried in her heart.
Although Bertie, Audrey and Noel all bear a physical likeness to their father, I have noticed that they have each inherited qualities from their mother. In Bertie I observed the same quiet humility and gentleness that Mum had. In Audrey I see Mum’s sense of fun. Noel’s habit of using jokes and laughter as a shield against deeper emotions is classic Myrtle. All three have demonstrated the same lack of bitterness that I witnessed in our mother. They have all inherited Mum’s strength of character and ability to move through pain and adversity to live their lives outside the shadowlands of their childhoods and beyond the ghosts that might otherwise haunt them.
About Mother of Ten
Mother of Ten is a memoir in that it is a historical account written from personal knowledge. I have used my memories, the memories of others and family documents. However, I have also used imagination and supposition to fill in the gaps. Along with the stories of her first three children, I wanted to give you a glimpse of what it was like for my mother living in near isolation and poverty in the Australian bush rearing seven children while also enduring the consequences of separation from her first three children.
I have not told you about my mother because I think she was extraordinary but because she was an ordinary woman with a secret. Many ordinary women hide extraordinary secrets. I think that is especially true of women in earlier times. Sadly, what happened to Myrtle and her children was common to many women and children. It is because my mother is typical of women of her time that I think her life is worthy of study. Her story gives us all a window into the world of mothers and children who suffered the same awful loss.
I would like to think that other mothers with secrets might feel more able to share them with their families after reading Myrtle’s story. Although revealing a secret can be an extremely difficult thing to do, it can be helpful. At the NSW Senate Inquiry one mother made this comment:
“I have found the inquiry to be most beneficial. A part of my life that was kept hidden for years was now being freely discussed in a public forum and the shame and stigma around my son’s birth and adoption has begun to dissipate as I have been able to discuss my experiences and feelings, of which grief and rage have been the most difficult to process.”
It is not only the teller of the secret who can benefit from releasing the story of lost children but also all those affected by it in any way, including the children and grandchildren and all future generations. One of the most significant and beneficial results of the publication of Whisper My Secret was that Bertie, Audrey and Noel learned that their mother was not the evil woman she was made out to be. Not only that but their children, Myrtle’s grandchildren, now have a new version of their grandmother to hand down to future generations. Not even a million sales of the book could equal the value of that.
Real names for people who were given pseudonyms in this book are as follows:
Etti Webb: Antonia (Toni) Webb.
Henry Bishop: Keith Dopper.
Agnes Bishop: Eva Dopper.
John Bishop: Charles Dopper.
Bertie Bishop: Kenny Dopper.
Audrey Bishop: Valerie Dopper.
Noel Bishop: Allan Dopper.
For those who have read Whisper My Secret.
1: In doing the research for the sequel I discovered that the information in Whisper My Secret about the death of Myrtle’s adoptive father was incorrect. An aunt told me that James Webb shot himself after being diagnosed with throat cancer. Her description of the shooting and the aftermath was so detailed that I am sure she had first-hand knowledge of such an event. However, it appears that she must have been relating what happened to someone other than James Webb. I have since discovered from family records collated by Percy Munchenberg that James Webb died of leukaemia in 1931. Percy tells me that it was Myrtle’s grandfather, Freidrich Krautz, who suffered with throat cancer, although he did not shoot himself. Percy suggests he ‘probably died from malnutrition or starvation’.
Another correction concerns Myrtle’s arrival in Orbost in the 1940s. I assumed she travelled to Orbost by train. However, as passenger trains to Orbost ceased in 1935, Myrtle probably arrived by coach.
2: Some readers of Whisper My Secret expressed disappointment that, although the book was listed in the memoir/biography category, it seemed to be fictionalised. I understand readers who were disappointed because their expectations of a biography were not met. The original publishers, Zeus Publications, categorised it as a non-fiction novel. Because of the way I have chosen to present my mother’s story the book is a difficult one to accurately categorise. It is listed in the biography/memoir category at Amazon for lack of a better option. My aim was to tell my mother’s secret, to try to reconstruct how and why it might have happened. I am not a historian or a biographer. I am a storyteller so I wrote a story; a story that is essentially true.
My mother was separated from her first three children in circumstances as outlined in Whisper My Secret. I put the story together using what facts I did have and filled in the gaps with information from my mother’s papers, documents from Australian government archives, supposition, imagination, anecdotal evidence from some of the people who were around at the time, and my knowledge of my mother (and my father).
GLOSSARY:
Ballarat: Ballarat has important historical significance apart from the Gold Rush because it is where the Eureka Stockade took place on December 3rd, 1854. The gold miners of Ballarat rebelled against British colonial authority, specifically the expensive and compulsory Miner’s Licence. Miners, police and soldiers were killed in the battle which eventually resulted in the Miner’s Licence being reduced from £8 per year to £1 per year and licensed miners were also given the right to vote. The Eureka Rebellion or Eureka Stockade is considered a key event in the development of Australian democracy and Australian identity and the principles of mateship, demonstrated by the gold diggers. The term ‘digger’ was later adopted by the ANZAC soldiers in World War I.
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nbsp; bastard file: a file used for sharpening and smoothing which has cutting teeth along a flat edge and one pointed end.
blackfella: an Australian Aborigine or Torres Strait Islander. We used this word when I was growing up as a statement of fact and sometimes with affection but not as a racist slur. However, some modern ‘do-gooders’ seem intent on casting this word in a negative light claiming its use to be racist against Australian Aborigines; ironic really since it is Aboriginal English.
chook house: chicken coop
care-leaver: someone who grew up in what was called 'care' (institutions such as orphanages) but who now has left that 'care'.
dunny: a colloquial term for an outside toilet. The word evolved from ‘dunnekin’ meaning ‘dung-house’ in a British dialect.
fair dinkum: (colloquial) an assertion of truth of genuineness.
Jacky: Jacky’s behaviour should not be seen as a reflection on the Kurnai people. I remember them as gentle, kind people who did no harm to anyone. However, as with all communities of human beings, there are individuals who deviate from the norm. (Jacky and Lizzie are pseudonyms as I felt it would not be appropriate to use their real names.)
knacker: a person who buys old horses for slaughter.
Kurnai: (sometimes spelt Gunai or Gurnai) The Aborigines of East Gippsland belonged to the Kurnai tribe which comprised five clans.
perve: colloquial for pervert.
smoko: a colloquial word for a tea-break.
Snowy River Bandit: The Snowy River Bandit roamed the bushland along the Bonang Highway in Victoria in 1940. Armed with two rifles he held up people and stores and stole foodstuffs at Buchan, Goongerah, Tubbutt, Martin’s Creek and Sardine Creek. He was arrested on 20 December 1940 and charged at Orbost before being transferred to Bairnsdale District Hospital for treatment to a self -inflicted shoulder injury.
His name was Alan Torney. After escaping from an institution in Gouldburn, NSW he had gone on the run and lived in the forests of East Gippsland surviving by shooting kangaroos, sheep and rabbits until he started his robberies. He was later certified insane and admitted to a mental hospital.
The Riverina: The Riverina is an agricultural region of south-western NSW which has been home for over 40 000 years to the Yorta Yorta people and the largest Aboriginal group in NSW: the Wiradjuri people. The district is bordered on the south by the state of Victoria and on the east by the Great Dividing Range. The Great Dividing Range, formed 300 million years ago when Australia was still part of the ancient supercontinent of Gondwana, is one of the longest mountain ranges in the world, stretching more than 3,500 kilometres (2,175 miles). The two major rivers of the Riverina, the Murray (Australia’s largest river) and the Murrumbidgee, acted as a source of food as well as a means of communication and trade for the Aboriginal people. The Yorta Yorta and Wiradjuri people fished for Murray cod and shellfish and used bark canoes for travel along the rivers.
The bark canoes gave way to paddle steamers and barges used by Europeans in the 1850s. The rivers provided a transport route linking the Riverina to markets along both rivers and to river ports in South Australia and Victoria.
Apart from the riverboats, early explorers and ancient Aboriginal cultures, bushrangers also added to the rich history of the Riverina region. Australia’s infamous bushranger and folk hero, Ned Kelly, made what some consider his most daring raid in the Riverina, in February 1879. After riding overland from north east Victoria, Kelly and his gang stopped at Jerilderie and captured two local policemen. They stripped the men of their uniforms and wore the uniforms to rob the Bank of New South Wales. They then held the town captive for several days. While in Jerilderie, Ned Kelly tried to have his 8000 word manifesto, now known as the Jerilderie letter, published. The Jerilderie letter is a condemnation of the colonial administration in Victoria and specifically the treatment of the Irish. Being unable to find the local newspaper editor, Ned Kelly left the letter with a member of the bank staff and departed, returning to Victoria with £2,000 from the bank’s safe. Eighteen months later in a showdown with police at Glenrowan, Ned Kelly was shot and arrested. On November 11, 1880 he was hanged at Melbourne Gaol.
Only forty years after the hanging of Ned Kelly my mother’s biological parents, Alick and Vera Mills arrived in the Riverina.
Walla Walla: an Aboriginal word meaning ‘place of many rocks’. The town was established by people of German extraction. In the 1830s and 1840s large numbers of Germans left the Kingdom of Prussia for Australia to escape religious persecution and hoping for better fortunes. They formed communities in South Australia but when farmland became in short supply some families made the six week journey over 600 miles (966 kilometres) to the Riverina in covered wagons and spring carts to take advantage of land opportunities. Among them were Myrtle’s grandparents, Doris and Freidrich Krautz, who made their way to Jindera in 1887, later settling in Lavington which is now part of the city of Albury. Doris was a descendant of Johann Friedrich Munchenberg who migrated from Prussia to South Australia in 1839. Etti (Toni) Webb was the first child of Freidrich and Doris.
whitefella: a non-Aboriginal person of European descent. Like the term, ‘blackfella’, this is an Aboriginal English term used when I was growing up without racist intent.
yakka: colloquial word for ‘work’. The word evolved from ‘yaga’, which means work in the Yagara language (Aboriginal group in the Brisbane region).
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Cole Christine A (editor), Kashin Jan, (illustrator), 2008, Releasing the Past: Mothers’ stories of their stolen babies, Bondi NSW, Veljanov Printing.
Penglase J, 2005, Orphans of the Living, Fremantle WA, Fremantle Arts Centre Press in partnership with Curtin University of Technology.
Joanna Penglase was placed ‘in care’ when only eight months old. She draws on her own story as well as interviews with others and submissions to the 2004 Senate Inquiry to try to unravel how and why half a million children grew up in ‘care’ in twentieth-century Australia.
Jones Howard C, 2010, Orphanage Survivors: A true story of St John’s, Thurgoona, Albury NSW
The 2004 Senate Inquiry: Forgotten Australians: A report on Australians who experienced institutional or out-of-home care was released in August 2004. http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate_Committees
Extracts from the report include:
‘The Committee concluded that upwards of, and possibly more than, 500 000 Australians experienced care in an orphanage, Home or other form of out-of-home care during the last century. However, it is now considered that this figure may be an underestimate. As many of these people have had a family it is highly likely that every Australian either was, is related to, works with or knows someone who experienced childhood in an institution or out-of-home care environment.
Children were placed in care for a myriad of reasons including being orphaned; being born to a single mother; family dislocation from domestic violence, divorce or separation; family poverty and parents' inability to cope with their children often as a result of some form of crisis or hardship. Many children were made wards of the state after being charged with being uncontrollable, neglected or in moral danger, not because they had done anything wrong, but because circumstances in which they found themselves resulted in them being status offenders. Others were placed in care through private arrangements usually involving payment to the Home. Irrespective of how children were placed in care, it was not their fault.’
Recommendation 1 of the 39 recommendations:
‘That the Commonwealth Government issue a formal statement acknowledging, on behalf of the nation, the hurt and distress suffered by many children in institutional care, particularly the children who were victims of abuse and assault; and apologising for the harm caused to these children.’
Recommendation 2 of the 39 recommendations:
‘That all State Governments and Churches and agencies, that have not already done so, issue formal statements acknowledging their role in the admini
stration of institutional care arrangements; and apologising for the physical, psychological and social harm caused to the children, and the hurt and distress suffered by the children at the hands of those who were in charge of them, particularly the children who were victims of abuse and assault.’
On 15 November 2009 the then Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd, issued an apology on behalf of the nation to the Forgotten Australians and former child migrants. Mr Rudd acknowledged that ‘There are tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of these stories, each as important as the other, each with its own hurts, its own humiliations its own traumas – and each united by the experience of a childhood without love, of childhood alone.
For some, this has become a very public journey of healing. For others, it remains intensely private – not even to be discussed with closest family and friends even today.’
(State governments, churches and other agencies have also apologised to the Forgotten Australians and Lost Innocents.)
Golding Frank, 2005, An Orphan’s escape, Melbourne, Lothian Books. Frank Golding and his two brothers, all under the age of seven, were admitted to Ballarat Orphanage because of so-called ‘neglect’. They spent most of their childhoods there even though their parents were alive and well and cared deeply about their children.
ABC Open; Separated: https://open.abc.net.au/ a website for Australians who have been separated from their child/children or their parents by forced adoption, to tell their stories.