27th January, Saturday
The paper today said there were big crowds out yesterday for the holiday so nobody were worried about getting bubonic. Only us as lives near the Paines that is.
There’s been a big battle in South Africa Pa says, somewhere called Spinning Top. Least that’s what it sounded like only that can’t be right can it? Anyway it was up a mountain and the British were on this flat part near the top, only the Boojers were higher up still on the mountains round about. There’s more than two hundred dead and wounded or missing and lots left out in the sun all day. The stretcher bearers couldn’t get to them fast enough and some of them died while they was waiting to get to hospital.
Bertie weren’t there, thank goodness. He’s still on his ship going over. He sent us a postcard from Melbourne saying he don’t know what happened to all the presents they was s’posed to get. He’s not seen any of them. No beer or biscuits or fruit even. Pa says maybe the officers got to them first.
The Herald says when his ship got to Adelaide, they all got off and went to the theatre and when Ma heard she said, ‘That Bertie’s been to the theatre more times in the past month than I have in me whole life.’
Bertie says on board ship they fill in time with boxing matches and Pa said that don’t sound to him like Bertie’s in the army, sounds more like he’s on holiday and if Pa had known he was going to be having such a good time, he would have enlisted himself. Only Ma give him a look and said would he now? and Pa said he were only joking.
Lord Roberts has told his troopers, ‘Thou shalt not loot.’ I thought that must be the way he talks. Posh. Only Pa says it’s probably only the newspaper saying it and his lordship most likely talks normal like us. Put this way but, it sounds like it come from the Bible so maybe the troops’ll take more notice. Ma thinks it’s dreadful that anyone’d go looting only Pa says people do all sorts of terrible things in war, what they don’t do other times.
There’s no news of Mr Paine still. I hope Elsie and Jess and little Harry are all right and not come down with it yet.
Some men come round this afternoon to clean out their place. They told Mrs Higgs the government sent them and they was ever so careful. They cleaned all the floors and woodwork with scalding water to get rid of the fleas. I asked Pa why they’d want to get rid of fleas, they’re that small they can’t hurt you. Only Pa says there’s always dead rats round people as has bubonic and rats got fleas and they think now maybe the fleas give it to humans.
28th January, Sunday
There’s no-one else got plague so far, but the coppers been round most houses today saying we all got to go to quarantine tomorrow, on account of we’re contacts. And Artie said, ‘What’s a contact?’ and Ma said, ‘It’s anyone as knows the Paines well enough to maybe have a cup of tea at their place, or works with Mr Paine down the wharf, or plays with Elsie and Jess, so that means me, Fred, Artie and Maisie for starters and Pa and Ma besides.
It’s not just us neither, there’s lots of neighbours having to go too. Mrs Higgs and her lot and others round here. All down the end of Pottinger, Windmill and round in Lower Fort as well. Even Mr Ah Han and his family got to go. They live the other side of town in Campbell Street, near Belmore Markets, only the Paines buy vegies from him and Mrs Paine sometimes give him a cup of tea. It’s almost the end of his run and he’s ready for a chat.
The coppers said we can take clothes and toys and bedding so I’ll take my skipping rope BUT NOT my diary, I’m leaving that behind. Tomorrow morning soon as I get up I’ll bury it down the backyard wrapped up and hidden where no-one’ll think to look. That way no-one at the station will get to read it, or worse still, take it from me.
29th January, Monday
Hardly slept a wink last night I was that scared of what’s going to happen to us, and Maisie who shares with me kept tossing and whimpering in her sleep all night. I could hear rats up the roof scratching and skittering round like they was having a party. Sounded like there was hundreds. They’re getting more cheeky too. Pa found one this week coming up stairs, bold as you please, like he was toddling off to bed! He killed it of course, only he says there’s plenty more where it come from. Now he’s put the bed legs in tins of water, but if they can swim ashore it don’t seem much point really.
Besides they could easy get to us on our mattresses.
Fred and Artie don’t say much about it, but I’ve seen Fred with his arm round Artie so I know they’re scared and Ma keeps on packing and unpacking like she’s trying to decide what to take. That’s her way of pretending she isn’t. Pa’s worried what’ll happen to the house while we’re away. And I keep thinking about the launch. If it’s true what they say, what if one of us catches it over there and don’t come back? I’m going to say Ring-a-ring o’roses every day while I’m over there, just in case.
I were up real early this morning helping Ma and she give me this scrap of sheeting when I asked her. She said what were it for and I didn’t want to say, only then Maisie come in the washhouse asking could she take her Topsy doll with her that she got for Christmas, so I slipped out back. I’m wrapping up my diary now. They say we’ll be allowed back in ten days. I only hope they’re right but.
9th February, Friday
Dear Diary, we come back home again safe and none of us dead, thank goodness and my diary were right where I left it. The rag kept the dirt out and it didn’t rain. Just as well too cos I hadn’t thought of that and if it had I’d have come back and found all the pages muddy.
North Head were awful at first, but at least we wasn’t the only ones there. The launch kept going backwards and forwards to pick us all up and almost everyone we knew. When we got off this man met us and took all our things off in a handcart along some tracks. I thought we’d never see them again and Pa would try and stop him only he said they were just going for fumigating.
Fred said, ‘What’s fumigating?’ and Pa said it’s when you put everything in a big bath that’s full of steam. They reckon it’ll kill any plague germs.
Then the man come back for Maisie’s Topsy doll and made to grab it only Maisie starts crying and wouldn’t let go. He said he had to take it and Ma said sorry lovey, and somehow managed to get it from her. Only Maisie kept hitting Ma, she was that upset, but then Pa picked her up and cuddled her and told her Topsy was only going off for a bath and after that Maisie calmed down a bit.
That’s all I’ve got time for now on account of there’s nothing in and Ma says I got to run to the shop to get something for tea. I’ll write some more tomorrow.
10th February, Saturday
We had sausages for tea last night. Ma said it were nice not having to work out what to feed us of a night and maybe her old stove does cook slow as a wet wash day but it’s still good to be back home and all of us safe.
Soon as they took our things away, we had to line up for showers. None of us kids had ever had a shower, just baths in the tub out the washhouse, then only once a week on hair-wash night. The rest of the time it’s topping and tailing from the jug and basin before we get dressed of a morning.
Artie wanted to see Mr Paine only Ma said he were up in the hospital and no he couldn’t see him.
Artie said, ‘Why not? I want to see if he got any black lumps yet.’
Ma says, ‘It’s none of your business what he got. There’s only doctors and nurses allowed in to see him and they got to dress proper so as not to catch nothing.’
The shower building give me the creeps. We had to step down inside these boxes, one each, and take off all our unmentionables, only there was a peep-hole for them to spy on us and make sure we did. I got real embarrassed on account of I didn’t want nobody seeing me without mine. Then suddenly the water starts coming out real hot, burning almost and Maisie starts screaming and that sets Eddy, Reggie’s little brother, off and now all the littlies is yelling their heads off and the matron come along and tell us not to make such a fuss, it were only some phenol they puts in the water.
Ma says, �
��Phenol! That takes your skin off.’
Pa says, ‘You got no right to use that on kiddies.’
But the lady just says it’s for our own good and do we want to catch plague or don’t we? And Pa can’t say nothing after that.
When we come out but, our skin was all red, raw almost, even Pa. He tried to make us laugh, saying now we weren’t the Barnes family we was the Red Apple family, only none of us felt like laughing, our skin were that sore and all the while Maisie wouldn’t give over grizzling no matter what.
Most of the neighbours were looking red like us and Mr Ah Han’s family all waiting for the matron to bring us clean clothes, ours being damp still. And for once in his life Reggie Cook didn’t have nothing to say for hisself. He looked like a tomato, only I didn’t laugh because my face were just as sore as his.
I have to stop now, cos Ma’s calling me. She wants me to tidy and dust downstairs because Ethel and Dolly and George are coming over tomorrow. I’ll write some more after they’ve gone.
11th February, Sunday
I lay awake last night listening to rats in the ceiling. I’m sure there’s more of them since we been away and there’s nothing Pa can do about it. He puts out traps every night but only ever catches one or two and what’s the use of that when there’s so many?
Ma made scones for arvo tea and Dolly brought us some jam. She gets it cheap from her factory, big tins of dark plum, my favourite.
She says her factory’s holding a competition for kids to write an essay. Artie wanted to know what an essay was and Dolly told him it meant writing down what you think about something. And Ma said, ‘That won’t be hard for Kitty. She’s always giving me her twopence worth!’
I didn’t think that were fair, only then Pa picked up the advert Dolly had cut from the paper and he read: ‘My Favourite Occupation. It says here you got to write one page and have it in by 1st of March. You can do that Kitty.’
Then Dolly said you got to have twelve ‘O.K’ jam tin labels to go with it.
‘Well we got them,’ says Pa. ‘They’re still on the tins under the bed legs and there’s more out back.’
There’s real nice prizes, Dolly says, lady’s dressing case in fancy leather and nice hairbrush, comb and mirror, and a manicure set. She says she’s seen them in the manager’s office. There’s prizes for boys too, only Fred hates writing things. He just likes sums and figuring out. I didn’t say much, just slipped the advert in me pinny pocket to read later.
Ethel said she and George were worried about us at North Head, only it don’t seem like anyone else in Sydney’s worried about plague. At least not over their side of town.
Ma told them it were hard at first but once we settled in and got a bed each, Pa and the boys in one block, us in another and three meals a day it were better. First holiday she’d had in years. She worried about her customers’ washing, but there were nothing she could do about it.
Then Maisie piped up, ‘They was mean to Topsy,’ and straightaway she’s off and brings back Topsy to show them her face all streaky where the dye’s run and now she look more a clown than a dolly. Only George says, ‘Poor old Topsy but just think, Maisie, Topsy didn’t get sick, did she and you neither and that’s good isn’t it?’ and Maisie frowned like she was still cross only thinking about it, then she run off to play. I didn’t say nothing only just as well I didn’t take my diary, or it’ve been ruined for sure.
Artie told them they give us a needle in the arm too and George says, ‘Did you cry mate?’ And Artie says, ‘Nope!’ So George ruffles his hair and says, ‘Good on yer.’ There’s no way I would have cried, not in front of Reggie Cook, no matter how much it hurt.
It’s school again tomorrow, worst luck. It started last Monday and Pa says we got to go back even if it is a week late.
12th February, Monday
School weren’t too bad today, apart from sums. Miss Collins were real pleased to see us and asked how my diary was going. I told her I write something every day almost, only not while we were away. Then I told how I’d hidden it in the backyard and she laughed and said that were smart of me. Miss Collins ain’t much bigger than me, only she’s real pretty with browny curly hair and big eyes, blue like she’s surprised. She’s ever so smart too.
She got this idea we should make things for sick soldiers. She says girls at Cleveland Street School been making pyjamas and caps and cholera belts and would we like to? I told her our Bertie had gone off to fight the Boers and she says, ‘Has he now? Well then, that settles it.’ I think I can make pyjamas and caps all right, but what’s she mean by a cholera belt I wonder.
Pa went out to find himself a Herald this evening and come back with Saturday’s as well. He settled down with them and said that were what he missed most about quarantine, not being able to keep up with the news that was happening outside.
The Herald says Mr Edmund Barton’s gone off with Mr Deakin and others to tell England why we want a federation. Pa says Barton’s a good chap and he wouldn’t mind seeing him made prime minister only I said, ‘Reggie Cook calls him Toby Tosspot.’
Straightaway Ma’s on to me, ‘You wash your mouth out with soap and water, my girl. Fancy saying things like that!’
Only Pa says I’m right. It is his nickname, only all it means is he’s fond of his food and likes a glass of wine to go with it. It don’t mean he’s not a good man, Pa says, and in the parliament Mr Barton’s the only one of them that keeps calm all the time.
13th February, Tuesday
It’s funny being back at school, specially when all we did at North Head was play, even if it did mean Reggie and me having to mind Eddy and Maisie all the time. There was all this room to run round and lots of good places to hide. And some of the roads up top were perfect for skipping so I taught Soo and Li to skip.
Ma spent her time sewing. Shrouds, mostly. It give me the shudders like they was waiting for all these people to die, only Ma said they give her a choice between that or laundry and Ma said, ‘Not on your Nelly,’ to laundry.
I’ve been thinking what I can write for my essay. Other kids, rich ones specially, will probably say their favourite occupation is riding their pony or bicycle maybe. But I ain’t got either so I’m going to write my favourite occupation is keeping my diary. And it is, I’ve decided, even more than skipping.
14th February, Wednesday
Ma and me are back reading again now that Pa’s started bringing home the paper regular. Not when he’s around but. It’s still meant to be a surprise. We practise soon as I get home after school and before she has to get tea. There was an advert in today for Keating’s Insect Powder that’s meant to kill fleas and I asked why they didn’t use that in Paine’s house, only she said scalding water was cheaper and just imagine how many tins of Keatings you’d need to do a whole house? Ma thinks they should knock down a lot of the houses round here. Should have done years ago. Get rid of the damp and rot, too she says.
Today when I come home from school I found this note addressed to me.
Kitty Barnes will you be mine
Just to call my Valentine.
It was signed ‘An Admirer’ only I know it come from Reggie Cook, on account of I seen him slip it through the letter-slit in the door just as I come over the hill. Then he shot back inside his own door.
15th February, Thursday
No sign of Reggie today. Maybe he’s sorry he sent it? He don’t go to our school. He goes to St Joseph’s up Lower Fort Street and gets home before we do. I’ve not said I know it’s him that sent it. That’d be too bold. I’ll just keep him guessing. I like Reggie, only he’s a bit keen on hisself. He’s got nice eyes but. Brown.
Kimberley’s been relieved Pa says. That’s a town in Africa where Mr Cecil Rhodes has his diamond mines. And the Boers have had it surrounded for a hundred and twenty-four days. Fancy not being able to get out all that time. A bit like the copper standing in front of Paines’ house, only worse. Anyway, Major-General French come riding in and saved it and he
had Australian troopers with him. The saddest thing but, was all the horses that died on the way in. Pa said it took seventy-five miles to get there and they had hardly any feed or water all that time.
16th February, Friday
I’m always on the lookout now for rats. Dead or alive. Specially round the WC. Our privy’s down the bottom of the yard. That sounds funny our WC being at the bottom of something. Anyway the door creaks so everyone knows you’ve gone in the bog and it don’t shut neither so sometimes when you go to push it Pa yells out, ‘Hey! I were here first!’
There’s all these spiders’ webs up in the corners like dirty lace and me and Maisie try to get out fast as we can, specially at night when it’s dark and you have to feel about on the floor for the pile of torn up Heralds Ma’s put there for bum paper. One night, when they first moved in, Ma sat on a neighbour’s chook that were sitting on the seat. She weren’t sure who got the bigger fright, her or the chook. It took off over the fence squawking its head off and never come back, only Ma says now she always checks the seat first to see there’s no chook there.
Saw Reggie over the other side of the road today and pretended I didn’t see him only then he give me a wave so I had to wave back.
17th February, Saturday
Bertie must be just about in Africa by now. The paper says the 2nd Contingent were due to arrive today only Pa says they probably won’t let them off till Monday. Artie said why not, didn’t they let you fight on Saturdays and Sundays? And Pa said of course they do, only if they let the troopers off on a Saturday arvo they might not come back again till Monday. They might not come back at all! Then Ma bung on this posh voice and said, ‘Yeah they’s most probably decided to take themselves off to the the-ater!’
Plagues and Federation Page 3