In the month of March during the second world war 1942 my mother and 2 year old sister and so many other Broome aboriginal coloured families had to evacuate to Beagle Bay Mission to live out the war years.

My mother was 8 months pregnant when she got on the back of the truck with my sister Pearl and their possessions with 10 other families from Broome. The journey to Beagle Bay was long and the truck broke down a few times on the old road, my mother was not the only one pregnant, there were 2 other women on the truck pregnant as well, one in her full ninth month.

Japanese fighter bombers were flying low over them from Indonesia, chasing Dutch flying boats to Roebuck Bay in Broome.

They finally arrived in Beagle Bay. My twin brother and myself were born a few weeks later on 24th April 1942. My twin brother died 18 months later from pneumonia. Medical supplies were short everywhere at that time. I cannot remember too much about my childhood in Beagle Bay, other than going to their beautiful church with my mother and sister praying for the war to end, and celebrating their wonderful feast days. All the masses and benedictions prayed and sung in Latin still remain clearly in my mind, also the journey back to Broome on a cold night at the back of an old truck full of families, every one was happy because the war was over, so they sang all the way back to Broome.

My first memory of Broome was walking through Chinatown, boxes of clothing, toys, fabrics lots of silk flying around the street after the looters had been through them, Japanese shops all burnt down some still smoking. It was 1946 and I was 4 years old. Because it was depression years people didn't have much money or none at all, families had to line up outside the Commonwealth Bank or Post Office for coupons from the Government to get food and clothing.

Not too long after, my mother got a job as housemaid at the District Hospital so things started getting better for us. A lot of families squatted together. We stayed in an Indonesian long house because my step father was Indonesian. The long house was owned by a West Indian. There were 4 other families staying there as well, we all got on great.

We didn't have any luxury things growing up in Broome. We were so isolated from Perth and other major areas. The state ship was our only link with Perth and they came in once a month with supplies. We used to look forward for the fresh fruit eg apples, oranges, plums, grapes, peaches and apricots. They were foreign fruit to us so it was quite a thrill when the state ships came in. We never had refrigerators then, every household had ice boxes, which were insulated boxes. We had to buy ice blocks everyday from the ice factory to keep our water cool, butter was sold in tins and they had to be kept in the ice box as well.

I always think, what lucky children we were, to have been brought up in Broome during the depression years. We were quite poor but we never starved, because our main source of food was from the sea, we would have all sorts of fish to choose from. A few Filipino men had fish traps and they would clear their traps and bring in fish or whatever they caught in the traps every morning selling to the people. If you had no money to buy fish, you just went down the jetty or beach and caught your own. If you got sick of fish we had other sea food to choose from, eg crabs, cockles, mussels, oysters, turtle, dugong, stingray. Most every home had their own vegetable garden growing, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, beans, Chinese cabbage, lettuce and of course we all had mango trees, Bananas, Paw Paw, custard apple, tailor fruit, tamarind. These exotic plants were brought from Singapore and Malaysia when the Gorgon of Charon came from Singapore with Malay or Indonesian crews for the Pearling. And of course coconuts which Malays use in most of their cooking. Every back yard also had a fowl yard, some kept ducks and fowls, others just kept fowls, mainly for fresh eggs everyday.

My sister Pearl and I went to St Mary's Convent school which was just across the road from where we lived on Robinson Street. We were taught by the Sisters of St John of God, they were very strict but very very good teachers. We didn't have a high school, so most of us left school at 14 after grade seven. Some of us did our school work by correspondence through Perth. I won a scholarship but didn't take it because I didn't want to go to school in Perth and leave my mother and Broome. My school years in Broome was the best fun time of my life. After school we would go straight home and do the chores, like homework first, feeding fowls, watering the vegetable garden, gathering wood for the wood stove, cleaning vegetables, the sooner we did it the quicker we would go out to play till sunset. Because we did not have TV or video games we learned to amuse ourselves. We'd run and slide up and down the mangrove hills playing Cowboys and Indians or war games. We would fish, swim, go crabbing or cockling in the creek. Also we would help the old Filipinos clear their fish traps when the tide went out in the evening so they would give us free fish to take home. I know I am raving on about my childhood but it really was great. We would make our own fishing lines from Bamboo and strings and fish for Whiting from Meatworks Beach. The boys would make their spears from Bamboo and strong wire so they could chase after stingrays and crabs between the town beach and where the jetty is now. When we felt like a change of playground we would go bushwalking, especially at different seasons for bush fruits. Sometimes we would come home so tired we would fall asleep at the supper table. Then in the evening when we were not so tired or if it was too hot to sleep, we would spread our canvas on the lawn and lay under the stars telling stories or singing till we fell asleep.

When at King tides everybody was out in the reefs shelling of fishing, we would come back with all different types of shell and tiger cowries, especially from Riddell Beach or Gantheume Point.

My teenage years in Broome were also fantastic, only, I was not as free now. I got pregnant when I was very young (not quite 16) I had a daughter, Anthea. Anthea's dad Bakri was from Malaysia a crew on the Pearling lugger. I married Bakri when I was 18 years old. I was now working in the grocery department at Streeter and Male Shop. I loved working in the shop, it gave me a chance to meet lots of different people. Entertainment in Broome was 3 nights a week at pictures. Dances at the hotels, Friday night Roebuck Hotel, Wednesday night Continental Hotel. The race Ball was the Grand Ball of the year, there were other balls and cabarets in between, but the race ball was the BALL OF THE YEAR, very formal then and everybody did ballroom dancing. Then of course Christmas and New Years celebration. In between all that we made our own parties, at someone's home once a week or so, with sing-a-longs and dancing. Beach parties were the best sitting by fires singing or dancing especially around town beach. A lot used to have their birthday parties held there.

Because Broome was such a multicultural town and we belong to many of the different cultures, we went along to all their celebrations, which included the Chinese Hung Ting, feast for the dead(at the cemetery), O'Bon Japanese feast(.at the cemetery), Malay and Indonesia Hari Raya, and the Malay Merderka Celebrations. Most of these feasts and celebrations fell in the month of August so there was feasting and partying for the whole month of August as this was all free for family and friends,(till Shinju changed all that). There was also the Filipinos blessing of the Pearling boats for family and friends (till Shinju).

No, growing up in Broome was never boring. I was still working at Streeters store when I was 25 and had my son, Johari. I was still married to Bakri, but I divorced him a few years later when I was 28. I now live in a de-facto relationship with Ahmat who has been my partner for the last 25 years. Ahmat is also from Singapore. My sister Pearl married a Japanese and had 6 sons they now have a very good cultured Pearl farm in Gordon Bay South of Broome.

The saddest times in my life was when my children went away to school in Perth for higher education. The most. saddest was when my mother died in 1983 and my stepfather in 1993.

 My daughter Anthea is now a Bursar at St Mary's College. She married an Australian born Irish / Italian school teacher, Mark Fogliani. They have 2 children: Yasmin a girl 8 and Mark Cesare, a boy 6. Johari my son is working for Dept. Health and Services, he is with Margaret Bin Sali, a local Broome girl, and they also have 2 children a girl and boy, Kamisah 8 and Kamsari 6. They all school at St. Mary's Primary.

Broome is growing too big and too fast, some people say for the better, but I don t think so, it has lost it's charm, it's character, it is fast losing what has drawn people here in the first place, quietness and steady pace of life, not so quiet anymore and speeding too fast, not many fish left in Roebuck Bay we have to go further out. Beautiful white sandy beaches(fast turning dirty brown) too many camels and vehicles, too much crime(teenagers being boxed) no more shell on beaches.

Progress and they say it's for the better. I think I want my sleepy little town back that's my hope for the future. In the meantime I'll go on working at St. Mary's College. I live for my children and grand children, to be happy and to praise and thank God for what he has given me and my family.

Sally Bin Demin.

SALLY BIN DEMIN.