Brown Envelopes by Alexandria Ellard

Brown Envelopes

by Alexandria Ellard, Year 10

On a hot wet Saturday in 2020, Alexandria (Ally) Ellard sat down with Aunty Lesley Williams for tea and scones and a yarn about jam tins, cleaning houses and brown envelopes.

Ally: Thank you, Aunty, for agreeing to tell me some of your story. Can we start with your name and when you were born?

Aunty Lesley: Thank you, Ally. My full name is Lesley Williams; my maiden name was Gyemore. I was born in Royal Brisbane Women’s Hospital in 1946. Soon after the Second World War ended, my parents had separated and my mum went to work as a domestic for the Tritton family (who owned a furniture and furnishing store in George Street, Brisbane) in Yabba Street, Ascot. I had spent my first twelve months with Mum but I grew and started to crawl and get into things. This put my Mum in a difficult position with her employers. With the assistance of Mrs Tritton, arrangements were made with the government authorities to send me to Cherbourg (her Community) where she was born and had grown up. So I was placed in the care of her sister, Naomi, and her husband, Jack Malone, which put me in a very privileged position of having two mums and three dads.

Ally: Can you tell me about what life was like in Cherbourg?

Aunty Lesley: My childhood in Cherbourg was great. I had wonderful and caring parents and grandparents. Having lots of brothers and sisters meant that we always had someone to play with. After school and during the school holidays we would go swimming in the creek or play games like marbles or hopscotch with our friends. Sometimes we would explore the bush looking for ‘Gum’ with an uncle or aunty; we were not allowed to go on our own. ‘Gum’ is sap on special wattle trees that grew in the area. Armed with a billy can, made from a jam tin and wire handle, and a knife, we’d run through the bush looking for the tell-tale signs of a shiny trail on the side of the tree. When we found a tree we’d claim it as our own tree and then scrape the rich golden gum into the can. The best time to go collecting gum was after it had rained or after a storm as the rain would soften the gum which made it easier to scrape off. Back home we would wash and soak the gum with sugar added and allow it to set in our billy cans overnight. Once set it became a wonderful mixture, like jelly. I’m always reminded of it whenever I see those Snakes or Gummy Bears in the shops.

Ally: Did you have to go to school?

Aunty Lesley: Yes, it was compulsory for us to go to school. Our school was built for the Aboriginal children only. The white children who lived in Cherbourg were bused into Murgon to attend the white school. After completing Year 8, the girls were required to spend a year at the Domestic Science Centre which was designed as a ‘house’. Complete with a bedroom, dining room, bathroom, kitchen and laundry, we were taught how to make beds, polish the furniture, clean the bathroom including the bath-tub and hand basin, mop and polish the floors, wash and sew. We were also required to bake cakes and scones for morning tea for the teachers and school children and hot lunches for the dignitaries from Brisbane when they visited on special occasions. The boys went to Rural School to learn how to make furniture and the Training Farm to learn how to be a farm labourer. The emphasis of this compulsory training was to prepare us to work as domestic and farm labourers on dairy farms, cattle and sheep properties including private homes throughout Queensland. I was raised as an Anglican and can remember every Sunday morning the church bell would ring at 7am to remind us to get ready for Church. The Minister would come from the nearby township of Murgon to conduct Holy Communion once a month for the congregation, including the Superintendent and his family. On the other Sundays, we attended Sunday School and evening services. It didn’t matter if it was raining, stinking hot or freezing cold, we still had to go to Church on Sunday, regardless! Other days, however, were full of normal country kid fun.

Ally: How old were you when you got your first job?

Aunty Lesley: In 1963, at fifteen, I started my first job working in the Government Retail Store in Cherbourg, which was the local shop for the community. My job included serving customers, restocking and tidying the shelves and sweeping the floor. I wasn’t allowed to handle money, only the white government official could do that. I was paid 2 pounds ($4.00) a fortnight for working from 8:00am to 5:00pm (with an hour off for lunch) Monday to Friday and a half day on Saturdays. In February 1964, I was sent out west to Condamine by the government officials on a 12-month contract with my belongings packed into a brown port. In my hand was a sealed brown envelope marked with O.H.M.S letters on top and the name of a woman I would work for. Inside was my permission to travel under the Aborigines Protection Act. I was to work as a domestic for a family who owned a sheep and wheat property. I worked very long days cleaning the house, washing and ironing, assisting with the cooking and looking after the younger children. A typical day started before six and finished after eight in the evening. After being there for nine months and missing my family, I was allowed to go back to visit Cherbourg and be presented as a Debutante at the annual show. After spending an extra couple of weeks back in Cherbourg, I was summoned to the Superintendent’s office and questioned about why I hadn’t returned to Condamine. I was informed that I would be going to work on another property at Taroom. I was treated very differently at this place, I wasn’t allowed to live in the house so I slept in a storage shed storing the family’s bulk food supplies and other items. The work was pretty much the same though. During the shearing season my days were even longer, getting up at about 4am to cook a hot breakfast for the men and not getting to bed until after 10 pm each night. This was a particularly hard time and I was paid no more for the extra work. During this time I didn’t receive my pay directly; my wages were paid into my special account at Cherbourg. I wasn’t able to use this money like a normal savings account. If I wanted to withdraw some to buy food, which was considered a luxury for my family, I had to argue with an official to do so. At that time it was easier not to argue with the government officials so we did without instead. When I was about nineteen, I was handed another brown envelope marked with a different name on the front and was told I was going to Brisbane. I boarded the train one late evening in Murgon carrying the same brown port filled with my belongings, and settled in for the overnight journey to the city. That is how I found myself in 1966 standing alone on a platform at Roma Street Station in the very early hours of the morning hoping someone would recognise me. Fortunately, the brown envelope did the trick as the friendly face that walked towards me had been looking for it as well. I was taken to my new home in East Brisbane where my days where filled in the same way they had been at my previous jobs.

Not long after, I changed jobs again and I started working for a lovely lady in Botany Street, Clayfield. Andree would go on to become a life-long friend. My duties were the same as always, except Andree worked alongside me to get the jobs done quickly in the mornings so we could do more fun things in the afternoon. Thursdays were our one day off. I’d meet up with other girls who also worked in the area and we would go out together as a group to places like Festival Hall to watch the Roller Derby or to the movies. Sometimes we would spend time in my room at Botany Street, which was downstairs and quite separate from the rest of the house, gossiping and just having fun.

Ally: Were you paid for your work?

Aunty Lesley: Yes, I was paid about $7 a week plus keep. Of this I was given about $3 “pocket money” and the rest was put into a special savings account controlled by the government, in my name. To access this money to buy a dress I would catch the tram on Sandgate Rd and ride into the city making my way to a government building in George Street to see the “Protector” who could approve my spending. I would then have to justify my reason for the new dress and if approved I was instructed to walk to the other end of George Street to the McDonnell and East Department store – a building still there – where I could select a dress. The store would then invoice the Department of Native Affairs directly for payment, as I was not allowed to handle large amounts of money. It was much later in my life when necessity pushed me to start questioning what happened to the money in my special account – the money the government said was held in trust for me. This started my nine-year campaign to have the government acknowledge the misapplication of the money held in trust which then lead to the Queensland Government making an historical offer, in May 2002, of $55.4 million to all Indigenous workers who had their work and savings controlled.

Ally: How long did you work as a Domestic Servant after coming to Brisbane?

Aunty Lesley: About seven years in total. I stopped working when I married which was about the same time as the Aborigines Protection Act was being quietly phased out! I remember some of our elders still carried their brown envelopes containing their Exemption Card for fear of being asked to produce it by a government official or police officer. While the government forced me to become a domestic servant and controlled so much of my young life, my later years have allowed me to influence government decisions as a Public Servant and also as an activist for human rights. I have also been involved with an International National Geographic project investigating the DNA journey of my ancestors. In 2004, as part of Cherbourg’s centenary celebrations, my sister Sandra Morgan and I came up with the concept of having the Ration Shed renovated and established as a museum. With the success of the Ration Shed Museum we were able to secure from the Cherbourg Aboriginal Council other buildings of historical significance including the Superintendent’s Office, Boys’ Dormitory, Domestic Science Building and CWA (Country Women’s Association) building now ‘the Arts Centre’. These buildings, including the Ration Shed, are part of the Cherbourg Historical Precinct. It now gives me great pleasure to know that the museum has been a huge success! I still live in Clayfield, just around the corner from Botany Street, and I remain very close to the other girls who I worked with in the 1960s and my former employers. Thank you Ally for inviting me to share my story with you. Read more about Lesley’s story in the book ‘Not Just Black and White -A Conversation Between a Mother and Daughter’ which she co-authored with her daughter Tammy Williams.