Bellbrook : My Father’s Country

Extract

Mrs Quinlan’s story has been transcribed verbatim from tapes recorded between October 1982 and February 1983.

I first met Mrs Quinlan in 1981 when her daughter, Mrs P.Dixon became one of four Aboriginal people training at Armidale and New England Hospital. As I was involved peripherally in this training program, I was introduced by the trainees to their families and friends.

Mrs Quinlan decided some time during the following months that she would like me to record her story. She had some doubts about how we might go about it, but she was definite that she wanted to make a statement to leave for her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. Further, she wanted to establish her right to Bellbrook which she considers to belong to her and her surviving siblings because her father established the settlement.

Mrs Quinlan also decided that I would need to see Bellbrook, that she wanted to “show me the place” so that I might understand better what she was talking about once we started recording. Consequently a group of us visited Bellbrook on October 8th, 9th and 10th 1982. Mrs Quinlan began telling her story at our camp site on Nulla Nulla Creek. She continued over several Sunday afternoon sessions at my home, a venue she chose.

One of Mrs Quinlan’s greatest worries was “how are we going to put it all together”, the other “but is it going to be really important?”