Interview with Alison Pitt

Alison Pitt recalls Pukemiro School; getting medical help; entertainment at Pukemiro; the tennis courts being built; the swimming pool; horses; fishing and kids' play; looking through the Pukemiro School Jubilee Book; the doctor; shops; brother delivering groceries for local store; early roads and railways around Pukemiro and Glen Afton; delivering food to mine houses; icecream from Mr Dun; early movies and dances; 'kitchen teas' for girls about to be married; putting in roads for cars; their house at Pukemiro; lighting; heating; outhouses; water supply; first radio; house at mine; washing clothes.

Describes coal delivery and power at mine; changing points on railway as kids; bonfires; the miners' picnic; comparison of the town then and now; going to Huntly; entertainment; chores; employment for women; going to school on horseback; crime in area; local Maori; compulsory education; the Depression (1930s) in Pukemiro and Auckland; contact with Rotowaro; visiting carbonisation works; the Waingaro hot springs; going underground with father and school; the Glen Afton disaster; the 1951 strike at Rotowaro; refusing to sell meths; doctors at Rotowaro; Glen Afton; tallies and cavels.

Venue - Huntly

Interviewer(s) - Jamie Mackay

Venue - 8 Glasgow Street, Huntly

Arrangement: Tape numbers - OHC-004406

Quantity: 1 C90 cassette(s). 1 printed abstract(s). 1 interview(s). 1.30 Hours and minutes Duration.

Finding Aids: Abstract Available - abstracting complete AB 737 - also contains excerpts of tape transcripts.

Original recordings not available for playback. Surrogate copies will be provided.

Alternative form available: Listening copy OHLCD-1511 and OHLCD-1512

Digital copies of the recording and abstract are also available in the Library's Reading Room