Verbatim charts the history of the 20th century through the oral histories and memories of Australians. Producers from Radio National's Social History and Features team present a range of archival and contemporary recorded interviews which illuminate the shifts and changes in Australian society over time. Verbatim features the life stories of ordinary Australians and of people in the public eye. The program offers a journey into history through memory and experience.
Niety-six-year-old Rose Adams has spent all of her long life in the tiny community of Cockle Creek, on the edge of Tasmania's rugged South West region. In this interview she talks about a way of life in the years before modern amenities like electricity were available, her love of the bush, and her skill in crayfishing and seafaring in her Huon pine boat the Western Star.
...MOREMelbourne is a city which takes cafés and coffee drinking seriously. One of the oldest and most popular cafés is Pellegrini's, which claims to have been the first establishment to serve espresso coffee in the proper way. For the last thirty years, owner Sisto Malaspina has been upholding the Pellegrini's tradition, and keeping its loyal customers happy. Sisto left his small home town in Northern Italy in 1964, and landed in Australia. After working in a tyre factory (which reminded him of pasta), he moved into the hospitality trade, and took over Pellegrini's café in 1974. For many decades and many generations of Melbournians, Pellegrini's has offered 'a little bit of Italy', and continues to be a much-loved institution. In this program, we go behind the espresso machine at Pellegrini's, with Sisto, for some caffeine-fuelled cultural history.
...MORENorma Moylan grew up in the goldfields region of Western Australia and has spent most of her life in the bush working on stations, managing her own hairdressing business and, at times, running the telephone exchange in remote settlements.
...MOREPearly Shells From the ocean Shining in the sun Covering the shore Torres Strait Islander, pearl diver and musician Seaman Dan tells his life story in song. Between 1946 and 1963 Henry Gibson, AKA Seaman Dan, spent many years at sea as a pearl diver and boat captain. At the time pearling was a huge industry throughout Northern Australia but particularly on Seaman Dan´s home of Thursday Island (TI) in the Torres Strait. He also played music and sang whenever possible at parties and occasionally for the tourists on Thursday Island. His songs -- like the Torres Strait Islanders themselves -- come from all over the world. In them are influences from jazz, blues, hula, reggae, Dixie and traditional maritime music. Music continued to be a hobby for Seaman Dan even after a case of the bends forced him out of the pearling industry. But then in 1999 a chance meeting with a visiting musicologist changed his life. He was 'discovered' and began a new career as a recording and touring musician.
...MORECopyright info: Australian Broadcasting Corporation
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