Gift Footrace finish. No 2 Grandstand on left.stawell

Ray Stone was born in 1927, growing up in Beechworth as the oldest of eight children, but spent much of his life travelling, which he recalls in this oral history. Although he started working at the Beechworth Tannery with his father, he joined the Navy before he was of age in 1944 to support the war effort, and upon returning to Beechworth gave up on the Tannery after half a day to continue working jobs across Victoria instead. He talks extensively about watching Beechworth's famous Wheelbarrow race, where Tony Evans bet Tom Parkinson that the latter would not be able to push the former in a wheelbarrow from the Beechworth Post Office to Mt Buffalo in eight days. Calling himself a "helper all [his] life", he discusses the way many towns he worked in would come together to support struggling families, especially widows. In comparison, he suggests that the Beechworth of 2000 is much less community-orientated. He also discusses the economic changes he's witnessed around Beechworth, from the difficulties during the Depression while he was a child, to business improvements at the Tannery and Brewery, to the tourism boom. This oral history recording was part of a project conducted by Jennifer Williams in the year 2000 to capture the everyday life and struggles in Beechworth during the twentieth century. This project involved recording seventy oral histories on cassette tapes of local Beechworth residents which were then published in a book titled: Listen to what they say: voices of twentieth century Beechworth. These cassette tapes were digitised in July 2021 with funds made available by the Friends of the Burke.Ray Stone's account of his life is historically and socially significant to the region of Beechworth for the way it describes changes in the town over the twentieth century. It covers themes including community relationships, business development, and cultural life. It makes this commentary in comparison to nearby regions such as the Snowy Mountains. This oral history account is socially and historically significant as it is a part of a broader collection of interviews conducted by Jennifer Williams which were published in the book 'Listen to what they say: voices of twentieth-century Beechworth.' While the township of Beechworth is known for its history as a gold rush town, these accounts provide a unique insight into the day-to-day life of the town's residents during the 20th century, many of which will have now been lost if they had not been preserved.This is a digital copy of a recording that was originally captured on a cassette tape. The cassette tape is black with a horizontal white strip and is currently stored in a clear flat plastic rectangular container. It holds up 40 minutes of recordings on each side.Mr Ray Stone /listen to what they say, beechworth, oral history, burke museum, stone, ray stone, tannery, tanneries, finch street, navy, the great depression, poverty, wheelbarrow race, cars, gift footrace, marriage, travel