Historical information

Desmond was born in 1931 in Beechworth but left at age 11 (in 1944) to be educated in Melbourne at Scotch College but returned to the town for holidays and when he was finished with school. Desmond is the son of Raymond Zwar who was 1 of the 3 brothers who owned the Tannery in Beechworth. He worked there when he was 19 for a year in 1950, when the first Baltic migrants came to town.

In 1951, Desmond left Beechworth to work in Albury for a newspaper called the "Border Mail" before moving to Melbourne to write for the "Melbourne Herald". He was later known for becoming a writer, having produced 17 books under his name at the time of the interview.

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.

Significance

Mr Desmond Zwar's account of his life in Beechworth during the 20th century is historically and socially significant to the cultural heritage of the region. He details important historical events and hardships in the region's history that had a lasting local, regional and national impact, including Australia during war time, economic struggles, and the relationships of different social groups in the town.

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.

Physical description

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.

Inscriptions & markings

Mr Desmond Zwar