Historical information
In 2005 Michele Matthews interviewed current and former residents of Bendigo for her thesis on the 1930s Depression as part of her PhD Research, with the University of Melbourne Faculty of Arts, History Department. Michele interviewed fifteen members of prominent Bendigonian families. The thesis was titled: "How Depressing?: The impact of the Great Depression on Bendigo and District 1925-1935".
The Michele Matthews Collection contains fourteen audio cassette tape recordings and one written transcript. The tapes are each approximately one hour and 45 minutes duration. The questions presented to the interviewees explore everyday experiences they would have lived through at the time of the Depression.
The questions covered sixteen relevant subjects:
• Introduction and housing
• Social activities, swimming, cinemas, school and games played with friends
• Organizations such as the RSL, Relief Committees etc. and any effect they had on family life
• The life of the single woman
• Unemployment and Employment
• Government Assistance
• Charities Aid
• Self-help
• People Power, e.g. boycotts or protests
• Politics
• Trouble or crime
• Family Health, Medical and Diet
• Education
• General memories of, and hardships encountered, during the Depression
Physical description
Audio tape interview with Frank Crawford. Crawford's Shoe Shop business was on the corner of Bull and Hargreaves Streets, opposite the Bendigo Town Hall. Two audio tapes with length of one hour and 45 minutes, with eleven pages of handwritten notes of the interview. Frank was born in 1915, his parents were a bricklayer and a dressmaker. He attended St Liborius Catholic Primary School in Eaglehawk from 1920 to 1928. The tape has been converted to a sound file. The 90 minute interview can be listened to; and the notes viewed at the Bendigo Historical Society. By appointment only.
