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Oral History

Oral History - Joyce Lee...
- Interview audio - ...
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Series

City of Sydney oral history collection, 1982 - ongoing

Collection

Organisation

Sydney City Council

Related items

Doors were always open: recollections of Pyrmont and Ultimo/ compiled by City West Development Cor

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This item is licenced for use under a Creative Commons Non Commercial, No Derivatives (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International) copyright license. It allows users to copy and share the item in any medium or format for non-commercial purposes, provided the item is not changed in any way, it is attributed to the City of Sydney and the author/creator (where known), and a copyright notice is included. Full licence terms are available from Creative Commons. No warranties or other rights are provided by the licence.

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Oral History - Joyce Lee and Ruby Young (Chong sisters), 1996

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Unique IDOH-000031SeriesCity of Sydney oral history collection, 1982 - ongoingInterviewerMargaret ParkProject namePyrmont Ultimo (Doors were always open)ThemeOur CityDate of interview10th August 1996Date qualifierexactFormatAudio - CassetteSummary of interviewAlong with their mother, Joyce Lee and Ruby Young arrived in Sydney in 1946 from Hong Kong to join their father who had lived in Pyrmont since 1938. The family intended to join their father much earlier, however the advent of WW2 prevented that. Joyce and Ruby were 8 and 10 years old when they arrived and went into 5th grade at Pyrmont Public School and later to Riverside High School. Both recalled settling into life in Sydney, not speaking English and travelling from Harris Street to Gladesville each day for school.

Their father had established a grocery store in Pyrmont soon after he had arrived and was well known in the community as ‘Charlie the Grocer’. Joyce and Ruby recall living above the store, working in the shop and the lack of playtime due to working and schooling. They also talk about the friendly local people in the area. They recalled In the early days of owning the grocery store almost every customer either worked on the wharves or the local CSR sugar mills. This interview was carried out by the City West Development Corporation when Pyrmont was being re-developed in the mid-1990s.LanguageEnglish (eng)Digitised recordYesBorn digital itemNo

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