Norm Jones

Rent-arrears had forced yet another family to move. It is 1929 and it is the start of the Great Depression. This scene is being played out throughout Australia and the western world. Sitting beside the cartman and watching the gentle sway of the back of the draft animal was a six-year old boy. He is Norman Frederick Jones, and this is the first of his memories which span the next ten decades. Such memories embrace seismic changes in the world and 40 percent of European settlement of his country Australia. Norman Frederick Jones was born in Ballarat on 18th January 1923. Norm recalls the Early Years I was the youngest of a family of five children. My father was Alfred Edward Jones and my mother was Mabel Veronica Jones. The family lived in various rented houses in Ballarat. However, my memory is that of constant moving from home to home when my parents were unable to afford the rent which inevitably fell into arrears. Fortunately, in Ballarat at this time there were many rental homes available and we were always able to avoid becoming homeless. The standard of our houses, however, was always poor and I recall living in homes infested with bugs and other insects which made life uncomfortable for everyone. My father worked as a freelance journalist and in Ballarat he contributed to the local newspaper, the Ballarat Courier.