George Derschow

Portrait of George Derschow: I was born in Mulga Downs Station, Wittenoom, on twenty fifth of the tenth, 1935. My mother and grandmother, plus all my brothers were born there. Mum was doing station work and that’s where she met my dad. Because I was lighter skinned, the welfare would come to Mulga Downs, they were being taken away left, right and centre. We left there in 1943 because mum being native and then dad German, he had to get out of the Pilbara, see? The other side of the twenty sixth parallel. So they shifted them down there, see? When we moved, mum was very quiet. We finished up down in Cue, the welfare didn’t worry about me down there, but we still weren’t allowed in town, up to six o’clock. I started work when I was around ten years old, at Wanarie Station near Cue, just opening gates, ten shillings a week or something. I was there, until I was thirteen, getting the brumbies out of the bush, breaking them in. In my lifetime of riding horses I have never been thrown off a horse. Some of them get a monkey strap to hang on, but I just get in the saddle and that’s it, I hold on the reins. There was one horse I loved, they call ‘im Duke, he was a small brumby, and I used to ride him in the gymkhanas. Later on, I managed Linton Station, on top of the hill where you can see the whales diving up. I just had me wife and two kids. The boss was one of the best bosses I come across. When I was a teenager I thought it a bastard of a job because you never got very much and you weren’t allowed to eat with the white people. Even though your wife or whatever worked in the kitchen, you would not eat with the whites, you’d have to eat alone or with the other natives. During those years, we weren’t allowed to do this and that, but I appreciate everything, now.