Colin recalls fondly growing up in Darlington “It was a safe neighbourhood usually – where we were at Calder Road because everyone knew one another – you could walk around after dark. People would have their doors open back in the seventies. It was fine to have your door open, sit in your lounge.” He felt the loss of the friendships deeply when the family moved to Erskineville and he was sent to Newtown High School, where he experienced racism for the very first time and recalls dealing with the situation. Later in life, because he was fair and blue eyed, he experienced taunts “from both sides”. This is a detailed memoir of life in 1970s Darlington told with great equanimity, sensitivity and compassion.

Caveat: This video was shot on a Sony Hi 8 video recorder. It was not until 2010 that we could get the analogue tapes digitised. Despite careful storage in the intervening period there has been some deterioration in quality. While we have retained the original .mov files from the original digitization in the SRA Archive, by necessity uploaded here are .mp4 files. The video is raw and unedited, a primary source document recording the occasion.