Description
An interview with Douglas (Dougie) MacGregor, who has lived in Cunnamulla for over eighty years. Dougie’s father fought in World Wars I and II. He bought his father’s town carrying business as a young man, and shares extensive knowledge of road and river systems in the Paroo area.
Dougie talks about: the effects of drought and economic depression on communities; government property ballots,1951; soldier settlements; cycles of drought, floods, and bushfires; silt build up in water holes from grazier activities, changing river and creek flows; relationship between Warrego and Paroo; periods when water ran from Paroo into the Darling (1950, 1956); Aboriginal fishing methods, catching ‘sleepy cod’; siting carp in river branches connected to the Murray; gelignite used to erect power lines throughout Paroo. Drought events discussed: 1930, ending 1947, 1957. Flood events: 1942, 1947, 1950, 1956.