Today I would like to share the story of beautiful Pamela.
Pamela Pringle was born in 1946 in Surrey hills Sydney.
She recalls the day a big black car came to their house & took herself, & three other siblings away from their parents, she was around 4 at the time. They became wards of the state. Due to their parents inability to look after them.
Pamela was homed with her younger sister, but her eldest sister & younger brother were sent to different homes.
Pamela never knew her birth parents until she was in her sixties, & at the same time learned she had 7 other siblings & of their Aboriginal heritage.
Only last year the family found another brother who lives interstate.
Unfortunately for Pamela & her sister the home in Cessnock they were allocated to was not a pleasant one.. Pamela recalls the beatings she suffered & punishments like having meals taken from them for what was considered disobedience.
Wehn the welfare officer came to check with them the girls were instructed to sit with their dresses pulled down over their knees to hide their bruises, & under no circumstances were they allowed to speak up & tell the welfare officer about the abuse.
The girls were cheap labour for the family & were expected to milk the cows, feed calves and take the cows back into the paddocks & tether them by 9am
Pam recalls standing in cow manure to keep their feet warm as they had no shoes.
Pam says people around them knew the mistreatment they were being subjected to & never spoke up on their behalf.
When Pamlea was around 13 her foster parents had the girls classed as uncontrolled and they were put in parramatta girls home for 6 months. Pam said it was the best 6 months of her life as they were treated well & not starved & punished. After the 6 months they were then sent back to their foster home..
Pam grew up in Cessnock. went to school in Cessnock & got her first job at Cessnock hospital as a domestic cleaner. Her foster parents arranged the job for her, & waited outside the gates every pay day to take her wages from her.
Pamela married George in 1964, they had known each other at school but it blossomed into a romance after they were both working. They are still married after 60 years.
Pamlea was 6 months pregnant when they got married
They went to live went to live with George's mum who Pam describes as an angel, & an amazing woman.
They bought a house in Cessnock around the corner from his mum.
Pam and George had 4 children, Scott, Hallana, Jannelle, and Jody.
After having children, Pam worked at Kurri in a sewing factory, Cessnock Bonds, a job cleaning at a restaurant eventually turned into running local restaurants with her family.
Pam and George later raised two of their grandchildren when sadly their daughter Jannelle passed away. Pam has continued to be family oriented and is the backbone of the family.
Pam said she & George have separate interests & he still rides motorbikes.
Pam enjoys crocheting blankets for her great grandchildren, making jewellery, gardening, tending to birds and chickens, cooking and baking.
