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Top Drawer : WORDS

A: Oral Histories

The Way It Was: Talking about the past on the mountain

Bill Bottomley and Ken West and 50 mountain residents. A comprehensive oral history of the Mangrove Mountain plateau. This book has been digitised by Gosford Library Local Studies, and can be accessed by clicking the heading.

By Force of Maul and Wedge: Talking about the Great North Road

An informal oral history of a monument to convict engineering and plans for its conservation, by Bill Bottomley 1996. This book has been digitised by Gosford Library Local Studies, and can be accessed by clicking the heading.

Back Then

Talking about the past around Yarramalong

In Those Days

Talking about the past around Murrays Run and Watagan Creek

When the Ferries Got Away

The true story of four car ferries swept down the Hawkesbury River in the floods of 1978

Mary Bottomley Remembers

Memories of a Balmain girl

Talking about the past around Wyee

With Zita Deaves and Russell Deaves

Remembering Wangi Power Station

B: Working Lives

What Did You Do For a Crust?

Retired people talk about their working lives.

Saltwater Man

A life at Sea, by Bill Johnson.

One Foot

Vietnam Vet Bruce Fenwick’s story as told to Bill Bottomley.

To Specialise is to Brush One Tooth

Notes from the life of a generalist, by Bill Bottomley:

• Part 1 (PDF)
• Part 2 (PDF)
• Part 3 (PDF)
• Part 4 (PDF)
• Part 5 (PDF)

Appendix: Playing Around with Organised Noise

Some more about music.

C: Other Words

On The Edge

Jazz Players talk about Improvisation

Over the Hill and Down the River

Cruising the Murray in a home-made raft

The Car Punts of Newcastle

The Dunny Book (PDF)

A Miscellany

Tailor-Made Battledress for the Continuing Class War (PDF)

SMH Heckler article October 3, 2006

Take a leaf out of the eco-book (PDF)

SMH Heckler article January 10, 2011

Two Reviews (PDF)

Bottomley on Bottomley

Taping, Typing and Trusting (PDF)

Confessions of a Transcriber

On the Record and Off the Record (PDF)

The case of the runaway ferries

Wigwams & Goose’s Bridles

A Guided Tour Around My Father’s Shed by Lorraine Banks:

• Part 1 (PDF)
• Part 2 (PDF)
• Part 3 (PDF)
• Part 4 (PDF)

A Kind of Illustrated Journal (PDF)

How things look to an 80yr-old in 2017