Interview Transcript from Illawarra Stories Wollongong City Libraries Oral History Project – Arthur Smith
N.B.: This transcript includes explanatory information added by the transcriber.
Interviewer: Edie Swift
Interview Date: 12 April 2022
Edie: Today is April 12th, 2022 and I am Edie Swift interviewing Arthur Smith for the Illawarra Stories Oral History Project coordinated by the Wollongong City Library and we, we will be talking about his business, um, his pharmacies and, and how he got there to running the pharmacy. So, Arthur, if you’d like to tell me what was your date of birth?
Arthur: I was born 21st of March 1931 at Concord West in, a, ah my parents had a, a fruit shop, mixed fruit shop on Concord Road and we’re near the Sir Thomas Walker and Dame Edith Walker Homes, which later became the 113th AGH, which is now Concord Hospital.
Edie: And, um, when you went to high school, where did you go?
Arthur: I started off in Ashfield, at Ashfield Technical College and then I transferred to, to, ah, Homebush Boys High School.
Edie: And at that time you were working.
Arthur: Then my father died when I was 15, so I had to, ah, leave school and I took over, I got a special licence that allowed me to, ah, to drive the truck that he, he owned and he had a special, ah, licence to carry for a number of other fruit and vegetable shop owners because of, ah, during the war there was no transport so he was given transport for the whole of the North Strathfield Concord West area for the fruit shops.
Edie: So…
Arthur: I continued that on, ah, but then once that my mother die-, ah, ah, sold that shop, ah, and we left there [coughs] and I came down, we came down to live at Coalcliff. And then I got a job, ah, by then I was sixteen and a half and I got a job in the, ah, coal mine at Coalcliff. And I, I was allowed, the school gave me the permission to, to go to school any time I had time off. So, I would get in the train and go up and eventually over a long period of time, with private study mainly, I, ah, I matriculated. I started doing medicine, I did ah, but the third year of medicine required that I couldn’t work because I needed to live in, at the hospital, and I had no work and no job and no money. So consequently, I went to the, ah, into the army, ah, with the Korea Force to go to Korea but it was suggested to me that I could consider pharmacy by one of my, ah, soldiers that, that was in the bunk next to me. So, I got leave from my Major and they gave me leave to come back and I got, I came back to Sydney for three days and in those days’ pharmacy was a university course but it, but it was held under the, the ah, the ah, the, the registration and the education was done by the university, but the registration and control of it was done by the, the ah, Pharmacy Board and the Pharmacy Guild, ah, was the Guild employing pharmacists that took on new pharmacy undergraduates, which were actually apprentices. So we became an apprentice to a pharmacist because in those days pharmacy, the, the course of pharmacy at the university was called Materia Medica and it was, ah, regarding all knowledge about medicines as they knew them from the old, ah, the old days right up to modern day and how to prepare them, how to ah, present them, ah, how to explain the use of them. And I must say many of those, ah, medications would be, ah, would cause horror in people now to hear what people actually used to, ah, be required to take or use or put on themselves. Some pretty nasty ones.
Edie: Do you want to give an example?
Arthur: An example? [laughs] Well, well, there was a thing called Blue Ointment of Mercury that you had to make up using basically wool fat and pure mercury plus other mercurial and, and other very nasty medications. And that had to be made up on a slab and you had to incorp-, they were made, incorporate the mercury into this ointment. And it was called Blue Ointment of Mercury and it was used on syphilitic stor-, sores, which were fairly fre-, frequent in those days. So, people used these terrible things, and I don’t know how much mercury is absorbed into their system, but it would have been a great deal because there was a lot of pure mercury in that, in that Blue Oint-, Ointment of Mercury. But there were many, many other shocking terrible things that people used, put in them, various orifices and, [laughs] and had to put up with terrible… but anyhow, looking back, we have come a long, long way from there. Nowadays manipulation is not, and, ah, is not really such a major thing for a pharmacist now. Now we do not have to be so meticulous – oh, we have to be meticulous about everything – but we don’t have to now prepare, ah, ah, ointments and dragee’s and ah, pills and eye drops and nasal drops and ear drops and, and ah, you know.
Edie: So when you had to go to school, you had to go to Sydney three days a week?
Arthur: No, once I got, once I switched from medicine to pharmacy, the world changed for me because then I didn’t need to go, didn’t need to work in the coal mine anymore. And because all the time I was doing medicine, I spent a lot of time, still working days in the coal mine in between, in, in between lectures. But that was, I didn’t need to do that in pharmacy because once you became apprentice to a pharmacist then you got a pay. Now it wasn’t much, it was very, very minor, but it was enough that you could exist. And I lived at home, and it cost me nothing for board. So that’s, ah, how I, that, that changed my, my whole outlook about my future, I think. And I, and I suddenly found that I, I did thoroughly enjoy the ah, the ah, communication with people coming into the pharmacy, patients coming into the pharmacy, ah, and who were unsure about their medication or what they should do. And in those days, many, many, ah, people would come to the pharmacist well before they’d go to the doctor because there was no Medicare or, ah, National Health Scheme. There was a beginning of a National Health Scheme at that time, so they’d always come to the pharmacist first
Edie: Do you remember some of your professors?
Arthur: Oh, Sydney Wright was the, ah, was, was the, ah, well, I think he was the Professor Sydney Wright and Jack Thorpe was, Professor Thorpe was pharmacol-, pharmacol-, pharma-, pharmaceutics, pharmacology. Ah, Thorpe and Wright were the two major ones. Oh, and Mrs Wright was pharmacognosy, that was the understanding of the herbs and, ah, the appearance of herbs, how you use the herbs, how you prepared them, how you made decoctions from them, how you made insufflations from them and all the other things, um, that you could make from herbs. There was, um, they’ve all escaped me. They’re very old now, not used much except by, ah, probably herbalists now still use them, but they wouldn’t use the same preparations that we used.
Edie: Now when you worked in the pharmacy, did, did you also, um, work with the, um, with the medicine or did you have to wait to do that later?
Arthur: Because I had done some medicine, I had enough background knowledge about physiology and anatomy and ah, and ah, pharmacology that I could be, ah, ah, fit very quickly into the ah, into the job. And anyhow, as I was saying I,I got leave from my ah, unit at Kapooka, came to Sydney and then got a job with Leon Rothman in Crown Street in Wollongong. And that’s where I started working in pharmacy and I found that I loved it. I totally enjoyed the people and I totally enjoyed the work. And I suddenly was, I was touching all the things that in, in theoretical medicine you heard about. And suddenly I was, had them in my hand and that fascinated me. And I was also interested in the number of people that would come in for, with every type of complaint that you could consider. And many, many of them, of course you had to send off to the doctor but luckily you had a fairly good idea which ones were important enough that you must send them to the doctor immediately and which ones you could give them a nostrum to go along with.
Edie: So, um, after you worked there, where did you work after that?
Arthur: Well, I, ah, I did ah, almost three years there. Then I went and, ah, did another year in, ah, in, at Bondi Beach, on Bondi Beach, at Barnetts Pharmacy in Bondi Beach. And that was necessary because that was, ah, five days a week at, four days a week at university so it wasn’t, ah, practical for me to stay in Wollongong to do that. So consequently I, I stayed there and I, and ah, by the time I’d finished that, I got, I had finished the university course by then and I passed that. But the university course was only the educational side of things and the university handled that. Then you had to go through the, ah, the Pharmacy Board examinations and they were very, very hard.
Edie: What are those, what did they ask you in those?
Arthur: Oh, far more practical things. Rather than all the theoretical things that medicine that, ah, that the university talked about, the Pharmacy Board talked about, ah, asked you all questions about, about how you handle people, what sort of advice you would give to people. Um, they’d also were very meticulous about how you prepared medications, ah, that they, they took great deal of ah, made a great effort to make sure that every preparation you made was done in, in a very, ah, professional, proper way and that was the Pharmacy Board. They were very hard to get through, very few people got straight through a Board exam. I did it twice, I got through the second time but ah, and quite a lot of people never got through. And then, and because it was mainly men, there were a few, a few… in those days pharmacies had a few ladies, few wo-, few girls, but not very many. So there were many unregistered pharmacists who were very professionally trai-, well professionally trained but couldn’t get registration because they couldn’t get through the Pharmacy Board exam. And they were filtered throughout the pharmaceutical, all the, see, all the pharmacy industry had these unregistered male pharmacists who weren’t pharmacists because they were never registered and that was a pretty unique situation. Nowadays you don’t have that situation, you’re either are a pharmacist or you’re not. If you’re not, if you’re an unregistered pharmacist, you’re not one now.
Edie: Where did you go through after you went to, after you finished your, ah, Board Exam?
Arthur: After I finished the Board exam,
Edie: And you finished at Bondi.
Arthur: I worked for a little while down at, ah, Albion Park. The interesting there, that at Albion Park, ah, I, ah, I was in a little pharmacy there and the, ah, people used to ride up on their horses and hitch their horses to the hitching rail in front of the pharmacy and come and pick up their medication at the Albion Park, Albion Park pharmacy there. Ah, that was a pretty unique situation as far as I was concerned, because I’d never been in the country. Ah, that was as far out of the country I’d ever been. So having people hitching their horses up to get their medication was unique for me in Albion Park. Anyhow, I don’t think that lasted for oh about 12 months I was there, I suppose.
Edie: And what were the changes while you were there with the medicine?
Arthur: Well, medicines were suddenly, oh, the, the, no, medicines were nearly all, ah, extemporaneously prep-, prepared in those days. Ah, nearly everything had to be made up from a from a, ah, a prescription that the ah, the doctor or specialist had, had written out. Some were very, very complicated and some were very straightforward. So, it was really a manipulative, compounding situation, there was a lot of that, ah, very little off the shelf. But, ah, what was off the shelf were the few pills, pills, a few injections. When, ah, insulin first came out, insulin obviously was not prepared in the pharmacy. It was, it came down, it was brought in the phar-, brought to the pharmacy [We made plenty of pills gold plated silver plated using gold and silver leaf] under cold storage. Ah, so that was, but most of the injections I think, most of the, ah, all the inoculation injections were, ah, made centrally by CSL or one of the big, ah, injection manufacturers. They, very few injections were made in the pharmacy, but some were and there was a lot of effort put into ah, into ah, manufacture of uh, of injectable vials in those days by the pharmacist in the pharmacy. And that, that was ah, that did take quite a, ah, a lot of time to do, so consequently you could never tell a person that you could come back in 10 minutes, even the simplest of prescriptions took you, ah, 20 minutes to 30 minutes, ah, if there was nothing to it at all. But if there was anything complex, it could take you two days, three days sometimes to get it prepared. So yeah that, that was a big change. Lately, ah, subsequent to that you did get a change, in so far as the ah, the medications became pre-prepared more and more frequently. And ah, the more frequently they became more pre-prepared, the more the pharmacist jumped for joy because it meant they didn’t have to do it all.
Edie: Where was the next pharmacy you worked at?
Arthur: So that, that ah, then I did a lot of locum work in various pharmacies, ah, throughout the, the South Coast. Bulli, Corrimal, North Wollongong, Wollongong proper, Dapto and a couple up in Sydney, but ah, I, I was the first ah, pharmacist, as far as I know, the first pharmacist employed at Wollongong Hospital. And ah, but pharmacy for the hospital in those days was, was ah, very basic. And I could do it by going in at about 5 o’clock in the afternoon and I’d stay there till about 8 o’clock at night and I’d make up all the medic-, all the mixtures or medications that the, they needed for the patients. [many liquid mixtures, ointments, creams, lotions, embrocation’s, liniments etc] And they had two sisters whose job it was to distribute the, ah, the pharmacy medications to the wards and to ensure that they had enough of, ah, every medication. So, I would come in and the Sisters, whoever, whichever Sister I was working with, would tell me what they needed for ward supplies and for ah, replenishment of stocks and I would make that up. And I did that for about three years, four years I suppose.
Edie: And when did you have your own pharmacy and where was that?
Arthur: Well I started the pharmacy in, in Thirroul. We had, ah, originally when I first came to, to Thirroul, the pharmacy was in the, the southern end of ah, what is now The Plaza at Thirroul, in, in what was a, a dental surgery and a pharmacy and a, and later on became a, ah, second hand wares little shop, I think. But that was owned by two ladies [who were very popular]. That was taken, that was taken over by another pharmacist before me, and they went up to Mrs Gwyther’s shops in, ah, where Subway, ah, is now.
Edie: And how old were you then when you started that pharmacy in Thirroul?
Arthur: Well, ah, that, I was, oh gee, 30 ah, no, I’d have been about ah,32.
Edie: Mm-hm.
Arthur: I suppose.
Edie: Mm-hm.
Arthur: And, ah, that pharmacy, there was another pharmacy on the other side of Thirroul.
What was his name – forgotten. [owned by Mr Marsh.] And, but, ah, that, the, the pharmacy that I had was in ah, I think it’s now a florist in the middle of, ah, of a block in Thirroul. That was the pharmacy, that used to be a, a Fleming’s grocer’s shop, ah, but Jim Fleming vacha-, vacated that and took over the old Co-op store at Thirroul which is now, which became a hardware, but he took up and started I think was the first, ah, first, ah, self-service grocery store in Australia, Jim Fleming.
Edie: So how long did you have that pharmacy?
Arthur: I had that there for about, ah, [12 years]. Well, that was the beginning of the, I later moved it into – rather Mr Anarkis, who lived opposite in the, the old ah, the shop’s opposite.
Edie: Mm
Arthur ah, [where the Plaza was built after Hardies rubber factory closed] He offered me,
we were next door to a very big, ah, emporium
Edie Hm-mm.
Arthur which sold manchester and millinery and materials and
Edie And how old were you then, when you made that move?
Arthur By then I was about 36.
Edie Now what had changed as far as medicine?
Arthur Yeah, well, by then, suddenly we, we were getting [adjusted to the development of complex medicines coming available on government subsidy].[But the really big change was in the 1940s when sulphur drugs and Penicillin proved they were miracle workers of molecules against bacteria].The big thing that happened, I suppose that happened just before I started but became major, well, in my early years in pharmacy was that we started off, we had the very early sulphur drugs in the beginning of the World War Two.
But by the end of World War Two, we were using sulphur drugs for every, every possible, ah, infection you could get. And ah, the ah, penicillin was beginning to become very ah, more available by 1947-48…
Edie Mm hm.
Arthur: oh, no a bit earlier than that – ’46 probably penicillin was becoming much more, ah, frequently. And, and so suddenly we had this big change and that change happened while the Second World War was on in, in antibiotics. So luckily we had very good South Australian scientists that were able to discover and utilise penicillin, which was the most amazing thing. And ah so we started producing our own penicillin in Australia instead of having to bring, bring it in from ah, from the UK. So, we were using penicillin. And then of course after that we sud-, suddenly saw that ah, there was a whole future in using molecules to attack microbes. So, we started developing molecules for, to attack every microbe we could think of.
Edie: And how old were you when that happened?
Arthur Well, that started to happen when I was still at school, which is why I first of all thought I’d like to ah, to get into the medical field.
Edie Oh, but then now
Arthur but developed very heavily into, ah,
Edie After World War Two.
Arthur About, um, in the late ’50s
Edie Oh.
Arthur suddenly there were ah, there was research going on in all types of molecular chemistry to develop drugs that were useful against diseases, and that was a wonderful, wonderful improvement because it changed. And, and the other things that happened we, we switched from ah, operations, we switched from using chloroform to ether.
Edie Yeah.
Arthur: Um, and then later on, of course, probably around about that same period, we started using ah non vol-, ah, non, ah, explosive anaesthetics but that’s not pharmacy, that was medicine.
Edie: So the, after that move, what was your next move, what, what pharmacy did…cos
Arthur: Oh well, the, ah, as far as the pharmacy was concerned while I was there, I, we, I, I was there for a long time because ah, went there and um, stayed there right -once we moved into the very big shop that had been the, the, ah, the milliner place, I, Thirroul was in the doldrums and was going – it was in a very bad state. Everything had gone, [pause] everything was going wrong with Thirroul at that time.
Edie: So you, um, you were then, it was then, in the ’50s. Are we talking about the 50s?
Arthur: I, I think we’re probably getting into the ’60s when this happened.
Edie: Into the ’60s. And, and you were still in that big shop?
Arthur: Yes we were in that big shop. And, and we, we had a, there was a big problem because people didn’t have vehicles or cars, not many cars. Buses were good but ah, and the trains were okay, but, but ah, it was a pretty major thing to go and, into Wollongong to do your shopping. So consequently, when everything was starting to close down, Thirroul was left with no soft- software ah, articles. So, nobody could buy a pair of underpants or, or a pair of ah work shorts or overalls, King Gee overalls, you couldn’t get them. So, one of the grocers closed down, one of many other shops that were closing down. And, ah, my wife and I started a, a business called Hisenhers .H I S E N H E R S which meant it was his and hers clothing. And so, we started selling lots and lots of clothing over there, which was wonderful, because it meant that all the, ah, people that needed to stay, to need to shop in Thirroul could continue to shop in Thirroul for ah, these things. And in the meantime, I started the pharmacy opposite.
Edie: And where, where, what are we, what, ah, year is this?
Arthur: Oh gee.
Edie: Are we in the late ’60s?
Arthur: That would have been probably the late ’60s.
Edie: Oh.
Arthur: Yes, I’d imagine it would have been late ’60s. Um, I’d have to, I’d have to con-, try and tie that with the birth of my kids, which, which ones were there when that’s all happening. But anyhow, that was ah, that was the rationale for it. So, we, we changed that to grocery shop into a, a clothing shop. I knew nothing whatever about it. However, it did seem to ah, work wonderfully well.
Edie: And you still were with the pharmacy?
Arthur: Well I, yes, I, I was in the pharmacy all the time.
Edie: And what was, um, what was going on? This was in the ’60s, what was going on with the medicine?
Arthur: By the time we got to there, the ah, by the time, by, by that time, ah, Mr Grew had a pharmacy in, in, ah, Austinmer. [First in Moore Street, then at the corner of The Grove and Main Road] And he moved into Thirroul, into a pharmacy, into the pharmacy at Thirroul. And at the same time another pharmacist opened a pharmacy where Barry Navin is or was. And, ah, both of them, ah, came at the same time and they presented this competition to me. But ah, I seemed to be fairly stable, but I know they were quite ah, quite competitive against each other. And ah, I think it wasn’t til Mr Navin got there, that that pharmacy was any, got anywhere and he was able to pull it together and, and make something of that pharmacy. And it’s ended up being a very successful pharmacy.
Edie: So as we move into the ’70s and ’80s, ah, what, where were you then?
Arthur: Well, gee, um, pinning me down to, to dates is very difficult. Ah,
Edie: You can just…
Arthur: What year was the Vietnam War?
Edie: Well, that would have been in the late ’60s.
Arthur: Now look, I’m not sure because, ah, anyhow, by the end of the Vietnam War, we had the three pharmacies all running at the same time, ah, instead of just one.
Edie: Hm-mm.
Arthur: So that was a, ah, a big change [and we still had Mr Marsh on the other side]. And all three of them managed to keep going, but of course the, by then the National Health Scheme and the, ah, the number of, ah, medications available was growing prolifically and there was a great number of new drugs and new, ah, preparations coming out. And, ah, the requirement for pharmacies became quite high because of this great expansion of medications over that period of time. And I think that was a very, ah, very interesting period in the history of, of medicine that, ah, how that happened because right at the moment I think we’re going through another, another awakening in, in ah, in pharmacy and medical science with the, the use of these new genetic testing methods that they’re using now for producing new drugs and new preparations and how to use them and how to prepare them. And their equivalence is a very big part of the new world that we’re coming into now. But the good part of that is of course that I think we are on the verge of being able to cure many incurable diseases. And I think that, I see that as a glowing future for pharmacy and for medicine that ah, that all these incurables that you used to say, ‘Oh well, we’ll wait and see,’ well now you can start doing something for them which is, is a, a big change. That hasn’t happened since penicillin.
Edie: Mm-hm.
Arthur: That happened with penicillin and it, it’s happening again now, and I think this is a new revolution in, in medicine.
Edie: Now did you move your pharmacy again between
Arthur: Ah [laughs]
Edie: then and now, between
Arthur: Eventually.
Edie: Oh.
Arthur: Eventually, my son became registered, that was Douglas.
Edie: Mm-hm.
Arthur: My daughter became registered, that was Ad-, Gabriel. And then my youngest daughter became registered, that was Adrienne. So now we had four pharmacies, four, four pharmacists all in the one pharmacy. So, ah, there was a big requirement for a pharmacy over in the Plaza. They were very keen that I move over to the pharmacy, to that, the Plaza. So, what, what in fact happened was my son, Douglas, bought Mr Grew’s pharmacy and moved up to there and became [King Street Pharmacy in Anita’s theatre complex] and took over Mr Grew’s pharmacy. And that was very, very successful. He was doing very well and Mr Grew was a very popular and very successful pharmacist too. And that, that was most successful, but then for me, I decided I had to reduce my commitment and we moved over to the, into the Plaza.
Edie: Hm-mm.
Arthur: Into the pharmacy in the Plaza and I moved over there, ah, and I had Gabriel, oh, Adrienne with me [who had now completed her doctorate. Her knowledge of pharmacology was a great supplement for me.] We had, ah, previous to that bought into a very big pharmacy in, ah, in Sydney.
Arthur: Yeah.
Arthur: And we had that for about 10 years. And ah, I used to go up there three days a week, two to three days a week. And ah, in that pharmacy I had mainly my daughter, Gabriel, and her husband Philip who were ah, doing a lot of work up there in that pharmacy. And I basically was between that pharmacy in Sydney and ah, the one in the Plaza with Adrienne.
Edie: Now when you moved.
Arthur: But that became too much for me.
Edie: When did you move into the one that they have now?
Arthur: Now, the, ah, [coughs] Mr Comelli, ah, was able to get the ah, to purchase the King’s Theatre from the Mars, the Chinese cafe, Mars. And he decided that he was going to do the theatre up and he did a very, very good job with that. And would have done a wonderful job with it had not his wife, Anita, died. And that really did affect him. And he changed the name of the theatre from King’s Theatre to Anita’s Theatre. And he allocated an area for a pharmacy. And there was an or-, there was, the doctors had moved from the main road site up to that area where they are now in King Street. And so, I negotiated with Mr Comelli that ah, if we moved from where we were in the Plaza, we could go over into ah, into the King Street area as part of the Anita Theatre development. And that’s when we did that.
Edie: Mm.
Arthur: At the same time, Douglas decided that he would ah, move over there as well.
Edie: Mm-hm.
Arthur: So he moved from where he was, only, where Subway is now.
Edie: Right.
Arthur: over to the ah, Anita, the King Street situation. And he also bought my pharmacy out and we closed that and so we amalgamated the two of them together into the King Street Pharmacy in King Street. So that meant that I could then retire.
Edie: Mm-hm.
Arthur: And ah, Douglas would have both, ah, the two pharmacies to, to work and manage. Which he did because he had Adrienne with him who, um, was very adequate and very capable in the, in the ah, Plaza pharmacy when we were there. And she had Gabriel also backing her up.
So that, that Gabriel was tied up with her family, made it more difficult for her. But the, ah, between Gabriel and Adrienne and Douglas
Edie: Mm.
Arthur: They were able to combine together and work together and luckily in our family nobody fights, touch wood, ah, and I don’t believe that, ah, we ever would fight. We would always find a way around a problem. So consequently, the three of them get along like a very, very well together and I’m very proud of the three of them the way they work together there now. And, ah, I only wish, and I would, I would love to be there working, working with them as myself, but unfortunately there comes a time when you can’t do that.
Edie: And, and what has changed right now with medicine? It’s what you said, what you just said. Yeah.
Arthur: Yeah, I think medicine’s going through a wonderful period. It’s a very worrying period because in many ways the things that they’re playing around with, that the, the scientists are working on now really are the realm of God. And there are people I think that believes they’re going too far in this but on the other hand, we’ve probably always said that there’s something wrong about advances. So, I don’t know that we can do much about it. We will go forward. We will continue to develop these new streams of, ah, of, ah, research and they will, they will produce wonderful results for people with incurable diseases. There is no doubt in my mind that we are in the throes of an amazing new era in medication and, and, and disease control and I, I’m, I’m fascinated by it. I love it, I think it’s the most wonderful thing that’s, I can see I’m so proud that I caught the, the penicillin revolution. And now before while I’m here, I’ll still see this new revolution. And I just can’t, I can’t even begin to estimate the advantages that’s going to make for future populations. I hope we use them properly and I hope we do it properly. And I hope people get the, the results we should be able to get from having all these wonderful new cures coming on the horizon and coming, coming towards us and
Edie: Well, I think this has been…
Arthur: there’s such a rosy future.
Edie: This has been great. Would you like to, um, conclude now and, um, and I think, ah, this has been great, and we’ll conclude it unless you want to say anything else.
Arthur: No, I, I think I, look, I could go on about the northern suburbs of Thirroul – of, ah, Wollongong – ah, from Stanwell Park down to Thirroul for days and days of talking. My family’s lived here all since my grandparents were here at Coledale. And, ah, I’ve got aunts and great aunts spread throughout the whole of the area. And they’ve all passed on, of course, because I’m getting to the point of being the, the great, great or great uncles now. Ah, but that, that’s great. I, I
Edie: Well that would be another oral history, but this was just on the pharmacy, so.
Arthur: Yeah, well, pharmacy I think has got a wonderful future.
Edie: Hm.
Arthur: I think, ah, with all these negative thinking that goes on, you’ve gotta go past that because I think we, we have a golden future in pharmacy and in medicine. And there’s a big, big change in, in, ah, in attitude towards major diseases that I think is. is just beginning to show up. And I think we’re beginning to believe that, that we’ve got a, a future that, that any, any person could decide to make their career in medicine or pharmacy and be very proud of it, either in the research or in the presentation and, ah, supply of it.
Edie: Well, thank you very much. Would you like to donate this to the Wollongong Library and the, ah, Illawarra Stories oral history?
Arthur: I’m not, I hope it’s as accurate as I could make it well off the top of my head. But, ah, dates really catch me out. But apart from that, yes, I’d love to do that.
Edie: Oh. Okay.