The Recollections Collection

The Recollections Collection is proud and unabashedly a peoples' history of Hindmarsh in inner Adelaide (South Australia), particularly of the locals that made the hard-working and vibrant communities of Bowden, Brompton and Hindmarsh home.

These stories and historical photos cover the long first half of the twentieth century, the 1890s to 1960s, and the much shorter and radically transformational times of the 1970s and '80s.

The earlier, older stories are told through interviews with elderly Hindmarsh locals by a young resident Karen Joyce. First published in the 'Recollections' series in the former community newspaper, the Hindmarsh Pughole, in the 1980s and brought together here, they create a compelling social history.

The interviews are gems individually and together are a prize. They are entertaining and informative, waggish, sombre and sad. They reveal the joys and hardships of early Hindmarsh locals, through their honest everyday recollections and observations on a period of dynamic physical environment and social change.

The added stories and reflections from local activist and editor Colin Ball, who has close family connections to the area, tell the contemporary stories of the struggles of the Hindmarsh community in the 1970s and '80s, when residents fought to save the area from highways plans and industry expansion. A fight they won!