Joan Sinclair Oral History

DETAILS

OverviewJoan Sinclair (nee Williamson) was born in Brisbane in 1935 and moved to Noosaville with her husband Ron in the early 1960s. The couple ran several businesses and raised their family in Noosaville and Tewantin.
In her interview, Joan talks about:
• life in Brisbane, the trams and steam trains
• life during the Second World War, with sirens, and shortage of supplies, and lots of Americans
• the buses and 4WD vehicles used in earlier times
• Noosaville in the 60s – big boarding house owned by the Massoud family and other smaller houses, Maisie’s Restaurant, artist Max Newton, the butcher’s shop and the back paddock of scrubber cows, a circus in their back paddock
• Running small businesses including a laundry/dry cleaners, fishing, and Coloured Sands Tours and the challenges brought about through change
• Operating a laundry business using bore water which coloured the sheets
• the Coloured Sands becoming part of the National Park, and unexploded ordinance left over from army training being blown up there
• the Allawah Caravan park where Villa Noosa is now
• the swimming pool in Tewantin where the Marina is now,
• the Festival of Waters, with the Big Pelican, festival costumes, powerboat races and music.
Last edited by: Ellen Appleby