Helen McAnulty’s lifelong work adding ‘colour and vibrancy’ to the dry facts of history

For nearly 50 years, in towns across NSW, Helen McAnulty has diligently recorded stories of the past. Readers of Orange City life will be familiar with her work, which she presents in her long-running ‘History Talking’ column.

Now a resident of Uniting Wontama, Helen is continuing her quest and has formed a new oral history group in the aged care facility.

“Behind every face, there's a story,” says Helen, which is a phrase that has become something of a slogan for her work over the years.

“When I came here I thought, Well, there couldn't be a better place to do it.”

For Helen, a former school teacher, it is the everyday things of the past, rather than politics or sweeping national incidents that attract her interest. It’s about adding colour and vibrancy to the dry facts of history, is how she puts it.

Helen first began collecting stories in the 1970s when she and her husband Bill —also a teacher— were posted to a school in Nyngan.

“As we always did, we joined the historical association,” recalls Helen. “And there, at the local history group, I met a most amazing man called Arthur Hall.

“Now Arthur had been in the First World War. And he told me about his life, his family coming out in the 1860s, driving cattle out to places where he was living, which was near Coolabah.” 

But one story Arthur didn’t volunteer was that as a 21-year-old Corporal, he’d rushed a machine gun post, shooting four of the enemy, capturing nine others along with two machine guns. The following day, during a heavy barrage, he carried a wounded comrade to safety. Throughout all this, he is said to have "showed utter disregard [for the enemy] and inspired confidence in all". Arthur was awarded a Victoria Cross for his actions.

“And he didn't tell me that, until I found out!” says Helen. “And I thought ‘behind every face, there's a story’.”

It was this encounter with Arthur Hall that saw Helen begin to record people’s stories.

At first, she would simply interview people one-on-one, but she soon discovered that getting people talking in a group could be much more interesting.

“After we lived in Nyngan, we moved to Gulgong,” says Helen, who of course joined the local historical society.

“One day a group of elderly people were gathered at the museum and I asked them about when the water supply had been brought to Gulgong.

And, they reminded each other of things…and I thought this is much better than one-to-one because the interviewer tends — without realising it sometimes — to put ideas in the person's head. With a group, you don't do that as much and the group takes over and it's fascinating what comes up,” Helen continues.

“And I heard some amazing stories of early Gulgong and the early miners because this was 1980 and these people had been born at the end of the last century.”

For more than 20 years, Helen continued to collect these stories through her oral history group in Gulgong and began to compile the stories in articles for the Mudgee Guardian under the title “History Talking”.

After moving to Orange around 2008, she formed a new group, who have provided the material for Helen’s many contributions to this magazine.

“And when I came to Wantama, I realised that this is the most amazing place for life stories. So I've started an oral history group, which the staff is very keen to have.”

The new Wontama oral history group have begun meeting fortnightly, with Helen recording and planning to continue writing up the results as she has for many decades. You will find the first “History Talking” from the new group on page 8.