- **Interviewee:** [Christine Frances "Teena" Whillas](/people/christine-frances-whillas-b1947), known as Teena McLean

- **Interviewer:** Erika Whillas

- **Interview date:** 16 August 2026

- **Format:** Interview transcript, with time codes removed

- **Source:** Supplied transcript, archived unchanged in `source/_ingested/` after ingestion. The wiki copy uses the corrected spelling **Teena** for the interviewee.

This interview covers Teena's childhood in [Bray/Robe](/places/bray-robe-south-australia), [Cobden](/places/cobden-victoria), and [Invergordon](/places/invergordon-victoria); her parents [Dick](/people/richard-charles-whillas-b1920) and [Cath](/people/catherine-mcleod-whillas-b1920); siblings [Robert](/people/robert-alexander-whillas-b1944), [Richard](/people/richard-johnstone-whillas-b1945), [Andrew](/people/andrew-john-whillas-b1949), and [Janet](/people/janet-barbara-whillas-b1951); travel in Japan, Hong Kong, and the Philippines; her marriage to John in [Shepparton](/places/shepparton-victoria); and the couple's newsagency in [Alstonville](/places/alstonville-new-south-wales). She also shares recollections of her aunt [Fran](/people/frances-louise-whillas-b1915).

The transcript is reproduced below with the interviewee's name normalized to **Teena** in speaker labels and name references. The archived source file itself is preserved unchanged.

Erika Whillas

Interview with Teena McLean, 16th of August, 2026.

Teena McLean

Alstonville.

All

Erika Whillas

right, Teena, let's start at the very beginning.

When and where were you born?

Teena McLean

Marylands in Adelaide, 1928 to the 3rd, 1947.

Erika Whillas

And where was the family living at that point?

UNKNOWN

With, I

Teena McLean

think, with, no, Mum's father's family, I think. I'm not sure. Father's family. Yeah, yeah.

If you tell me the address. Stanley Street. Stanley Street,

SPEAKER_02

that's it, yeah. 360, Stanley Street. And

Erika Whillas

do you know what hospital you were born in?

Teena McLean

No. No.

Erika Whillas

And what's your first memory in life?

Teena McLean

Probably visiting the aunties and grandparents, and all I can remember is everybody in black clothing.

But I would have only been a very, very little girl, probably. Two, two and a half. Because when we went to move down to Robe in South Australia, I was only four. I was only about three.

Erika Whillas

Okay. So had you gone to school at that point? No. It could have been,

Teena McLean

Okay.

SPEAKER_02

could have been Kath's mum's

Erika Whillas

funeral. Oh. And so when you were three, sorry, you moved to where?

Teena McLean

No, I was about four and a half. There's a photo Richard's got of the, of us out the front at Robe. There's a photo of me and Andrew and Janet. Yeah.

UNKNOWN

Yeah.

Teena McLean

Yeah. Yeah. Probably been four and a half. I started school in Robe.

We lived in, we lived in Bray.

Dad put, we had a Morris Minor truck, and Dad put, built a box, put on the back of it, put a door and a window in it, and it became the school bus. Oh, okay. And he picked up all the children because it was after the war, and there were appointments that lived down the road. They were a big family. They were a big family in a tent. We were in a tent while Dad was building our house, and he made sure he was a school bus, and he picked up all the kids and took them to Robe School every day.

Dad then, when he was in Adelaide, and he always wanted to be a farmer, his parents were book binders and publishers, Willis and Ormiston, and his father said, he said, you will not be a farmer, you'll be a bookkeeper. You will toe the line.

So when he got married, he had the right wife, the right family, the right house in Anguston with the right crystal and the linen and all of the above. And while he was working as a bookkeeper, and he worked for, he was the secretary of the Barossa Valley, the farmers union. He was tied up with the wine area. When he was studying, when he was working, he was also studying at night. He used to ride to work on a bike and ride back, and he was studying to be a wool classer.

So when he got his wool classing certificate,

he sold the house,

and they moved down, and we moved down the tent, and he built the house that Dick built in Robe. And while he was doing that, he was wool classing, and then mum became a wool classer's cook as well, so she could earn some money.

And we went to school on the bus,

and that's how they got enough money to start building the house that Dick built in Bray. And

Erika Whillas

what did you do? What do you remember about the house?

Teena McLean

It was very, very basic, very plain. It had fiberglass in it, which wasn't part of the scene now, but in those days it was built like that. Took a long time to build. He worked very, very hard to build it. And Wobba, that's, he came along, and he used to help too. Dad, what happened was he cleared, it was a virgin block. So he cleared it. As he slowly cleared it, it was a virgin block. So he cleared it.

He then got the land to build the house on that clearing.

And during this time, the fires came through South Australia, Black Friday, and mum grabbed us all and took us out in the fallow paddock. Dad had cleared this land with a wet mattress and had us underneath the wet mattress in the fallow paddock while the fires went through. How

Erika Whillas

close did the fires get to you?

Teena McLean

I was petrified. Well, Dad was out as a fireman. He was on our truck, our Morris Motor truck. All the locals were out there with cans and everything else they could do to keep the fires away. And I'm petrified of fires because I can remember looking out from underneath the mattress and seeing these big balls of flames going over my head. And it was eucalyptus.

Pine trees, you know, they explode. And the wind was strong and they were blowing over the top of the fallow paddock. So I'm absolutely petrified of fires.

Erika Whillas

Did the house survive the fires? Yeah,

Teena McLean

yeah. The house survived.

SPEAKER_02

What's the password? Can I go to your network? What's the password if I can? Can you give the password on there? Waffle?

Teena McLean

I don't have one. I just go straight into it.

Erika Whillas

Okay.

Teena McLean

Okay, don't have one.

Erika Whillas

sorry. I

Fireballs, eucalyptus. Yeah. The house survived?

Teena McLean

The house survived and we went back to normal. I can't remember where Nan was then.

Uncle Joe was in...

There was Robe and Millicent, Millicent and Mount Gambier. Uncle Joe was in Millicent and Mount Gambier. Uncle Joe did a lot of... He restored grandfather clocks and that was his hobby in the background and he used to do... Restore them and then make sure the painting and the detailing on the front of them was okay. It was perfect. But I'm not sure where Nan was, whether she was...

She was there or in... I don't know.

In Mount Gambier. I don't know. I can't... In my mind, I've got no idea where she was. Uncle Joe married Cam. Cam was a nurse and it was the second time around so I'm not sure what happened there.

Erika Whillas

Was he living near you or at the house with you or where was he living? No, he

Teena McLean

wasn't living near us. He was either living in Millicent or Mount Gambier. Okay. And I think Nan might have been there going to school, but I don't know. I'm not sure.

Erika Whillas

And what school were you going to at that point? Went

Teena McLean

to Robe School. Robe

Erika Whillas

School. And how long were you in Robe for?

Teena McLean

Until we left to come up to Cobden, to work to Cobden.

Erika Whillas

Do you remember how many... When that was?

Teena McLean

Not exactly. No. What year of school were you I can remember being in the back of the... The Morris Manor. The Morris Manor and coming up with the furniture and our worldly belongings, but I don't know what year it was. Were

Erika Whillas

in?

you in primary school or high school? Primary school? Oh, God,

Teena McLean

no. I would have only been in primary school. I would have only been a little girl.

Erika Whillas

And so where... Then I went...

Teena McLean

When we went to Cobden, I started off at Tandarook South State School, which was about a mile and a half up the road. We used to walk. We'd go down through the creek over the little bridge. We'd walk down the road. We'd walk up the hill and to Tandarook, and then once we finished there, we went to Cobden.

Erika Whillas

Do you know why you moved? Why did the family move there? Because

Teena McLean

Dad wanted to be a farmer.

Erika Whillas

Okay. So that was after, though, because... So he was... He cleared the land and built the house. Yeah. But that...

Teena McLean

Then that... Well, it must have... There must... I don't know. There mustn't have been enough money or whatever, or there must have been an opportunity. So he just took us all, the whole lot of us, and we... We went and we bought land in Cobden. He wanted to be a farmer. So that's what he did. He... Was it

Erika Whillas

virgin land again?

Teena McLean

No, no, no. It was an established farm, and we milked cows and went to school in Tandarook and from there on. But... Do you

Erika Whillas

have any memories of, like, playing there or any memories from that? Oh, God,

Teena McLean

yes. We used to play. The boys used to remember riding the horse, the old grey mare. Richard, remember the old grey mare? Yeah. And Robert, when Mum and Dad weren't home, we weren't allowed to do it, but we'd ride the old grey mare.

And I can remember him putting me on it once, because my brothers, I used to be the nuisance, you know. And I used to yell out, if you don't let me play with you, I'll tell on you, you know. And I'd run after them, and so Robert chucked me on the old grey mare and slapped it on the rump. It took off, and here I am. I was that frightened. I grabbed a branch of a tree, and I was hanging from a branch of a tree, and the horse kept going.

And then it took off and it went down the road from the house. There was a grate off the main highway, and the horse took off and got its hooves stuck in the grate. And so the boys had to milk the cow. And so Teena was left with a horse with its stuck hoof in the grate to meet Mum and Dad when they'd come home from, they only used to shop once a month. And they met, Dad, Mum met me at the gate, and I'm in tears, and I don't know how it got stuck there, tra la la.

So anyway, they milked the cows, and I diverted, and we got the horse out of the grate, so.

Erika Whillas

And what was school like there?

Teena McLean

School? School was lovely. School was, John Cootie was the teacher, and there was I think 26 to 30 of the whole school, one teacher for the whole lot, and he was a football player. And so in those days, teachers were held in high regard in the community, and if the teacher, you were friendly with the teacher, you'd, you'd really made it, you know, you were, you'd sort of. Anyway, we used to go and watch John Cootie play footy, the whole family'd go, you'd have a, you'd have a picnic rug, and you'd all sit round the, the oval watching the footy being played.

So it was always very communal, very, yeah.

Erika Whillas

And that was the town sport team, or who?

Teena McLean

Well, that wasn't a town, um, Tanderook was just a little school sitting on, um, on a hillside. On the, on the side of the road, very, very humble, it seemed very big to me at the time, but I went back for the 50th anniversary and, uh, at Invergordon, and I was gobsmacked how small the school was, but when you're little, it seemed big.

But I, he was a good teacher because every day you had to, one member or another of the, of the teachers, of the students, had to get up. They had to give a, a, um, a morning speech, you know, who they were, what they'd done for the day and try and, and, um, I can remember having to stand up and do that too, but you taught, you were taught grammar, you were taught maths, you were taught all the very basics that got you onto, well educated enough to get onto, onto high school.

Erika Whillas

And so did, how long were you there for? Did you still go to high school in that area too?

Teena McLean

No, we left and went to, um, Invergordon and then, um, I went, I went to Namurka and then I met John in, um, at the, um, at the high school. He went to Katunga and we went to Namurka and...

Erika Whillas

When did you, do you remember when you moved to Invergordon or why you moved?

Teena McLean

Well, Dad wanted to be a farmer and he, and there was a better opportunity there. The other thing was that Invergordon had a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a. A. It was a little, it was a house that had a, Blackshores owned it before that, and it was a post office and a news agency. And it was a annex basically from the, from the town.

And so we moved there, because Mum had been a, um, a receptionist during the war and bringing in the data from the, from the, um, the war, and she was therefore skilled at, at, um, being a telephone telephonist and and so she taught me and then I learned counter -clock work as well and so I then started from there I saved up and I went with this elderly lady I told you about at Dunbulbo and went all over Victoria

doing telephonist work at night and those days you sent Morse code down the party lines because there were party lines so I could do Morse code and that was because mum during the war had learned to read Morse code coming in during the war and I could I could do the telephonist work so I did that all over Victoria and counter -clock work in the daytime.

Erika Whillas

And when did you start doing that? When did you leave Invergold? I

Teena McLean

don't know I'm not.

Erika Whillas

So you and John left Invergordon together? No,

Teena McLean

no, no, no, no. John wasn't there then.

John wasn't. John and I married. We married in Shepparton.

Erika Whillas

In Shepparton. So you moved to Invergordon but when did you start sort of travelling around and doing that work?

Was that not long after you moved to Invergordon? So you still kept...

Teena McLean

Invergordon, yeah, it was Invergordon. I was 17 and a half when I'd entered Norwich. I had enough money to take off on the P &O line ship called the Aramek and I travelled to Japan, Hong Kong and the Philippines and I did it, I think it was about a month and a half to two months.

Erika Whillas

And did you, so when did high school finish for you?

Teena McLean

I did to year four, just I didn't do intermediate I got to intermediate but I was stuck to the the primary school and then I got a thing called ECO 9 or the flu and I thought I was going to die. They thought I had TB and so I, when I recovered from that I left school and that's when I started working with Mum and Dad.

Erika Whillas

And what got you motivated to travel?

Teena McLean

Always wanted to travel

Erika Whillas

and it was

Teena McLean

unheard of in those days and when I think about it now, no, no mobile phone, no nothing and I, there wasn't a lot of money. I sailed into Hong Kong, thought I'd go into heaven. And the ship everywhere, I was very blessed. When I got on the Aramac, it was a float unbeknown to me, it was a floating university of Japanese students. And they had a teacher on board. And so Teena gets on there, she's got blonde hair down her back and they're just besotted by me.

And they want to speak English, right? I've got my little Japanese book, which I just saw out there before.

And so every port we pulled into down the coast of Japan, they took me up to meet their mum and dad and dined out and then put me back on the boat and then the next port the same thing all the way down. So I did Japan, Hong Kong and the Philippines. I went on the speed train, which was unheard of in those days.

And when it stopped, I got out and waded across a paddy field and sat with the ladies who were sowing rice. And then they took me up to their burials up in the mountains where they were sacred. They took me up there to show me where their burial areas were and put me back again.

Erika Whillas

Was the Philippines one of your favourite spots then on that trip?

Teena McLean

No, I shot the rapids in Japan was my favourite spot. I shot the rapids in the Philippines and then came home.

Erika Whillas

And when you came home, was that when you met John?

Teena McLean

When I came home, no, I came home and I thought I had some money left

and I'd started... I thought, well, I'm going. I'm going to go and do something with my life. I'm not staying here for the rest of my life. So I took off and I had enough money to get into Stotts College.

And I was going to do a stenographer's course and then I was going to be a stenographer on a ship, sail the world, fall in love with a captain or a sailor or some damn thing and live happily ever after cruising the world. So I started at Stotts College and then I looked at... I looked at all the girls at Stotts College and they had Angora twin sets

and stiletto patent leather shoes and I looked at them all and I thought, not me.

And the other thing I remember was on the boat, they were even in those days, they were basically sending... They had earphones on and they were sending messages, not typing, you know.

And I thought, this is a waste of time. There's no future in this. And so I left and came home and that's when I got my car and started doing the deliveries again and working.

Erika Whillas

With the family? Yeah. Yeah.

And that's in

Teena McLean

Begordan still? That was in Begordan still. And then I started school, went to Merkin Camberland High School and John and I and that was it. That's history. We got married.

In 68 and it was a family farm and John had travelled. He'd been a Rotary Exchange student in America for 12 months and he knew there was more to life than just being on the country farm, looking after the cows and everything else. And he had a brother seven years younger than him and Rowan. And Rowan couldn't be anything else, but... But a farmer. But John and I, both because we had a bit of fuel

SPEAKER_02

in our tank, I think,

Teena McLean

decided that there was something better than that. So we'd saved up. Before this, the only vehicle we had was the farm mute. We saved up and we bought a Corolla.

And so we put our worldly belongings in a tin shed and we lived out of the Corolla. We went for... I came in the south up to Harvey Bay looking for a news agency because I had the skills to work a news agency. John and I had worked for the public all my life, but John had never worked for the public all his life.

So we... In those days, you had to go... If you wanted a news agency, you had to go in front of a board, a news agency board, and they picked your brains. Why do you want to buy? Why do you want to buy a news agency? Tra -la -la -la -la -la. So we told them the story and there was one of them,

the heads of the news agency council, who liked us. And we said to him, this is what we wanted. And so he kept in touch with us and then one day we were coming up the coast here. Actually, we were camping at Lennox Head, at the lake. And he rang and said, there's a whisper, that there's a place called Invergordon, a place called Alstonville. There's a news agency there and we said, where the hell's Alstonville?

He said, it's just up the hill.

So we drove up and I fell in love with Alstonville. We both did. But I fell in love with Alstonville because when I was 17, I used to play A grade tennis. It was across from Invergordon. There was an old school and there were tennis schools, there were tennis courts. And Nan and Johnny used to live in the old house there.

And so Dad was a tennis player when he was young because his family were well -to -do and they had tennis courts. So we cleared it and he taught us all how to play tennis. And I was playing A grade tennis when I was 17 and went all over that area playing tennis. And then when we came up here to Alstonville, one of the things I fell in love with was the old tennis courts in Alstonville.

Erika Whillas

Did you play when you moved here?

Teena McLean

No, I played squash instead. I've got a stack of awards in there for squash. We both played squash. And anyway,

we weren't first on the list. There were two couples that were interested in buying it. And we were very blessed because

they had a lot of interest in buying it. They had a falling out. And so it went back on the market and we got it.

Erika Whillas

And that's the business you had for 25 years?

Teena McLean

That's it. But the thing was, when we left the farm, the money we had from there was all we had as a deposit for the news agency, for the real estate of it. But we had no money whatsoever. And we had to borrow money from the Westpac Bank. And until 2004, after 25 years,

we sold.

And that cheque sat on that coffee table there for three days. We didn't touch it. And we're running, walking around, looking at it and saying, we're free, we're free, we're free. We're not the sole subsidiary of Westpac Bank. And that's how it all went.

Erika Whillas

And when you, so you had the business here for 25 years, which I imagine having a news agent was very demanding.

Teena McLean

Mm. And you got home in the dark and got home in the dark. Did

Erika Whillas

you ever get the opportunity to visit the Willises, wherever they moved during that time? Because they left Invergordon, I guess, to go, where'd they go after that, do you know? Where'd they leave after Invergordon?

Teena McLean

I don't know. Where'd Mum and Dad go after Invergordon?

Erika Whillas

West.

That's where, went to Perth? Free, Fremantle. Oh, Fremantle.

Teena McLean

Oh, that's right, yeah. Or Dad, yeah. Yeah, Dad was on the trucks then, though. He was driving the trucks. Mm And that's when he had his accident, and that's when they went to Fremantle. Yeah.

Erika Whillas

-hmm.

Did you ever go visit Fremantle?

Teena McLean

Afterwards, yeah, down the track we went.

Erika Whillas

Did you go on a road trip, or what did you do? Yeah,

Teena McLean

John and I went on a road trip. Oh, no, a train, train trip then. Mm, we did the train.

Erika Whillas

And what was that like? What was that trip like? Or what was the, do you remember how the family was, or how your dad was? Well, it was

Teena McLean

pretty tough. It was pretty tough then, yeah. It was pretty tough, yeah.

Well, Dad had died, and Mum went over there. Dad had passed away. He'd had the accident, and it was after that. But, you know, I went over there, and the boys, they all went over on the train. So it was a really tough time. But

Erika Whillas

your dad was still alive in Fremantle, though, right? Yes, he was still alive there. Yeah, Mm -hmm. Yeah.

Teena McLean

when you went to that.

Erika Whillas

He I guess. Mm

UNKNOWN

was a very kind,

Teena McLean

-hmm. Mm -hmm.

Erika Whillas

And then did you visit them when they were, because they went to Sydney not long after that too, right?

Teena McLean

Well, I went down for Dad's, I went down to see Dad. Yeah, he was very, very sick. I went down, John and I went down a couple of times. And then we went to the funeral.

And then Mum got sick, and we went down a few times. But we were flat out working. We were working seven days a week, morning till night. We couldn't, we didn't have enough money to get staff to relieve us. So we had to, I mean, we weren't paying ourselves. We were paying the staff, but we just survived. We had no money whatsoever. We had nothing in reserve. Mm -hmm. And then, yeah, we went down and saw Mum a few times.

She was at, she was living down with, who was she living with then? Craig, maybe? Craig, Craig, yeah, Craig. It was Craig and the house there. And we saw her, and she was very frail after that. She was good for a start. She was really well and happy. And she got lupus, of course, and yeah.

Erika Whillas

But to circle back to a happy time, tell me how the, when you and John first met, how did he ask you out? How did that all go? How did? Well,

Teena McLean

it was my brother's fault. Oh, He'd got a corona for his birthday for Christmas. I'd come home from Scots College. He was home. Mum and Dad had bought him a corona for his, because he was the first Woolis who ever went to university. And, of course, my parents didn't have any money. And so the only way any of the family could get to university was through scholarships. And he was a smart -ass, so he got a scholarship.

Erika Whillas

yeah?

Teena McLean

And then I flattered with Richard in Melbourne too. And that's when I was going to Scots College and working as a, yeah, anyway.

And so I came home, and Richard wanted to take his car over to show John because John had been in America for 12 months. Come home. But when he went to America for that 12 months, he went to a rural area, a place called Wiggins, where there was farming and everything else. So he wasn't in the city playing the city boy. He was working with people on the land. So when he came back, he left school, and his mum and dad had a commission block in those days,

Invergordon and Katunga, and the Merc is in the middle. They were both commission areas. That was the return servicemen from the war were allocated a block. And all it had on it was an army shed. That was it. That was nothing else. Just this block of dirt with an army shed on it, right? And that was their allocation. That was their gift for being return servicemen, and this was their start in life.

Well, they thought they'd gone to heaven, because they had land, and they had somewhere, and they had to survive. And so John's parents, they got an orchard,

which they had to establish, and a dairy farm.

So Katunga, this side of America, and Invergordon, this side. I'm delivering papers and everything. This side, right?

So anyway, we go to school. And Richard's birthday is the 24th, and he'd gone up to show Johnny's car. I wanted to go, because all I wanted to do was a ride in the car. I wasn't interested in visiting John's farm or John or anything else. I wanted just a ride in this brand -new car, because it was, like, unreal.

And so I went up, and I got out, and John came out, and Richard and him got in the car, and they're doing drifts and drives and stops and starts, and I'm walking around the dairy and checking things out. Anyway, we left and came home, and Richard had invited John to come to his 21st birthday party at home, because in those days, you had it at home, so it was at Invergordon.

So he come. He... John came over, and everybody partied, but I'd had a boyfriend before I went off on the Aramec on to do my tour, and he was... Donnie Olsham was his name. He was in charge of the little supermarket in Namurka. He was, like, what you'd call a bad smell. I couldn't get rid of him. So when I went off on the cruise, I thought, thank God for that. Anyway, I came home from...

Melbourne from Swats College for Richard's birthday celebrations and Christmas at home. I arrive, and there's Donnie Olsham's vehicle there, and I said to Mum, who invited him here? She said, I did. I said, well, you can entertain him, because I'm not. So then I walked in and made a beeline for John, and we danced and partied and enjoyed the night. And he headed home with Roger Corliss, wasn't it?

Roger Corliss, yeah. And they had an accident on the way home. I think they may have consumed too much alcohol. And went through a channel bridge, and anyway, he didn't appear on New Year's Day, and I didn't know why, but that was why.

But in March that year, when you were going to get married.

Erika Whillas

Oh, oh. And you got married soon after?

Teena McLean

Yeah, got married in September, 28th of September, 1968. In Shepparton, the Presbyterian Church.

Erika Whillas

Beautiful.

Teena McLean

His mum didn't like me at all. I wasn't good enough. I was from a big family.

There was a girl in Namurka who was more suited, had the right name, the right family, the whole lot. So I didn't really start off on the best of footings.

Erika Whillas

Why was it frowned upon to be from a big family?

Teena McLean

Oh, well, we didn't have any money. And I was, in those days too, there was a big thing about religion in those days. So you were assumed to be Catholic, whether you were or not was immaterial. And when I took off to go on my trip, my cruise, the locals were so small -minded that they used to put a cross on the calendar, you know, for when you left and when you got home, and they were sure I was going to come back with either a slitty eye or I was going to be pregnant.

I mean, that was the mentality in those days. I mean, it sounds ridiculous now, but in those days it was. And because I'd been popular

and I'd won Miss Showgirls and all sorts of things, I was the girl most likely. And so they had me targeted. So I proved them different. I'd just proved them wrong. And I guess they'd probably done that all my life. But Mum and I were good. We were probably more like mother and daughter because I helped bring up the last four or five of them with her.

And I'm not sorry I left school. I've never regretted it. I'm not clever like the rest of them, but I've never wanted for anything. And I've always done what I wanted to do. And Dad, when I was saving to go, when I left school to help Mum, and when I got sick with the Echo 9 after that, I thought I'd go back and see if I'd get me intermediate. So there was a job. There was Ardmona and SBC canneries in that area.

There was Ardmona and Shepparton.

And so I put my hair back up in a French roll again.

And Dad had taught me to draw. And so I drove down the Angle Road, parked the Morris Miner there, got with the ladies, went into SBC and Ardmona and sorted pairs at night. And I saved up and got enough money for my textbooks

to go and do some more study. Yeah,

Erika Whillas

fantastic. And Dad, did you have some questions you wanted to ask about Fran and such things? What were some questions? Any questions that you thought Teena could shed light on?

Teena McLean

Well, actually, I think the idea might be I've got paperwork somewhere that I'll find. I think I might have sent you the notes, but I took all these notes. Well, that's about all I've got. I don't have any more than that.

Erika Whillas

All right. Well, do you know what

SPEAKER_02

she did?

Can you just quickly go through what you know of her life? About

Erika Whillas

Fran? Yeah. Yes, what do you know about Fran?

Teena McLean

Well, I don't... What do you know about

SPEAKER_02

Dad driving her across to Melbourne or Sydney in that Essex Super 6? Do you know anything about that? Well,

Teena McLean

I've showed you the photo of Dad getting his new car. You know, they'd bought him and they drove across in that. I don't know much of what happened when they did it, but I can remember she was overjoyed. She was absolutely terrified of driving and terrified of flying and she was terrified of heights. She did very little in that way. She wasn't... She wasn't popular because, as I said, she'd fallen in love.

She worked for the...

COR. It was a... Yeah, but, yeah, she worked for COR, but she also, during the war, she worked for a mob called the Friendship Club and they were the ones that catered for all the servicemen when they came back in between. So she used to go and do...

catering and serving and helping to support them when they came back at stages during the war. And this is where she met this Townsend guy. But prior to that, she used to... She worked for the CSIRO and she was a ledger keeper and she used to catch the train every morning and the family behind them,

the guy that was there, he used to catch the train. Well, that was Uncle Reg.

And that's how they met up. Oh,

SPEAKER_02

OK. How come Uncle Joe wouldn't go to a meeting or something?

Teena McLean

Oh, yeah, he didn't approve of... Well, he was the black sheep because he'd got involved with CAM, you know, and so he was tut -tut, no -no talking, no nothing. There was, yeah, no socialising whatsoever there. That was unheard of.

SPEAKER_02

OK, there's a photograph of Sam. He was training the nurses, you know, for... Well,

Teena McLean

that was the Friendship Club. That was that mob that did the... It wasn't called the Friendship Club. It was called something else. But they, yeah, they were wonderful. They supported the servicemen. She didn't have the training, but they cared for them. They supported them. You know, if they had broken limbs, they fed them. They did everything they possibly could to help them. And I think what the name of them was are in those notes.

But she... A lot of the women who... See, my Aunty Fran was from a well -to -do family, and a lot of those women were sort of not really involved in the war. You know, it was happening, but it wasn't. But then, when things got really serious, they all got... They were all asked to come and assist in this group to help the returned servicemen, and that's what she did. Yeah, yeah. So I think

SPEAKER_02

about these two little girls who died, they were between Fran and... There was two little girl twins that died. One died after a couple of days, and one died after two years.

Teena McLean

Don't know anything about them whatsoever. She never mentioned them. I don't... I thought they must have been some of our family. I thought they were us, you know, some of us. I didn't really think it was... No, no, no.

..legitimate, were

SPEAKER_02

they? No, no, no, they were after... They were...

I mean, they'd been married for 20 years or something. But that's why there's a big gap. There's a gap of five years between Jack and Fran, and ten years between Fran and Dick, and the two girls were in the middle. Yeah. And they died.

Teena McLean

Yeah, no, I don't know what... That's

SPEAKER_02

really dramatic for their mother.

Teena McLean

I don't know. I don't know what the story was there, but...

SPEAKER_02

It's

Teena McLean

a bit like Mum, you know. She was always told, she was born on a... Stornowar on the Isle of Lewis and all this stuff. I mean, when you get back to the nitty -gritties, it's not quite like that at all, but that was the story she used to tell, you know. Where

Erika Whillas

did... What turned out to be the case, though?

Teena McLean

Glasgow.

Well, she was born up in the...

Sticks, right up in the Sticks. I went up there. No, no,

SPEAKER_02

she was born in Glasgow. Glasgow. And the house... The house, the

Teena McLean

little house, and then some of the family. I wonder if those little girls are tied up with that. Some of the family, they went to America, didn't they? Yeah. Yeah, and there's a mob of them over in America. Yeah. Yeah. And Kath used to come up here.

Erika Whillas

And do you know much about Nana's early life, Kath's early life? No.

Teena McLean

No.

Mm.

Mm.

Erika Whillas

All right. Well, maybe...

Teena McLean

It was a bit wobbly, you know. A lot of it didn't sort of... Like Mum and Dad being together and all the... A lot of it until you left. And then later on in life, you work out sort of it wasn't quite... Didn't quite fit the bill like it was supposed to, if you get my drift, you know? Mm.

SPEAKER_02

It was a big thing.

Teena McLean

Oh, God, yes. It

SPEAKER_02

was a big thing in those days. Kath had a baby when she was 17. Yeah. And it was... Mm.

Teena McLean

It was just... Not very... Not

SPEAKER_02

very proper now, but it was... It was

Teena McLean

unmentionable. It was totally unmentionable. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And it was really great. It's fantastic that Kath's dad looked after him. Yeah. Yeah. And looked after him. It was

Teena McLean

wonderful. Absolutely. And supported her, you know? Well, his

SPEAKER_02

family... Just Warped him, yeah.

Teena McLean

warped him. Yeah. Warped the slate of him. Didn't do anything to do with him.

And, yeah, no, it was... But Uncle Joe was the black sheep. He was the... He was the...

Always the troublemaker. Always the trouble, you know? So every family has him, so...

Erika Whillas

What's an example of his black sheep -ery?

Teena McLean

I'm not sure. Oh, I don't know. I don't know. There was a family photo, and he had a girlfriend that didn't fit the mould, you know? And you could see they were trying to not get her in the picture, and he was making sure she was in the picture. I mean, that was the mentality in those days. I mean, it's a joke now, but in those days it was, yeah, not quite right.

Erika Whillas

Different world. All right, well, that's

SPEAKER_02

a pretty good chunk. Thank you, Teena. Transcribe that, and then we'll see. You have

Erika Whillas

to

Teena McLean

transcribe it. I know you will.

Erika Whillas

We'll do that. Bye.

- [Teena's life and family](/people/christine-frances-whillas-b1947)

- [Dick](/people/richard-charles-whillas-b1920) · [Cath](/people/catherine-mcleod-whillas-b1920) · [Fran](/people/frances-louise-whillas-b1915)

- Siblings mentioned: [Robert](/people/robert-alexander-whillas-b1944) · [Richard](/people/richard-johnstone-whillas-b1945) · [Andrew](/people/andrew-john-whillas-b1949) · [Janet](/people/janet-barbara-whillas-b1951)

- [Marriage to John McLean (1968)](/events/marriage-teena-whillas-to-john-mclean-1968)

- [Hopetoun truck accident (1970)](/events/hopetoun-truck-accident-1970)

- [Open questions raised by this interview](/open-questions#teena-birth-residence-and-chronology-questions)