My Life in Twelve Censuses - Part Two

 

Census at Bethlehem by Pieter Brueghel II The Younger

 

 

This blog post is submitted as part of the National Family History Month blogging challenge called Genealife in Lockdown as mentioned in this blog post here.  

Janet Few wrote this blog post which was the inspiration for this second blog post and a previous blog post here. Her blog post was entitled My Life in Seven Censuses.  Janet lives in the UK and they take a census every ten years.  In fact, it is likely that this might be the last census in the UK; the government considering that it can obtain the information it needs through other means.  Let's see what happens.

Australia is a bit unique in family history terms in that it has destroyed most of the censuses it has taken over the years.  You can read more about the history of the Australian census here. 

I found Janet's blog post fascinating on a number of levels.  It was really interesting to see what kind of data the enumerators were asked to collect e.g. what type of heating was in the house, what type of television, how many cars, level of education and so on. 

Janet bemoans the lack of information about pets and there's a bit of me that wholeheartedly agrees with her; pets are an important part of the family and presumably the government would like to know how many dogs there are in the neighbourhood so they can have the right number of dog catchers or supply the right number of dog litter bags.

So what can we find out from the Censuses taken in Australia in my lifetime? Did the questions change? Where was I living? How did family or household relationships change? What questions are missing from the census? 

 

Brisbane 8 July 1991 Queensland State Archives Item ID 436381 Image is in the Public Domain

 

Tuesday 6 August 1991

We are still living in Taringa and I am expecting our first child.  My husband's father died five months before our wedding the previous year. He is the first of our parents to die which is a great shock.  Bob Hawke is the PM. 

In the photo above you can see how much the skyline has changed.  The Treasury building is in the foreground there.  It doesn't turn into a Casino for another four years and the Lands Administration building is on the right. From memory the Births Deaths and Marriages Registry office was in the base of the Treasury building until it moved into the Valley. You can see the Queensland Government Executive Building there on the right with probably the coat of arms on the top as a badge.  I worked in that building for Film Queensland at the time building up AFTRS activities in the State.  That building has since been demolished to make way for.....another casino....sigh.

Even though I finished working for the ABC a couple of years before, my diary from this time is an ABC Diary, featuring photos of presenters and actors. I started working for AFTRS in 1989 but resigned in May 1991 to have my baby.  Maternity leave was not on offer unfortunately as I was on contract.  

Diary entries reveal that I am exploring child care options at Toowong and in the Valley.  I have already started attending Nursing Mothers Association meetings (now called Breastfeeding Australia).  The nursery is ready. There are no notes in either of my diaries for that year about the census being taken.  The night before the census is taken, my pregnancy diary reads:

You've been all over the place this week - really quiet, then very active.  I'm getting extremely bored - I have washed everything - the car, the floors, the front gate.  Why don't you come out and I'll wash you too!

On 6th August Tim Berners-Lee announced the World Wide Web project and the first website was launched.  Pretty amazing! But neither the WWW or my daughter made it into the Census for that year.

Statistics of note that year were:

• the Queensland population grew by 15.1%
• the median age was 32
• languages other than English most likely to be spoken at home were Italina, Chinese and then German.
• those born overseas came from the UK (44%), New Zealand (11%), Italy (5.4%) and the Netherlands (4.6%)
• the median annual individual income in Brisbane was $13,947
• the median housing loan monthly repayment in Brisbane was $566 and the median weekly rent was $119

Pets?  I think that by now I have a black cat called Rambo.  He was given to me by a fellow worker at the ABC as a kitten. 

Gravestone Barbara Helen CONNER died 6 December 1995 Rookwood Cemetery Plot: 20_Zone I/#/14

 

Another wide angle photo to show location in cemetery

 

6 August 1996

John Howard is now PM and we are now living in our new "forever" home. I have two children but my mother died the previous year, leaving another big hole in our family. The census won't record the trip my father and I took to New Zealand after my mother's death.  This is apparently a bit of a tradition - to go away after someone dies.  He and his parents went to Tasmania after his brother died.  His sister and mother went to New Zealand I think after his father died.  It is my first (and so far only) trip to New Zealand and I love it.

I am back working full-time.  AFTRS has moved from the city into New Farm. These are the busy years. My daughter has started kindergarten. My paternal grandmother dies this year. 

Brisbane City introduces a smart fleet of catamarans called City Cats which travel at faster speeds down the river than the ordinary ferries. They herald a new era for Brisbane and I enjoy catching them occasionally with the kids when we can.

The look of the Census Report has gone ahead in leaps and bounds.  It is easier to read and there are graphical illustrations which are pleasing to the eye. We now have things called Social Atlas. Salient facts are as follows:

• Brisbane's population grew by 14%
• over 20% of the population were born overseas
• the percentage of south-east and north-east Asians and New Zealanders has increased
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island people accounted for 1.6% of the population in Brisbane - an increase on the previous census
• 16.6% of the labour force held a higher degree; double the proportion in the 1986 census
• 10% of families were single parent families
• unemployed people were 8.8% of the labour force
  
• Nearly 16% of the labour force were mothers with dependent children
• nearly 76% of people travelled to work by car

Pets?  Rambo is still alive but not for much longer.  He develops a kidney disease from memory and so we have to put him down.  The moment he is dead on the surgery operating table, the kids look up at me and say "Can we get a puppy now?"

 

We have a yellow budgie called Tweetie.

 

Remembrance Plaque Ethel Eileen Conner Watson's Bay Remembrance Gardens 1996

 

7 August 2001

John Howard is still PM and of course this is the year of September 11. But  that hasn't happened yet.  

My father and his new partner have moved to Brisbane.  My children are at Primary School and I am studying for a Graduate Diploma in Arts Management in a fledgling online learning program through the University of South Australia.

At work, we are about to move the office of AFTRS into the newly refurbished Judith Wright Centre, formerly Empire Office Furniture and the old Bushell's Tea Warehouse in the Valley.   

Here are the statistical facts:

• Brisbane is 41% of the population of Queensland - nearly 1.5m
• the population grew by nearly 9%
• The ATSI population is now 1.7%
• 22.2% of the population were born overseas
• 10.6% of the population born overseas were from South-East Asia
• 19.7% of the population now hold a degree or higher qualification
• 12% of families were one-parent families
• the unemployment rate was 7.8%
• 16.2% of the labour force are mothers with dependent children
• More people traveled to work by car than the last census
• 35% of the population used the internet at home

Pets? Now we have Jessie who is a bitzer from the pound. She is Isabel and Caspar's "sister".

Tweetie lives on.  We find her a mate but she literally scares him to death.  

Bel starts breeding guinea pigs in a big way.  The memorable ones are Joy who is mother to most.  We named quite a few after the Danish royal family.  I have very fond memories of a black guinea pig who did actually cuddle into your neck - he was called Valdemar.  Robert has to build two hutches: one for the boys and one for the girls.

 

Caspar, Bel and Jessie on Straddie circa 1999

 

8 August 2006

John Howard is still PM. Both children are now in high school. The previous year my husband's mother moved into care. We also installed air-conditioning at home - a great luxury. 

The Census looks different again.  Now we have community profiles.

Here are the statistical facts:

• Brisbane's population is now 1.7m
• the median age is 37
• the median weekly rent is $220
• the median monthly mortgage is $1300
• 21.7% of people were born overseas
• top countries of birth in order are: England, New Zealand, South Africa, Vietnam and Scotland
• nearly 25% of the population are Catholics
• nearly 19% profess no religion
• top languages other than English are Mandarin, Vietnamese and Cantonese
• Unemployment is 4.4% of the labour force
• median weekly income is $516

Pets? We still have the lovely Jessie but not for much longer I fear.  She is run over and it is a long time before I decide to get another dog.  Jessie's cousin Hoss (the kids cousins' dog) is bereft, as is the Jack Russell around the corner.  I have never cried so much telling the other dogs that she isn't with us anymore.  Hoss keeps crossing the creek and exploding through the back gate hoping against hope but he eventually gets the message.

Tweetie miraculously kicks on.  She's one tough budgie.  Occasionally she has visits from cousin Joe when Robert's sister and her family go on holidays - Joe is a cockatiel but she turns her back on him and steadfastly ignores him which he finds quite disconcerting.

 

Bel has been free leasing a couple of horses, now she is older.  It is a period of great drought in Australia so we are carting not only hay but water to the properties where we agist. Both are ex-racehorses, Peaches and Melody, and not really suitable for pony club but Bel has a lot of fun with them. 

 

Bel and Peaches at Moggill Pony Club

 

Tuesday 9 August 2011

Julia Gillard is now PM. Brisbane suffered major flooding early in the year. It's a year of great change for me. I left AFTRS after almost 20 years in March. At around the same time the tsunami hits Fukushima in Japan.

It was a memorable Census for more reasons than one. First of all I was a Census collector; one of 43,000 field staff employed to deliver 14.2 million forms to 9.8 million households. A diary entry for a couple of days before says:

worked really hard delivering Census forms - about 4-6 hours per day of solid walking and some phenomenal hills. Got contract for job at library...I start on Tuesday. I will drive Bel to work then head on up to Redcliffe. 

So my first paid gig in Library-land as well as being a Census taker and then a month or so later I had another contract job organizing the 10th Birthday Anniversary Celebrations for the Judith Wright Centre. A busy woman indeed. There were probably five of us under the same roof on Census night. Bel, Dan, Caspar, Robert and me. There are probably four cars out the front now; mine, Robert's, Bel and Dan's. I am studying for a Masters online through the University of Canberra.

Here are the salient statistics:

• population of Brisbane is now $1.04m (I suspect this is because there were major changes to local government in 2008 as per this article here and places like Logan became cities in their own right)
• the median age is 34 - so getting younger
• median weekly rent is $350
• top responses for ancestry were in order English (25%), Australian (23%), Irish (9.5%), Scottish (7.4%)and Chinese (4.1%),  
• country of birth (outside Australia) in order was New Zealand, England, China, India and Vietnam
• 53% of people traveled to work by car
• 26% of families had both parents working full-time 

Pets?  None and I am very glum as result but am plenty busy. 

 

 

9 August 2016

Malcolm Turnbull is now PM. 

This was not a good year for the Australian Bureau of Statistics.  Five years before they had encouraged everyone to complete the census online but there was still some reluctance to do so; fears for privacy etc. This year it was all online and the ABS suffered denial of service attacks on its website for two days.  Eek!

We are now a smaller household. Bel and Dan have moved out.I am still working full-time at Moreton Bay Libraries.  

The census won't have recorded that I went overseas again in 2015 for my father's and his partner's 80th birthdays.  I get stuck in Bali as do many others because of the volcano ash cloud and manage to escape via Singapore.

I am studying towards my Diploma of Family History with the University of Tasmania. You can't have too many qualifications, can you?

I am also trying my hand at quilting, just in time for Bel's birthday.

Bel and Alex with the Birthday quilt.

 

 

 Here are the salient statistical facts:

• Brisbane now has a population of nearly 2.3m
• Average number of children per family is 1.9 so we are on the money
• The median age of the population is 37, slightly younger than the rest of Australia which is 38
• 46.6% of the population is married and 12% is separated or divorced
• 22.9% of the population have a degree or gther qualification
  
•  the most common ancestries in the Brisbane population were English 26.6%, Australian 23.2%, Irish 8.8%, Scottish 7.4% and German 4.3%
• Most commonly spoken languages (other than English) were Mandarin, Vietnamese and Cantonese, then Spanish.
• Median weekly income was just over $700 per week
• 61.2% of the population traveled to work by car
• 27.5% of the population reckoned they did 5-14 hours per week of unpaid domestic work
• 76% of the population lived in a separate house
• nearly 13% lived in flats or apartments
• most dwellings had 2 cars (37%)
• median rent was $355 per week
• 86% of the population could now access the internet from their dwelling 

 

Pets? None and there is a big hole in my heart.  I look at dogs on the RSPCA website surreptitiously and longingly.

 10 August 2021

This week Australians were asked to complete the Census online on Tuesday night In Queensland, we were out of lock-down but only just, the lock-down having finished at 4pm on Sunday afternoon.  We are required to wear masks for the next 2 weeks when out and about.  The most controversial part of the census this year was the decision not to include questions about people's sexuality and gender identity. 

I heard no stories of the ABS site crashing.  Indeed you were allowed to go on early and complete it before census night so that might have helped.

So what's changed since the last census?  

Scott Morrison is now PM.  

Certainly our household is very different now that we are empty-nesters. I have retired, largely due to COVID but also for personal reasons. 

This census will have missed my last job where I commuted every day 1 hour and 20 minutes each way. 

It won't count the fact that I've become a grandma, unless the baby comes to stay the night which is unlikely. 

We have two cars out front that are registered and one that is not.   My husband and I each still have a car.  The other is being used for parts and is a leftover from the kids who have moved on to newer models.  My husband still works and our daughter's family lives 30 minutes away by car so I'm reluctant to become a one car family just yet.

Pets? In 2016, on my return from a holiday in Canada with my father, I decided I simply could not live without a pet anymore and I found Arwen at the RSPCA refuge in Dakabin. She is a beautiful dog and we are so lucky to have her.  Again the census won't have recorded a trip to Japan with my father in 2018.  Possibly my last overseas trip given COVID.

The census asked me how many hours my husband and I each spent on housework and voluntary work.  It also asked if we were willing to have our information kept for 100 years and then revealed.  We said yes.  

There were new questions on long term health and whether we had served in the Defence Forces.  You can read more here.

Have you learned something from this exercise?  A census captures quite a lot of information but it also misses a lot too doesn't it? eg travel and pets.

 

Thanks to BFF Loani for this shot.

That's about it from me.  You've done very well to get this far if you are still reading.  It's been a quiet week.  I had so many plans to get lots of stuff done during lockdown but I seemed to drift into a great torpor not doing very much except play bridge!!  I raced into the QFHS library on Monday to take in the new acquisitions for the library so hopefully they will be added to the catalogue soon.  Here is a picture to whet your appetite.

 

Books for QFHS Library

I knitted some more of my vest - it will be ready just in time for summer;)  I finished knitting a mobile for my niece who was expecting a baby on Friday and because she is super organised, she delivered said baby right on time!!  Another twig for our family tree. Welcome to the world Beau.

 

 

 

 

Heart mobile designed by Debbie Bliss

A parcel turned up from Gould books containing the prize I am offering for the first correct entry received for my quiz posted here.

I have received two entries so far which is super exciting.

Another parcel turned up with a belated birthday present for my daughter.  A mask for the horse-mad woman that she is.  I received a nice comment on my mask that I wore today which features bicycles.

On Thursday I took my Shotbox over to show Dad how it worked and we decided to photograph his grandfather's medals.  Here is a sample of them.  I particularly like the one from China 1900. 

 

 

The China Medal

WW1 medal

You can see the name of the ship HMS Firequeen which I wrote about here

Jim's medals for National Service in the Navy

I apologize for the lack of information about the medals.  Obviously I need to do more research in this regard.  

So that's about it from me.  The last piece of great news I have to end the week is I got my 2nd jab today of AZ.  I was meant to get it at the end of next week but our Chief Medical Officer urged grand-parents to get their 2nd jab earlier given the Delta outbreak.  This is an example of the advice given to grandparents providing childcare in Cairns and Yarrabah recently during lockdown which has since been revoked.

 Note: a grandparent who provides childcare to family members should be vaccinated. The person providing childcare should wear a mask and the children over 12 and other household members should also wear a mask.

Priceline Chemist got it in today and I found out about it through my community facebook page.  I've been ringing local surgeries and chemists all week.  Hoorah!  Now I will be able to catch up with Frankie and Bel again soon.

Thanks to everyone who has chosen to participate in this blogging challenge.  Blogging is alive and well and it is so inspiring to read about what everyone is doing.  Keep up the excellent work! And thanks for reading to the end of this very long post.  You deserve a medal just for doing that :)