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of five to obtain a Chinese education, returning at the age of 18, when he obtained an apprenticeship in tailoring.
He received 80 Pounds for a three-year contract. Myrtle and Charlie were married on 12 May 1930 in a wedding
celebrated by 90 guests held in the Kuo Ming Tang building in Cavenagh Street, and officiated at by the Registrar
of Marriages, J W Nichols. After the wedding they were to visit Charlie’s mother in the Toi Shan district China,
where she had returned some years earlier. They were to spend nine months in the village and Hong Kong and
when they returned to Darwin, it was in the depths of the Depression.
On their return they were to live with a dear friend Selena Hassan, where Charlie was able to obtain a work
as a tailor for which he was trained. At a later date they were to move further up Cavenagh Street into one of
Yet Loong’s shops. Myrtle’s elder sister Ethel had married one of Yet Loong’s sons, Harry Quan. They acquired
the agency for Malvern Star bicycles and took in laundry work. Like the majority of the Chinese population,
they worked extremely hard to just earn a living and be able to put food on the table.
Myrtle and Charlie had four sons, Ronald, Raymond, Ken and Maurice. Ronald was delivered by Mrs Tye,
Raymond by their friend Selena Hassan, while Ken and Maurice she delivered herself. This was not unheard of
but not for the faint hearted. It was in the middle of washing that she came into labour, gathered all the necessary
equipment and awaited the arrival of her baby. She delivered the baby Ken, gave herself half an hour’s rest
and then resumed work back at the washing board. She also delivered Maurice under the same conditions, and
maintains that going to a doctor was not even considered.
She told of how ‘the show must go on’ and how the washing and ironing had to be finished in readiness for her
customers. The majority of customers were from the Army, the bank boys as well as private citizens, who relied
on her to have their clothes ready. Washing entailed soaking, boiling, scrubbing on the glass washing boards and
starching the clothes, and when dry, damping down before ironing. An added chore was the flaking of the solid
cakes of soap, as at that time no soap powder was available. Ironing itself presented a challenge, as the first iron
Myrtle had was heated on the open fire, which then had to be tested on a rag before attempting to use on the
garment, as black sooty marks always came off with the first few strokes. Her next iron was a petrol iron, which
was considered quite upmarket. One petrol lamp with mantle would light up a whole room. It was hot, hard work,
especially as all bank staff and government workers wore whites only, while the service personnel wore khaki.
In 1937 with four sons under six years old, they were to experience a cyclone. They recall the high winds and
sheets of galvanised iron flying around. The boys were to hide under a huge timber counter lined with mattresses
and pillows.
Prior to the war Myrtle and Charlie were to join her brothers Ernest and William Fong in establishing the
Darwin Aerated Waters soft drink factory in Knuckey Street that was taken over by the Army after the bombing
on 19 February 1942. Prior to their evacuation the air raid sirens left an impact on the children as all lights had
to be put out. Raymond recalls on one occasion being at the Star pictures with one of his younger brothers when
the sirens went off. He remembers running in the dark dragging his brother trying to find his way home in the
blackened town. Myrtle and her four sons were to leave on the last civilian ship out of Darwin, SS Montoro.
Unlike those Chinese who were evacuated on Zealandia under great hardship, she was to travel in relative comfort.
They stayed in Brisbane for a short period with her sister Ethel and then moved on to Sydney where her husband
later joined her. Charlie had remained in Darwin as was the policy and later travelled down through the centre to
join his family. On 19 February 1942 as he was riding his bicycle towards the wharf section, the first bombs hit
Darwin. He recalls hearing the calls of help from a woman who was lucky enough to survive and helping her from
the rubble to safety. He was horrified to see the wharf in flames. A keen photographer all his life, always with a
camera over his shoulder, he began taking many photographs. He returned to his home, dropped the bicycle and
camera, rushed inside to collect more film, but was shocked to find them both missing when he returned. He was
able to salvage some of their household goods and a truck and had hoped to drive south to rejoin the family.
On arriving at Adelaide River all evacuees with vehicles were requested to line them up and then hand over
the keys. The Army then confiscated all vehicles as well as the personal property loaded. This was a great shock
to all concerned who were then left stranded to find their own way down south. He eventually met up with his
family in Sydney and was able to obtain a job as a driver for Captain Phillips of the shipping firm James Patrick
and Company. He later moved onto a property at Botany on a two-hectare block of land with two friends and
established a vegetable market garden. They were to grow a variety of vegetables, such as carrots, parsnips,
shallots rhubarb, turnip and cabbage. From there they purchased a fish and chip shop in the suburb of Glebe until
their return to Darwin in 1946.
On their return to Darwin the Army returned the soft drink factory back to them. All work in the factory was
done manually; from washing bottles, to labelling and the lifting heavy crates of drinks in large brown bottles.
Myrtle had the job of mixing the syrup, which entailed the continuous heavy lifting of 28-kilogram bags of sugar
to a high level, a backbreaking job. Often over the Christmas period they worked continuously seven days a week
for months at a time to keep up supplies. They kept up this work for 19 years without one holiday until all their
sons were married. In 1966 they embarked on a year’s holiday, covering many major cities in Australia, on to
New Zealand, England, Europe, Asia and the United States. This was to be their holiday of a lifetime as indeed it
was. One highlight was travelling on Queen Elizabeth II from London to the United States and sitting down at the
Captain’s table for a formal dinner.
Their first home after the war was in Smith Street west next door to Quongs Bakery. Later they purchased a
block of land in Lambell Terrace for 70 Pounds where a large home was built. After living there for many years,
they were to relive the terror of the cyclone of 1937 in Cyclone Tracy in 1974. They had recently moved to a
new home in the northern suburbs prior to the cyclone and, as with most homes in that area, theirs was totally
demolished and had to be rebuilt.