Thousands of people camped in shanties and tents, with children scrabbling in the rubbish dumps. Some men worked for 'sustenance' on public works, perhaps one day a fortnight or one week in five, building roads with picks and shovels or planting forests in rain and mud or heat and flies, living in tents, often hungry, without medical treatment or proper tools or clothes. Confrontations between the unemployed and townspeople were often violent, as communities grew afraid of the growing numbers of unemployed. Poverty Gully was different. Most 'susso' camps are recalled with horror.
People speak about the quarrels, the starvation, the mud, the dust, the weevils in the flour.
My word that Gully Jack could play the fiddle. It must be years since I played bridge. Partly I think it was because it was a long journey from any major town. Most came to look for gold and only the most determined stayed on. Mostly I think it was the fact that the local farmers were in much the same situation as the 'dolies'.