FOR OVER 15 years Christine Webb has been gathering stories from people who grew up on the land locally, during the time before technology took over the world.
Having grown up on a farm in Korumburra herself, Christine initially trained to be a secondary school teacher in Melbourne but couldn’t wait to get back out onto the land and returned to work on farms in Gippsland.
Over the years Christine witnessed the changes in farming practices and the lives of those working the land, and in this, saw an opportunity.
“I’ve watched as everything’s changed really fast, and I’ve just watched farming change and the type of people that live in the country.
“I thought geez, all of this history is just disappearing, and I’m going to grab it while I can, so it just seemed right for me to gather stories.”
Christine had always had an interest in filmmaking and wanted to capture these stories using film, and though there was a media course at the local TAFE, she couldn’t afford to do it at the time.
But a stroke of luck saw a professional filmmaker– who had been trained in filming and editing by the BBC and worked on programs such as Today Tonight – move into the district.
He was also prepared to train people for free to help fill in spots on Melbourne’s community television station, Channel 31, which was run by volunteers.
“I received really good training in filming and editing from him and learned all the finer points in a crash course, in between my milking and stuff like that,” explained Christine.
“That was just all serendipitous.”
Coming into contact with many different people while working on farms has meant that Christine has a big pool of people to draw upon and has never been short of
someone to interview.
“People just turn up on my path and I think, he’s a live one, or she’s a live wire, and I’ll get a story out of this person. Because they all have great stories to tell.”
Post-war stories told by those in their 80s and 90s are what Christine is particularly enthusiastic about documenting.
Tales from a time when people lived without electricity, hand-milked cows before school, worked with draft horses or rode to school on their horses.
As well as those ‘cock and bull’ stories about people being attacked by bulls,roosters or pigs, things that only happen in the country and transform over time into tall tales.
“Because there are still people around that grew up like that, and they have stories,” exclaimed Christine.
“Things that people can laugh about, or the sort of stuff that just couldn’t happen nowadays.
“I am pretty fixated on the sort of raw, wild past, as far as story gathering goes, because people, younger people don’t know about it.”
Together with filming the interviews, Christine edits them and includes old family or district photos to help the stories come alive.
She has also been archiving the interviews into separate districts for the historical societies to keep.
“Everyone’s got a story, and life is changing so quickly; and life is becoming pretty serious. The way I grew up, people loved to tell stories, especially ones that had a good laugh in them. Stories were told to sort of elevate and entertain,” said Christine.
“We need joy and humour in this life. So, I like as much sort of happiness and laughter as possible.”
Country Cousins is Christine’s show which airs on Channel 31/ Digital 44 or on the YouTube channel, Christine Webb Country Cousins.
