| In the holiday period the population of the town of Orford would jump dramatically, as it still does. From 150 or so people on Christmas Eve, it would swell to about 1 500 by Boxing Day. In the earlier part of the 1960s people were allowed to camp anywhere they wanted to, and did. |  |
| However
in the late 1960s the Government made it hard for campers and people started
buying up blocks of land for camping on. Raspins Beach Caravan Park was
improved when the chipmill was being built.
The following information about the population of Orford was provided by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Most people from our survey group worked on farms, in the timber industry or as labourers. Although there were some seasonal workers, only three percent were listed as unemployed (compared with eighteen percent at the present time.) |
| We were
told of many interesting characters who lived in Orford in the 1960s.
here are just a few...
Mr Harold Bellette lived alone and was well known as a gardener. He also mended clocks for people. Mr Frank Hood would walk from Spring Beach to Orford, always wearing his gumboots and with a chaff bag over his trousers. He was very good at being able to predict the weather. Mr Hector Hood used to drive very slowly. When he would arrive to pick up his daughter from school, children would line their bikes up ready to race the car. The bikes always won! Mr Graeme Dowling at the post office was a good practical joker. Miss Romola Milson used to teach Sunday School and after class each Sunday she could usually be persuaded to take the children for a drive out to Shelley Beach where they would set the windscreen wipers going and turn the lights on and off as they went! Alan
Walker was the only Orford boy unlucky enough to be called up in the
draft to go to the Vietnam War.
|
