Ron Metcalfe

Canberra resident with memories of old Acton
Born: 1920, Sydney NSW
Interview: With wife Nancy Metcalfe, December 2013

“My name is Ron Metcalfe. I was born in Sydney on 21 June 1920. Shortest day - my mother always said longest night! That's where I did all my schooling. Most people in those days finished school when they were fourteen, as I did. After that I worked at the Post Office in Sydney, delivering telegrams mainly, while studying overnight. I eventually passed an exam that allowed me to be regarded as a third-division clerk, which meant higher salaries and better opportunities.

I moved to Canberra in 1939, and rented a home in Kingston opposite the shops (it's no longer there). I worked in the Prime Minister's Department at West Block, which was where I met my wife Nancy. Then the Second World War broke out and that ruined everything for four years.

I came back and I was married in 1946 and we moved into a house in Reid that we shared with the Thompsons (he was the Registrar of Births Deaths and Marriages) and after that into a 3 bedroom house in Turner at two pounds and ten pence a week, before buying it. The house is still there. I started university at the Canberra University College as it was called then. I studied for two or three nights a week for something like eight or nine years to get a degree, a Bachelor of Arts and Diploma of Public Administration.

I visited the Acton Guest house (not the hotel which was a separate building) many times during the late 40s and early 50s. It was a pretty hectic place – there were a lot of young men there particularly. Many of us called it the blood house because there was that much drinking and fighting going on. I went to the races and the golf course in Acton , and was heavily involved in the Turner Cricket Club. I also remember that in the early 1940s the Commonwealth Avenue Bridge was the timber one, and the wheel of my pushbike always used to get caught in the gaps on the bridge.

After the War I had an overseas posting to Vienna, for three years. We came back to Turner only briefly. We travelled for work and lived in many places for the next 35 years before finally returning to Canberra in 1969.