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Alwyn Owen talks to 81 year-old Hilda Jarvis living in the old deserted mining town of Bulong, forty kilometres from Kalgoorlie, in Western Australia. A low plateau once holding a town’s population of 5,000 now features scrub, a few corrugated iron buildings and three residents including Hilda, her son and miner, George and pensioner, Fred.
Alwyn physically describes Hilda, known locally as “the goat lady” and her rugged living conditions. Hilda is asked to describe the scene from her porch as it would have been 70 years ago. She explains they had a town with everything except electric light and sewerage, talks about the town’s name “I owe you” and Mrs Menzies, who used to play the town’s grand piano by ear.
They move down towards the goats where Hilda comments on the “maddening” flies. She explains where and how she grew up, where she went to school and how from the age of 17 she worked on the family’s station mustering cattle and goats. She describes a near miss her sister had with a bullock and why Bulong’s always been her home.
Hilda talks about her beloved herd of forty goats; the kids she fattens for selling, the ones kept as pets and how she looks after them. Alwyn asks what she considers luxuries to be and how often she goes into town. Hilda explains the difficulty in catching goat poachers with the goats they've shot and calls them mongrels, “like foxes on two feet”.
Hilda explains how they used to lay dog traps all year round to guard their animals against dingoes and lay rabbit traps to protect their crops. They briefly discuss bush fires and “the Chamberlain case”. Hilda says she’s too old to shepherd which she’d need to do if she bred them for Angora or Cashmere.
Hilda compares her love of goats to some people’s love for their dogs and fondly remembers how she trained one to shake hands with her. Alwyn asks Hilda’s about her daily routine which begins at 4am and ends at 9pm. Hilda says she relies on the wireless for news, collects water from the dam and her son, George picks up the groceries every fortnight.
Hilda shares her most vivid memories; the death of her school teacher’s mother, who came out from Scotland and tried walking from Kalgoorlie to Bulong in the summer.
Hilda says she’ll kill any snake she sees and talks briefly about how to deal with a snake bite. Alwyn asks about church and though she hasn’t much attendance, says she was brought up as honesty being the best policy and to trust in the Lord. She brought her children up on the saying, “Half a loaf is better than none”, if you can’t afford to get luxuries, you live without it.
Hilda plans on staying where she is until she can’t look after herself or walk.