Tony Birch

I'd have to say, Richard, I can't remember a time when we didn't have wood.

And I think that's simply because we'd worked very hard to make sure that we gathered it.

And I think the most important implement that the family had was an old pram.

So the old pram was used to go around the street and pick up wood, to pick up the bottles, to pick up the scrap.

and to do shopping you know everything we did required the use of a pram and the only use the pram didn't have was to sit a kid in it because that would have taken up space so but I honestly I can't remember not having a fire and then I'm probably sure that there were the odd occasions but look we were really enterprising we were really resourceful

And I think I should add that we're pretty lucky.

My nan lived next door to us and her boyfriend, a fellow called Ray, he was a scrap man and junk man.

So he used to pick up scrap metal and other sorts of junk from the street.

And he would often, of course, bring home wood as well.

While he was going around the streets picking stuff up, he would gather wood as well.

So if we didn't have enough wood in the house, I do remember also getting wood out of my grandmother's back garden.

Oh, yeah.

I mean, I could.

And I live in Fitzroy now and my wife and I walk our dog regularly around the suburb.

We took him out for a long walk this morning and he's a Jack Russell, so he's a back lane sort of guy, so he loves the back lanes.

And I do talk about how much familiarity I have with the streets and familiarity that you had from a very young age.

So it does surprise me now that when I was five years of age, I took myself everywhere to and from school, to and from the paper shop, to and from the football field.

So, you get to know the street very well.

And I think the other aspect of that, Richard, is, you know, I know the term can be overused, but you do get to become street smart from a very young age.

So, what you might call perceived danger or just an awareness of, you know, where not to go and when not to go there.