Memories flood back

IT'S not often we get phone calls here at The Satellite where we're told one of our articles made a reader cry, but that's exactly what Inala's Cole Tyler said he did when he opened up our August 11, edition and saw the photo of all the ‘homies', as they call themselves, at the Riverview Reunion.

“I saw the picture (of the men) and just when ‘huh',” he said.

“I was almost in tears, I was that emotional.”

Mr Tyler spent six months at The Salvation Army's Riverview training Farm for Boys in 1957, after he emigrated from the United Kingdom as a 16-year-old.

And while he didn't have any personal horror stories to tell about his time on the farm, he said it had been ‘a steep learning curve'.

“I arrived in December, 1957, from the UK and was sponsored by The Salvation Army (to come to Australia),” Mr Tyler said.

“It was a learning curve and a rude awakening for what I'd previously known of The Salvation Army.

“Unfortunately I didn't have a happy childhood and decided to come to Australia.”

Mr Tyler spoke of the surprise he felt once he arrived at the farm, where he faced rules like he could only wear shoes on a Sunday.

“I was scared, lonely and wanted to go back home,” he said.

“I developed boils because the food was so bad and we had a line up once a week for discipline.

“It was a very rude awakening.”

Mr Tyler likened the farm to a boot camp, but said he thought the officers had been hard on the boys because they had a job to do.

“They were doing a job for people, I suppose they had to be strict because some of the fellows there were bad,” he said.

But not all of Mr Tyler's memories of the training farm are bad.

“I never knew what to prepare for, there were so many practical jokes,” he said.

“I've never regretted coming to Australia.”