DescriptionThis interview consists of two audio recordings and transcripts. Valerie Jean Graff was interviewed on 10 May 2002 at the Whitlam Library, Cabramatta by Shirley Kingsfor McLeod. Interview SummaryJean was born Valerie Jean Kelly. Jean was born in St Margaret’s Hospital in Sydney. She has two sisters and two brothers. Her family lived at glebe and Canley vale before moving to Cabramatta when Jean was eight years old.
Jean went to Villawood Public School followed by Cabramatta Public School. The school desks had inkwells and the school received a bucket of milk each day, portions of which were distributed to the students. She attended Homebush Girls High School until the age of fifteen when her father found her a job in the city, working in an office. She worked at various office jobs until she retired in 1990.
Jean’s family home in Cabramatta was a small fibro-house with three bedrooms and a long backyard. Jean shared a room with her sisters. They had a stove but the house would get very cold. As a child she played in e nearby meadow with blackberry bushes and in the winter she would collect mushrooms. She rode bikes and played hopscotch and skipping. At Christmas she would receive a pillowcase of clothing or books, and she ate chicken and salad. Jean had some relatives living in nearby streets and was friendly with several neighbours.
Jean remembers Cabramatta as having about 50 shops, including Henderson’s groceries/hardware, a milk bar and a paper shop. During the war years Jean remembers troop trains and a local encampment of American soldiers. Her mother worked for the Red Cross and her father was a warden.
Jean married in 1967, to a German, Eddy Graff. Eddy had one son from a previous marriage. Jean and Eddy have travelled to Europe and Asia.
Jean has witnessed changes in Cabramatta over the years. Originally all inhabitants were of Anglo-Australian heritage, followed by Italian migrants and later Asian migrants in the 1970s. Jean was distressed by Cabramatta’s drug problems, and is glad it has now been cleared up.
Oral History ProjectThe Way We Were - People of FairfieldAll Oral Histories
Valerie Jean Graff Oral History . Fairfield City Heritage Collection, accessed 13/02/2026, https://heritagecollection.fairfieldcity.nsw.gov.au/nodes/view/2823
