“The city itself under war years was not a very happy place from the point of view of living and eating and dining. We were hit fairly heavily with the necessary… not using stuff that the Army could use better”

The Voices of WWII Perth project was created in light of the 2014 Perth Heritage Days festival, themed ‘Perth at the outbreak of war’. A series of index cards listing the interviewees who had spoken about the impact of World War II on Perth was where it all began.

Perth History Centre volunteers and staff spent time listening to these oral history recordings and transcribing them in order to select the audio you are about to listen to. You will hear the wartime recollections of business owners, servicemen and servicewomen, children, city workers and every day men and women.

This is the first time in history that the Perth History Centre has published voices from the collection online. This project will give the world insight into how WWII affected and shaped our city and most importantly the people that worked, lived and played here during the period. This project is a fantastic way for the City of Perth to recognise the contribution that many individuals have made to the Perth History Centre’s oral history programme and to acknowledge the 100^th anniversary of WWI.

Make sure you follow the Perth History Centre’s SoundCloud account so you can be informed of future uploads from the oral history collection. Username: Perth History Centre.

How the website works: click on the ‘Voices’ tab above and click on a name from the drop down menu. You will be redirected to their personalised page. To listen to the audio, click the orange circle with the white triangle. Be sure to scroll down the page to view photographs, newspaper articles and other documents from the Perth History Centre collection. Click on images for an enlarged view.

Sit back with a cup of coffee or a block of chocolate and tune in to these Voices of WWII Perth.