Garry Sonny Martin

My name’s Garry Martin, but most people know me as Sonny.

Welcome to my Blog! I will be updating this page with new stories from time to time. 

I write stories about my childhood growing up in western Queensland to show the next generations what it was like growing up as a Blackfulla in the 1950s and 1960s.

I write these stories with the help of my daughter, Angie Faye Martin, to preserve memories of the past for future generations. Above all, I hope my granddaughters – Lailah and Ruby – find joy and meaningful connections in these stories.

I started documenting my childhood when I was in Oakey with my brother, Owen (Poe), and my mother, Zona Martin née Leslie. It was a quiet and nostalgic time for me – I finally felt time and space to really reflect on the past. My daughter was calling frequently from Melbourne during the Covid lockdowns and wanting information about the past for her debut novel, Melaleuca. She was particularly interested in stories from the yumba and how life was back then.

I hope you enjoy these yarns, have a laugh and remember our loved ones. There’ll be more coming soon!

The Queen Mary

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It seemed to take forever settling into our new way of life… The grass had to be mowed and that took on a whole new experience for us boys as we’d never seen a lawnmower before let alone use one and there was no grass in Cooladdi to mow – only weeds.

Once winter was over and the weather started warming up most of our free time was spent swimming and playing down the creek.

Vincent, the ganger’s son, Vincent, was our best friend and along with a few other boys we built a fleet of tin canoes from scrap tin we found in the local rubbish tip and with other bits and pieces we made ‘The Queen Mary’ .

The Queen Mary was the name we gave our beautifully crafted raft. It was a majestic looking vessel, at least we thought, assembled by strategically placing a heap of old, four-gallon, petrol drums under a double-sized bedframe to keep it afloat. The sides and roof were made from a combination of light, pine timber and bamboo with some curtains that Vincent sort of borrowed from his mother to be used as decoration and protection against the burning sun.

The only problem we encountered sailing the Queen Mary was when it was carrying too many passengers as it would slightly submerge just beneath the surface of the water and that’s when the blood-sucking leeches would attack.

Every now and then we would have to check our bodies and especially under our shorts as that’s where these horrible creatures loved to latch on. If we found any leeches on us it was a simple matter of brushing them off or if they were too strongly attached we’d have to burn them off.