Terry & Dianne - Leonora
Terry Demasson has gradually turned his boyhood home in Leonora into a museum.
Before marrying Dianne, Terry was living at the northern end of Leonora’s main street, in the house he’d grown up in. An avid collector, Terry has spent many, many hours treasure-hunting at the Leonora tip. His finds fill every room in the house - collections of jewellery, old lighters, clothes pegs, dog registration tags, bottles and jars, and his latest interest is old Avon products which currently fill the big dining table, waiting to go on display. Dianne couldn’t live in the house with all that old stuff, so they now live opposite the primary school and the old house has become something of a museum. At the back of the house, in his boyhood bedroom, Terry’s built a bar with items big and small, collected from the pubs around town as they’ve been closed or refurbished
Terry: “I was the last serving apprentice at the Sons of Gwalia goldmine in 1963 when it closed. I finished my apprenticeship in the railways in ’68 then went straight into the army - it was still conscription days then. When the mine closed, I blew the whistle for the very last time. We blew it again 60 years later for the reunion. I’ve still got the whistle - an old steam whistle. I met my wife, Dianne at that reunion. She was living in Kalgoorlie and we hadn’t seen each other for 58 years. I seen my brother talking to someone and it was Dianne. We’d been at school together in Leonora - I first met her when she was five or six. She used to get teased at school - the boys’d dip her plaits in the ink well. I loved fighting…still do…so I’d stand up for her. It gave me a reason to fight. At the reunion she was looking out for me but hadn’t recognised the big fat bloke on the microphone.”
Dianne: “Dad came to Leonora in 1937 with Mum and five kids. They camped out of town with a couple of other families. People were saying the circus had come to town - Mum didn’t like that. The last four of us kids were born here in Leonora. They’d come from Perenjori looking for gold. They didn’t get very lucky until 1979 when Dad found the biggest nugget in WA since the Golden Eagle. 128 and a half ounces! He didn’t know what to do with it so he buried it for six months. He didn’t even tell Mum. He’d gone out prospecting for a few days but came back after a day. He told Mum he was sick and didn’t want to die out there alone. The nugget was sold on as a collector’s item and went to Hong Kong. Terry and I are both involved with the RSL here - he’s the president and I’m the secretary…I’m the mouth! I do the speeches and stories for Armistice Day and Anzac Day each year. They’re very emotional - I do lots of research.”
