Morning inspection at the Girls Dormitory at Cherbourg Aboriginal settlement c1930
“The parade ground consisted of about twelve lines with about twenty abreast. Matron Burke walked along with a big solid five foot lawyer cane. If we were dirty or our clothes were dirty we would be whacked or boxed on the ears and then sent to the side of the dormitory to the washroom. She wouldn’t touch a black fellow. She would point to someone who she thought had dirty hair and one of the girls would do the inspection. Five days a week there was an inspection. It was a long observance you had to have clean clothes.”
— Darcy Cummins, 1988 interview