Jack and Zona Casey

Today we remember Jack and Zona Casey, a young brother and sister who grew up during the war years. Both their older brothers went off to fight, leaving their widowed mother to do coast-watch.

Jack and Zona Casey audio file (MP4 23.86 MB)

Jack and Zona Casey audio script

75th Anniversary of the End of the Second World War

Audio actuality

“Fellow Citizens, the War is over” — (The Hon J B Chifley, Prime Minister of Australia)

On the 75th Anniversary of the End of the Second World War, Australia remembers Jack & Zona Casey, a young brother and sister growing up during the war years.

Both their elder brothers went off to fight, leaving their widowed mother to do coast-watch. But it proved to be a major disruption to family life — a story not uncommon as a result of the War.

Zona Casey

Well, our family never ever got back together as a family after the War.

Jack Casey

We just never ever really became a close-knit family again. We were all long-distance.

Zona Casey

We never had a Christmas together after the War.

Jack Casey

I think the fact that the War came, we never had a childhood. We were born during the Depression, grew up during a war and we never actually had the fun that the kids have today. We never had the wherewithal. I mean, mother was a widow, she had four kids; money was so tight that she couldn't afford to buy us toys. Thus she made every toy we had for years out of scrap material and she had a pattern for Mickey Mouse. And all the kids had a Mickey Mouse — just about every kid in the place has got one now … the family’s got one.

Saturday, August 15 marks the 75th Anniversary of the End of the Second World War. Let’s pay our respects to that amazing generation of Australians.