Across the last 19 seasons of the Clink, We have had some really raw conversations. This is one of most listened to episodes with Wilma Robb (Part 1).
From the age of 11 Wilma Robb was in and out of foster homes and institutions. She was beaten , raped across Paramatta Girls home, the Hay institution for girls and Ormond Children's home
Wilma was pregnant at 17 year old and a child taken from her shorty after his birth. In 2006 she found her son - a week after his 40th birthday. She is a delegate for Forgotten Australian's and has an amazing story which he shares with Brent.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Episode Transcript
Apote production. When I was five, I went into a
children's home.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
And my mum was in hospital for six or twelve
months and she had cancer in the bow. So then
I went home, and I went home to a mother's
that had had a bower removed and a father who
was angry, and so I lived between my grandmother's praise
(00:46):
and a couple of foster care homes, a welfare home,
and then finally got commuted to six to nine at
Ormond out at Thornley. Ormond was pretty open, pretty open place,
and I'd had the big wire fences around it, but was.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
That like a state ward sort of environment more than.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Juvenile center juvenile center?
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Yeah, I broke out it there and with two other
women or young girls. One of the girls went back
virtually straight back and gave yourself up, and the two
of us kept going, and so we were virtually on
the street at that time. I got put up for
(01:48):
what THO used to call it was a gang bang,
and I got raped and I was pretty, Yeah, I
was pretty. Was this barger that was just fucking the head.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
And so it wasn't that long after.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
I think it was only about three four days after
that we got picked up and was taken a parametter,
and because I was an absconder, we I copped the
bashing straight away and was told, you know that this
is what happens to people that don't stay in the
(02:36):
walls where they're put Yeah, I got put out to do,
you know, for the dormitory because they were all dormitories,
and the work mine was in the laundry, which he
had a little bit of freedom in the laundry at
the back of it, not in the ironing part.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
So that was really really good. And a lot of.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
The girls that kept getting into trouble were out back
of the laundry. I got put into a dormitory three
and got picked on all the time, so.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
I just rebelled.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
I rebelled all the time really because I you know,
I didn't want to be told what to do, even
though I used to get done. It was my attitude
and that's what really got me into trouble all the time.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
You've got to look at it, I guess, Wilma from
that point of view, when you say rebelled like you
are a broken young girl. You've you know, your mother's cancer,
your father's really not connecting with you. You then end
up in a situation where you're taking advantage of and raped,
as you said, at a young age by several men.
(03:53):
That's just soul breaking right there.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Yeah, but they didn't realize that, friend, or if they did,
they didn't care, not at all, because I was never
asked what happened to me. I didn't talk about it.
That's where I left it actually, when I went to Paramatta,
that's where I just, I think, virtually disassociated.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
And that was my way of as.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Handling things of really, yeah, I did some pretty destructive
things at that stage. And even today, you know, like
I don't do this destructive things, but there in my
mind sometimes you know, I get sick of being here and.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
You know, just all that stuff.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
I think I stayed at Paramatta for five months and
I got you know, segregation, isolation, detention, I got the
whole lot, and.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Along with the bashings that you know, it was just.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
An ordinary clip over the ears. It was a clip
over the years and you're held by your ears, yeah, male,
and yeah, knees in under the ribs and yeah, just
really really bad. At one stage, I lost control of
(05:26):
my bladder and my bowls with the bashing in isolation,
and so I was just told, you know that clean
my mess up, because you know, that's just the bad
coming out of you.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
We were just yeah, just controlled. It was. They were
just evil.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
But anyway, I did the five months there and I
was mainly out in the in the laundry, away from
you know, like there was probably a few of us there,
you know, maybe ten or something that worked out the back.
I just got sick of it. They put me on
larger actual and I was sort of in the end,
(06:09):
I was I couldn't talk properly.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
I shuffle to shuffle the lug actor shuffle. Yeah, as
I come through and I'm forty five and I came
through boys' homes. It was very common that we were
given the log actor syrup and the lug actor shuffle
was always seeing and that you just sat there dribbling.
Your mind was awake, but your body was just gone.
You couldn't function.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
And another one I used to give to you, they
used to put it in our meals was bromite for.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Your sexual urges.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
We used to hat to go over every afternoon to
the matron's office and she was a big Hungarian woman and.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
She was pretty evil. Too.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Anyway, this particular day, I just decided i'd you know, well,
I'd done it a few times, but I actually got
caught this time spitting it out.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
And what a lot of girls used to do was if.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Someone wanted it, they would just pass it through from
the mouth, yep. But mine used to just go and
I got caught for spinning it out. And the person Maye,
I can say names, you can say whatever you want.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
This is your story and this is the clink. We
don't we're don't hold back of bullshit here.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Anyway, Yeah, mister Mayu came down.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
I had to go up to the cot away and
in Paramatta there's this great big cement. A lot of
people would would A lot of women probably have been
there and yep, the listening and they understand what it is.
But that's what it is. This is a great big
cut away and you used to be able to sit
on the sides. It wasn't covered in or anything, only
(08:03):
on the roof. Anyway, I had to go up there,
and I knew I was gonna get a bashing, and
so I just had to stand and with add at
tench or at ease and until he came up came
out from his office. And so in those days we
(08:24):
used to have scrubbing brushes, but we also had tooth brushes,
and so we I had to scrub go downstairs into
the shower block and scrub the shower block and.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
With a toothbrush and and the brush.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
And next minute Maye and Guildford were deputy and deputy
and superintendent. They came down and was getting into me,
and but before they did, they gave me.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
A a lot.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Of a a a dose of like actrel, and you
could see that it was doubled up. So I just
put in my mouth and I spat it back out
at him. And so I ended up getting one of
the first worst fashions I think I'd ever got. And
I they smashed my teeth into the sinks, and I
(09:17):
had I didn't realize until after, but I had a
broken nose, busted teeth, two brewe eyes that I couldn't sell,
black eyes that I couldn't see out of, and the
bucket of water was kicked over, and they told me
to get in and clean my mess up. So I
had to clean teeth, water, blood, the whole light up
(09:41):
and then stay down there. I couldn't lift my head.
I just it was so bad, Brent. And but anyway,
they put me in isolation, and in isolation you don't
do get showers. But at the back of the isolation
(10:03):
part of the isolate, there's one shower and it comes
straight off the wall and it's cold water and nothing
around you. So I had to get undressed in front
of the two males coal shower and just turn, just
(10:28):
had to keep turning under the cold shower. And I'd
never had a shower before ever in isolation, but that
was just there's sick minds. So I knew that I
was going to go to Hay. I was in isolation
for a while and then I was in detention for
(10:51):
a few weeks until my face went down.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
So they made sure there was no trace of your
injuries before you left.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Yeah, but in my files, I've got my file, and
I've asked for him three times, three lots of different files,
because each time you got a little bit more in it,
they were holding them back. So yeah, mister Moylen, who
was the head guy from dos Or Welfare, he came
(11:25):
out to Paramatta and it's got in there that he
asked about me, and they said that I was in isolation,
but they didn't bring him over, so they just got
away with so much. But anyway, I went over detention
(11:48):
for a few weeks until my face all cleared up,
and then I was I was really over that, and
so at that stage I really didn't care what was happening.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
I just took it. No Trump
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