An autobiography and family history
by Emily Violet Pickup - as at July 1981
(nee Macpherson, Montrose Bulahdelah)
Contents click here for index
Chapter 1 My Dad and his family.
My father, Charles Edward John Stewart Macpherson, (Charlie), was born at East Maitland, N.S.W. on 13th May, 1882. He was the eldest of four children, (the second of whom died in early childhood). He had a younger brother, Ewen Hunter, and a sister, Grace. The Parents were John Shiret Macpherson and Grace Malcolm Macpherson, (nee Rennie.)
Dad was very proud of his Scottish forebears and traditions. The Family Tree, kept in the big leather bound family Bible, shows the family back to one Angus Macpherson, born in Badenach, Scotland, in 1687. He was a cousin of Cluny Macpherson, of the Black Watch, (a famous Scottish regiment).
Grandfather Macpherson, Dad's father, was born at Montrose, Inverness -shire, Scotland, on 13th May, 1844. He came to Australia, (The Colony), in 1869. He became a minister of.the Free Presbyterian Church, and served at East Maitland from 1877 to 1904, when he transferred to Morphett Vale, South Australia, where he served until his death, in 1921, he is buried at Morphett Vale .
In 1879 he married Grace Malcolm Rennie, a daughter of E.A. Rennie, Auditor General of N .S. W .She was one of five children, the others being Edward, (Professor of Chemistry, University of Adelaide), Charles, (Chairman of Lands Board N.S.W.), George, (Doctor of Medicine), and a sister, Auralia.
Grandma had been brought up as a "lady" of the day, well versed in social graces, music, needlework etc. She was not in any way prepared for a hard working life, and when, later, she was forced to work hard on a farm, it broke her spirit and eventually impaired her mind. She was most upset when Grandfather took a foundling into the home and neglected his own son's education to give this stranger a chance, and a good education. Dad and his brother, Ewen, both had active brains, and if given the opportunity, may both have done a lot better for themselves, in life.
Grandfather put the boys to work on a farm at Anna Bay, which their mother thought was an insult to them, so I have heard. The Rennie Family had not approved of her marriage to Grandfather. They thought it beneath her station in life to marry a "poor preacher", as indeed ministers were in those days. .I have heard that although Grandfather was a fine Christian man, and a very good preacher, he was very strict and even hard on his family.
Grandfather's diocese stretched right up the coast of N.S.W. as far as Wauchope and he was often away for weeks at a time, travelling by horse and buggy , and preaching along the way, so Grandma often had a lonely life.
Grandfather Macpherson was much interested in the early days of the historic Presbyterian Church at Ebeneezer on the Hawkesbury River. During his time in Adelaide he interested himself in politics and was secretary of the Morphett Vale branch of Liberal Union. He was described as a "man of scholarly attainment", a recognised authority on eccliastical history and an accurate expositor of the Scripture from the original text. (As written in an Adelaide newspaper after his death).
On leaving East Maitland in 1904, he was described as a "fearless champion of truth, a consistent witness for Scriptural Presbyterianism and Reformation Principles ", also of having a great ability as a lecturer, preacher, and conversationalist, and possessing a profound knowledge of church constitution, standards of history , joined with a strength of character earnestness, and of having no regard to his own safety in long arduous, and often dangerous journeys which he undertook in his ministry, and also of showing Christian fortitude and resignation to meet the domestic trials which befell him. (Taken from letters from the Session at East Maitland in 1904, on his departure for Adelaide).
It was about 1897 when Grandfather took his wife and sons to Anna Bay, to try and make a living on a farm, , growing vegetables. He still had his charge in East Maitland and visited the farm whenever he could. Grandma took music pupils to help out. When Dad was about twenty he had a trip by sea to New Zealand. He nearly died of seasickness, and never knew how he plucked up the courage to face the return journey! He and a friend spent six months working around on various farms, and getting new ideas. When he returned to Australia the family moved to another property with a better home, at Bob's Farm. (Anna Bay and Bob's Farm are both in Nelson Bay District). They found it very hard to make a decent living, the soil was very poor and sandy, and after a time, Uncle Ewen left and got work in Newcastle on the railway. He married and had two sons, Charles and Clifford, born about 1913 and 1915. His first wife (Auntie Florrie) died when the boys were quite small, and he married again in later life. He and Dad didn't have very much in common so we didn't see very much of them as a family. We corresponded with the boys, as children, but have long since lost touch.
Dad's only sister, Auntie Grace was born at Raymond Terrace, in 1899, thus was many years younger than Dad. She came to live with Mum and Dad when she was a girl in her teens. She had gone to Morphett Vale as a child with her father, her mother being in a nursing home, and she was reared by a housekeeper. Mum and Dad gave her a home with them, and she made it her "home", all her life, and looked on our mother as a mother to her. She went out to service, i.e. working as a home help, and living in on the job, for a few years, and stayed in our home and helped look after our family on more than one occasion while Mum had a "mother's holiday"!(in bed with a new baby). She I met and married August Bartsch, in Kurri Kurri, and reared three children, Jean, John and Gwen.
Auntie Grace was a gentle woman, very much like her mother, and we all loved and respected her. She was a good needlewoman, could do almost any kind of sewing knitting etc. but her mending and fine darning, on linen, and was a real masterpiece. I always felt she married a man beneath her in education and upbringing, he was a builder and quite a decent man, but really didn't understand or appreciate Auntie Grace. He left her) and went to New Guinea and worked, so she had a lonely old life, -she. died in 1976, at the age of 77.
My sister, Alison and I recently visited Anna Bay and Bob's Farm, and talked with some of the old residents who knew of the Rev. J. and Mrs. Macpherson, and who remember my father. We also saw the well preserved weatherboard house they once lived in at Bob's Farm. One old man told us that he had worked for Dad, as a lad, picking peas and beans, for the noble sum of three pence a bucketful! The vegetables had to be taken by horse and dray to Newcastle, a distance of about thirty miles, to be sold. The shopkeepers would go across by boat from Newcastle, and buy off the carts. Dad gave up farming at Bob's Farm, did casual work for a time, then got work with a timber firm, working on the timber punts (large paddle wheel barges) up and down the Myall River. He boarded in Tea Gardens, and that is where he met, and later married my mother, Minnie Dorothea Engel.
Dad was a keen reader, and good at figures, so on the whole had a fairly good education. He kept up his reading all his life, and was always up to date on world affairs, sport, etc.
Just as Dad was proud of his family, and ancestry, Mum's family and background were not to be despised. The Engel’s were very well liked and respected in the district . Our Great-grandfather, George Peter Engel, migrated to Australia, from Frankfurt -Main, Germany, sometimes in the 1840's. He was then a carpenter. He married Josephine Louise Diehl at the German Presbyterian Church in Sydney, in January 1852. My rolling pin came to Australia with Josephine in her personal effects, when she migrated to Australia from Strasburg, France, about 1850.
Sometime after they were married, they moved to Swan Bay, in the Port Stephens district, where he set up a butchering business. He delivered meat to customers around the harbour by sailing boat, the only means of transport available.
My Great-grandparents, George and Josephine, had five sons, namely, John Alexander, (Alec), Gustave William (Willie), George Adolph (Adolph), Henry and George Anton (George)
As the boys were growing up they took them to live on a farm on the shores of the Lower Myall River at a place then named "The Fens" {now known as Engel's Reach), so that his sons could make a living by farming. George and Josephine lived all their lives in the district and are both buried in an old cemetery near Tahlee.
The farming, mainly vegetable growing, wasn't much of a success so they eventually took to rearing cattle. Alec, the eldest son married Jane Evans (Jinnie) from Swan Bay, and when they found they couldn't make a satisfactory living on the land, they took their young family and moved to Bulahdelah, where he got work as a carpenter. They lived there the remainder of their lives and reared a family of seven. The rolling pin came to me via this family. It must have been given to them when they left "The Fens". After Great Uncle Alec died, Great Aunt Jinnie gave it to my mother and when I was married and "setting up home" Mum gave it to me. And I treasure it for its long life and history .
The brothers Willie, Henry and George, all married and reared their families around the district, no further afield than Newcastle anyway.
My grandfather, G.A. Engel, (known as Adolph) married Emily Jane Zieninger, at Seaham Church of England, in 1882. He was a stalwart upright man of tireless energy , never known to walk anywhere, he always ran. Time was too precious to waste walking! He had very definite views of right and wrong, and brought his family up in a strict and !Christian .manner. He was a teetotaler had a quick temper, and was a good business man.
Much of the land at Tea Gardens was low and swampy, and often covered by high tides. Grandfather had the boats dump all the clinker and ashes from their fires on the foreshores, and sawdust from the timber mills was carted and added. Later a dredge was employed to deepen the river, and sand was thrown up on the shore too. It all helped with the reclaiming process and much more good usable land was made available and many more homes built. (Two of Mum’s brothers and a sister lived on reclaimed land, near to Engel's Store.)
The Zeininger Family came from Germany too. They lived on a farm at Glen Oak, near Seaham, which was good farming land. I t was near the Williams River in the Hunter Valley . Quite a few German families had settled in the district. The Zeininger home was called "Spurfield".
I often wonder what prompted the early settlers to come to a new country like Australia They would only have a meagre idea of what it was ideally going to be like. They were leaving a homeland, steeped in history , culture and tradition for a raw new land.
It was a long arduous trip, by sailing ship, and may have taken about six months of un- comfortable travel. I guess they had no hope of ever returning to their homeland, friends and relations they had left behind. It would be saying goodbye not farewell! Fares were costly, it took all their means to get here and make a living and rear their families. So I just ask, why did they come? Spirit of adventure perhaps. Anyway, many did come didn't they? And from many countries. Perhaps because the stories reaching the old countries told of a wide free country where a man could own his own land and rear a family away from big industrial cities, as in much of Europe. I believe, too, there were agricultural grants from the government to encourage would-be settlers to take up land and farm it.
My grandparents, George Adolph and Emily Jane, lived at "The Fens" when they wet first married. They reared a family of eleven. Henry Melvin, May Florence, Gustave William Leslie Frederick, Minnie Dorothea, (my mother), Emily Estella, Pearl Ivy , Mabel Ellen, Adolph Albert, Violet Mignonette, and Anna Barbara.
Grandfather became the first butcher at Tea Gardens, a small town further down the river. He and Grandma eventually went there to live. As his business grew, he acquired more land branched -out to become butcher baker and general storekeeper. (G.A. Engel and Sons) They had boats on the rivers and one was a floating store. It was an old fashioned paddle wheel boat called "Kate Thompson". When Mum left school, in 1905, at the age of 14, she went to work on the boat, helping in the shop, and doing the bookwork. They travelled around Port Stephens Harbour, twice each week, and up the river and all around the Myall Lakes, also twice each
As each trip took almost 24 hours, they lived on the boat almost as much as they lived at home. There were timber getters, farmers, saw millers, and fishermen and their families living around the shores. They purchased all their groceries, bread, meat, ice, etc. from the store boat, and in return would sell their products, vegetables, butter, fish, honey etc. to the storekeepers.
Mum worked on the store boats all her teenage life, and loved it. She was very capable, became very well known, well liked and respected. A small steamship The S.S. Nepean replace the old "Kate" in time, and later again a diesel powered boat made history by being the first diesel boat in the district. That was after Mum had married and left the boat life.
Grandfather Engel was a man of vision and conceived the idea of building a seaworthy ship to travel to Newcastle and back with stores and goods for sale. Uncle Henry became an engineer, and was very good at all mechanical work. Like his father he was also a tireless worker and although Grandfather did not live to see the S.S. Coweamber finished and launched, it was a great day in Tea Gardens when it happened. The Engel’s had a slipway of their own to service their boats and it was here the "Coweamber" was built.
Most of Mum's family became absorbed in the business as they grew up and married. Uncle Gus and his sons took over the boat runs. Auntie May married Bill Robinson, the head baker , Uncle Les became the butcher, and so on. Aunty Stella married Dick Butler, an engineer on the boats, (a descendant of the Buck Family, early pioneers in the Bulahdelah district). When Grandfather Engel, Mum's father died, in Tea Gardens in 1918, his occupation was given as 'ship owner' but he was in fact the head of a large flourishing business. Butchers, bakers grocers, drapers hardware, shipping and carrying and anything else you could think of. His family carried on the business until well into the Second World War By this time roads were taking the place of rivers for transport and boat trade was falling off.
My parents, (Charlie and Dorra) were married in the Church of England in Tea Gardens, in 1912, and lived in a small weatherboard cottage (just opposite the Catholic Church). It stood there for a good many years but .there is no sign of it now.
Mum and Dad reared a family of eleven, Oscar Malcolm, Violet Emily, Colin David ,.Brian Edgar, Dorothea Grace, Alison May, Thora Mabel, Barbara Mildred, Charles John, Patricia Ann, and Nancy Estella. (All living except Colin). When my parents married, Dad was working as a passer and buyer for a large timber firm. When the firm wanted him to go to Eden on the far south coast of N.S.W. a few years later, he decided against the move. By this time they had three children and the thought of going so far away from home and family, was too much for Mum. That would have been nearly as far away as England is today! They would have had to go by boat and not much prospect of getting back home for a long time, so they decided against the idea. Dad took up a job as caretaker of a property known as "Cheer Up" at Johnson’s Creek, near Stroud Road.
My eldest brother Oscar, myself (Violet) and Colin were all born at Tea Gardens. An old midwife, Mrs. Smith, came across the river at Hawk's Nest, attended Mum at the births. I guess she brought a good many more children into the world around there as I think she was the only midwife around the district for some time. When I was born 7.8.1914, Mrs. Smith still wore a long black frock with a train,( which had really gone out of fashion by then.) Mum had a girl in to do the housework while she was in bed. The girl used to say she needn't sweep the floors, just wait for Mrs. Smith to come. She used to laugh and say "She swooshes around here and that corner is swept, then, she swooshes around there and that corner is swept and soon the whole floor is done."
I think my Mum may have been a bit lonely and homesick, at times, at "Cheer Up". It was .her first experience of being away from home and family. They made good friends in the neighbours, Mr. and Mrs. Relton, the Ince family, and Mr. and Mrs. Green. Just recently I had a trip back to Johnson's Creek to the place where the little home stood. There is no sign of the house anymore, but the old Relton home is still there. I was not very old when we lived there but I can still remember some things. Mum used to laugh about the first batch of bread she tried to make at "Cheer Up". She said it came out of the oven like two hard round stones, and in disgust she took them and threw them down a post hole Dad was digging. She used to say they may be dug up some day and queried as a rare fossil! When we were there recently the fence had all been removed, so I could not find the fence post near the house.
In spite of the cares and worries Mum had she used to laugh plenty, and could always see the funny side to anything. She had a steady faith in God which no doubt carried her through. She was always energetic and bright and ready to lend a helping hand to anyone needing it. She loved her garden and said it often helped her to retain her sanity in times of worry and distress. "When the world wearies, and society ceases to satisfy, there is always the garden." She also said she 'felt nearer to God in the garden'. When Colin was about two year old Brian was born. Mum went to stay with her Aunt Anna, who was Grandma Engel’s sister, a Mrs. Tranter, who was living in the old Zeininger home, "Spurfield" at Glen Oak, near Seaham. They had a farm and employed state wards to help run the farm. Mum used to tell us about the time they went to get the plum puddings (which had been made weeks before and hung up in the larder in their calico covers), and found that the insides had been eaten out of the puddings! It seems that the boys had cut a window in the puddings, scraped out and eaten the insides leaving a flap of calico to cove the holes so that no one knew about it till they came to use them at Christmas. I don't know the end of the story , whether the family had any pudding that Christmas, or what punishment the boys were given! Brian was born on boxing day, 1917.
The Tranters grew fruit and vegetables and made lots of jam and preserves, etc., and reared a large family. When my grandmother was a girl, they grew their own arrowroot, and grandma has told us of having to gather the roots, wash them in the river, and grind I them to make porridge for breakfast!
Recently (in 1976) my sisters Alison, Patricia and I, had a trip to the Seaham area, to try and find the old property at Glen Oak and see if the old home "Spurfield" still existed. We have heard our Mother talk about it so often we felt we almost knew it. We had an amusing day and eventually found the old property , but the house had recently been demolished and new one built. (Son of the Tranter family'; had lived there until, fairly recently), We met an old man, over ninety , who has lived there all his life, and still has a very good memory, so it was very interesting to talk to him. I am sorry we did not think to do some of these things sooner, when some of the people were still living.
Chapter 4, , .THE LITTLE BARK HUT
"Of string bark slabs were the walls of the hut,
And of stringy bark saplings the rafters were cut,
And the roof that long sheltered my brothers and me,
Was a broad sheet of bark from a stringy bark tree.
Well, I don't know if our home was of stringy bark, but Dad built a hut of saplings and bark at "Montrose," the property he and Mum were buying, six miles from Bulahdelah, on the Wootton Road. Dad went first, in 1918, and built the hut, then took Mum and us four children to live there for six months. There was Oscar, me, Colin and Brian (aged six weeks).
We travelled from Stroud Road to the new place in a horse drawn dray, sitting amongst the furniture, bedding etc. It took two long days to get there, camping overnight, and we children thought we would never get there!
Although I would have been less than four years old I can remember parts of the trip, and living in the hut, The smooth side of the bark was used for a table top, the legs were saplings planted in the ground, and our bed was similar, just a mattress of a sheet of bark, Mum used to put us to bed and sing a little ditty about "Three little' children asleep in a row, Jimmie and Jenny and Joe." Oscan, Colin and me. The baby Brian slept in a bed made in a packing case.
It rained and rained that autumn, Dad had to dig big drains all around the hut to take the water away, otherwise it ran right through the hut! There was no floor, and the saplings for table legs and bed posts that were stuck straight in the ground began to sprout! I can distinctly remember the bunches of leaves growing on the table legs! We lived there for six months, while Dad did some fencing and clearing in preparation for returning to live there later on. We then returned to "Cheer Up" near Stroud Road, for a couple of years. The hut was virtually a "little house in the forest," or should I say a little "humpy" in the forest, for that is just what it was. , It stood in a small clearing, surrounded by tall, dying, oak trees, that had been ringbarked, and the bark hung loose and "rattly" on them. I can remember the noise the goannas made as they scuttled up the nearest one, whenever anyone went outside and disturbed them they were very plentiful in the bush and came around looking for household scraps. I have not heard of anyone being bitten by one but Mum was always afraid that one would come inside and do some harm. An opossum came inside one night and gave us all a good fright, but no one was hurt, it was as afraid of us as we were of it,
It was while we were living in the hut that Mum's father (papa Engel) died suddenly of a heart attack. A launch was sent from Tea Gardens to Bulahdelah, and a messenger rode on horse back to the home of our neighbour, Mr., Ward. Two of his daughters walked the remaining two miles into the bush, to where we were living, to bring the news. They stayed and helped Mum to get ready to go to Tea Gardens for the funeral. The launch that brought the news to Bulahdelah, waited to take the relatives back to Tea Gardens. There would have been Grandfather's brother Great Uncle Alex, to go too. I don't know how we got to Bulahdelah that day, but I guess it would have been by horse and dray, ( a slow trip of two of three hours.)
Dorothea was born in Tea Gardens in July 1919, in the midst of a big epidemic of pneumonic influenza, which was every where at the time. Dad was ill with it, though Mum did not have it very badly. Almost every home was affected, and many people died with it, Grandma had a big home and it resembled a small hospital. We four children were all in bed in a room well away from where Mum and new baby were. I believe that I complained that "You wouldn't think I had a Mother, she never comes to see me!" I guess Mum was feeling much the same! When we moved to "Montrose" permanently, in 1920, Dorothy was about six months old. Dad had built a larger slab hut on higher ground. We lived there for some time, then Dad and Mum picked a site for a permanent home and Dad began to build it. He built two large rooms of weatherboard with a bark roof, and a slab kitchen to one side with an open fireplace and with a camp oven to cook in. Mum managed very well and even made bread and baked it in the camp oven. In the next couple of years in between making a living cutting timber and trying to do a bit of clearing and fencing, Dad built two more large rooms. One was a bedroom for the three boys and the other was a kitchen-cum-living room. By this time a second hand stove had been purchased, and some more second hand furniture. (Some of our original furniture, was packing cases nailed together). We were quite comfortable. The kitchen had a huge open fireplace. The stove was set up on large stones to one side, with room for a large open fire beside it. We had a huge iron kettle which hung on a chain over the open fire. House water was a problem, mainly in the summer. In winter rains usually provided enough. The water off the bark roof was very brown but we had to use it. It was hard to keep white clothes white. It was a great day when the bark roof was replaced with galvanized iron and the water ran into galvanized iron tanks. There was never enough water to use it on the garden, except to re-use all the household water. In summer every drop of washing and bathing water was carefully saved to use on the garden and precious plants. The home was built on a hill, and the ground although very stony was good deep loam. Provided they got enough water, all plants both flowers and vegetables grew very well. A dry summer was a bit of a heartbreak though, as many plants could not get enough water to survive. An underground well and more tanks were obtained in later years, but in the early days they could not afford to buy any more.
The property "Montrose" (so named after Dad's fathers' home town in Scotland) was 165 acres of virgin bushland, some flat, some hilly, with a good water supply in the Boolambayte Creek which flowed right across the paddock, and a string of small lagoons on the flat.(presumably the. course of the creek in days gone by). Most of the flat parts of the property consisted of tropical rain forest type of country , with good black soil. The slopes and hills were covered with taller and much good hardwood timber. Along the creeks and on the flats the bangalow palms, ironwoods and other softwoods grew in profusion making cover for the many ferns and soft plants that grew in almost complete shade. Elkhorns, staghorns, and crows nest ferns grew in many of the trees. Dorothy Mackellar could easily have been writing about "Montrose" in these verses~-
"I love her ferny pathways, where wattle blossoms fall,
While in the leafy distance the bellbird rings his call-
I love her mossy gullies, where palm and fern tree hide,
The tall grey gums that clamber on every steep hillside. "
Part of the property was excellent for growing crops once it was cleared of timber and undergrowth. Dad usually had a garden on the flat, somewhere near the creek, and Mum helped when she was able. She had a big box on wheels, which she called "the Wanagan". (It was like a huge billycart). She would put the baby and perhaps the next little one in it, and set off with the rest of us walking, to go and do a couple of hours working in the garden.
As there were no tractors or bulldozers and Dad was not used to working with a , bullock team, it was hard work getting clearing done, especially on the slopes and higher ground where the timber grew thick and strong. Unless it was completely dug out it was hard to kill. It was the practice to ringbark the big trees, so they would die and thus make room for grass to grow and make more feed for the cattle; The trees would sprout below the ringbark, and throw seeds making it a full time job, trying to keep it under control. Dad worked very hard trying to make a living and clear the place at the same time. He did quite a lot of timber work cutting logs for mills, girders for bridges, sleepers for railways. Squaring girders and sleepers was a work of art in itself. It was a work of precision, and not every man was qualified to do it. It was hard work, but mostly the money was good, and if there were sufficient orders a good living could be made. During the depression years the orders were not so plentiful, and buyers were very critical, which could mean a lot of hard work for nothing. The money was needed but the property suffered, as the growth of the scrub was continuous and relentless. Mum used to go and help when she could, but with a family of small children, she didn't have much time. She did keep a good vegetable garden going with always enough vegetables for home use, and often a few to sell, as well. She always had a flower garden, too, even when we lived in a hut, there were a few dahlias growing beside the door! There were always flowers in the house too, Mum used to say visitors would be so busy admiring the flowers that they wouldn't notice all the things we didn't have, (such as nice furniture).
The only way to get to Bulahdelah, our nearest town, -six miles away-was by horseback or horse and sulky, which took almost two hours each way, so outings were few and far between. Mum used to make an effort to go to Tea Gardens for a holiday occasionally (to see her folks of course). It would mean getting to Bulahdelah in the afternoon and going on board the cargo and passenger boat, which was the only mode of travel at the time. The boat usually left about midnight and arrived in Tea Gardens in time for breakfast. We children would be put to sleep on the wooden seats in the passenger's cabin .We thought it was great fun, and didn't sleep very much. No wonder Mum would arrive worn out! We always loved the visits to Tea Gardens, as many of Mum's people lived there, and we had lots of cousins to get to know and play with. Playmates were something we lacked at home, (outside ones I mean}, but we were always glad to be back home.
We usually stayed with Grandma, Mum's mother, and she never seemed to mind having a houseful of us, and there was always a big rainbow cake, in the pantry to greet us.
Dad had brought a few head of cattle and two good draught horses from Stroud Road in hopes of starting a herd for dairying. I t took more years than they reckoned, misfortunes didn't help. One by one the cows died from various causes (such as one falling down a steep bank and breaking a leg and having to be destroyed). A valuable draught mare was bitten by a snake and died. These were big losses in bad times as cattle were valuable and money scarce.
Chapter 6 Neighbours and Pioneers, etc.
Our little district was originally known as 'The Brush", and later on as Wootton Road, and sometimes it was called Upper Boolambayte. There were seven or eight properties in the area. Old Mr. Ward was the first to settle there, he brought his wife there as a bride, about the year 1865 and they had really seen primitive times. Poor roads, no neighbours or public transport, but they managed and reared a family of eight children. Mr. Ward was a shingle splitter " as were many of the early settlers in the district. Wooden shingle roofs were much in use, and local forest oak made ideal shingles. The Wards acquired quite a deal of property around them, and some of the descendants live there still. Mum's brother. Uncle Les, married a Miss McRae, a granddaughter of the Wards. ~he old folk could tell us great tales of privation and loneliness in their first years of living in the bush. Mrs. Ward would be left alone, usually with young children, while he was away, which wasn't very pleasant. I guess he would be away .quite a few days, too as it was about eighty or ninety miles each way. When he went by horse and dray, he would bring enough stores to last six months! They were obliged to kill cattle and pigs for their own use. As there was no refrigeration of any kind, meat would be salted to make it keep, so corned beef, salt pork, bacon and ham were the main meat dishes.
It was often a hand to mouth struggle to exist, always buoyed up in the hope as they got more land cleared and grassed and the boys grew old enough to help, things would improve.
Mum and Dad had both had good Christian upbringings. Dad always adhered to the Presbyterian Church, (Mum was an Anglican), but we went to any Protestant Church that was available, whenever we could. Mum taught us all to say prayers at night, grace was at every meal. Bible stories were read to us on Sundays, and we were encouraged to read Bible for ourselves as we grew older. Dad was a great lover of the Psalms, and the Ten Commandments were taught us as the basic rules of life. As there was no Presbyterian Minister the district for many years, none of us were baptised as babies. When a visiting Presbyterian minister began calling at Bulahdelah, Mum and Dad made arrangements for him to come our home for a family baptismal service:. Eight of us were baptised that day! Aged 12 months to 12 years.
At one time a Church of England minister from Bulahdelah held a service at Wootton Road, about once a month, so we all attended. As the Heath Family had a piano the service was usually held at their place.
The Heath Family were our nearest neighbours, being about a quarter of a mile away. Mr. Heath was a builder, but he and his three sons did quite a lot of shingle splitting and timber cutting. They had one daughter, Lilla, who was my main friend playmate in my childhood days. She was a couple of years older than I, and I learnt many of the "facts of life" from her! She had three older brothers and no sisters, so was glad a of girl friend. We still correspond, fifty odd years later. Mum and Mrs. were good friends, too.
A mail car went past our place from Bulahdelah to Nabiac, twice a week in the and we got bread and meat by this means. A grocer came from Bulahdelah, once a night. He usually carried a stock of most wanted groceries, kerosene etc. and each home would buy what was needed from him.(He came in a horse and cart). Later when the service became regular, orders were sent to him in advance and he would then bring only what was ordered.
Much of the shopping had to be done by post, goods being chosen from the mail order catalogues, supplied by the different firms. The order would be posted off--, together with .a money order or cheque, and the goods would eventually arrive per the mail man, and it was quite exciting to open the parcel and see what the articles really looked like and if they would fit! People got adept at measuring and sizing, and the mail order staffs did a good job selecting and packing the goods..
I think shoes were the hardest things to buy by post.
Sometimes we would have a visit from an Indian Hawker,; He might be on horseback accompanied by a pack horse, or in an old "covered wagon". He would carry all sorts of things, materials, haberdashery , medicines, and all sorts of odds and ends. We loved to see him undo his bundles and show all his treasures. It was amazing how much stuff they could stow in the bundles!
There were no telephones at Wootton Road for many years, nor electricity. We had kerosene lamps to see by at night.. Mum taught all her girls to knit, fancywork, and mend etc., and when we were old enough, to use the sewing machine. (I wanted to be a dressmaker when I grew up). In the depression years we were given lots of "castoffs” and used clothing. I was pleased to be able to re-make and renovate what I could.
It was good practice and helped me to learn to sew.
Other early inhabitants of Bulahdelah district were the Dees. After Mum and Dad had been at "Montrose" for a year or two, a nice new home was built on a property near us. Mr. Heath and his sons were the builders. A newly married couple, Mr. and Mrs. Stan Ireland, were to live there. Mum and Mrs. Heath ( together with all .the children), went and cleaned all the house, swept and scrubbed etc. to have it nice for the "honeymooners" to come into. Once they had settled in, came the "Tin Kettling" a surprise party to which people usually came from miles around. (Any excuse was good enough for a party.) Everyone brought food and Mr. Heath would play on the accordion or perhaps someone would play a violin furniture would be moved out to make room to dance and a good time had by all.
Mr. and Mrs. Stan Ireland (Barney and Et.) became very good friends of Mum and Dad, and indeed to all of us. They had a family of four, Geoff, the eldest being about the same age as Alison.. As they had money to begin with they were able to get their property cleared and grassed. "Barney" made a good living driving a bullock team, and with rearing cattle. They were always much better off than we were but were always good friends and neighbours. .Mum and Et used to swap plants and flowers, magazines and books. They all came to our place to play tennis as the family grew up. When they acquired a motor car we were often taken on trips with them.
I went and worked for them when baby number three was born, and again for number four. They always paid me well both in money and gifts. When their family grew up, they moved in to Bulahdelah to live, and are still living there both in their eighties. Mrs. Ireland was always very good at crocket work, and I believe she still does some.
Mrs. Stan Ireland was a Miss Dee, and her grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Buck, were among the very first people to live in the Upper Myall district. They had three daughters, Mrs. Charlie Dee, (Ethel's mother) Mrs. Albert Dee, and Mrs. Butler,( Mum's sister Estella, married her son Ridyard "Dick" Butler).Mrs. Charlie Dee told me that she was the first woman in the district to own a sewing machine. Her father brought it from Newcastle on one of his half-yearly trips to get house-hold goods. Mrs. Dee was a good dressmaker, but before owning the machine all sewing was done by hand. Rows and rows of lace, pintucks, etc. on all garments, and they wore two or three long petticoats at a time!. No wonder she was glad of the machine even though it was only a hand model. She said it was quite a novelty, and people came from miles around to see it. Many tales they would tell of the early days, of horseback trips, over mountains and through rivers, on roads that were barely horse trails, of droughts and floods wild animals, and loneliness and sickness. It was often many miles to the nearest neighbour. I have heard of one time in a flood, two women and a man, together with two large pigs, a litter of young piglets, and several fowls, two dogs and a cat all spending the night in an open rowing boat, in pouring rain, tied to the top rail of abridge over the river which was flooded! The house was well and truly flooded too, Mr. Charles Dee bought or acquired much land, all up and down the river, and died at a good old age (well in his eighties) very well to do and much property to leave to his family. (They reared a family of five.)
Mr. Stan Ireland also came from a pioneering family. His mother was the first white woman to be born in the Upper Myall. She was one of a big family many of whom lived in the district and reared more big families. Stan was one of a family of twelve. It was fashionable to have big families. My sister Thora married Jack Ireland, a nephew of Stan. They have kept up the tradition by rearing a family of eight. (They live in Bulahdelah)
Chapter 7 A New Baby and Off to School
To get back to my own family. There was now Oscar, me, Colin, Brian and Dorothea. We were living in the rough weatherboard house, which was an improvement on the slab hut of the beginning but was not the acme of comfort Gradually verandahs were added, which made for more living space, and made the house much cooler in summer and more protected from the; elements in winter and I guess more playing space for the children!
Alison was born at "Montrose", she arrived early on a frosty morning in August 1922. I can remember it quite well, my first experience of a birth, (not that I knew much of what was going on.) I heard Dad get up about 4am and make the fire in the kitchen (An old midwife, Mrs. McDean, who was staying in the house for the event, had reared a family of fifteen of her own.) I could hear her up bustling around. I was awake in my room just across the hallway. When I heard the baby's first cry , and Mrs. McDean's excited "It's a girl, Mrs. Mac, it's a girl", I knew I had a little baby sister. The boys in the back room had heard the baby's cry too, and one said "1 think the cat has some new kittens."
Alison was an almost perfect baby, scarcely ever cried and was so placid and contented, that Mum sometimes thought there must be something wrong with her. She was all right thought, and grew into a lovely girl with a very placid nature, and became a fine woman. (She has had her share of sadness and sorrow, too.)
When Alison was about five years old, and almost old enough to begin school, a cousin of Mum's, Walter Engel" and his wife, Dorrie, who had been married for some years and had no children up to then, came to Mum and Dad, and offered to take Alison and rear her as their own, and send her to school in Bulahdelah where they lived. Dorothea was three years older but had been walking to school as we older ones had done, but was a long way for a five year old. Wally and Dorrie visited us regularly and were very fond of Alison. By this time Mum had had Thora and Barbara, so did have her hands full. (Alison was born in 1922, Thora in 1924 and Barbara in 1925.)
After a lot of thought, prayers and discussion, Mum and Dad decided not to agree to the proposal. They did not like the idea of splitting up the family, and of having one child treated any differently to the rest. So Alison stayed at home and in due time walked to school as the rest of us did, and grew up one of the family, not a separate identity as our parents were afraid would happen if they were allowed to take her. They had a son of their own later on, but were always fond of Alison.
We older ones began School in the beginning of 1923. Mum had taught us at home until then. Oscar and I had had correspondence lessons for a time. It was four miles the nearest school which was across country to Boolambayte. The Ward family had gone there to school, years before, but it was still only a little used, rough, bush track and rather lonely and I can appreciate now that the parents were somewhat loath to start us at school, and why we were of a good age before we started. Oscar and Lilla Heath were almost ten and I was eight. We mostly walked to school, Lilla had a horse to ride some of the time and we would be allowed to ride with her behind the saddle in turn, but more often walked. We left home at 8am carrying our lunches and books in a bag over our shoulders. We often carried our shoes and socks, too, as we loved to go' barefoot, and put them on as we neared school. We were seldom late though, as we loved school, and if I do say it myself we were all good scholars and always top of our classes. We were usually home by 5.15pm or else Mum would want to know the reason why. One hot day we stopped to watch a black snake swimming around and around in a large pool by the roadside. I guess we would have run off quickly had it shown any sign of leaving the water! Another time a big storm deluged us on the way home. We were drenched and then had to wade waist deep through a creek which was in minor flood, or as it is called 'a flash flood' .Mum was not very happy about that and we did not risk it again. If it was wet we stayed at home, and I can remember crying because we had to!
Sundays were always kept as Sunday. No work other than essentials such as milking and feeding the animals, etc. was ever done. We always had a baked midday dinner (traditional it was usually the only day in the week that we were all home for a midday meal together. After everyone had had a rest (1 was often detailed to read to the younger ones to keep them quiet while Mum and Dad rested), we would all get tidied and if there was no church service to go to we would probably all go for a walk, perhaps visit a neighbour, or go for a walk around the paddocks or out into the brush where it was always beautiful.
Getting back to school days, I often think of Mr. Simpson, the first teacher we had at the school, what a fine man he was. He had to teach all subjects, at all levels and made a good job of it too. We had P.T., sport, health and hygiene and all the usual school subjects. I often wonder now how anyone could concentrate on their own lessons. There was one room 18' by 18' with a small porch and hat room. There were long desks and forms to sit one so that each class almost ran into the next one. But teach us he did and in a very good manner. He was a man of high principles and I feel gave us all a very good start in life. The teachers who followed all tried, too, I know, and some did quite a good job. I feel there was none quite as dedicated as Mr. A.A. Simpson. I feel sure Mr. Simpson was a Christian man and I know he married a Christian lady from Bulahdelah. I know this kind of school existed allover Aus4alia and teachers did a marvelous job everywhere, but of course we all think our little spot was the best. Hats off to all teachers in those days, who had so much to contend with and did such a good job of it all.
Mum and Dad were great readers and encouraged us to read too, I don't know where they found time to read but somehow they did.
We all stayed at school until we reached sixth class when one usually sat for the end of primary school examination called the Q.C. (Qualifying Certificate) which would have been an entrance to High School exam. We all passed the Q.C. in our turns but none of us were able to go to high school, except our younger brother Charles. Most of us did a couple of years with correspondence lessons at home after we had gone as far as we could at primary school.
Chapter 8 Health, Doctors, Etc.
Thora, Barbara and Charles were all born in Bulahdelah at the home of Mum's Uncle and Aunt, the Alec Engel’s. Great Uncle Alec died suddenly with a heart attack and his wife Great Aunt Jinnie eked out a living by accommodating expectant mothers from outlying places and caring for them when they had their babies. There was no maternity hospital in the area. (Every mother stayed in bed for ten days to a fortnights in those days). A midwife in the town attended at the birth and a doctor was available if his services were required. Mum was attended by a doctor when Charles was born, her ninth birth and the first time she had had a doctor. Patricia and later Nancy were born at a private hospital in Bulahdelah. (Bulahdelah was improving!).
In the country in the early days it was often too far and too costly to rush to a doctor. Mum and Dad had many worrying times to cope with. When Dorothea, at about two years old, climbed on a log and cut her leg on Dad's big axe Mum bound it up and looked after her until it healed. Dorothea carries the scar to this day. The would probably should have had quite a few stitches in it. When Oscar was about 14 years old he cut his foot badly with an axe while splitting wood. The big boots he was wearing prevented the axe from going right through his foot. Mum bound it up and looked after it, once again no stitches, luckily no sinews were severed, and his walking was not impaired. One day Colin and Brian were using Dad's sharp axe cutting limbs off a fallen palm tree and Brian has one stump of a toe to remember that misdeed. (They were not supposed to use Dad's sharp axe, but alas, it was another job for Mum's nursing.)
I have heard it said that Mum's father on more than one occasion sewed up various wounds with a needle and thread when it was necessary .
Mum saw us through all the usual childish ailments, including weeks of sleepless nights when we all had whooping cough. There was no immunization in those days and it was not uncommon for a child to die with whooping cough or diphtheria. When we were almost over the whooping cough and Mum had just about 'had it' her sister, Aunty Mabel, came for a few days. She told Mum to go to bed and have a good sleep and she would attend any stray coughs in the night, if needed. Mum went to bed and slept 'like a log'! Next morning Mum said "the children all slept well, I didn’t hear a single cough all night." Aunty Mabel replied "that's what you think I have been up most of the night"!
Then there was the time when Oscar and I had diphtheria, Oscar had been to Tea Gardens for the summer school holidays. He had been to Newcastle on the boats, which he loved to do and must have picked up the infection somewhere. His throat was very sore and kept getting worse. Mum and Dad consulted the "Doctor's Book" and thought he may have the dreaded diphtheria. "The Book" said to blow dry sulphur down the throat and burn some in the room to fumigate and disinfect. By now it was night time, so Mum took the precaution of moving the other two boys out of the room to sleep. The first thing next day she sent for the doctor, who at once diagnosed diphtheria and examined all the rest of the family, I had a sore throat and the beginning of the disease. There was only a cottage hospital in Bulahdelah with no provision for isolation patients. The doctor said we must stay at home and Mum could take care of us. Doctor gave us each an antoxin injection. We had to stay completely in bed, for three weeks. We were both to be in the one room. It was the boys' room just off the kitchen, the connecting door was closed off and the only access doors from the verandahs were used. Sheets~ wet with disinfectant were hung at the doors and windows. Mum was the only one allowed to come into the room. She had to take all precautions not to spread any infection to the rest of the family. They were all moved as far away from the sick room as possible. The kitchen table and chairs were moved to a distant verandah and the rest of the family lived out there most of the time. Luckily it was fine hot weather and they got plenty of sun and fresh air. I am thankful to say none of the others got it. It was an exhausting experience for Mum and a most anxious time. The Doctor .called regularly, we progressed quite well. I hate to think how much the doctor's account would have been! Our cousin Jean Engel, had come to stay for a week's holiday, but she had to stay in quarantine for three weeks with the rest of the family. (She was a great, grand-daughter of old Mr. and Mrs. Ward). Jean was used to helping in the house, being the eldest of six children, so she was a good help to Mum. .One day, just when the Doctor was leaving, after checking on us, the baby Charles (about 2 years old) trod on a piece of broken glass and punctured an artery just behind his ankle. It was fortunate the Doctor was on the spot or he would most likely have bled to death. The Doctor applied first aid then took him in his car to his surgery in Bulahdelah to stitch it. Mum was so upset that she couldn’t go with her 'baby' I remember the Doctor telling mum her place was with the rest of us and that the baby would be alright. Dad was away working in the bush, Brian and Colin were with him. Mum had to send a couple of the young girls off the to the neighbours place to get Cyril Heath to go in his utility truck to bring baby "Chilla" home.; so although we were almost over the diphtheria Mum had another patient on her hands. She coped with it all, and the blazing hot weather as well, and kept her sanity! !
Dad ploughed up land with a horse and single furrow plough along the creek banks and on the flat parts of the property. He grew crops, potatoes, corn, pumpkins, tomatoes, peas etc. and sold them mostly locally. Engel’s in Tea Gardens would buy some, as would the stores in Bulahdelah. At times he would go from door to door to try and sell the produce. In the depression days it was very hard as no one had any money. Mum and Dad were not eligible for Government relief, (dole as it was called) as they owned land. They grew all they could and managed to eat mainly off the land, but they had to buy some things, such as flour, sugar, tea, etc. Mum baked her own bread and they killed beef and pigs in the winter time. None of this put shoes on our feet or clothes on our backs. We mostly dressed in 'hand me downs' and 'made overs' "and we often went barefooted.
Floods and droughts made farm work quite hazardous and they were never sure that they would get a good crop. I can remember a flood taking an "almost ready': crop of potatoes and washing them into a big hollow further down the creek. As soon as the water went down it was all hands to work as we dug the potatoes from a great heap of soil about ten to fifteen feet deep. We salvaged quite a lot of the crop, though.
The aim was to get enough land cleared, grassed and fenced to run cows to milk and sell the cream to the butter factory and so have a regular income, and as the boys grew up they would be able to round up the cows and help to milk twice a day. We always had a few cows, and enough milk for our own use, (butter was made by hand). I t was about 1935, when finally they managed a herd of milking cows and could afford to build a proper dairy , cowbails, etc. and really begin to dairy in earnest. I believe the child endowment was about the first regular money Mum had at "Montrose."
When we were growing up, most people in the country had a cow or two to keep them in milk and cream and home made butter. If no separator was available the milk would be put to 'set' in large flat dishes in a cool place, usually in a draught, and covered with a wet cloth for twelve hours or longer till the cream rose to the surface. The cream was then carefully skimmed off ~d put on one side to be made into butter. Cream a couple of days old was easier to churn than new cream. The skim milk was usually fed to the domestic animals, cats, dogs, pigs and fowls.
To make butter the cream had to be either: stirred with a large spoon for quite a while or beaten with a rotary egg beater. Small butter churns were available but not every home had one. When the cream clotted and turned to "curds and whey" (or butter and buttermilk) it was washed in clean cold water, and the excess moisture worked out with a wooden spatula or "butterpat". Salt was added and tasty home made butter resulted. Just another chore for the busy housewife in the country "
Until after World War 2, electric washing machines were practically unheard of in Australia and most washing was done by hand. Some homes boasted a hand operated, lever type primitive kind of washing machine and some had a mangle to wring with. In our home, as in many more, washing was done by hand, sometimes with the aid of a corrugated wooden washing board, which could take the skin off your knuckles if you were not careful! Monday was usually washing day. It meant earlier rising than usual to get the copper fire lit and some of the clothes on the boil. The copper was a large copper "pot" set in a cast iron stand, with a space for the fire underneath and a flu at the back to carry off the smoke. Often kerosene tins were used to boil the clothes in., (that's all Mum had to use in the 'hut days'). In later years the copper was set in a frame of house bricks and it was a much neater and did a more efficient job. All the white washing and "fast" colours were brought to the boil and boiled for about ten minutes. A large copper would hold quite a few sheets, which when boiled had to be lifted out with a "pot stick" kept especially for the purpose. An old broom handle made an excellent pot stick being round and smooth. Soap powder or shaved up soap was added to the copper water to help in the cleaning process, (detergents were not invented then). Any badly soiled clothes had to be warmed by hand before being boiled. After boiling came the rinsing, first a good rinse in clean water to remove the soap, etc. then a final rinse in blue water to keep clothes nice and white. All white linen, sheets, tablecloths, pillow slips, handkerchiefs and underwear had to be kept really white, if you were a good housekeeper. Coloured linen was unheard of. Even bedspreads, pillow shams and all covers were white. Many of these would have to be starched too. A big bowl of boiled starch was made and all covers, serviettes, doily’s, tablecloths, men's white shirts and collars were dipped in the starch before being hung out to dry .In country towns, and I suppose in suburbia, too, it was always a race on Monday mornings to see who had sheets on the line first. .
I went to work for Auntie Stella, in Tea Gardens, when she was expecting her fourth child, and had to rise about 5 am: on Mondays to begin the washing. The copper usually had to be filled with buckets of water, as not many homes had a tap over the copper, all hard work. We usually filled the copper the night before and set the fire ready. On a cold morning it would be good to get the fire going and warm up the laundry .Aunty Stella like to be one of the first to have the sheets out and I would hear about it if Mrs. Next-door or Mrs. Over-the-Way had hers out first!
All the coloured clothes were washed by rubbing with soap and washing between the hands or rubbing up and down on a washing board. The board was a bit hard on the clothes, so its use was frowned upon some what, except for men's dirty work clothes. As each load of clothes was washed and rinsed it was hunt out on long wire clothes lines. When all the washing was on the line, the hot soapy water was used to wash the bare board floors of the laundry and verandahs. This would be done with a broom and a mop. All this would add up to full morning's work. As soon as some of the clothes were dry they would be brought in and all the starched ones would be sprinkled with warm water, and rolled in towels, ready for ironing later. The "plain clothes" i.e. unstarched ones, would be ironed first. If the weather was good and all went well all the ironing and folding would be done by bedtime! The housewife would be DONE too! ! Mondays was always a "day and a half' but very satisfying just the same.
In a dry summer when we were short of water, Mum would be forced to go down to the creek and do the washing. It was a whole day’s work, and we would all go. Dad would set up the Copper on some big stones and fix a makeshift bench for the round galvanized tubs and put some wires through the trees to hang the clothes on. .All the water would have to be carried from the creek in buckets. (Usually a kerosene tin with a handle did duty for a bucket). When all was washed and put to dry we would be given a bath. (The rest of the week we would have to manage with a sponge in a dish). We would have lunch of sandwiches, and as soon as the clothes were dry we would all trek home again, helping to carry the clothes.. If Dad was working close to home he might come with the horse and dray and take everything home, hoping and praying that it would rain before next week! .The ironing was done with 'flat irons' heated in front of an open fire in winter and on top of the stove in summer. It was hot work in summer, but our clothes were always starched and ironed nicely. Our house had all bare board floors, but, they were always clean, and no mean feat that was. They were mostly scrubbed on one's hands and knees, but clean they were.
In such heavily timbered country, bush fires were a threat every summer. They were quite a few around us at different times, one I remember very well. The property opposite ours, (no one was living on it at the time, it was only used for running stock), had all been felled and was covered with piles of dead trees, a veritable tinder box, of no mean dimensions. Dad had been worried for weeks that a fire would get a start somewhere in the area and spread to all this dry timber, which was really only a short distance from our house. Well, one Sunday afternoon, the worst did happen. A fire started up in the hills and a strong north wind quickly brought it into the "danger zone"! .Dad could see it coming and was as prepared as possible. There was a considerable amount of dried grass all round our house and on the hillside facing the fire. We children were each given a 'stand' and a bucket or tub of water and a corn sack soaked in it. We were told to watch out and if any sparks or cinders landed near us we were to .beat them out at once or call for help. We all stood guard from about three o’clock till dark, and put out many small fires which would quickly have spread if not put out at once. 1 will never forget the sight of that big fire as it raced down the hills and how quickly it jumped and flew through that paddock of dried timber. It was a veritable holocaust with flames leaping thirty feet high. By night fall the worst was over, but Dad kept watch well into the night as there were still a few tall trees alight and sparks flying round. The next property to the fire " was the Heaths, but their place was much clearer and they were able to keep the fire from getting too close to their house. Shortage of water in summer was always a problem.' Dad would carry water in two kerosene tins to water his vegetables, growing down near the creek. It was heavy work but worthwhile if the crop could be kept alive until it rained. Nowadays there are bush fire patrols, the Forestry Department has taken over much of the bush country and there are good dirt roads all through the bush. The underbush is kept under control and bad fires are almost a thing of the past.
Winter evenings were usually spent all sitting around the open fire with a huge "backlog" and Mum and Dad reading aloud to us, (Mum would do plain knitting while she read to us). Many good old books were read aloud to us. I can remember Uncle Tom's Cabin, Little Women, Seven Little Australians, Westward Ho, and many more,; Later when we were older Ben Hur, A Tale of Two Cities, David Copperfield, The Fair God and others. Our hands were not idle though, we girls would be sewing or knitting or doing something. ,
Mum was always a cheerful soul, always bright and optimistic. She was like her father, a tireless worker, never an idle moment "Take care of the minutes and the hours will take care of themselves" she would tell us.
As I grew older I have happy memories of rainy days, as housework (scrubbing floors etc) was shelved on a wet day, and we could read or sew or do something we usually didn't have much time to do. Mum would often make it a day at the "machine" which was something she didn't often have the chance to do. Maybe making dresses for us, or underclothes, or even just mending. She would invariably "sing" and we loved it. Dad had a good tenor voice too and we loved it if we could persuade him to sing at night. Often on a Sunday night he and Mum would sing hymns, and a good duet they made too. I still like a rainy day at home.
Empty flour bags were always washed and unpicked and made into either underwear or tea towels or joined together and made into a tablecloth. Mum always said she was no dressmaker, but she managed to dress all her daughters nicely. I can remember us going to the annual show all dressed alike in white voile dresses trimmed with pintucks and lace. Another time we all had pink check tobralco frocks so mum didn't do too badly.
Chapter 12a A Kerosene Tin etc.
Many of the young people today have never seen a kerosene tin, and as they were used quite a lot in the past I will endeavour to say a bit about them. Kerosene was the universal method of lighting; everyone using it in lamps and lanterns (except for a few places that boasted a gas supply). Kerosene was usually supplied in four gallon tins. These were tins about nine or ten inches square and standing about eighteen inches high. When empty the top was cut out and the edges hammered flat, a handle added and a very good bucket was the result. It made a good emergency clothes boiler, (many people never used anything else!) The tins must have been made of a fairly good quality tin as they lasted as a bucket or dish or whatever for some considerable time. Cut open lengthwise they made a useful container for water or feed trough for fowls and domestic animals. When one was of no further use as a bucket or dish it made a good plant holder for" a pot plant! Mum always had a nice selection of pot plants, and never went anywhere without coming home with a few cuttings or plants. (There is a big pine tree near the tennis court at "Montrose" which she found as an inch high plant under a pine tree in Canberra and took it home wrapped in her handkerchief!).
A case of kerosene, two tins in a wooden crate, provided a very nice wooden box; it was usually made of clean smooth pine boards. Three boxes nailed together and a curtain hung at the front made a good set of shelves and one nailed on the wall made a useful bookcase. The only bedroom furniture we girls had at home in the old house, was all made from packing cases. The "dressing table" was a teach chest nailed to the opening to the front, over which was hung a curtain. A mirror stood on top. Floral cretonne was used for curtains on windows and cupboards, and very pretty it was too. Animal skins, kangaroo, wallaby or calf skins made good floor mats.
Have you ever been to a pie melon party? Well it is a lot of fun, at least we all though so at home. It would usually be held on a long winter evening in a cosy kitchen. We all sat around the large kitchen table. The table was six feet by three feet for many years, but as the family grew Dad added a board on either side and made it really large. Mum would slice up the pie melon, which is a large round melon, pale green flesh and dark green skin with red or black seeds in profusion through most of the flesh. Mum would slice the melon into about half inch slices and we would all help to peel and deseed it. The seeds were dug out with the point of a knife, then the slice held up to the light to see if there were any hidden ones. The melon had to be cut into small cubes (or put through the mincer). Mum had a huge enamel lined cast iron "jam pan" (which had belonged to her Mother) and had been used to make many hundreds of pounds of jam. It took up nearly all the top of the stove, and as melon jam had to be cooked slowly it was a day's work next day to get it made. There was always much tale telling and joking around the table as we worked and any visitor who chanced around would be given a knife and asked to join in the work and the fun. When all was fished and the mess cleaned up and we could all enjoy a mug of nice hot cocoa before being hustled off to bed.
Sliced lemons or oranges would be added to the melon to make a tasty jam, which we all loved. Sometimes Mum would make jam jars from bottles by burning a piece of string, which had been dipped in kerosene and tied around the bottle. The bottle was plunged into a bucket of cold water, when, hopefully, the top would come off cleanly and leave a useful jar. Jam would be: sealed and covered with brown paper and paste (made from flour and water).
Recipe -Melon and Lemon Jam.
Cut up melon overnight and sprinkle with a little of the sugar. Next day cook slowly till the fruit is tender, add the remainder of the sugar, juice of lemons and a piece of root ginger, if liked. Cook until thickened, a few slices of lemon rind may be added too.
10 pounds of melon weighed after peeling;
6 pounds of sugar, juice of six lemons.
For a change use a grated pineapple and juice of three lemons.
Pie melon made a good base for pickles too, and we usually had some in the cup- board, very nice with corned beef or corned pork. When Dad killed a pig in winter much of the meat was salted so that it would keep. We had no refrigeration, or even ice but the bacon, jams, and salt pork all kept very well.
Pickle Recipe
3 pounds of pie melon
3 pounds of onions.
Cut up and sprinkle with a handful of salt and let stand overnight; next day cover with water and boil till tender. Strain off liquid, and add 21/2 cups of vinegar 21/2 cups of water, 2 cups of sugar, 1 chili or ¥4teaspoon of cayenne pepper. Mix in a bowl *cup of flour, 2 tablespoons of mustard (powdered), 1 teaspoon of curry powder, 1 tablespoon of turmeric. Mix to a paste with cold water, and stir into boiling mixture. Bottle while hot and seal when cold.
In the summer we were always being warned to keep a watch for snakes. We had a rough bush "little house", with bark walls. One hot day I had been sitting in the "Library" reading ( a piece of newspaper no doubt) when something caused me to look down. There, only a few inches away from my dangling feet, was the head of a large black snake! It was coming through a crack in the wall, with its head well up off the ground, and looking as if making for my toes! I screamed and I don't know who moved the fastest, the snake or I! I jumped up and stood on the seat, yelling "Mum a snake!" The snake doubled back and went out through the same hole it had been coming in through Mum came with a big stick which she always kept handy, but no trace of the snake was ever seen again. When Dad came home from work he almost pulled the toilet down, making sure that the snake was not still hiding in the foundations, but it was never found.
On another occasion, I was running along the bush track towards a neighbour's place, when I saw a big black snake right across my path. I just jumped right over it and kept on running to Heath's place, and got one of the young men to come with a gun. We found the snake curled up under a nearby log, and Cyril duly shot it. The funny part of this story is, that a small green frog, that the snake had obviously just swallowed, emerged unharmed from the dead snake's belly, and hopped away! I can vouch for the truth of this as I was there and saw it. (1 was about 12 years old at the time.) .
Another strange story concerns a carpet snake. They are not a poisonous snake, but belong to the constrictor type, crushing their prey to death. We were not afraid of them, and they were often found in grain storage sheds where they were useful in helping to keep down the rats. When one was suspected of robbing our fowl run, my young brothers decided to do some investigating. Seeing the snake with a large lump not far down its neck, they “killed" it with a few good blows on the head. They then proceeded with a postmortem. Opened the snake where the lump was and found the dead hen. It had been swallowed quite whole, beak, feet feathers and all, but it was stretched to an incredibly long length! As it was now late in the day, the snake and the dead chook were left lying on the ground, to be disposed of the next day.
Imagine the surprise next morning to find the snake had gone! A search found it curled up under a log, about 100 yards away! It had apparently been only stunned by the blows on the head, and had recovered enough to crawl away. It lay around for some time, but we don't know if it fully recovered or went away; and died, but we never saw the remains anywhere When a carpet snake swallows a small animal or bird it takes some time to digest it, and the snake could stay in the same area moving only a few feet in five or six weeks.
Although my parents had a hard life most of the time, they, and we children of course, did have some pleasures in life. They took us out on as many outings as we could afford. Annual visits to the local show, a trip to Tea Gardens occasionally, and the Boxing Day excursion to name a few. As we grew older we played tennis and went to dances.
As children we all learnt to swim in the creeks near home. There would usually be a place deep enough somewhere around for us to have a lot of fun in the hot weather. We loved to go in the surf and salt water when we had a chance, such as the lake or the river baths at Tea Gardens.
On Boxing Day there was always an excursion to Mungo Brush a picnic, camping and boating spot on the Myall lakes. One of the big cargo ~ boats, in holiday garb, piano and all, would leave Bulahdelah about 8.30am equipped with seats and awnings and bedecked with flags, etc. in real holiday mood. It would take a couple of hours or so to get to the Lake where there would be a big regatta in progress. There would be lots of tents and campers, merry-go-rounds and other amusements decorated boats and transformed timber punts would bring crowds from all over the district, and for us and many more I suppose, it was a day to remember. As Mum's relatives would all come from Tea Gardens it was for us a real, "gathering of the clan". The picnic hampers of cold Christmas poultry etc, and cold plum puddings were pooled, shared and sampled. You can imagine the good fellowship and fun we had. The fact that we had to rise very early to get to Bulahdelah in time for the boat did not dampen our enthusiasm, or the fact that we still had to get home again late at night. A horse and sulky was not a very quick mode of transport, and it was first catch your horse!
As we grew older and motor vehicles began to be more plentiful, Irelands had a car and Cyril Heath had a utility truck. We were always welcome to have a ride with them if they were going our way. The annual show was a big event with ring events, produce, pavilion and of course the side shows! I still do not know how Mum managed to dress us all and take us out for a day. I do know we all had to help one another and so help Mum. (1 was always a "Little Mother" I think.) I was very fond of children and did not mind having to help to look after the baby or the little ones. I left school at thirteen to be able to help at home. (Not that I could have done much more at school anyway). I was only thirteen and a half when baby Charles was born. I kept house and looked after the rest of the family and Dad for three weeks while Mum was away. My first job away from home was minding a small child for a few weeks while his mother helped to run a shop. (1 had .earned a few shillings while at school helping with the school cleaning). Oscar and I were always good mates, and did lots of things together as we grew up. As Mum had taught us together so we both went into fourth class when we went to school. We were both good readers, but Oscar was always better at history and maths than I, but I could beat him at English and Geography. We both did correspondence lessons about up to the Intermediate stage but neither of us went away to do the exam. Oscar worked with Dad on the farm when he left school, but he was never interested in farm work. He like to work with tools and do more engineering type of work. Any time he went to Tea Gardens for a holiday he spent most of his time either on the boats seeing "how they worked" etc, or with Uncle Henry in his workshop.
As-many men made their living in timber, there were a lot of bullock teams in our area. Oscar got the idea, from his Uncle I think, of setting up a blacksmiths shop, and doing a bit of work for himself in his spare time. He was like most of us, very determined and very resourceful. Uncle Henry gave him a small anvil and he built himself a fire place. He acquired an old pair of hand bellows, which were necessary to make the fire hot enough to heat the iron sufficiently to be able to work it. He gathered charcoal in the paddocks, where logs had been burnt, for fuel, and was soon able to mend chains for the bullock drivers. He was paid sixpence (5 cents) for each link he mended and they soon got to know him and gave him work to do. It saved them having to take small jobs all the way to Bulahdelah six miles away. Oscar was also very keen to learn to play the violin, but of course finance (or the lack of it) was always a problem. Although he worked on the farm, there was little money, not more than his keep and clothes for him. It was the beginning of the depression years and there wasn't much money or outside work for a lad. Anyway, when he had saved one pound (2 dollars) the price of one term's music lessons, he wrote to Uncle Henry (his idol) and begged the loan of a violin, until he was able to save up and buy one for himself. Uncle Henry obliged and Oscar took his one pound and paid for his first quarter’s music lessons. From then on he didn't look back and became quite a good violin player, in time.
As his blacksmithing work progressed and he learnt to make horse shoes and shoe horses and do bigger jobs he found that he needed more room, so he built a bigger workshop and anew forge. He bought apiece of basil leather and painstakingly made a large pair of bellows, worked with a lever. That was progress! He still worked with Dad most of the day, but he would be up and do a couple of hours in the blacksmith shop before breakfast, and often worked late at night, by the light of a hurricane lantern( a kerosene one, as were all the lights in our home). It was a great day .when electricity came through the district, in about 1940 I think (well after I had left home).
Then Oscar had to find time to practice the violin. It nearly drove us all made at times, especially in the winter. But practice he did, and it paid off in the long run. By the time he was twenty he had learnt all that anyone in the district could I teach him. It is still a pleasure to hear him play. He joined with a couple of others and formed a small music group to play at local dances, and they got plenty of work quite often I went to the dances too. (We were in our teens by then). We often had "barn dances" in our own area on a Saturday night.
There were a few people on farms around by this, and we thought nothing of walking two or three miles to a dance. Everyone went. Men, women, and children, old folk and teenagers. The small children went to sleep, the old folk looked on and helped get, the supper. We usually danced to an accordion played by old Mr. Heath. If there was not a veranda large enough to dance on the furniture would be all moved out of the kitchen and fine fun we had. They were all old fashioned danced of course, polkas, jolly miller, mazurka, waltz, pride of Erin and Square dances. Mum was a good dancer, very light on her feet, but Dad did not dance at all, more's the pity .'
Just before we left school we had a teacher, Mr. Dave Lyall, who was very good at sport, and taught us to play tennis on a rough court we made at school. When Oscar left school he and the two younger boys, Colin and Brian, made a tennis court at home. It was a lot of work and it was a few years before it was a really good court, but we had a lot of fun on it. Later as we grew up and I the court improved and also our playing, we had lots of friends come to play, and every weekend there would be someone come to join in a game. We had teams on local competitions and all turned out to be fair players. Most of us kept it up all our lives and some of the family still play in competitions and social tennis. The court was a wonderful asset to "Montrose" anyway, and gave (and still does) a great deal of pleasure and healthy recreation. Mum and Dad both played tennis so we had a full team of our own and could make up a set anytime.
Being used to housework and looking after children I was in demand as I got older helping out in homes around in times of sickness or anew arrival. I had two "sojourns" to Tea Gardens at different times to stay with Aunty Stella and keep house while she had anew baby. Each time I stayed about three months, and although I had plenty of friends (Aunts and cousins) I still got a bit homesick and was always glad to be home again. Mum was always glad to see me, too, as I was a good help to her in the house, I know she was glad when I could earn a bit of money t6 help clothe myself and a bit over to help at home. I don't know just which years these things took place but just after the depression years of the early 1930's Mums and Dad were deeply in debt, as owning a property they were not eligible for Government help, no dole, so they were very well in debt with many mouths to feed and bodies to clothe. Anyway, somewhere about this time Dad received a very welcome legacy from relations in Scotland. If ever anything was an answer to prayer surely that was. He received the sum of $1000 ( or $ 2000) and although it sounded a lot at the time it didn't go very far. It did enable them to get out of debt and make a fresh start. They did some fencing, and sub-dividing, and were able to get the necessary buildings and work done to enable them to begin dairy farming and send the cream to the factory two or three times a week. The cream had to be taken to Bulahdelah to catch the truck to take it to Raymond Terrace. One of the boys usually took it in the sulky, it had to be there by 8.30 am so it was an earlier start than usual on those mornings, but the fresher the cream the better the price. Dairying made a lot of work but all the older members of the family could help. Brian and Colin were old enough to round up cows, help to milk (by hand) and feed calves and pigs. As the girls were old enough they all learnt to milk and do their share of the farm work. It was two or three hours work for four or five persons, twice a day, wet or fine, seven days a week. In the spring and summer when there was natural grass the cows were not hard to feed, but in the winter they had to be hand fed on cow cane or other hand grown crop to keep up the milk supply.
Dorothy went to Newcastle to train as a nurse when she was seventeen or so; Mum hated her going, but it had to be. She was the first one to leave home on a permanent basis. She was fortunate in getting in with good Christian people, and made ,nice friends and became a good nurse. 'After she did her four years of training and became a sister she stayed on and Newcastle Hospital and met and married Keith Smith from Mayfield in 1943. (I was a bridesmaid at the wedding), which took place in the Salvation Army Hall in Mayfield, followed by a nice reception in Newcastle.
Someone (1 think old Mr. Ward) gave us an old gramophone many years ago. .It was an Edison model with wax cylindrical records and a big 'horn' to amplify the sound. It was rather primitive but we thought it was wonderful to be able to get music and singing from it. We had Scotch songs by Harry Lauder and others, Old Irish songs, and quite a few good records. They wore out in time as the wax was not as durable as plastic. Later we were given a gramophone which played, disc records, a gift from Grandma Engel when she got a later and better model. We didn't mind it being old fashioned and lacking a bit of varnish, it played good music and we all had quite a lot of pleasure from it.
Another occasion I remember quite well took place in Tea Gardens in March 1927. We were all in Tea Gardens having a holiday. We older ones went to school and it was the occasion of the opening of Parliament House, Canberra and the first Commonwealth Parliament sitting in Canberra. The then Duke and Duchess of York (later King George 6th) were in Australia to do the honours. Wireless was just coming into use and a retired sea captain living in Tea Gardens had a wireless set! Big News! He rigged up a loud speaker out of a back window and all the school was invited to hear the broadcast. We were all duly marched into his backyard and stood in rows and listened to the historic broadcast. I don't remember hearing much besides a lot of static and a few words here and there, but we did hear the event. It was indeed a wonder to everyone then to think that we could hear someone speaking hundreds of miles away. Canberra was in its very early stages then too, and a long way from us. Little did I ever think then that some day I would be living in Canberra and see it grow from a population of about 1400 in 1940 to 190,000 in 1975.
Can you imagine Mum setting off to Tea Gardens for a holiday with eight children? There would have been Oscar"14, myself (Vi, as I was called at home, in Tea Gardens the relatives there called me Vilie) I would have been 13, Colin 11, Brian 10, Dorothea 8, Alison 5, Thora 3 and Barbara 2. (It would have been this family that I kept house for the following year; It was January 1928, when Charles was born).
Our teen years were happy years, despite hard work and not much money. We made the most of everything, and managed fairly well. My few jobs as housemaid brought me in enough money to clothe myself. I learnt to sew at an early age and by the time I left school I could use the sewing machine and make plain clothes. I learnt quite a lot from Aunty May (Mum's oldest sister) whenever I was in Tea Gardens. Aunty May was a dressmaker and I was soon able to make my own clothes and help Mum with the home sewing. Mum and I made all Dorothy's clothes to go away nursing.
Housework when I was young was much different to what it is today. Of course no electricity made a big difference. Beds had to be stripped each morning and the kapok mattress well aired and shaken (no inner spring mattresses!) and what dusty things they were, and the beds had to be made properly. Bed rooms had to be swept frequently to keep down the dust, and were all washed, on one's knees I might add, at least once a week. Anyone fortunate enough to have linoleum on the floors would have to polish it as well. (Also on one's knees )
Carpets had to be swept with a millet or straw broom and to keep the dust to a minimum damp tea leaves were scattered over them and swept up gathering the dust with them. Then there was the stove and fireplace to keep clean! The stove had to be done over with black-lead and well polished with a stove brush (a dirty job if ever there was one) It had to be done while the stove was cool, so mostly it was done before it was lit in a morning. The surrounding fireplace had to be done too, it was usually painted over with a mixture of whitewash and water, at least twice a week. After all this the floor would just have to be washed. Most kitchens had white pine tables and dressers, which were scrubbed frequently with sand soap and cold water to keep them nice. The floors were scrubbed on your knees, a patch at a time, each patch being dried off with a well wrung-out cloth as you went. We usually had a special 'kneeling-pad' kept, for the purpose, so it was not too hard on the knees. We always tried to have the dirty work done in the mornings, and usually when lunch was over and the washing up done we could get washed and tidied, and may have an hour to sew or knit or use as we liked. I loved reading books but couldn't always spare the time. I did quite a lot oft knitting and fancy work, and am still using some of the things I made for my "glory box' which every girl had in those days. (They don't seem to worry so much about them these days).
I guess, like a lot more young girls, I dreamed my dreams. I had ideas of marrying a rich farmer and living near home all my life. I was very fond of children (and well used to looking after them) and had hopes of having a large family of my own. I suppose my ideas of a husband (or "ideals" I should have said) were rather high. I don't suppose my ideal man would have ever existed! Dad always said that I was too fussy and that I would never get married. Needless to say, none of the boyfriends It. had came up to my expectations, so romances did not get very serious. Mum always said, there was plenty of time and I would meet 'Mr. Right' someday.
Chapter 20 Myself, Brian and Colin
Maybe I should say a little about myself as a person. I was a tall thin girl and grew into a tall thin teenager. I was mostly very shy and not good at standing up for myself. (Thank goodness I have overcome that now!). I was always willing to do anything I was asked to in the way of work. I had dark brown straight hair, very fine and not too much of it. I often had it plaited to go to school but I didn't boast very big pigtails. It looked better in my teens when waves were in fashion, and made more of it. I had hazel eyes and fair to medium skin, with a good colour. (All our girls have good skins. Mum was very dark with a good skin and black curly hair which it was a pity none of us inherited. Dad very was fair, so the mixture at least gave us all good complexions. Nancy is the only girl who is really dark, although Oscar, Brian and Charles are all dark.) I always loved little children and never tried of minding them or caring for them. I think I have always been a little artistic and always liked doing fancywork and making things. I believe I was conscientious, trustworthy and capable and I could turn my hand to almost anything. I won odd prizes in the local show for fancywork, cooking and flower arranging. I did a home course in sweet making once, but never went .very far with it.. As a commercial venture it was a bit of a flop. I though at one time I may be a dress designer, but that was only a dream. Then I always wanted to own a shop of some sort, but that was not an easy thing to come by. I think the main thing I wanted in life was to get married and rear a family. I liked to get to church when ever I could, and developed a sincere faith in God. I tried hard to do right, even if I didn't always succeed.. I have found God to stand by me whenever I really needed Him, and can see His hand has guided my all my life, and I am thankful. Brian and Colin were good mates and worked well together. When they were old enough to leave school they both worked on the farm and worked well as they both liked the farm work. In about 1935 the old house was pulled down, and a new home was built. The old one had been added on to at different times and none of it had ever been finished off. There were never any linings or ceilings and it was a large ramshackle place so that when there was a little money left from the legacy, it was decided that the best thing to do was to pull it down and rebuild it properly. Mr. Heath and his son Cyril were the builders with help from Dad and Oscar. It is still our old "home" and means home to all of us. We still all love to go there for a holiday now and then. Alison still lives there and makes any of us very welcome. While the house was being rebuilt a large shed was made into a temporary residence, and it was fairly comfortable, too. It was about this time that I left home for my first permanent job. I went to work for a Mr. and Mrs. Brawn at Raymond Terrace. (Aunty Grace had worked for them at one time). They had a cafe and fruit shop and I worked in the house adjoining and worked in the shop as well. I was paid 1 pound (or 2 dollars)per week which was raised to one pound five or (or two dollars fifty) -I loved the shop work. I was able to go home for a weekend about every six weeks and so gradually got used to being away from home although I always loved to go back and couldn't do enough things while I was home. I lived and worked for them for four years, and while I was not unhappy there, I did work very hard, and long hours, and in time they came to feel as if they owned me. I had little say in running my own life, and I began to get discontented. Oscar had left home and gone to work with a building firm in Newcastle and from there moved to Canberra with them to work on a big new High School.
My first trip to Sydney was a memorable one. Oscar was there on holidays and I had a few days off from work at Brawns and had a chance to go to Sydney by car. (That in itself was quite something). I stayed with Mum's youngest sister, Aunt Ann in Mosman. She took us out and showed us round as much as she could and Oscar and I went about on our own quite a bit. Aunty lived near the Taronga Park Zoo so of course that was a must. We loved the trips back and forth on the ferries. It was in early 1937 the Sesqui Centenary celebrations were one, there was much to see and do and we made the most of every minute and oh! did I get sore feet with all those pavements? The Sydney Harbour Bridge had been open only a few years, and was quite new to us, so of course we walked across it and climbed the pylons. We did have a wonderful time and even the trip back to Newcastle on my own in the train was quite an adventure.
Colin .and Brian acquired a small team of bullocks (something Dad had never had any interest in or liking for). Dad did quite a lot of work on the place with a draught horse but with the bullocks the boys were able to earn a bit of money drawing logs to the roadside for lorries to pick up for the mills, and they were able to do more heavy clearing work on: the farm. By this time Dad had bought another 80 acre paddock adjoining the old place. It had quite a lot of good timber on it too. Just when things were looking a bit brighter real tragedy struck. Colin was killed.
Chapter 21 Changes and Tragedy
About the end of 1939 I left the shop in Raymond Terrace and went to work in Canberra. Oscar had been there for about four months and wrote in glowing terms of the young city. I had had enough of working long hours and being ruled by Mr. and Mrs. Brawn. I am afraid I didn't stand up for myself as I should have and consequently, I had it "put over" me quite a bit. Anyway, Oscar got me a position as a waitress at Hotel Canberra, the leading hotel in the place. I only had to work 40 hours per week and was paid just double what I had been getting. I was a bit "green" at first, but soon learnt the "game" and got on quite well. I made good use of my leisure, sewed and played tennis etc., As I was rather run down and in need of a change I think I did the right thing in corning to Canberra. Transport had improved a great deal, there were good roads to Canberra and even a plane service. Oscar had flown home one weekend so we didn't think it was so far after all.
When I arrived at the station Oscar met in his little car. Just fancy one of us owning a car! Even if it was only a tiny Morris roadster, it was a car. At that stage Mum was "on the way" with Nancy, my youngest sister. The last one, Patricia, was six years old and Mum was 46. Nancy Estella duly arrived safely on 18.3.39 and all was well. Oscar and I had a trip home by car that Easter to see Mum and the new baby. It was quite a trip, almost an adventure it took all day to get there but that didn't matter we got there. A few weeks later, on 1st June 1940 we were .horrified to receive a telegram from Dad saying "Both come home. Colin accidentally killed this morning". He and Brian had cut down a big tree for a timber log, and were sawing it through when it split and rolled on Colin. Colin had insisted on taking the lower side. The rolling log hit him in the chest and he was killed instantly. Brian had to ride home and break the news. It happened early in the morning and it was about 10.30am when we got the telegram. We had another trip home by car but not a happy one this time. We arrived about 10pm that night and our parents were glad to see us safely there. It was a dreadful shock to us all, I don't think Dad ever recovered from it. His health began to fail and he fretted a great deal. Colin had bee~ brought straight home and the local undertaker had come and done the necessary work. Mum insisted that we have a last look at him and I have never been sorry that I did. His chest had been crushed in the accident but his face was unmarked; he just looked as if he was asleep, quite peaceful and calm. The funeral left from "Montrose" and was conducted by the Methodist Minister in the district at the time. He was buried in Bulal1delal1 cemetery .We were a stunned little band as we stood and saw our playmate and brother put to his last resting place. He was almost 22 years of age, and as we were a close family it was a big loss to each of us. Most of the family attended the Methodist Church in Bulal1delah from this time on as there was usually a resident Minister there, by then. Brian felt it very much too, he and Colin had always been such good mates and had always done everything together and he missed him a great deal. Then he couldn't do the heavy work on the farm that the two of them had been doing. Brian sold the bullocks and tried to settle down and work with Dad but he became very restless and unsettled. I took two months leave and went home and stayed with Mum all the July and August and then went back to Canberra..
Brian always believed that in taking the position he (Colin) did on the most dangerous side of the log that Colin virtually gave his life for him. It affected him greatly. "Greater love hath no man than this." Brian I eventually left the farm and went to Sydney and worked two years at Bible Training College. He felt he must give all his life to the Lord's work. He came back to the farm when Dad became ill and stayed home for a few years. In that time he married a fine Christian girl, Jean Dee, and they have spent a worthwhile life, devoting much of it to mission work. Twice they have been to New Guinea and worked in missions. In between they worked at home mission work and in training missionaries. An old home at "Tahlee" had been acquired by the "Gospel Fishermen" and used as a training place for missionaries. Brian and Jean worked with them for several years, often not having more than faith to I live on. They never faltered and have reared a fine family of three girls and four boys including twins. They are now due to return to Australia (1976) from New Guinea, in time for the twins to start high school. Our daughter, Dorothy, spent three month-s with them at the mission station in Mendi, New Guinea, last summer and loved every minute of it. When Brian went to Sydney to the Bible Training College it left only Dad, Mum and the girls, Alison, Thora and Barbara to do the dairying and run the farm. .Charles and, Patricia were still at school. The girls worked on the farm like men and did a very good job. Many men were away at the 2nd World War and at this time it was not unusual for girls to do farm work. (Many city girls joined what was known as the Land Army). Our girls were doing a good job at home. Thora did a bit of house work in Bulahdelah, and became engaged to Jack Ireland, (a nephew of our neighbour). Dad's health really gave us all worry in 1944. He had been to Canberra for our wedding and a few weeks later walked up the aisle with Thora; after that the Doctor put him off all work but he did not improve much.
While I was working at the Hotel Canberra I did lots of sewing for the other girls who worked there. I now had a small portable sewing machine of my own. When Oscar left Canberra to join the Army I left the Hotel and went to board in the place where he had been and set myself up as a dressmaker. I kept it up for a year or so but found it rather lonely and not as lucrative as I had hoped. I was boarding with old people, so they were not much company for me. Eventually I gave it up and went back to work at the Hotel. As many men were away at the War it was no trouble to get work. (Incidentally, the cottages where I was living are now under the waters of Lake Burley Griffin).
The hotel provided accommodation for staff and the work was clean and interesting. I did not make many close friends with the staff I worked with but got on well with them on the whole. I think I always considered myself a bit superior, and was thought to be "stuck up". I was often called a "goody goody" because I went to church and did not smoke, drink or swear as most of them did. The guests at the hotel were usually friendly and one came in contact with all sorts of interesting people. I even met one Member of Parliament who came from Adelaide University and had known my great Uncle Rennie. I always went home for holidays and it was great. There was always some sewing waiting for me to do. Mum had become rather fat in latter years and found it very hard to get dresses to fit her, so I usually made some for her. She was only a very short person and almost as wide as she was high. Dad used to joke that when they were married he could get his two hands around her tiny waist but twenty years later he could only just get his two arms around! Of course, having eleven children could have had something to do with it! Anyway it didn't stop her from being very active and working, playing tennis, gardening and being bright and jolly. "Laugh and grow fat" I have heard her say.
The War years were a time of trial to us all of course, although our family was not very much affected. Oscar was in the Royal Engineers but did not see service outside Australia. Jack Ireland and Keith Smith both saw service in New Guinea and both arrived home safely. Many goods were in short supply but on the whole we didn't fare too badly. Petrol was very scarce and many things were rationed. We were issued with a book of coupons to buy such things as sugar, tea, meat, butter and clothing. But there was enough to go around if we were careful. We all got a shock when the Japanese submarines got into Newcastle and Sydney Harbours. Dorothy was nursing in Newcastle Hospital at the time and it was rather frightening. We had a big contingent of Dutch airmen stay at the hotel, when they arrived from Malaya and were reforming their air force. Also many Americans, soldiers, sailors and airmen from the lower ranks to the Commanders in Chief, and even Mrs. Roosevelt herself.
Chapter 23. Romances and Weddings
While Oscar was in the Army he met, and later married Mary Passlow (Mollie).They were married at the Catholic Church at Strathfield in November 1942. Mum and Dad were down from Bulahdelah for the wedding and I went from Canberra. I took Mum and Dad back to Canberra for a few days, their first trip to the Capital. It was like a well planned large country town in those days. There were acres of roses and they were at their best in November and were really a sight to be remembered. Canberra is always a very pretty place and the green lawns and masses of young trees were at their best that spring. Mum and Dad loved it.
Oscar was sent to Perth soon after the wedding and Mollie spent her time between "Montrose" and her home, with her mother in Strathfield. Their first child, Judith, was born in August 1943 in Sydney. I had a weekend trip by train to see my first niece when she was a few weeks old. It was on the train trip back to Canberra on the Sunday night that I first met my husband "Jack" (Ernest John Pickup). He was working in Canberra in the Telegraph Room at the G.P.0. and had been to Sydney for the week end too. We chatted quite a lot on the way home, and I was somewhat at traced to him at once. I left the train quickly and caught a taxi when we arrived in Canberra at midnight. A couple of weeks later we met again at a dance and renewed the acquaintance. He had a friendly open nature and "an easy to get on with" disposition, and we got on well from the start. We saw quite a lot of one another in the next couple of months. We walked and talked over a good many miles. That was a popular way of transport in the war years, when petrol was rationed and cars were few and far be