Duty, Land and Legacy

The Sale of the Snowtown Farm

In the spring of 1942, a public notice appeared in the Chronicle newspaper announcing the sale of a 466 acre farm near Snowtown. At first glance, it looked like a routine land auction, one of many conducted by the South Australian Farmers’ Co-operative Union during those years. But behind the advertisement lay a story of family and duty.

The property was located in the Hundred of Cameron, Bumbunga, just southeast of Snowtown, a region known for its robust cereal crops and mixed farming. The land was good, and so were the improvements: a solid six-roomed homestead, a chaff shed, machinery shed, pigsties, stables, cow yard, and a fowl house, the land all neatly divided into six paddocks. 

The farm, a tidy and productive holding, had only recently been acquired in 1940 by Edward John Horgan. But barely two years later, he was forced to put it up for sale, not by drought or debt, but by the weight of family obligation and personal loss.

In quick succession, Eddie’s two uncles, Tom and Jack Horgan, passed away. They had managed the family farm at Linwood in South Australia’s mid-north for many years, but had leased it to their neighbours the Arnold brothers when they moved to Riverton with their sister Kate. Their deaths left the Linwood property in the hands of their ageing brother, Andrew, Eddie’s father. Suddenly, the task of keeping the old family property going fell to Eddie, his brother Joe and his father.

The decision to leave Snowtown was not made lightly. Eddie and Hannah had only recently put down roots there, investing in land and building a life. That life was tough and pennies were few. Hannah recalled walking one and a half miles to a neighbour's farm to borrow a match. A letter to her mother sat on the mantelpiece for several weeks before she could afford the stamp to post it.

Now with two toddlers in tow and another on the way they prepared to make their way south.  By August of 1942, Hannah was in Riverton Hospital where the birth of a still born babe would have added additional stress and concerns. (1)

The 1942 auction was held at the Snowtown Market on Tuesday, 13th October. The land was offered in two parcels, 190 and 216 acres, but could be sold as a whole. Cash terms applied, a standard arrangement during wartime, when credit was tight and inflation loomed. The auctioneers, operating out of both Adelaide and Snowtown, handled the sale on behalf of E.J. Horgan, who had no choice but to walk away from one farm to tend another one steeped in family legacy. The final sale and settlement of the land transfer did not occur until March 1946 when the title was transferred to a Glen William Davidson. (2)

This advertisement in the newspaper fails to reveal the whole story but highlights the way lives were reshaped by family responsibilities and the obligations of inheritance. It’s a story repeated in towns and farms across Australia, where loyalty to land and kin often meant changing direction when least expected.

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1. 1942 'Family Notices', The Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1931 - 1954), 26 August, p. 10. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article48880231

2. Certificate of Title, SAILIS, Vol 1712, folio 124

This post first appeared on earlieryears.blogspot.com by CRGalvin

From Shanks's Pony to Airy Heights

Some Vehicles of Yesteryear

“he has ridden in a bullock dray, spring cart, the old Mass shandrydan, and the motor car; and daily witnessed the flight of men through the air as birds on the wing” (1)
Written in 1933 the passage above reflected the changes in modes of travel during the preceding 90 years of David O'Leary's life.

No doubt many of us through the years asked the question of our parents - "How will I get there?" to which their answer may have been "by Shanks's pony" implying that we had two good legs to walk the distance. We are lucky to have seen the developments in modes of travel that provide us with many easy options for reaching desired destinations.

In my Father's times

Looking through our family photos reveals the changes in modes of travel since my father was a boy. When he died in 1992 he had certainly seen and experienced many changes. He courted my mother travelling from Alma into Hamley Bridge via horse sulky. He was the proud owner of an early buckboard followed by a Buick and several generations of Holden cars. Farm vehicles changed from horses and carts to trucks, utes, tractors and motorised implements. 

Below are some photos of the vehicles my father travelled in or worked with throughout his lifetime from 1908 - 1992. 

Travelling to Church on Sundays

"The old Mass shandrydan"

Later in his life my father, pictured here as a boy in about 1918, adapted wagon wheels for use as children's play equipment.

Travelling to School

Edward John Horgan is listed on the Alma South school register as having attended there for 8 years from the beginning of 1914 until the end of 1921. The ride to school was about three miles.

Moving around the farm

Andrew Horgan with sons Eddie and Joe atop a cart used to move the hay stooks from paddock to  haystack, about 1937 on the Alma farm.

Owning a motorised vehicle

When my parents moved to Snowtown after the birth of their first child, a vehicle of their own was needed. Here is Dad looking very proud of his buckboard.

After the death of his uncles, Jack and Tom Horgan, the young family now with two children, moved back to the Horgan family farm at Linwood.

Here are some of his vehicles with my father pictured in each one.

Notice this cart now has tyres rather than wagon wheels.

My mother wrote on the back "First load of bales and Eddie, Linwood"

Taking goods to market on trucks

Eddie Horgan c 1954

Above: The Oldsmobile truck is loaded with bales of wool ready for the long slow drive to Adelaide. The trip down, unloading the bales and the trip back home took all day. 

A later photo with sheep on board

Eddie Horgan c1959
photo taken from paddock across
the road from the newly built farmhouse

My parents depended on the income from the wool, sheep and grain as well as selling the cream from the cows and eggs from the fowls. It was a hard, busy life with seven children to be fed, dressed and educated. I do not have a photo of Dad with bags of wheat on the back of a truck, but that too was a common sight at the end of harvest in late December or early January.

Dad with his Buick or is it a Chevrolet, the car we had before a range of Holdens

In later years my parents travelled for pleasure by train, boat and aeroplane. One of my favourite travel stories was of their visit to St Peter's in Rome in 1979. My father a very devout Catholic always removed his hat at the back of whichever church they entered and placed it on a nearby table or chair to be retrieved at the end of Mass. This was always fine in the small country churches where nobody would take a farmer's hat. Yes, he removed his hat on entering St Peter's and must have deposited it carefully somewhere at the rear of the cathedral. He was surprised when his hat was no longer there on exiting.

Creative use of old vehicle parts

Here's some old wagon wheels Dad adapted to make a see-saw for his children.

My six siblings bumping up and down or perhaps posing for the photo

The stones at either side of the wheels were placed to prevent it from rolling away. I wonder if any of my siblings remember any "accidents" on this seesaw.

Another use of a wagon wheel, what we knew as our hurdy-gurdy.

My siblings and self, the youngest, on the old wagon wheel

The iron frame surrounding the wooden wheel was hot on sunny days and one quickly learned to lift one's feet and hang on carefully to a wooden spoke before being spun around. Behind us is the maroon coloured fence with gates on three sides in the backyard of the old house. It kept us safe from the dangers of the farmyard and the nearby creek.

My father's creative talent of putting old parts to new uses was handed down to his son and grandson who continue to work on the farm each day.

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1. 1933 'A NONAGENARIAN COLONIST.', Bunyip (Gawler, SA : 1863 - 1954), 29 September, p. 7. , viewed 08 Aug 2022, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article9664921

This post first appeared on earlieryears.blogspot.com by CRGalvin

The ram’s head and the rock playground

A visit to the farm

Time flies and the past slides into the distance. After my series of A-Z posts in April, I enjoyed a week’s visit to South Australia. This chance to catch up with family brought more shared memories, photographs and reminiscences of times past. With my brother I toured the farm 2017 style, looked at additions and changes that time has wrought since I lived there as a child.

A visit to the sheds revealed that, amongst other treasures, the ram’s head I mentioned in Making merry and other muck still hangs in the shearing shed 50 years later. The lower jaw is missing as is the wire my brother had rigged to move the jaw up and down just as friends glanced upwards to view the light source. At the time, much amusement followed as there was speculation about how much drink had been consumed at the 21st birthday party that was in progress. “Did that jaw really open and close?”

In the sheds, evidence of my father's labour. The hand built walls from creek gravel and cement which grew by a plank width and height over time. The wooden gates, fences and yards painstakingly constructed as he followed in the footsteps of those who had laboured and innovated before him.

Walls in the cowshed and shearing shed built up
layer by layer, plank by plank

Evidence of my brother's labour - looking up in the lofty sheds to the frames welded together then mounted high before installing the roofing. Evidence of the ongoing work  and new sheds, now with machinery that dwarfs that of yesteryear, more technical expertise needed as well as the hard physical labour.

The rock playground

We clambered onto the rocks once more in the creek where we played happily for hours as children. Over the years the creek has deepened but recognisable clefts in the rocks and the ‘seats’ remain the same.  The lower branches of the trees where we bounced up and down and rode them as ‘horses’ are still there.
Further down were the ponds where we gathered tadpoles and moss. The old house was built along the edge of this creek for the fresh water it supplied.

The rock playground in the creek

The old walls of the original stone house built in the 1850s crumble now, but the memories of times past are reinforced by shared photos, memorabilia and a tribute to those men and women who have lived and laboured on this farm to provide for their families in good times and lean.

from 1858: the widow Johanna Horgan with sons John, Thomas and Daniel
1863 John and Honora Horgan, then with sons Andrew, John (Jack) and Tom, daughters Catherine (Kate) and Johanna
from 1883 the widow Honora Horgan with sons Andrew, John (Jack) and Tom until Andrew's marriage in 1906 took him to Alma, SA.
until 1941 Jack and Tom with their sister Kate
1942 return of Andrew (after the deaths of Jack and Tom) with his son Eddie and Hannah Horgan
until 1975 Eddie and Hannah Horgan with their son, my brother
My brother and his wife and children
and now my nephew, the current incumbent.

One of the original, now crumbling walls, stones and mud

Zero, nought, nothing

A-Z challenge - My memories of life on the farm in the nineteen fifties and sixties

Indoor games

In the game of Scrabble, the letter Z is one of the highest scoring letters worth 10 points. Mum loved to play Scrabble and so did I. It was a game we often played, recording the scores and keeping a tally of who had won the most games. If one was lucky enough to get a Z and use it with either a double letter score or a triple word score square, one was well on the way to victory. Scrabble is more challenging with multiple players and competition was fierce as we all aimed to better Mum. She kept the dictionary nearby to check up on any questionable word one wanted to use.

Noughts and Crosses was always an excellent time filler. On the backs of envelopes or scraps of paper, many games were quickly scribbled and contested.

Monopoly The aim of this board game was to collect as much money and as many properties, houses and hotels, as possible. Probably the lingering memory of Monopoly is the card from the Community and Chance chests which read GO TO GAOL: Go directly to gaol. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200. In other words, you have nothing, zero, zilch, a negative result.

And that's it I have zero, nought, nothing left to add. Thanks to all those who have visited and commented either here or on Facebook. If you missed a post here’s a linked list.

A – Apricots and Almonds: all whistle now
B – Bulls in the paddock, baking and bicycling
C – Cars for carting
D – Drat that darn dog
E – Early childhood and Easter
F – Feathered foes and furry friends
G – Gates and grates
H – Harvest, hay and a Hills hoist
I –  Instruments and implements
J – Jelly jests
K – Knitting, kneeling and killing
L – Love, learning, luck and a little licorice
M –Making merry, mud and other muck
N – Nettles, nasties and netball
O – Oranges in the orchard and some offal
P – Plenty of peas
Q – Quinces and the Queen
R – Rabbits and the rain gauge
S – Sheep, sewing and saving
T – Tennis, tin kettling and a telephone
U – Udders and unders
V – Vegetables, verandas and the magic Vegemite jar
W –Waiting and washing
X – Some eXtras for X
Y – Youth
Z – Zero, nought, nothing - that's the lot for now.

Youth

A-Z challenge - My memories of life on the farm in the nineteen fifties and sixties

Rural Youth Clubs

As early as 1949 there were plans afoot to introduce a program in South Australia that would emulate the young farmers' organisation in the UK. By December of 1951, a supervisor had been appointed by the Department of Agriculture to oversee the formation and promotion of Rural Youth Clubs. The early aim of these clubs was ‘to interest young people in both the city and the country in the agricultural way of life’ ₁

The first senior and junior clubs were established at Clare in the mid-north of South Australia in 1952.  Fifty-five young farmers attended the first Rural Youth week at Roseworthy College in August of that year. Clubs were established at Kapunda and Freeling and by October of 1953 there were 30 clubs in the state. ₂  The clubs were for both male and female, city and country. Statewide competitions and exchanges between the clubs were introduced. Rural Youth organisations soon became important contributors to both their local and state agricultural shows.

An active member of the Tarlee Rural Youth at
the roadside sign just south of
Tarlee, South Australia c 1967

My older siblings became heavily involved in the local Rural Youth club. There were informative talks to attend, debates for participation, dances and balls, visits to farms and field days, opportunities for leadership, other areas of the state to see, as well as interstate trips and the chance to host other youth. I have a wonderful picture of my brother ready for a Rural Youth "mock debutante" fancy dress ball but it is not for publication here.

Tarlee Rural Youth club had a strong debating team and in 1962 were the runners-up in the Statewide final narrowly defeated by the Victor Harbour Club. ₃

The Rural Youth movement provided companionship, education, skill development and friendship opportunities for many in the years from 1952 up to and beyond the time my reflections about life on the farm finish in 1967.

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1. 1951 'Rural Youth Supervisor Appointed', The Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1931 - 1954), 7 December, p. 3. , viewed 26 Apr 2017, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article45790766

2. 1953 'RURAL YOUTHS', The Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1931 - 1954), 21 October, p. 17. , viewed 26 Apr 2017, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article48928232

3. 1962 'RURAL YOUTH DEBATE', Victor Harbour Times (SA : 1932 - 1986), 21 September, p. 1. , viewed 29 Apr 2017, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article186743849

Some eXtras for X

A-Z challenge - My memories of life on the farm in the nineteen fifties and sixties

Extra! Extra! Read all about it the newspaper boys called as they touted their wares on street corners. I have a few little extras that did not fit into the main edition of A-Z posts.

Sugar in hessian bags

Sugar was bought in 70lb hessian sacks. The bag was put on the pantry floor with a scoop in the bag to access the sugar for jam making, preserving and everyday uses. The hessian sacks were put to a great variety of uses once they were empty. They could be used to store potatoes or onions, used to carry tools in the boot of a car or in the back of a ute, and sometimes cut up to use for children's craft or sewing projects.

Chop picnics

Before there were barbecues there were chop picnics.  Sometimes on a Sunday, the car would be loaded with a loaf or two of bread, mutton chops from a recently killed sheep, the thermos for tea and a picnic rug. The occasion may have been a birthday or Dad’s cousins visiting. We headed over to the scrub paddock, the only paddock where there was a rise that still had a few acres of uncleared land. A grate over a fire or a fire in a cut-in-half 44-gallon drum served as the cooking medium. Once the chops were cooked, we ate them in a piece of white bread. A chop picnic was quite a novelty as it was rare that we ate outside of the house. Chops would be charred but delicious and we could run freely and play hide and seek between the trees.

The rock playground in the creek

We spent many happy hours playing in the creek. Not far from the house and through a fence, a mostly dry creek ran with a trickle of water. At one spot there was a solid crossing place consisting of many rocks. We would clamber and climb, play imaginative games and hide in the trees nearby. In winter when there was more running water we were not supposed to play there as it became very muddy. Of course, children will be children and there came the day with shoes off we went to cross the creek. As it was slippery, someone made the decision to throw the shoes across. The first shoe made it but the second was carried away in the now swiftly flowing stream. These were new brown school shoes purchased only a few weeks before. I don’t remember the consequences but my mother was very good at selecting a punishment to fit the crime.

X for Extra help in the house

When I was small, Mum had extra help in the house. I don’t remember the two girls who worked there over the years but my older siblings remember them.

Here’s a picture of us on an outing with Grandma O’Dea at the back (Georgina Ellen Bennett 1890 –1965)

Centre front nursing me is one of those extra helpers, Kay Browne. Soon after this, I was a flower girl at her wedding, what a pity I can't remember that either!

Waiting and washing

A-Z challenge - My memories of life on the farm in the nineteen fifties and sixties

Waiting

I spotted the old dentist equipment in the picture above in a London museum, it brought back the waiting room agony I suffered as a child. The walls were thin in the dentist’s surgery and the loud noise of the drill created a dread of expectation. We were taken to the dentist every six months and with poor teeth, there was often a filling to be done. Mr White, the dentist would cheerily approach and ask “Now who is going to go first?” He had so many gold fillings, his mouth almost glowed. I don’t ever remember volunteering to be that child but I’m sure there was more agony in the waiting than the actual treatment. The needles used to numb the mouth were huge. Do you remember them?

Waiting for an injection at the doctor’s surgery was just as bad. Crying children emerging and a distressed mother reassuring me that it wouldn’t hurt. The doctor did offer a jelly bean after an inoculation to pacify the criers.

Washing

Bathrooms
In the old farmhouse, there was a chip heater at the end of the bath that was used to heat water on bath nights, Wednesdays and Saturdays. We collected kindling for the fire from the wood heap, and once the water was warm the eldest girls got to bath first. The chip heater got very hot on the outside so care was taken to keep well away from it. Water was scarce and on the other days of the week, we washed with a flannel – a face washer. In the new house (1958) the bathroom had hot water taps and the electric water heater was on the veranda directly outside the bathroom. A shower was later installed in one corner of the laundry.

Laundries
Separate from the old house, the laundry contained a copper tub for heating water, two large concrete troughs and a green tub wringer machine. There were also washboards for scrubbing and a large tin wash basket. Once the water was boiling in the copper, it was ladled with a dipper into the washing machine or into one of the tubs so that the really dirty clothes could be soaked.

At the end of the wash, sheets and garments were passed through the wringer. They were then rinsed and had to be passed through the wringer again. One had to be careful to avoid getting fingers caught as clothes were fed into the wringer. The weight of sodden wet sheets meant that this was heavy work. This old laundry had a tin roof and the temperature in there both during the heat of summer and the depths of winter made washing days some of the hardest work a woman had to do.

The new house incorporated a laundry at the end of the back veranda, but the water was still saved from the wash in one tub, clothes rinsed in the other tub then the wash water returned to the machine for the next load.

Laundry was not finished until all was dry, ironed, folded and put away. We first learnt to iron handkerchiefs, tea towels and pillow cases. Mum even ironed all the men’s work clothes. I remember Monday as always being the washing day. I guess by having such a routine she could plan to get through the week’s chores.

When I look back I realise how easy these tasks are now. As children, we took for granted the hard work our parents undertook in their daily lives.

Be sure to read W for Wringer Washer where Carolyn details the day-long task of doing the washing.

Vegetables, verandas and the magic Vegemite jar

A-Z challenge - My memories of life on the farm in the nineteen fifties and sixties

Vegetables

We had a large vegetable garden with beans, carrots, turnips, swedes, onions, potatoes and pumpkins. In summer there were watermelons, strawberries, tomatoes, beetroot and lettuce. As the pumpkin vine spread, we would look for those that grew hidden under the large leaves. The pumpkins were a large blue variety that kept well for months on end. They were stored on the tank stand just at the edge of the back veranda. Onions and potatoes were picked and bagged and stored underneath the concrete tank stand in the cool dark space. Thinning the carrots was a favourite task as we got to eat the tiny sweet ones fresh from the garden. We ate potatoes and pumpkin and a third vegetable with our meat most nights. Vegetable soups warmed our winters.

Verandas

Our house had three verandas. At the front of the house was the red polished concrete veranda surrounded by a low wall ideal for seating. Mum was very proud of her front veranda and the job of polishing it usually fell to her children. It was a down on the hands and knees job for many years before the advent of an upright electric polisher. She was happy for us to slide up and down on the veranda on rags as this kept it shiny. In later years, three of my sisters left the house through the front door for their weddings and had photos taken on that veranda.

The back and side verandas were the functional spaces. At the back door, an old cedar sofa was the ideal place to sit and remove muddy boots and shoes. Cats and dogs made that sofa their home too. Easy access to the wood box, the water heater, and an old meat safe meant this was a functional space. It was also a good place to play in inclement weather as it continued around to a side veranda that bordered the tennis court. Two lines stretched across the side veranda for hanging the washing in wet weather. In hot weather, water was cooled by evaporation from a canvas water bag, it swung on the line under the shade of the veranda. Another lidded box seat at the end of the side veranda had tennis racquets and the net stored in it.

The magic Vegemite jar

Many Australian children grow up eating vegemite on their toast or in their sandwiches. We were no exception and often on meatless Fridays we had vegemite sandwiches for school lunches. Vegemite is a rich, strongly flavoured yeast extract spread.

Each year in August we went to the Royal Adelaide Show for our big day out. One year I got a show bag that had a small jar of honey and a small jar of vegemite along with promotional material. I had not seen tiny jars like this and was excited to be allowed to use them at breakfast time. Each morning I would find the jars were once again full.  It took me a long time to realise that Mum was refilling the small jars as they emptied, she had me convinced that I had a magic honey and magic vegemite jar!

1958 'Advertising', The Australian Women's Weekly (1933 - 1982),
5 February, p. 44. , viewed 22 Apr 2017,
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article51599289

In 1954 as part of an advertising campaign, this catchy radio jingle for Vegemite was launched

We’re happy little Vegemites as bright as bright can be,

We all enjoy our Vegemite for breakfast, lunch and tea,

Our mummy says we’re growing stronger every single week,

Because we love our Vegemite,

We all adore our Vegemite,

It puts a rose in every cheek!

Sing along or enjoy listening to this 30-second clip – courtesy of the ASO https://aso.gov.au/titles/ads/happy-little-vegemites/clip1/

Udders and unders

A-Z challenge - My memories of life on the farm in the nineteen fifties and sixties

Udderwise

The cows were milked morning and night but before milking their udders were washed. Once the cow was penned in the milking shed a clean pail of warm water and a cloth was used to wipe over the udders before the suction cups of the milking machine were applied. Cows would usually stand contentedly but occasionally a cantankerous beast might try to kick. If there was very little milk to be had, or when the herd was small, a cow was sometimes milked by hand. I remember trying this once or twice but never successfully.

By Amanda Slater (Butter Pats)
 [CC BY-SA 2.0 ],  via Wikimedia Commons

We always had fresh milk, in fact the fridge was often overflowing with milk so milk puddings and custards were frequently on our menu. At school when the free milk in little bottles was delivered many of us disliked it, it was not the day fresh milk we were accustomed to.

Cream, yes lovely thick cream, separated from that milk over in the milking shed, there was plenty of that so we added cream to all our desserts and when there was no dessert we piled jam or honey topped with cream onto slices of white bread.

Sometimes Mum made butter from the extra cream, beaten until the whey separated then salt added and the wooden ridged butter pats shaped the final product.

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Underneath

• underneath the Christmas tree, there were often up to fifty small presents as we all tried to give something to each member of the family
• underneath the blankets on a cold winter’s night, I remember the heavy weight as more blankets were piled on
• underneath the trees along the creek, we loved to go mushroom picking in late April and May
• underneath the workshop Dad had built a pit so that a vehicle could drive in and he could get underneath it to change the oil
• underneath the wood pile spiders and the occasional snake lurked, we collected kindling from the edges and wood was chopped on a larger log
• underneath the kitchen bench a clever wood box was concealed – it was filled from the veranda outside and wood could be retrieved inside, it was also a favourite hidey hole
• underneath the old house a cellar housed the generator before the power was connected
• underneath the ground the sewerage pit was concealed, I remember a sister threatening to drop me in it but it was always securely sealed

Next V - Vegetables, verandas and the magic Vegemite jar

Tennis, tin-kettling and a telephone

A-Z challenge - My memories of life on the farm in the nineteen fifties and sixties

Tennis

Anyone for tennis? 

Mary and Edward Horgan - 1927
Alma tennis court, South Australia

My father, his brother Joe and sister Mary had all played tennis in their youth in the 1920s. There are several mentions of the matches they played, won and lost in the newspapers of the time.

When we moved into our new farmhouse in the late 1950s a tennis court was constructed along one side of the house.

Sunday afternoons when the weather was clear, it was time for tennis. Uncle Joe, though of short stature at about 4 ft 11 inches, had a very mean slice and backhand. He made up for his lack of speed around the court by excellent ball placement. Games played were usually doubles to cater for a number of players. Often Joe would be at one end and Dad at the other with one or other of my siblings pairing with them. Some of my siblings also played in the local town tennis teams during summer.

Our racquets had heavy wooden frames with gut strings and were kept in screw down frames to prevent the wood from warping.
A high fence had been constructed around the court but there were often stray balls that ended up in the paddock beyond the gate.

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1954 'Blyth Notes and News.',
Blyth Agriculturist (SA : 1908 - 1954),
7 April, p. 1. , viewed 20 Apr 2017,
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article215959774

Tin Kettling

Tin Kettling of newly married couples was a common country tradition to welcome them home after the honeymoon. A group of friends of the couple would arrange a meeting place armed with pots and pans that could make a loud noise. They would then proceed furtively with car lights turned off as they entered the property. The aim was to arrive outside the newlywed's house after the couple were settled for the night. Then with loud banging of pots and pans, and the added cacophony of car horns, the noise continued until the surprised couple appeared.

The evening would end with either a previously arranged dance and supper in a nearby venue or the tin kettlers would go home after they had been offered a drink and some supper. Food for supper was usually supplied by the tin kettlers.

I remember the excitement I felt as some of my older siblings gathered together pots and pans to take to a tin kettling. There are many reports in the local country papers of the time about tin kettlings.

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Telephone

One phone for all
In the old farmhouse, the telephone was attached to the wall at adult height and had an earphone receiver piece that was lifted off its holder. To speak into the telephone one had to face the fixed mouthpiece. Our short Uncle Joe had to stand on a stool in order to use the phone.

In the new house, we had a black bakelite phone like the one above that I spotted in a museum visited recently. Next to our phone in the hallway was a money tin. Telephone calls cost sixpence for three minutes so the bill was to be paid by those who used the phone.

To make a phone call on a special occasion such as Christmas, Mum had to ring the operator days in advance and book a time for the call. Christmas and birthdays were usually the only time that she made phone calls to her siblings who all lived further away than the local area sixpence calls. These were known as long distance or trunk calls and cost significantly more. At the appointed time the operator would ring our phone, then announce "Putting you through." At the end of the three minutes the operator would ask "Do you wish to extend?" this, of course, would result in an additional charge.
During the sixties, automatic telephone exchanges were gradually being introduced to country areas but manual exchanges were still needed for calls outside the local area.

T for Times sure have changed!

Next U - Udders and unders

Sheep, sewing and saving

A-Z challenge - My memories of life on the farm in the nineteen fifties and sixties

Sheep

Sheep were raised for the wool clip and were also sold to the abattoir at Pooraka, Gepps Cross on the northern outskirts of Adelaide. On the farm, the sheep were shifted between paddocks as they grazed and when little grass was about, they were fed with bales of hay. From a young age, we all learned to steer the truck while hay was forked from the tray.

During lambing season there would often be weak newborn or orphan lambs that we cared for at the house. As children, we loved having pet lambs and fed them from bottles. It was always surprising to return home one day later in the season and find that the pet lamb, now well grown, had been returned to the flock. Each Sunday Dad liked to go for an afternoon drive around the paddocks to check on the sheep, I always enjoyed these drives. Apart from milking cows morning and night that was usually the only farm work done on a Sunday. Sometimes the full grown sheep that had been pet lambs would still come when called.

All lambs were tailed to prevent them from becoming fly-blown, a serious problem in Australia. Crutching ensured that the sheep remained clean by removing the dirtied wool around the tail and down the back legs. Faces were also tidied and trimmed. Once a year sheep were shorn. Two or three shearers would arrive, and with Dad and later on, my brother penning and sorting the sheep, the shearers would bend to the task. Each fleece was then tossed on the table for sorting and classing. Into the bales it went and once the clip was complete the bales were branded before being trucked to market. Shearing usually lasted three to four days, a busy, tiring time for everyone.

Sewing

Mum sewed all of our clothes and taught all the girls to sew. With five older sisters, I had many hand-me-down dresses or dresses made from the material of previously unpicked garments. My early efforts at sewing included making doll's clothes and sewing up hems.There was a Singer treadle machine to learn on and great excitement when the new electric machine, also a Singer, arrived when I was still quite young. 

In the sewing room, I enjoyed playing with the button tin, sorting all the buttons into sizes or colours. There were plenty of scraps of material to play with too, these were sorted by colour in a variety of bags that were stored in the bottom of a large chest of drawers. When a garment could no longer be mended all the buttons were cut off to be saved for future use. The old clothes then became dusting cloths or rags for Dad to use in his workshop. 

Saving

“Take care of the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves.” This was an oft-repeated phrase I learnt early in life. Money was hard to come by so was to be carefully saved. I had a Commonwealth Savings Bank of Australia money tin and precious halfpennies and pennies, sometimes threepences and sixpences were added to that. It did not have any way to open it apart from using a can opener which would then render it useless. Money could only be removed by tipping the money box upside down and shaking in the hope that a coin would fall out. Once the money box was full, it was taken to the bank where it was emptied and deposited into an account.
When I went to boarding school in 1963, my sister and I were allocated 10 shillings spending money for each term. There were three school terms each year. Each term was about fourteen weeks with one trip home in the middle of each term. Our suitcases were packed with clothes and toiletries but if the soap or toothpaste did not last or was lost, we had to buy supplies from the allocated money. I was well into high school when decimal currency was introduced into Australia on the 14th February 1966. Australians of a certain age will all remember the jingle used to introduce the new currency.

Rabbits and the rain gauge

A-Z challenge - My memories of life on the farm in the nineteen fifties and sixties

Rabbits

Rabbits are a serious pest in Australia. They were brought to Australia as early as 1788 in the First Fleet and the first record of them appearing in South Australia is in 1840 when the ship Courier set sail from England for Port Adelaide with “a number of hares and rabbits…. to be turned out on their arrival in the colony.” ₁  

They were protected by legislation for gentlemen’s sport until 1864. It appears that the rabbits on Mr Dutton’s Anlaby station near Kapunda were turned loose at Julia Creek. Rabbits eat crops, dig burrows and destroy the arable land. By 1867 farmers were allowed to destroy them but they had spread far and wide. ₂

On the farm, we used several methods to try to get rid of rabbits. The most exciting for a youngster was to go spotlighting. After dark Dad would drive into a paddock in the car and use a spotlight to focus on the rabbit. Once framed in the light it would be shot. A clean shot meant roast rabbit was on the menu the next night. Several rabbits were needed to make a decent meal so spotlighting went on until enough for a meal were obtained.

Rabbit traps were set in the entrances to burrows and rabbit skins could be seen hanging on farm fences. Sometimes a ferret was used to hunt rabbits out of their burrows and a quick dog could catch the escaping rabbit. Rabbit skins could be sold and in 1954 were worth 20 -24 pence per pound for skins in good condition. ₃

Rabbits are still a problem in Australia in 2017.

Rain gauge

Each morning Dad would check the rain gauge for any sign of moisture. This area of South Australia has low rainfall averaging less than 400 mm per year. The graduated glass rain gauge was housed inside a galvanised cylinder attached to the fence. A funnel directed the rain into the glass cylinder. As he wandered outside he always looked up to the sky, often sneezed, then proceeded to check the gauge. The amount of moisture in the soil determined when seeding could start and at harvest time the amount of moisture also determined whether crops could be reaped.

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1. 1840 'ENGLISH NEWS.', South Australian Register (Adelaide, SA : 1839 - 1900), 11 July, p. 7. , viewed 16 Apr 2017, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article27441604

2. 1876 'HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY.', South Australian Register (Adelaide, SA : 1839 - 1900), 1 November, p. 6. , viewed 16 Apr 2017, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article43013586

3. 1954 'Hides And Skins', Chronicle (Adelaide, SA : 1895 - 1954), 2 December, p. 27. , viewed 16 Apr 2017, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article93985968

Next S - Sheep, sewing and saving

Quinces and the Queen

A-Z challenge - My memories of life on the farm in the nineteen fifties and sixties

Quinces

Quinces were the one fruit we never took from the tree. A raw quince is dry tasting and has an unpleasant furry skin. When they ripen however they can be used to make a variety of dishes. Mum made quince jelly which was a jam strained of fruit until only the clear liquid remained.

The cleaned and chopped quinces were boiled with a little lemon juice for about one and a half hours. When the fruit had cooled the juice was strained through a muslin cloth then boiled with added sugar. The scum was skimmed from the top before pouring into jars for sealing and labelling.

The left over quinces were somewhat dry but leaving nothing to waste, Mum would then make a cake-top pudding from the remaindered fruit. We also had stewed quinces with cream for a sweets course when our tree had plenty of fruit. Nearby neighbours had more quince trees so it was not unusual to process a large bucketful of quinces for either the clear red quince jelly or stewed fruit.

The Queen

I’ve added this post about the Queen from my sister Catherine’s memories.

In 1954 Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip were due on their first trip to the antipodes. Much excitement was generated in the papers of the day with thousands of articles in national, regional and local papers following the royal progress through New Zealand and Australia. As March approached, plans were published of the details for the South Australian visit.

On Tuesday, March 23rd the royal couple would be greeted by thousands of school children as they toured the Wayville Showground oval in an open-topped vehicle.
Schoolchildren from all over the state were transported to Adelaide for this momentous day. The local primary school where my brother and three sisters attended sent some carloads of children to Adelaide for the event. Catherine was excited to be going in a neighbour’s car dressed up in her Sunday best. It was the first time she had been in a car that did not belong to Dad and she remembers having a paper flag to wave.

Here’s an extract from the afternoon edition of the News on that day.

98,000 CHILDREN CHEER FOR 5 MIN. Noisiest welcome Queen has had
The Queen watched with apparent delight at Wayville this afternoon 98,000 schoolchildren in the largest, noisiest, most spectacular display she has seen in Australia.
When the Queen and the Duke arrived on the oval the massed children broke into a scene of fluttering flags and shrill sustained cheers. They cheered without pause for more than five minutes as the Queen and the Duke, standing in the back of a Land Rover drove around them smiling and waving. It was the longest sustained acclamation the Queen has received any where in Australia, and the greatest in volume of sound. Joy and dignity were the twin key notes of this occasion which none of the children will ever forget.

The complete article can be read from the following link.
1954 '98,000 CHILDREN CHEER FOR 5 MIN.', News (Adelaide, SA : 1923 - 1954), 23 March, p. 30. , viewed 13 Apr 2017, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article130871892

It must have made quite an impression on a young farm girl from a small country school to see such crowds and I thank her for recalling it now 63 years later.

Next R - Rabbits and the rain gauge

Plenty of peas

A-Z challenge - My memories of life on the farm in the nineteen fifties and sixties

Pigs, pine trees, pens, penfriends, practice, plums, peaches and peas. So many Ps, a plenitude of choices. We had peas in a paddock, pigs in pens, pine trees along the driveway with plums, peaches and pears in the orchard. Photos were taken but the film was expensive and one would sometimes wait months before the roll was finished and sent for processing.

Pigs

My brother received two mated sows for his sixteenth birthday. Imagine our excitement when large litters were born. The pigs were “large whites” and sometimes had up to thirteen piglets in a litter. It was difficult to prevent the sows from rolling onto and squashing one of their litter. Clean straw had to be added to the pens regularly, cleaning out the pen before adding fresh straw was a really smelly job. Thank goodness I never had to do it. Once the pigs started to grow the pen could be opened into the small paddock where they often proceeded to roll in the mud. Pigs were bred for the market for several years.

Pine trees

My father planted a row of pine trees along one side of the driveway and named the property, Pine Creek. At this stage, there was no town water supply on the farm and he watered and tendered those trees carefully until they were established.

Pens and penfriend

After several years of practising one’s letters in pencil at primary school, we graduated to pen and ink. The school desks had a hole where the inkwell sat and after carefully dipping the nib in, one started to write. It was difficult to get the right amount of ink on the pen and a blotter was used to soak up the extra ink blobs on the page. If a person pressed too hard there would be a hole in the paper or the nib would split and be ruined. One wrote slowly and carefully. I remember the excitement of getting my first fountain pen. It had a removable cartridge which could be refilled. The end of the cartridge was carefully inserted into an ink bottle and ink drawn up into it like a syringe.

While I was still at primary school I had a penfriend in New Zealand. Her name was Helen Uhlenberg from Taranaki in the North island. We had practised writing letters at school and once the letter was deemed acceptable we rewrote it on good paper to be posted. It was very exciting to receive a letter from someone far away in a different country.

We also practised our penmanship by writing letters to the Five Stars Club which was the children's page of the Southern Cross newspaper and several of us had letters published there over the years. Letter writing practice was an excellent preparation for boarding school where each Sunday night we wrote a letter home to our parents. Mum wrote to me every week at boarding school without fail. I wish I had some of those letters now.

Next Q - Quinces and the Queen

Oranges in the orchard and some offal

A-Z challenge – My memories of life on the farm in the nineteen fifties and sixties

Oranges

“I’m just testing the oranges to see if they are ready.” I often heard my mother say this with a smile as she peeled another freshly picked orange.

We had a wonderful collection of fruit and nut trees in the orchard planted between the house and the milking shed. There were navel and Valencia oranges, mandarins and lemons. Stone fruits included apricots, several varieties of peaches and nectarines and a least three varieties of plums. My favourites were the delicious dark satsuma plums. A pear tree bore plentiful fruit alongside a quince, fig, almond and walnut trees. There were at least two apple trees.

Fruit was eaten fresh, stewed, made into jam and marmalade, bottled and preserved so that we had it throughout the year. In winter there were fruit crumbles – stewed fruit with a crumble topping made of flour, butter, sugar and cinnamon, fruit tarts in pastry cases and fruit puddings – stewed fruit underneath with a batter cake baked top. Apple cakes, orange cakes and more, nothing was ever wasted and no food thrown away.

Lemons and oranges were also made into cordial. This is Mum’s recipe in her handwriting.

She knew and recited or sang all the related nursery rhymes, stories and songs related to the fruit. These are some that were in her repertoire. I'm sure you'll be able to find them.

Oranges - Oranges and lemons say the bells of St Clements ......

Plums - Little Jack Horner ....

Apples - Johnny Appleseed ....

Pears - I had a little nut tree but nothing would it bear ......

Offal

Does that put you off? We did not have tripe but lamb’s liver in a thick gravy was a staple meal. The giblets from hens were used to make a nourishing soup with carrots and onions from the vegetable garden. These were chopped very finely to enhance the chicken stock. Sometimes the soup was very thin as water was added to make it go a little further. I still enjoy a feed of liver and bacon.

Next P - Plenty of peas

Nettles, nasties and netball

A-Z challenge - My memories of life on the farm in the nineteen fifties and sixties

Nettles

Remember those stinging nettles? Just when we thought to find a fine place to play in the grass, the sting stung, painfully and irritatingly. Often when climbing through a fence, concentrating carefully on avoiding the strand of barbed wire that ran across the top, I stepped straight into a patch of those nettles. A pain for the child and a pest to the farmer.

The cure-all in our house for stings, rashes and mosquito bites was calamine lotion. It came in a large brown glass bottle. This had to be shaken and agitated before opening otherwise a thin watery pink trickle was all that appeared. It dried hard and crusty on the skin but I remember well many days covered in blotches of pink calamine lotion.
Never have I tried nettle soup. Nettle anyone?

Nasty visitors

No, not the human kind. The mean, munch through anything mice, the silent slithery snakes.

Just picture that horrible grey mass of mice when one uncovered a nest of the pests. The smell of a mice infestation has left me with a loathing. I have no understanding of those who allow their children to have them as pets. Mice would infest every nook and cranny, nibble and destroy everything in their way.

Snakes and small children, not a good mix. A long, rigid wire hung over the back fence to be grabbed when a snake invaded the house yard. A swift swing down with that wire did the job. After we moved to the new house, the old house was a great place to play. One day when I was happily playing down there, I heard a swishing noise. I thought it was one of my sisters or my mother sweeping the old linoleum in the next room. No, a snake was sliding across that floor. I shut the door, turned and hid as there was no way out except across that old dining room. As I know now, snakes go their own way if left alone, but that day I was frightened.

Netball

It was not called netball then, it was called basketball. We played in the local Tarlee teams on Saturday afternoons against teams from nearby towns. Boys played football, Australian Rules, in the same towns.

The basketball courts had a bitumen surface so many skinned knees and hands were not uncommon at the end of the game. We wore uniforms with box pleats that fell from a square yoke. Underneath that we wore a button up blouse. A girdle tied around the waist stopped the uniform from flying all over the place. Those girdles were like a plaited silky rope with a tassel on each end. On Saturday mornings it would be a rush to get all the uniforms and blouses ironed before the matches. This was well before stretch materials made sportswear comfortable.

Next O - Oranges in the orchard and some offal

Making merry, mud and other muck

A-Z challenge - My memories of life on the farm in the nineteen fifties and sixties

Making merry

Celebrations played a central role in my childhood. The obvious birthdays, Christmas and Easter were pivotal points in the calendar. We had family birthdays to be celebrated in January, April, May, July and August. There were two in September and one each in November and December. Our bachelor uncle lived nearby and as he shared many meals with us, his birthday in April was also cause for celebration. That was a lot of birthday cakes each year. Mum made these, usually a double layer sponge filled with homemade jam and delicious whipped cream. This was served as the sweet course after the main meal at night. The birthday candles were recycled until they were too short to light again.

Celebrations were the only time that we had fizzy drinks. The choice was often lemonade or creaming soda. Adults might drink beer on a special occasion but my father’s favourite tipple was a small glass of port. Mum sometimes had a sherry shandy, sherry with lemonade. In later years drinks such as Barossa Pearl and Cold Duck made their way to the table.

Twenty-first birthdays were the only birthday parties and these involved both friends and neighbours. Some of these were barn dances. Our barn was cleared and cleaned, the floor polished then sprinkled with sawdust to make it slippery enough for dancing. Hay bales or bagged grain was used for seating at one end. We decorated with crepe paper streamers and matching coloured balloons. A musician or small band was employed for the evening and a sumptuous supper of homemade treats followed the dancing. An alternate venue when the barn was full of grain was the shearing shed. Here the wooden floor had been saturated over many years with the lanolin from the sheep's wool. The addition of sawdust created a good surface for dancing. For one sister's 21st birthday party in 1967, my brother rigged up a bulb inside a sheep's skull to light the shed.

Conga lines were fun and a progressive, change partners dance number was usually included.  Novelty dances sometimes included an elimination statue dance, no movement allowed when the music stopped, or a lucky spot dance. By the end of the sixties, the Beatles music was popular along with the dance crazes of the time.

At 21st birthday parties, a large wooden key was presented. Guests at the party would sign their names inside the key as a record of those who had attended.

Mud and other muck

Mud, mud, not so glorious mud. Mud bogged vehicles and animals alike.  Rain was welcome but also brought muddy shoes and clothes. As children, we loved to play in the creek and capture tadpoles to watch them grow into frogs which we then released back into the creek. Muddy shoes were unavoidable when walking to or from the bus on rainy days. At the edge of the veranda, there was a boot scraper to remove most of the mud. Dried mud was removed from brown school shoes with an old blunt knife. Boot and shoe polishing was done outside on the back veranda.

In a farmyard one always had to be careful not to step in animal muck. Cows. hens and pigs and provided plenty of manure to act as fertiliser in the vegetable garden. At the conclusion of milking time morning and night, the muck was shovelled if firm or hosed away if of the more liquid variety.

Next N - Nettles, nasties and netball

Love, learning, luck and a little licorice

A-Z challenge - My memories of life on the farm in the nineteen fifties and sixties

My childhood was filled with love and I suspect quite a bit of luck. I was the youngest of seven children otherwise known as the lucky last. My mother was 38 and my father 42 by the time I was born and by then, well experienced with child rearing. I was also nurtured and cared for by older siblings and had plenty of ready-made playmates. Farm income was so dependent on the seasons but I was never short of clothing, food or love.

Luck and learning

I was lucky that government regulations for school buses changed when I was in grade four so then I could travel to the Riverton Convent for the last three years of primary school. Previously regulations only entitled school buses to carry government school children. In Riverton, the nuns carefully coached their charges and at the end of year seven, I was lucky enough to secure a scholarship to a boarding school in Adelaide. I suspect the nuns played a role in recommendations. The fact that my parents had previously paid for other siblings to attend the school, probably contributed to this award.

I made the most of my learning opportunities even though the shock of moving from a small country class of seven, four girls and three boys, to a class of 51 girls, was a major change. Along with that, there were no loving parents to kiss goodnight. I thrived in boarding school and luck intervened at the end of Intermediate (3rd year) when my scholarship finished. It must have been a relatively good season and some older siblings were in paid work. My parents then paid for my last two years at boarding school.  This paved the way for my chance to commence tertiary studies at the end of the sixties.

Luck and love

I met my future husband at one of those boarding school socials in April of 1967 – ah, that’s now fifty years ago! Just demonstrates one must make the most of the opportunities that luck offers.

A little about licorice

On Sundays after Mass, Dad would seek out an open shop to buy a packet of licorice allsorts. These were his favourite lollies and this was a Sunday treat. We could select one each and usually there would be a second round while we were driving home. The packet then found its way to his desk where the rest would have lasted a whole week for him.

Next M - Making merry, mud and other muck

Knitting, kneeling and killing

A-Z challenge - My memories of life on the farm in the nineteen fifties and sixties

Knitting

Winters were cold in South Australia and knitted woollen jumpers were well valued. I learnt to knit with scraps of wool and probably first knitted squares or a scarf. I also knitted small vests for dolls. Mum’s motto that idle hands make for the devil’s work, meant that it was always wise to have something on the go. New wool was expensive to purchase so I do remember much unravelling of previously knitted garments to be rolled into tight balls before the wool was reused for a new jumper.

New wool came in skeins rather than balls, so several hours involving two people would be spent rolling the skeins into balls. Many women took their knitting everywhere they went. In the waiting rooms for doctors and dentists, it was not uncommon to see all the women knitting. I appreciated having learnt how to knit especially once I was at boarding school. Knitting filled in many long hours chatting with friends.

It is interesting to look back at knitting patterns through the Internet Archive.

Kneeling

Every night after the dishes had been washed, dried and put away we knelt as a family to pray the rosary. The Catholic rosary is a sequence of prayers repeated five times. The belief that the family that prays together stays together was always highly valued. This did not stop us as youngsters getting the giggles or poking fun or nudging at a nearby sibling. At the end of a long day, one person might fall asleep, a quick tap would suffice to bring them back into the fold.

Killing

A sheep was killed regularly to feed our large family. After slaughter and skinning, the beast was suspended high on a meat hook to deter the dog and numerous cats. Dad gutted it then sawed it roughly into joints. The whole collection of parts was delivered to the kitchen.

Mum trimmed the flaps and neck chops ready for stews. All the scraps that could be salvaged from any cut off remnants were then minced. The mincer was screwed on to the end of a table or the kitchen bench. Perched on a chair I took my turn pushing down on that meat to feed it through the mincer while turning that stubborn handle. Other joints were sawn into chops. Meat processing took several hours before it was all packed away into meal sized portions.

Hens that no longer laid eggs were killed for consumption. If one could get the fowl to lay still, neck stretched across the chopping block, a quick strike of the axe did the job. The smell of wet feathers after the bird was plunged in boiling water remains with me. We plucked the feathers before “dressing the fowl,”  cleaning out the innards and saving the giblets for soup. Old hens, the boilers, made great stock for chicken soup and provided cold meat for hot weather and sandwiches. Younger birds were stuffed and roasted, one to serve many.