My Golden Childhood I

One Hundred Years of Family Heritage....

For some time I have been jotting down memoirs, mostly from my childhood and school days as well as about the family members and characters of those days. In 2012 my family celebrates 100 years of settlement on the home block which my (paternal) grandfather drew in the Callide Valley region of Central Queensland. We are hoping to compile a book to mark this historic milestone.

Prior to 1912 my grandfather had left a clerk's position in the Queensland Railway based with his family in Brisbane, and made his way to Central Qld doing whatever work he was able to come by. He was quite well educated, always loved to read and obviously had a great spirit of adventure. On drawing the home block when the area was balloted out he was contracted to pay a certain amount per acre and meet basic development standards. These original blocks were surveyed at 640 acres which was considered a living area! Anyone familiar with the area, though beautiful, knows it takes a great many more hectares to actually live off. My brothers and cousins still working the land each hold around 5,000 acres and some need to work off farm.

The First World War interrupted what little progress Grandad made on the block. When he returned after the war, he faced brigalow scrub to be cleared by hand, a great need to find water, and the introduction, from Mexico I believe, of the prickly pear, drought, flood and loneliness........

Grandad and Grandma married in 1921. She was a born and bred girl of the Australian bush and because of her knowledge, hard work and determination, they were able to eek out an existence.

They bore ten children (one still born). Dairied in most unsuitable conditions, walking the cows nearly 8 kilometers to the river for water during drought. Grew cotton, painstakingly hoed on small patches of cleared brigalow. Lived and raised their family through the great depression. Always, always fighting to eradicate the prickly pear which thrived and encroached on every available space. My dad remembers in the 30s pinning the bug, cactablastus, imported to kill these dreadful plants. It was the beginning of modern farming for the settlers of this district.

Then of course, a school was built, the children grew, two went to the Second World War. Two died as young men a few years later. Toil and heartbreak. My own dad, the third child and son, grew to love this land and lived his first seventy four years within a mile of his childhood home. He and Mum married in the 50s and in turn raised their eight children.

Though my heavenly home is now my great hope and heart's desire, I am truly blessed to have grown up in this place, surrounded by many relatives and enjoying the carefree life of children in the Australian bush during the 1960s.

From time to time I am going to post little memories from my Golden Childhood.

"Oh give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: because

his mercy endureth for ever."

Psalm 115:1