Interviewer: Kevin Murray,
            for Baulkham Hills Shire Council

Date of Interview: 18 Dec 2008

Transcription: Glenys Murray, Feb 2009

Take a Virtual Tour

The Pearce family sold Bella Vista Farm to Norbrik in 1950. The Jones family leased it from 1952 to 1979. In this interview Vera refers to scenes from the Bella Vista Farm Virtual Tour which can be accessed HERE.

Now we’re starting by looking at the aerial map of Bella Vista. Can you firstly say the time that you lived at Bella Vista and then describe what each of these buildings were at the time?

We shifted there about 1950 (actually 1952). The big house there and the little….. that was the post office and the store. Well we fixed that up and made a house of it. Then there was the garage and that was stables and we made a fowl pen out of those. That was a feed shed and there’s another feed shed there and the tractor was in there. That was the feeders and this big shed here was where we put all the hay. We used to buy the hay once a year. The whole farm full of hay. We’d fill that big shed up with hay and that lasted all the year.

Where did you buy the hay?

I think it was somewhere in Orange we bought the whole crop.

Is that because there wasn’t enough pasture around Bella Vista?

Yes the cows had to be fed all the time. I fed the cows twice a day. When they milked there was nineteen feeders. We built another nineteen so when they milked nineteen I put the first lot in and then when they milked the next nineteen I put them in and let the first lot out and put the next lot in.

Who was living in the big house when you were there?

Bill’s mother and his brother and his wife and Daisy and his father, his father died while he was there.

And Bill is?

My husband... it was Ellen Jones and Son well Ellen Jones was Mrs Jones and the son was Charlie. My husband and I were just on wages. There was two boys, Charlie was in with his mother and we just worked on wages.

Ellen Jones

So that was 1950 (actually 1952) and how long were you there?

We shifted here in 1979.

And you lived at Bella Vista?

All that time.

We’ll start our tour of Bella Vista in the courtyard in front of the shop? Now that’s the little house that you lived in?

Yeah we built the chimney there was no chimney there. There was a pine tree at the one side it was pushing it over. We had to take the pine tree and jack it up and dig out all the rabbits from underneath. Then the ceiling was only low so we made a shaped ceiling so it was a bit higher. Gwen was eleven when we came here but the older three kids we reared there in that little place.

And you lived in both the shop and the Post Office?

The Post Office... that bit of cement there (pointing to photograph) that’s where the post office was they’ve pulled that down.

So this whole building was the shop?

This whole building was the shop and there was another building there and it had the slot to put the letters in. So that must have been the post office part. But in here was all shelves so that was the shop. There was three rooms and they were all shelves round the walls so that must have been the shop. Then that place there had the slot for the mail.

So you took all the shelves out in order to live there?

Yes and we lined it all and sealed it.

Is the roof the same?

That’s the original roof yes.

Bella Vista Farm cottage shop stored items for its many employees c1880 - c1912

And you had a story to tell about these pine trees?

The pine trees see how they’re only small. Well we had the whirlwind and it started where the tractor is and it just went straight across and took I think was five slates off the big house and ended up in the paddock, But it absolutely stripped those trees.

About what year was that?

Be about 1957 I think, I think my daughter was about two. It might have been a little bit later I’m not sure.

Being up on a hill you were probably quite exposed to the weather were you?

Oh we had some dreadful storms there. Where the wood heap is there was a pine tree there and every time we had a storm we’d have to get the electricity out to put the lights on. One time they went out to start miking. They started at three o’clock in the morning. Went out and there was no electricity and we got them out and there was no wires. Because there’s copper wires from the house right down to the road and someone had come through the night and cut them and taken them. So we were fifteen hours without power. The poor cows were …

What they took the copper to sell?

Yeah, yes.

Now moving around to the right further around this is the big house?

The wells were there.

These wells that are now covered with mesh?

They were there when we went there. That’s actually all the water we had. At the back of the house they had… There was a monstrosity at the back of the house. We didn’t build it, it was there. That was the laundry and there was a tank there. You walked out of the laundry and there was a big copper to boil the clothes in. Then there was a couple of cement tubs. There was another door there and there was a galvanised tank there. That’s all the water we had.

Kitchen and Laundry building at Bella Vista Farm 1980

That’s at the far side of the house?

This room here was a saddle room.

This is the room with the stairs that we can see on the outside?

The stairs weren’t there but that was a saddle room when we went there and we made it into a bathroom. Cause the bathroom was at the end of this hall and it was very airy.

A bit breezy was it?

So they put a septic toilet there and made the bathroom here.

So this room up on top above the door what was that?

Charlie got married and he made that into a flat, for himself up there.

We called that the schoolroom?

I think it could have been. When we went there it was about that deep in mud and leaves. The windows were broken and the wind had come in. We had to shovel all the dirt out of that. It was full of white ants when we went there. Mr Lanceley was going to bulldoze it down. But my mother-in-law said “no leave it and we’ll live in it”. We kept at the white ants until we got rid of them and a lot of the floors were eaten. It was riddled with white ants and there were possums everywhere. We bought a lot of pumpkins with us and they disappeared over night.

So this was in 1950 (actually 1952), who was living in it before that?

There was no one in it only a caretaker. The brickworks owned it but there was a caretaker who used to sleep there in the kitchen. He used to feed the possums. But there was possums everywhere. I think the brickworks paid him but then they had to keep the land I’m not sure. But I think to keep the land they had to have it used so we dairyed on it to hold it.

How big was the property at that time?

A thousand acres.

A thousand acres - it was bigger than that beforehand was it?

I don’t really know don’t think so I’m not sure.

Cow bails at Bella Vista Farm 1980

How many cows could you run on a thousand acres?

We were milking just on a hundred all the time. Then of course there was the three families. There was Charlie and his mother, Bill and I.

That was the sole source of income for those three families?

Yes.

So back at the large house when they moved into that in 1950 (actually 1952) did they occupy all the rooms?

Most of them the ones upstairs they didn’t occupy much because there was no floors left. But they put the floors in and Charlie and Mona occupied them. One of Bill’s sisters occupied them. We had the big room up the top until we decided to shift over to the shed. We lived in the big one up the top.

That’s the big one on the western side?

On this side yeah, yes we shifted over to the shed.

Now you mentioned these wells. It struck me that we were on the top of a hill so those wells must have been fairly deep were they?

They were very deep we filled them in. Mr Lanceley filled them in. There were a lot of bricks up the top part and they took all them out because they’re convict bricks made by convicts. So they took them all out. That grapevine there….

Near the well?

We planted that.

And it’s still there?

Still there.

Does it still have grapes?

Don’t know.

Bella Vista Farm buildings & grape vine viewed from back of house 1980

Now going further around clockwise what’s this shed?

Charlie used to have that as a garage. Now here there was a little cottage. There was a window and a fireplace and we think that might be where the main person lived, the caretaker.

We’ve called that Fitzgerald’s Cottage that was the name of it.

Well yeah that’s right because there was a fireplace there and there was a window and in there, there was this great big copper and it had a tap on it. We were wondering if they cooked the meals for the convicts in it. We don’t know but that’s what we surmised. But Mr Lanceley took that away too. It was huge.

This is what we’re calling the coach house. Long ago it used to be the coach house?

The boys had their tools at this end and then the garage was at the back.

So how old were you when you moved in there?

Oh gee I don’t know.

1950 (actually 1952)?

I was born in 1925 I must have been 25.

Ellen Jones' half-tester bed

Shall we move onto one of the other locations? Shall we go into the big house and we’ll have a look. This is only a rough plan of the ground floor which sounds like where most of the living was done when you were there?

It was yes definitely.

This large room - a room we’ve called the ballroom?

Well that was … the mother used that as more of an office. She had all the books and things there. She slept there but she had all her bookwork and all that there. It was more or less her office and her bedroom. She slept there.

It had a beautiful door looking out over the valley?

The shutters were always closed.

So she didn’t look at the view?

No.

There was a verandah out the back that you could have used?

Yes we didn’t use the front verandah at all. The front verandah up the top we never used.

Now the front you’re talking of the one that looks down over the valley?

Yeah we never used that because it wasn’t safe. We used the back verandah and that went into another room there.

This goes into what we’ve called the dining room?

Well that was the lounge there. They had a lounge in that room.

This is the one with the fireplace?

That was the lounge room.

Fireplace in the Dining Room

Now do you recognise that wallpaper at all?

It’s torn. We put all that up.

You put that wallpaper up?

Yeah.

What about all these shelves here?

They were there.

They were there already?

Yeah.

Did you use the fireplaces very much?

No we never used them.

Never used them?

No, no.

Is that because it perhaps was a bit dangerous?

Well we didn’t know what they were like whether the chimneys would work or not. We didn’t bother. We weren’t in the house that much because we were out in the paddock. That little room there Daisy slept in that.

This is the little room that we’ve called the study?

That was a little bedroom. There was a fireplace there too.

Cross Section through wall coverings in the Study

Would that have been wallpapered too?

Yeah.

So all the wallpaper's gone there are some remnants here that I can show you close up. Does that look familiar?

Yeah.

And you did that? You did that wallpapering?

Yeah. The stairs were only narrow. We couldn’t get the furniture up the stairs we had to carry it up by ropes over the verandah railing.

If we go across the hall I’ve called this a bedroom?

Yes that’s a bedroom. Bill’s father lived there cause his mother had a bit of a row with him.

Now this wallpaper did you put that up as well? So it’s survived relatively well?

Yes it’s not too bad is it.

Over the fireplace there and it looks like somebody has had fires there?

No he didn’t have fire there he had whisky.

Whisky is that what kept him warm? You can see the floor here is that the state the floors were in?

Yes they were all termites. It was absolutely full of them. One of Bill’s sisters had cancer and she stayed there until she died, for a few years until she died and she had a piano there.

So she slept in this room?

Yeah.

That pink or purple wallpaper - it’s paint actually isn’t it?

It’s paint we painted that.

So that’s the colour you painted it?

Yeah.

The fireplace in the Sitting Room

These cupboards beside the fireplace they seem to be in all the rooms?

They all had cupboards.

What was in those linen or crockery?

They just put the linen and that in it. Some of them they didn’t even bother using.

The rooms upstairs were much the same as the rooms downstairs.

That’s right except they had this room that we’ve called the schoolroom?

Well what you call the schoolroom Charlie made into a flat and he used the rooms for bedrooms and he had that made into a kitchen. There was a door there that went into the big loft. The big loft over the kitchen there was a door at that room that went into that loft.

That looks like it's there?

Charlie boarded it up. In that loft they’re not still there I don’t think. There was a lot of iron bedsteads in that loft. I think Mr Lanceley might have taken them I don’t know.

The kitchen block loft

I have a picture of the loft we can have a look at in a minute and see if they’re still there?

Well Charlie made this into kitchen what you call the schoolroom he made into a kitchen.

And the bedrooms?

He slept in the bedrooms.

So that’s where you came in from the stairway? Where did that go, that pink door?

That went out onto the verandah.

Onto the verandah, right and this looks like it was the door into the loft?

Into the loft.

Did you ever know that this was a schoolroom at one stage?

No

Yes apparently it was it was used by the children of the family in the early days?

Yes cause there was a lot of houses around. There was a lot of little huts all around the place. There was two there when we went there. One where Mrs Hurdis (on Old Windsor Road) lived and it was still there when we left they’ve bulldozed it down now. There was another one over near Seven Hills Road. Every little place had a well every house had a well with it. The gun club was there at one time too they had the gun club where they put the things up in the air and shoot.

The clay pigeons?

The clay pigeons they used to come every Saturday and they were just up above our house. They were there.

So any of these other rooms on the top floor bring back any memories for you?

No they were just bedrooms.

Wallpaper remnants on the landing

These were the bedrooms? The floorboards are in very poor repair?

Oh there was very few floorboards left you sort of had to pick your way. You couldn’t go in the dark.

So some of these may have put down since you were there?

It could have been yes.

If we go back to that large room on the top floor if we look up at the ceiling see the ceiling has been renovated?

Yes because it fell.

It fell in did it?

Yeah.

So they’ve done a fair amount of work on the house?

Oh we worked on it all the time we were there it was really constant the whole time we were there. It was in good repair when we left.

Ceiling rose in upper level room

Well just talk about the time that you left. Firstly why did you leave and who took over?

Well Bill’s mother died and the lease had run out and they didn’t want to do the farming anymore. We were both born up the north coast and we wanted to come north. We didn’t want to come too far because our family is still down there. Charlie didn’t want to do it anymore so he went to Wauchope. They didn’t put anyone there for a couple of years. While there was no one there the kids got in with their horses riding round the paddocks and that and vandalised the place. If they’d got the caretaker as soon as we went out they wouldn’t have any trouble.

Now we’re back in front of the shop...

That’s the kitchen.

So where was the kitchen was it this whole building here?

The whole building this door here was the bathroom. That’s the door near the stairway and then there was another door that was the kitchen door and then there was a little door that went into the pantry.

Was that originally a separate house do you know and they built this connection?

I’ve no idea but I think it must have been.

Looks like it was separated?

Looks like it’s separate.

Let’s just have a look inside the kitchen?

Yes it was shingled too.

This is in that loft?

That was full of bedsteads but I think Mr Lanceley must have taken them. Although we think that must have been where the maids lived and slept.

There’s the shingled roof?

Yeah the verandah had a shingled roof on it. In the kitchen beside the fireplace was a baker’s oven right beside the fireplace. When we went there the bricks were falling out so the boys cemented the whole kitchen wall to hold it together. They cemented over the baker’s oven.

So it’s still there?

It’s still there hidden behind the cement. It’s right beside the fireplace. They had to cement it because the walls were crumbling and the bricks were falling out.

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