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 Bella
Vista Farm Interviewee: Vera Jones, born 1925 Interviewer: Kevin Murray, Date of Interview: 18 Dec 2008 Transcription: Glenys Murray, Feb 2009 |
So let’s move behind the shop where you lived to the stable area and have a look at those buildings. Now do you remember these fig trees? They were probably not quite as large then were they?
We had one in the fowl pen where there was a bellows in our fowl pen the chooks used to lay their eggs and they used to nest in the fig tree in the roots. They’re quite big.
They’re still huge?
They are huge. That’s the stables and Daisy made them into fowl pens. She had fowls and ducks. Daisy never married so she had the fowls and ducks.
So were they free range? Did they wander all over the place?
Yes we let them out every day and locked them up at night.
Any idea how many there were.
I’ve no idea. Not hundreds, just enough to keep us going. We always had ducks plucked them… actually we…
So it was really only for the family’s use?
Only for the family we used to have a duck nearly every Sunday.
So these were all chook pens? Do you know what it was before?
Stables.
For horses?
Yes they were all parted sort of thing.
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It’s fairly substantially built those timbers are quite solid?
It’s marvellous you know it was really strong, really strong. It was really well built because they wouldn’t stand up to the battering if it wasn’t. They wouldn’t stay up for that many years.
Do you remember the floor in the stables?
That was a dirt floor there. The one opposite that in here was the blocks.
The timber blocks, well there’s still some there?
All these sheds had a loft. They had a loft inside them.
Those are the blocks?
Those are the blocks well I used to have the feeders in there. I always had the feed for the cows. All the feed was in there I had to take it from in there into the feeders.
So this was the feed that you got once a year from…?
That was hay but there was oat bran and oat meal mixed together and then there was oat hulls from Uncle Toby’s. The hulls off the oats you had wet that because it was too dry. I’d give them a bit of that, a tin of that and a tin of something else. There was about four different things and then a bale a bit of hay.
So you mixed it all up?
I did all that.
So that was your job was it?
I didn’t milk I wasn’t born on a farm and I didn’t milk.
Where were you born Vera?
In Mullumbimby. Bill was born in Billinudgel.
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So how was it for you moving onto a farm?
It didn’t worry me because there was ten in our family and we always had to do things.
Moving further around there’s this other large shed?
They just put feed and stuff in there. The tractor was in one end there. Then they just had feed in there and all sorts of …
So if we just have a look inside that barn there that looks familiar?
Yeah.
That was a dirt floor?
Yeah that was dirt floor there was only the one shed that had the blocks in it. There was a loft up in that one too.
This roof looks relatively new. Was there a corrugated iron roof when you were there?
Yeah it was there the loft had been there but it had been taken down. In that other shed where the blocks are the loft was still there. The loft was still up in that one. There was a door here and there was a door there because we had a tub there with water in it. We had a bath with water in it and bags. At one stage there was three fellows from Parramatta used to come along and they’d a tennis ball fill it with petrol light it and throw it in the paddock. So we didn’t want the fire to get up to the pine trees. We’d never stop it so we used to have the tub there with water in it and a pack of bags (hessian). We had two of the kids running round every weekend they had to go round fire watching. If they saw smoke they’d sing out and we’d run and grab a bag each. Daisy would go to phone and ring the fire brigade.
Why were they setting fire to the paddock?
They just thought it was funny.
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Just for fun?
Yeah they caught them in the finish. You’d ring the fire brigade “oh they’re at such and such a place”. They’d go along the road and they didn’t only do it to us but different farms along the road.
We’re looking inside that barn now. You can see the blocks on the floor?
That was the loft but it broke it was dangerous so they took all the boards down.
So this door up here would have been onto it?
That belonged to the loft.
These down here they look like feeders?
They’re feeders for the horses.
The roof looks like it’s been fixed up a fair bit?
Yeah, yeah.
Let’s go to this main entrance area. This is the main road coming in?
That’s the big shed.
You can see on our left…?
That’s the big shed.
Tell me about the big shed?
They filled that with hay, bales of hay and when we first went there we used to grow feed. It got a bit too much so then they started buying the hay. First they used to get it by train. They’d have to bring it from the station across to the farm. You only have so many hours to empty the things. So then the big trucks used to come, the big semis used to come with it. They bought the whole crop and once a year they’d come and fill the shed up. It filled right up.
And that lasted you for the year?
For the year yeah.
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And this road is the original road that led into the property?
It led in that gum tree there that was growing onto the fence.
Do you remember it as smaller than that?
No about that. We used to stand there and watch the pictures at the picture theatre where Parklea Markets are now. It was an open air picture theatre.
Oh really and you stood in that paddock?
We used to stand there and we could see the pictures but we couldn’t hear it but we could see it. Down in that corner where Meurants Lane went off the Windsor Road there was a little church there. It was there but just after we left they took it down. Right on the corner where Meurants Lane met the Old Windsor Road.
So what was your closest shopping area where did you go?
We went to Blacktown and Parramatta but Blacktown mainly.
Did you have vendors coming around to the farm to sell things?
They delivered bread and they delivered mail. I don’t know where it was from. I think it was from Blacktown they delivered the mail and they delivered the bread. I had to go down every day down to the road and collect that. That was my daily exercise.
Walking down to the road, how far was that?
It was a long way down to Meurants Lane from up here right down the paddock to Meurants Lane.
An hour, two hours?
Yes easy.
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Let’s just have a look inside this large shed we call it the packing shed? That’s the view inside there’s still some hay bales there.
Well there was always hay there.
This is how you remember it?
It is yes.
It’s still amazingly upright?
It is isn’t it?
Given it had all the willy willy's and storms it must have seen?
Oh I went to shut the gate there was a gate beside that shed, I went to shut the gate and there was a storm and this bolt of lightening come and hit the road right in front of me. Oh it gave me a fright. The cows were in the dairy and they jumped sideways. They got a fright too.
You probably saw some very good storms?
Oh we had some terrific storms. They said it was something that was in the creek that attracted the lightning. We had some terrible storms.
Ironstone or something?
Something like that in the creek because we’ve seen trees just splintered. One was just burning inside. All you could see was a trail of smoke up top and it was burning right inside the tree.
This is inside the packing shed.
That looks like a box that I used to have for feeding it had a lid on it.
So you used to have to mix the feed as well every day?
Yeah.
But you got out of the milking?
Yeah.
So was it an early start to every day?
Three o’clock.
Three o’clock every day, no holidays?
No, seven days a week.
When did you go to bed?
Ten o’clock.
Did you think of it as a hard life at the time?
Not at that time but now I think it was. We didn’t think at that time.
So when Bill went to get the cows he’d get the leader cow the others would all follow?
One would lead the others.
They’d all just stand around patiently waiting to be milked?
Yeah.
How many people did the milking?
Only Bill and Charlie and Charlie’s wife.
You said there were one hundred cows?
They had the machines and they used to get… I think the milk was too clean or something not enough I don’t know what it is in milk. Because it was clean they used to get the students from the Hawkesbury College to come and see how we cleaned the pipes. Because they were so clean.
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So you had the cows, the chooks the ducks. What other animals were on the farm?
On there was geese, guinea fowls, I think that was all.
These were all for your own use?
Only for our own use.
So what sort of income did you make just the milk was it?
Just the milk and Bill and I were on wages. Oh we used to pick the manure up and heap it up and the market gardeners came and bought it off us. We sold that we had a paddock each and we sold that. That’s how we bought this house. Bill always had a vegetable garden and he grew enough vegetables for everybody.
Now if we go back to the map can you show me where that vegetable garden was? There’s a garden out here now at the front of the house.
No that was his mothers.
Let's have a look at that - it's what we've called the West Garden...
That’s the front of the house.
Everybody did a bit of that but at the back of the kitchen his mother had her garden. She gardened right up until she died. She loved her garden too. She had a garden back there.
This is on the side of the house near the water tank?
Yes she had a garden there. Down there from our house was our fowl pen and then the garden was next to the fowl pen.
So all that’s gone now?
It’s gone.
There’s a fig tree there.
The fig tree was our fowl pen.
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That‘s where all the chickens roosted in the roots of the tree?
Yeah. Below that was our garden. We were really self sufficient. We were here too. We had chooks and geese and peacocks and everything here.
If you were self sufficient what did you have to buy? What kinds of things did you buy when you went to Blacktown?
Just a few groceries we didn’t buy vegetables. We never had to buy vegetables.
You had all your vegetables, you had your duck every Sunday, you had your chickens.
We bought a bit of meat and just a few groceries.
Did you appreciate the life at the time? Did you think it was a good life?
Oh I think so. I didn’t mind it then but I think it was a bit hard now. But I didn’t then, I didn’t feel it then.
Did you meet others who perhaps lived in the towns and…
We didn’t meet anybody really we were sort of isolated. We didn’t really meet anybody much.
What sort of social activities did you have?
We didn’t have any.
You didn’t sit around the piano and sing at night or anything?
No we didn’t have anything like that.
So everyday was three am milk the cows?
Well we were too tired for anything but when the kids got older I used to take them. We’d walk down the paddock and take the bus to go to Parramatta to go to the pictures. I took them Bill would take us to Seven Hills Station and I'd take them into the city and show them how to work the trains and that sort of thing. I thought well it’s no good them not having anything. So I used to take them myself. He’d take them to the station I’d go in the train and come back and we’d get a taxi back to the farm. Or I’d walk away up the paddock and get a bus to Parramatta and go to the pictures or something because I thought the kids had to have a bit of life. Bill didn’t have the time.
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What did the kids think of that life now when you ask them?
Oh they don’t mind.
They loved it?
They get out now well they’re workaholics. When they came home from school they had to get the poddies (weaned calves) in because the poddies were let out round the house. They got them in and then they’d get the tractor out and go across to the big shed. Put the hay in the tractor ready for me in the morning. Bring it back to the feed shed ready for me the next morning. They were only about ten or twelve then and they used to put it in the shed for me. All the feed and help me empty the bags and things like that. Then they’d go and do their homework. My daughter used to peel vegetables ready for tea. I’d go home and I had the fire lit, they weren’t allowed to touch the fire, I’d put the veggies on when I went home. They were good kids they all helped me.
When you went to Blacktown it was always by bus was it?
No Bill took me,
Oh he drove?
That’s what I say we were always together the whole fifty eight years we were together. We did everything like if he had to do fencing whatever he had to do we did it together. He drove anywhere we went, he drove.
You mentioned the children did their homework at night. Where did they go to school?
At Kellyville and Castle Hill High School.
And Charlie’s wife's name?
Mona Hurdis the Hurdis’s lived in the little cottage that was still there when we left. Her mother lived there and she lives at Wauchope now.
So there were still some people living in the cottage when you left?
Yeah, yeah.
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I thought that when you left there was nobody left there.
No they still lived there. I don’t know how long they were there and I don’t really know.
That was in what we called Fitzgerald’s cottage?
No, no the other one it’s in here the other cottage across the paddock.
Oh across the paddock?
So not actually at Bella Vista?
It’s on Bella Vista property see there was I believe twenty four little places on Bella Vista property. There that’s the one and see “historic cottage lost”. They pulled it down and they should never have done that.
I think they’ve pulled all of them down except for the ones on top of the hill.
Well that was between the big house. You know where the big shed is where you pass. It was not far past that towards Meurants Lane. Well when we left she was still living there but I don’t know how long she was there.
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Vera, who was Mr Lanceley?
He owned Norbrik there was the grandfather and the father and the son. They were all there while we were there. The grandfather owned it first and he turned the first sod when they built the brickworks. Then he died and the son took over and then he died and then the other son took over.
Were the brickworks nearby?
They were down on the Old Windsor Road not far just down the hill.
What sort of car did you have?
Bill had
the Dodge truck. It belonged to Bill and Charlie. Bill sold it to Charlie
and he got a car. We had quite a few different cars and in the finish
we got a Valiant and we had it from 1970. Bruce has got it now.
At Bella Vista we had a couple of riding horses. When we first went there
we had draught horses we used to grow the corn when we first went there.
We had the horses we used to follow the horses.
This was the kitchen was it?
This was the kitchen I had a round table and if I wanted to get into the fridge I had to make them get up off the chairs and move so I could open the fridge. It was very small.
So what happened to all the cows when you left?
We sold them. We had an auction sale sold everything that we didn’t want in the house and the cows and sold everything that we didn’t need.
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Now Vera, tell me when electricity and water came to Bella Vista?
I couldn’t tell you the year but when they built the brickworks they needed the water so they had to bring it right from Windsor Road down to the brickworks. They put it onto the houses. Up until then we had to use the well water. There was a tank but we used well water.
So during the time you were there they put that water on and they needed it for the brickworks?
Yeah.
What about electricity?
Well the big house had electricity but our little place didn’t. We were there for about two years before they put the electricity on there.
So what did you have before that?
Kerosene lamps we tried a kerosene fridge but it didn’t work. I used to put the butter in a dish and set it in a cement tub in a bit of water. That kept the butter cool. When we went to town we’d buy a bit of meat and we’d just buy enough to last us for the day. We didn’t have any way to keep the meat. Because the kerosene fridge we couldn’t rely on it.
So when you got electricity on did you use that for cooking?
No just for the lights. I had the stove I’d lit the fuel stove and I still used it to warm our bath water. Had a pot of water on the stove. Used it for a lot of the washing. I had a tub out in the middle of the paddock with three fence posts around it and that was how I put the clothes up. I used the baby bath to rinse them in.
And the fuel stove you did all your cooking on the fuel stove?
Yeah I never had an electric stove until I come here.