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        Memories of Keith Eve

        My father, Gordon Eve, emigrated to Victoria with his wife Hilda, and myself, Keith, on an assisted passage in about 1926.  I was around 7 at the time.  I must say that I have no paperwork with dates and I am therefore relying entirely on memory which is selective and not always reliable.

        Gordon was not of farming stock having been a Morse operator on the transatlantic cables owned by Eastern Telegraph.  This was quite a "good job" and he only left because he was advised to take an outside job but this was cleared up when he had his appendix removed.  For a time he then ran a business and was also a representative for a couple of firms. He had had experience of working with horses during the First World War when he worked with them, pulling 18 pounder guns.

        The move to Australia was not caused by poverty, we always had a car, or by the desire for something for nothing but rather because he wanted to work for himself and the promise of a better and freer life for himself and his family. Apart from a suitcase each filled with clothes, everything was packed into a plywood box made to fill then stipulated cubic capacity and which was about 5ft x 2ft x 2ft. The journey of four weeks and five days was made on the "Largs Bay" from Southampton, calling at Port Said, Colombo, Freemantle, Adelaide and Melbourne.  We went into prepared accommodation fairly near to Melbourne, I think, where both my mother and I caught diphtheria, which did not help.  We then spent some weeks on a wheat farm and finally moved to Marionvale.

           A wood framed house, clad in sheet metal and with a corrugated iron roof was provided near to the farm's south west corner and water from the roof was gathered in two 2000 gallon tanks for domestic purposes.

        Water for irrigation was available from the channel running along the western edge of the property, access being from a lifting door with a water wheel for measuring the amount run off.  This was in the extreme south west corner, near the road bridge over the channel ( your plan shows an intersection of the channel and the road rather than a bridge).

        The home paddock, which we fenced together with the other fields, contained a small dam  my father had dug himself and a large gum tree under which was the hut containing the lavatory.  We also had a Coolgardie Safe under the tree's shade to keep the food as cool as possible. The outer limits of the farm were fenced but apart from that the land was as it had been left by the previous wheat farmers.

        Our farm was a little different from most in that it contained a good stand of trees, together with fallen logs, in the south east corner, a large dam which must have been there for some time as there was a mature tree growing on the spoil hill and what was left of roofless stables built of ventricle wood slats and some fencing from the old farm which had been used to form a rick yard. We built a milking shed near these stables with green timber and corrugated iron, also a chaff house and a room to separate the cream from the milk.  This site was more central to the farm than the house.

        Each field needed fencing.  Each fence post had to be sawn to length by hand and split with axe and wedge from the hollow logs in the timber stand.  Each post hole was dug by hand.  The clay was so hard it had to be broken up with a crow bar after water was put in the hole.  The posts were then drilled with a brace and bit before wire was threaded through and strained and topped with barbed wire. 

        We dug channels to distribute the water using a plough and "v" shaped wooden implement to pile the loosened soil on to the banks.  The fields were ploughed and harrowed using a buck board so that the water could be directed to where it was needed.  The irrigated crop was lucerne (alfalfa).

        We had three horses for working the land and a lighter mare to pull the spring cart which was used for light carrying and to go to Shepparton once a month or for other such journeys.  At one time I also had a pony.  It was sent away to be broken in for riding and when it came back my father said, " Right.  Up you get and when you can ride you can have a saddle".  Needless to say, I never got a saddle.

        We milked cows.  I cannot remember how many but I think about 20-25.  The cream was separated from the milk using a hand turned separating machine (centrifugal) and sent away to the butter factory.  The skimmed milk was sent to calves and pigs, some of which were killed, butchered and cured at home.  We also kept chickens but mostly for home use.

        The part of the farm which was not irrigated was used to grow oats and other cereals which were used to feed to the cattle and horses. The land was not really suitable for irrigation as it had a thin soil overlying impermeable clay about 4 inches down.

        Lighting in the house was by paraffin lamps and most of the heating and cooking was by wood from the logs taken from the stand previously referred to.

        I went to Marionvale School which had one room and one teacher though a second room was built later and we had a second teacher.  I walked to school barefoot like most of the children.  We did have a paddock for horses next to the school but I do not remember it being well used. After the second room was built there were sometimes dances with my father playing the piano and another man playing the violin.

        Towards the end of my time at Marionvale School I had extra work and obtained a scholarship to Shepparton High School.  The scholarship provided the schooling and an allowance to enable me to lodge in Shepparton.  I would have been about 14 at the time.  Unfortunately, the scholarship was never confirmed until about halfway through the first term so that schooling was lost in the first 2 years.  In the third year I was able to start at the beginning because I cycled the 14 miles there and back until the grant came through. I also cycled to Shepparton on Saturdays with a box on my cycle carrier to sell cream to the local householders.

        The school had three sections, these being agricultural, clerical and professional.  At first I was entered in the agricultural section where, in addition to normal school work, we were taught crafts such as carpentry and metalwork.  We also went once a week to the farm that the school owned.

        However, it was becoming obvious to us that there was little future in our farm and in the second year I was moved to the professional section.

        My two sisters, Margaret and Shirley, were born at Marionvale.  The strain of the situation and probably the fact that they were born just two years apart combined to cause my mother to have a nervous breakdown and for a while she was away from home, I think in Melbourne, for treatment.  She never fully recovered.

        Life became increasingly difficult on the farms.  Eventually there was a Royal Commission to investigate the scheme.  The Commission was very critical and the Government decided to compensate each settler family no matter how much capital they had brought, on a per capita basis of so much for a man, wife and child. We left and went to Melbourne but things did not work out too well and my mother was still ill, so we all returned to England in about 1936 on the "Jarvis Bay" calling at Adelaide, Freemantle, Colombo, Malta and Southampton.

        My father obtained a position with the Milk Marketing Board (in the Preston, Lancashire area) which was being established at about that time and worked for them for many years before joining Midland Counties Dairies where he worked until his retirement.

        Another of the ex settlers, Tommy Wyborn, was also employed by the Milk Marketing Board and he had the area around Wigan, about 15 miles south of Preston.  I remember visiting them there.  They had children who may still be living.

        The Clutterbucks lived on the next farm.  When he was quite young, Peter Clutterbuck used to visit us and always asked for a 78rpm record of "The Old Rugged Cross" to be put on the wind up gramophone.  Having come through the Tropics from England, the disc was quite warped and you can imagine the result.

        There are so many important things which I cannot remember but some memories stick.

•        The Millar on the next farm from us was a single man living on his own and of Polish descent.

•         Scotty Miller had a son who as a young man died of appendicitis due, we believed, to not being able to get medical attention in time.

•         We once went to Katandra with the spring cart to collect a bull which had been sent up by train.   We found that it had no ring on its nose so the operation was duly carried out and the bull was then walked from Katandra to the farm.  I don't think they would have done it today.

•          At one time we had a young Englishman working for us for his food and baccy.  This was quite common.

•         I was at Shepparton High School during the "bodyline" test match series when feelings were running high.  I had a good time taking the side of the English when at school and the Aussies when I got home. 

•        With the picture of Marionvale School shows one building but I am sure that a second one was erected while I was there.

•       I saw a number of Hudsons on the school roll.  This was an old established, very large family.  If you had an argument with a younger Hudson, there was always an older one to sort it out!

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