January 1985
I am now 60 years old, but some of this I can remember clearly and some was told to me by my father, who died in 1976…aged 80 years old.
Most people milked a few cows, in the early days, but, although I don’t remember milking there, I can remember the milking shed. It had 3-4 bales of which the concrete slab remains. A new bale was built nearer the house, at the bottom of the orchard, and I remember milking there when I was 8 years old.
The pig sty was near there and mother, being a lover of “black pudding” used to catch the blood from the stuck pig, to make the pudding. In doing so, she used to get blood all over her!
The Diary, made out of split battens, nailed to both sides of the posts and filled with clay, remained there, till about the fifties, when it collapsed. A big vine crept all over this building. It was quite neat, with a ceiling of “Baltic pine”.
The laundry was a “lean-to”, on the northern side of the diary, with a big open fireplace in one end. This fireplace, as well as boiling the washing, was also used to melt fat to make soap and we also melted the beeswax on it. The soap and bees wax were set to cool in the dairy.
After the building of the “new” kitchen, the “old” kitchen was used as a honey room. The honey was also warmed for blending in the laundry fireplace, then carried 20 yards, one tin at a time.
The ration sheep, which was killed under the Woolley butt tree (which is still there), and was cut up and corned in the dairy too. The sheep yards remain in the same place, but have been rebuilt as a sheep and cattle yards. The reason the meat was corned was because we had no refrigeration. Our only cooler was a “drip safe” or down the underground tank, where the butter was hung, in a bucket in mid-summer.
The original Briggs home at “Hillgrove” was of “pitt sawn” and “adzed” slabs (stringy bark and red box). It had 4 rooms, with a very high roof. The rafters 3x2, were sawn and bought from a mill on the Blue Mountains.
A separate kitchen, of the same material, about 20 feet by 10 feet, was nearby. The new kitchen, about 15 feet by 12 feet, was built on the other end of the house when I was very young. This was built by Jim Gawthorne, from the next property and I believe, the underground tank, was built at the same time.
The laundry mentioned earlier, consisted of a bench, with 2 round tubs and an 8 gallon boiler. This was a haven for blow flies in the summer, as it was fairly open, and was fairly cool, thanks to the shade of the big acacia tree. Suckers from the original acacia tree still grow there and now provide shade for the cattle and sheep.
This old home was pulled down in about the early forties and shifted and rebuilt at “Terri Hi High”. The roof is now on the big shed and the “new” kitchen was shifted and rebuilt as a separate shed.
My only memory of my Grandmother was when father backed the “T model Ford” over my foot and Grandmother comforted me. She died not long after and Grandfather lived only another few years longer. I believe they are both buried in the Cudgegong Cemetery. [Louisa Briggs is buried at Cudgegong; Clem's maternal grandmother, Fanny Weatherley is buried at Ilford cemetery]
We used to have a vegetable garden, down on the creek, under the hill. I remember one morning, about November, during a late frost, Mother got us up before sunrise to water the tomatoes so as to wash the frost off the leaves….to save them, as they were flowering. (The result. They were as black as your boot at 9 o’clock.)
After this happening, we shifted the garden to a corner of the orchard, near the shed and used to water it from the tank on the shed. When it was very dry, we had to cart water on the truck from the creek.
Garlic still grows in the original garden, now 50 years later.
A big “yucca” plant used to grow under the hill, near the creek and despite being….dug out, burnt, eaten by cattle…., some of it remains today.
While on gardening…Max Newton [Lynelle: the person from whom Terry Hi High was bought] once asked Mother, would she like some tomatoes? She said “Yes”, so they brought her a case and then asked “How much do you think they’re worth?”, expecting her to pay for them.
Father, through all these years, always had a few beehives on a permanent site (opposite what is now Dulcie Harding’s home) and used to share farm potatoes and turnips on Trevor Cox’s property on Mount Vincent (somewhere about where Bert Reeves farm is now).
We always had plenty of potatoes and turnips to spare and used to feed the cows on them. I can remember cutting the turnips into small pieces, with a tomahawk, so the cows could eat them easily. Some of the turnips would have weighed 20 pounds or more. [Lynelle: I remember Mum telling me that during the Depression, Pop Briggs used to give turnips and potatoes to the underemployed in Kandos to feed them.]
Mother used to sell eggs (we always had chooks in the “fowl house” and ducks in the “duck house”). Commander Chance, from “Warrangunyah”, used to ride past and buy some on this way to the Ilford store.
Walter Heath, from the Crudine, used to lead a draught stallion past on his rounds.
We always used to have plenty of Kentish cherries at “Hillgrove”. The Moores used to come and get some. Father planted a couple of trees at “the Waterhole” and, as we didn’t need these, Albert and Beryl Reardon [Lynelle: dad's uncle and aunty on the Moore side] used to walk down from Ilford (about 4 miles across country) to pick them.
I finished my school days one week before my 14th birthday and after slipping off the old weather shed and badly spraining my ankle. (I could have had a broken ankle for all we knew, as I didn’t go to a doctor.)
Father went out into the bush and cut a couple of stringy bark sticks to make a pair of crutches, on which I hobbled about for 6 weeks.
I can remember a number of old building ruins about the area, mostly connected to the Redford’s, who owned most of our properties in the early days.
One of these Redfords [Harry Arthur] became the bushranger “Captain Starlight”. They owned the “Old Westwood” building which was then Cobb & Co Inn and a horse changing place. [Ed: Although he was an outlaw, Redford himself never used the monicker 'Captain Starlight'. His life was the basis for a character of that name in Rolf Boldrewood's novel, Robbery Under Arms. Later, another buhranger, Frank Pearson, called himself 'Captain Starlight, based on Boldrewood's character, based on Harry Raedford!]
More about these ruins:
One is at “The Farm”, but now, only a heap of stones from the chimney, remains.
One on Gawthorne’s, only the separator block of the dairy (which was made of wattle and daub), remains.
The Old Slapp home at Cunningham’s Creek Bridge, only shows a few stones from the chimney and some old fruit trees.
My Father used to show me the track where Ernie Café used to drive a horse and sulky while courting Ivy Slapp. The track was visible up to about 20 years ago.
Max Newton dug a mine shaft below “Terri Hi High” house for gold, but didn’t get anything from it. We turned the mine into a charcoal burning kiln, in the early forties, but it was about as successful as the gold venture.
In the early part of the war, there was a petrol shortage and all new trucks had to be fitted with a charcoal gas producer unit. Father bought a new Ford Custom at this time and we were going to burn our own charcoal, from the dry white stringy bark, out of Harding’s “Mill” paddock. However, charcoal gas was a complete failure, but Father was able to obtain special licenses to get petrol, because he was producing honey…a useful food.
We didn’t visit with the Newtons, but, while being instructed for Confirmation, in 1936, we used to go there. The Newtons were a very musical family and nearly every member could play some kind of instrument. We used to have “singsongs” after Confirmation instruction. One of their songs went like this:
Cackle, cackle, cackle, cackle.
Flap your wings and crow.
And Shanghai crowed the loudest
At the great Convention Show.
Phillip Slapp was struck by lightning, while digging a dam (near the Cemetery) with a pick, a shovel and a wheelbarrow. It didn’t kill him, though. I heard later that Phillip’s father had wheeled him home on a wheel barrow…about a mile and a half’s travel.
I can remember visiting the Slapps, at the present home, when I was a kid. The Cunningham’s Creek Bridge was opened before my time, but I can remember the creek crossing, used prior to the bridge.
Some of the original road, towards Ilford, can still be seen, along the bank of the creek.
I can remember, one dry year, in the thirties, when the rabbits on EK Wilson’s property were so poor, you could catch them on foot!
The big white gum tree, below the house, noted for its “Manna”, is now dead and so are the radiata pines we planted on Arbor Day in 1935, however, they are still alive over at Gawthorne’s.
Our first tennis court was on top of the hill, above the old cow bales, but it was too windy there, so Father made another one, over towards Gawthorne’s, on the side of the hill where it was sheltered from the winds. [Lynelle: Dad told me that these tennis courts were made from ants' nests that were raided and moved to build a solid court base.]
I remember Clarice Weatherley, newly married, riding her horse down to play. Margaret Perram and other ladies came on “Ladies Day”.
Some of the fruit trees still remain in the orchard at “Hillgrove”…baking pears, apricots, William pears, and the new Granny Smith’s, planted before I was born. Some of these have fruit in some years, but the crows generally eat them before they’re ready. The Willian pears, do however, provide shade for the cattle, in summer.
Father went to the Clearance Sale of Algie Cousin’s dairy herd, in the mid-thirties, and bought about 15 cows, mostly Jerseys. We walked them home from the property….I think somewhere near the Eurunderee Bridge. It took 4 days. We used to leave them in reserves, overnight, and go back next morning to continue. When we got them home, we milked two of them and, although they hadn’t been milked for 4 days, they came “on milk”. I think the price he paid was about 15 shillings per head.
Father always had a few beehives on a permanent site, with a bark shed for extracting, on the hill opposed the Harding home (now Dulcie Harding’s home). He started in a big way, shifting about the country, in about 1937. We went with the bees, to Dunedoo in 1939, and to Gresford in 1940, and lived a few months in both towns. While in Dunedoo, we did a bit of wheat carting, in our spare time.
A humorous occurrence from Gresford was the disappearance of Fogarty’s black bantam. It seems the bantam used to camp under the seat in our truck and one time, when Father came home for bee equipment, he left very early in the morning and, when he arrived home, the bantam emerged from the cab of the truck. No one ever revealed what happened to the bantam, but she reared a few lots of chickens at “Terri Hi High”. [Lynelle: One of the lovely things that I used to do with Pop Briggs was to go to Kelletts in Mudgee and buy chickens. He would bring them home and put them under lights. He also used to let me feed the chooks with wheat. To this day, I am quite fond of "the girls". Pop used to kill the chooks for eating, and they would run around the farm yard with their heads cut off. He would pluck them - a terrible job that took forever - but the taste of home grown is wonderful.]
We had a great honey year in the early forties, when all types of timber seemed to flower in the one year. We had boxes about Clandulla all year, starting with iron bark, then red box, then yellow box, red gum, grey gum, crooked gum, and finishing with stringy bark.
Sofala was another frequently used area, but I can remember Father having bees from Young to Narrabri. Although we now make our living from sheep and cattle, the bees provided the money to purchase the property. Mother was never very happy about Father and George being away so often with the bees, but it was our living and she had to put up with it. [Lynellle: I understand that Pop and Uncle George did much of the bees work after Uncle George left school, while Dad looked after the farm. Without the bees, we may never know how long it would have taken them to buy land sufficient to provide eventually for three Briggs families.]
Our property:
Father bought “Terri Hi High” in about 1944, after leasing it for 5 years, for about £ 2,800 for 770 acres.
Father bought “Westwood”, for George, about 1948, for £ 6,600 for 1,100 acres.
[Lynelle: George and June Briggs lived at "old Westwood" for several years after they married, before they moved up the hill to their newly built home "Westwood". The last full blood Aboriginal woman, Peggy Lambert, also listed "Old Westwood" as her place in Rylstone Cemetery.]
This property and Slapps belonged to F.N. Taylor and Father said “I’d have bought “Westwood” if I didn’t have to buy that other bloody place”. Slapp’s price was much the same – £ 3,000 for 550 acres. Then, in 1954, I wonder who bought it for £ 6,000…..?
Gawthorne’s property went to the Pearces, then George Briggs, and it is now owned by Farhinger, a baker from Baulkam Hills.
The William’s property was cut into two pieces and, when one was sold, to Claphams, the other portion, joining us, was sold to Jacksons, then to Clive Cafe.
The Slapps’ property was sold to F.N. Taylor before the war, then to J Allen, about 1948, and to us in 1954. [Lynelle: This part of the property is also known as "Allen's", and the house sits in a lovely site overlooking Cunningham's Creek and the Old Mudgee Road and old bridge over the creek. Garry Briggs lived here for a few years, and Brett Whiteley rented it for a little while before that. He had wanted to buy the place, but Dad refused, despite Brett telling him that he was famous. It's a shame that he never provided Dad a painting...]
A piece of land was exchanged with H Pearce, at Gawthorne’s, in 1952, to eliminate a number of flood gates, leaving only two; and, with Max Jackson, in the seventies, for the same reason.
Father owned a piece of land on top of Stringy Bark Hill, but he sold it to Hardings. I don’t know when or what area was in it.
He also owned a few hundred acres, near Hargraves, which he bought from Lawson, and sold a few years later, to Sibley.
The creeks could not have been too permanent, as wells were dug for water and dipped with a bucket on a rope or sometimes, on a pole over a forked stick. Wells, I remember, were at Slapps, below “Terri Hi High” and at the bottom of Becol. (The forked stick left, remained there until about 1981, when I had the well cleaned out for water in the drought.) This well, I am told, was dug about 1915. I don’t remember a well at “Hillgrove”, so there must have been more of a source of permanent water there.
We used to have a yearly excursion to the Moore’s, to pick blackberries. Father and Mother used to pick us up from school and take us to Granny Moore’s place, where we’d pick up Mick and Mavis (the girls) and go on down to Uncle Johnny’s…, where the blackberries were plentiful, all along the creek.
I am told that Grandfather Briggs used to run the school bus and to take a number of kids to Warrangunyah School. This must have been after Father left school, as he sued to say he walked to Warrangunyah School.
I presume the old man delivered the cream to the butter factory, after he had dropped the kids off, as the factory was a mile or so farther on.
Changes took place in the bee keeping industry during our time. From bees being left in the same place, at the start and extracted in a bark hut, with steel knives, heated in a bucket, on a fire, to steam operated knives and shifting the hives from place to place, according to the honey flows. He also pulled a caravan, with extracting gear inside.
“Terri Hi High’s” hill, on the old road, was the steepest hill, heading north, from Sydney to Mudgee. During the coal strike, in the war years, trucks used to get over all the hills on the mountains, but get stuck on “Terri Hi High”. We used to tow some of them up with the tractor, but it got too prevalent, so we let them make other arrangements.
Your hear of some funny lunches…..
When I was going to school, two of my main lunches were: Worchestershire (hot sauce) sandwiches. I used to take a small bottle in my bag and pour it on my bread at lunchtime. And the other one was a tin of “kippered snacks”. I haven’t seen these in the shops for ages.
Here endeth the epistle according to Clem, 25 November 1989.
Comments by Lynelle 2018.
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| Hillgrove |
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| "Pop" Briggs - 80th birthday, 1975 |
Most people milked a few cows, in the early days, but, although I don’t remember milking there, I can remember the milking shed. It had 3-4 bales of which the concrete slab remains. A new bale was built nearer the house, at the bottom of the orchard, and I remember milking there when I was 8 years old.
The pig sty was near there and mother, being a lover of “black pudding” used to catch the blood from the stuck pig, to make the pudding. In doing so, she used to get blood all over her!
The Diary, made out of split battens, nailed to both sides of the posts and filled with clay, remained there, till about the fifties, when it collapsed. A big vine crept all over this building. It was quite neat, with a ceiling of “Baltic pine”.
The laundry was a “lean-to”, on the northern side of the diary, with a big open fireplace in one end. This fireplace, as well as boiling the washing, was also used to melt fat to make soap and we also melted the beeswax on it. The soap and bees wax were set to cool in the dairy.
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| Chimney of the "new kitchen" at Hillgrove, 1985 |
The ration sheep, which was killed under the Woolley butt tree (which is still there), and was cut up and corned in the dairy too. The sheep yards remain in the same place, but have been rebuilt as a sheep and cattle yards. The reason the meat was corned was because we had no refrigeration. Our only cooler was a “drip safe” or down the underground tank, where the butter was hung, in a bucket in mid-summer.
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| "Hillgrove" at Ilford |
A separate kitchen, of the same material, about 20 feet by 10 feet, was nearby. The new kitchen, about 15 feet by 12 feet, was built on the other end of the house when I was very young. This was built by Jim Gawthorne, from the next property and I believe, the underground tank, was built at the same time.
The laundry mentioned earlier, consisted of a bench, with 2 round tubs and an 8 gallon boiler. This was a haven for blow flies in the summer, as it was fairly open, and was fairly cool, thanks to the shade of the big acacia tree. Suckers from the original acacia tree still grow there and now provide shade for the cattle and sheep.
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| The house at Terry Hi High |
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| Clem's paternal grandmother Louisa Briggs |
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| Louisa Briggs' grave at Cudgegong |
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| Cudgegong Cemetery, May 2016 |
We used to have a vegetable garden, down on the creek, under the hill. I remember one morning, about November, during a late frost, Mother got us up before sunrise to water the tomatoes so as to wash the frost off the leaves….to save them, as they were flowering. (The result. They were as black as your boot at 9 o’clock.)
After this happening, we shifted the garden to a corner of the orchard, near the shed and used to water it from the tank on the shed. When it was very dry, we had to cart water on the truck from the creek.
Garlic still grows in the original garden, now 50 years later.
A big “yucca” plant used to grow under the hill, near the creek and despite being….dug out, burnt, eaten by cattle…., some of it remains today.
While on gardening…Max Newton [Lynelle: the person from whom Terry Hi High was bought] once asked Mother, would she like some tomatoes? She said “Yes”, so they brought her a case and then asked “How much do you think they’re worth?”, expecting her to pay for them.
Father, through all these years, always had a few beehives on a permanent site (opposite what is now Dulcie Harding’s home) and used to share farm potatoes and turnips on Trevor Cox’s property on Mount Vincent (somewhere about where Bert Reeves farm is now).
We always had plenty of potatoes and turnips to spare and used to feed the cows on them. I can remember cutting the turnips into small pieces, with a tomahawk, so the cows could eat them easily. Some of the turnips would have weighed 20 pounds or more. [Lynelle: I remember Mum telling me that during the Depression, Pop Briggs used to give turnips and potatoes to the underemployed in Kandos to feed them.]
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| Warrangunyah Homestead |
Walter Heath, from the Crudine, used to lead a draught stallion past on his rounds.
We always used to have plenty of Kentish cherries at “Hillgrove”. The Moores used to come and get some. Father planted a couple of trees at “the Waterhole” and, as we didn’t need these, Albert and Beryl Reardon [Lynelle: dad's uncle and aunty on the Moore side] used to walk down from Ilford (about 4 miles across country) to pick them.
I finished my school days one week before my 14th birthday and after slipping off the old weather shed and badly spraining my ankle. (I could have had a broken ankle for all we knew, as I didn’t go to a doctor.)
Father went out into the bush and cut a couple of stringy bark sticks to make a pair of crutches, on which I hobbled about for 6 weeks.
I can remember a number of old building ruins about the area, mostly connected to the Redford’s, who owned most of our properties in the early days.
One of these Redfords [Harry Arthur] became the bushranger “Captain Starlight”. They owned the “Old Westwood” building which was then Cobb & Co Inn and a horse changing place. [Ed: Although he was an outlaw, Redford himself never used the monicker 'Captain Starlight'. His life was the basis for a character of that name in Rolf Boldrewood's novel, Robbery Under Arms. Later, another buhranger, Frank Pearson, called himself 'Captain Starlight, based on Boldrewood's character, based on Harry Raedford!]
More about these ruins:
One is at “The Farm”, but now, only a heap of stones from the chimney, remains.
One on Gawthorne’s, only the separator block of the dairy (which was made of wattle and daub), remains.
The Old Slapp home at Cunningham’s Creek Bridge, only shows a few stones from the chimney and some old fruit trees.
My Father used to show me the track where Ernie Café used to drive a horse and sulky while courting Ivy Slapp. The track was visible up to about 20 years ago.
Max Newton dug a mine shaft below “Terri Hi High” house for gold, but didn’t get anything from it. We turned the mine into a charcoal burning kiln, in the early forties, but it was about as successful as the gold venture.
In the early part of the war, there was a petrol shortage and all new trucks had to be fitted with a charcoal gas producer unit. Father bought a new Ford Custom at this time and we were going to burn our own charcoal, from the dry white stringy bark, out of Harding’s “Mill” paddock. However, charcoal gas was a complete failure, but Father was able to obtain special licenses to get petrol, because he was producing honey…a useful food.
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| Ted and Tessa Briggs, Clem's parents, with baby Pearl, 14 April 1924 |
Most of our “visiting” was done by horse and sulky (Old Dopey, the horse). We used to visit the Slapps and the Weatherleys.
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| Confirmation at Ilford CoE Church, 1937. Briggs children at right, Newton children at left. |
Cackle, cackle, cackle, cackle.
Flap your wings and crow.
And Shanghai crowed the loudest
At the great Convention Show.
 |
| The dam Phillip Slapp was digging when struck by lightning |
I can remember visiting the Slapps, at the present home, when I was a kid. The Cunningham’s Creek Bridge was opened before my time, but I can remember the creek crossing, used prior to the bridge.
Some of the original road, towards Ilford, can still be seen, along the bank of the creek.
I can remember, one dry year, in the thirties, when the rabbits on EK Wilson’s property were so poor, you could catch them on foot!
The big white gum tree, below the house, noted for its “Manna”, is now dead and so are the radiata pines we planted on Arbor Day in 1935, however, they are still alive over at Gawthorne’s.
Our first tennis court was on top of the hill, above the old cow bales, but it was too windy there, so Father made another one, over towards Gawthorne’s, on the side of the hill where it was sheltered from the winds. [Lynelle: Dad told me that these tennis courts were made from ants' nests that were raided and moved to build a solid court base.]
I remember Clarice Weatherley, newly married, riding her horse down to play. Margaret Perram and other ladies came on “Ladies Day”.
Some of the fruit trees still remain in the orchard at “Hillgrove”…baking pears, apricots, William pears, and the new Granny Smith’s, planted before I was born. Some of these have fruit in some years, but the crows generally eat them before they’re ready. The Willian pears, do however, provide shade for the cattle, in summer.
Father went to the Clearance Sale of Algie Cousin’s dairy herd, in the mid-thirties, and bought about 15 cows, mostly Jerseys. We walked them home from the property….I think somewhere near the Eurunderee Bridge. It took 4 days. We used to leave them in reserves, overnight, and go back next morning to continue. When we got them home, we milked two of them and, although they hadn’t been milked for 4 days, they came “on milk”. I think the price he paid was about 15 shillings per head.
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| "Pop" Briggs with George and truck |
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| "Pop", Clem's father among the beehives on Hector Harding's mid 1940s |
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| Robbing the bee hive in the orchard at Hillgrove |
We had a great honey year in the early forties, when all types of timber seemed to flower in the one year. We had boxes about Clandulla all year, starting with iron bark, then red box, then yellow box, red gum, grey gum, crooked gum, and finishing with stringy bark.
Sofala was another frequently used area, but I can remember Father having bees from Young to Narrabri. Although we now make our living from sheep and cattle, the bees provided the money to purchase the property. Mother was never very happy about Father and George being away so often with the bees, but it was our living and she had to put up with it. [Lynellle: I understand that Pop and Uncle George did much of the bees work after Uncle George left school, while Dad looked after the farm. Without the bees, we may never know how long it would have taken them to buy land sufficient to provide eventually for three Briggs families.]
Our property:
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| Homestead at Terry Hi High (unoccupied at time of photo) |
Father bought “Westwood”, for George, about 1948, for £ 6,600 for 1,100 acres.
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| Westwood |
This property and Slapps belonged to F.N. Taylor and Father said “I’d have bought “Westwood” if I didn’t have to buy that other bloody place”. Slapp’s price was much the same – £ 3,000 for 550 acres. Then, in 1954, I wonder who bought it for £ 6,000…..?
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| Clem, June and George Briggs |
The William’s property was cut into two pieces and, when one was sold, to Claphams, the other portion, joining us, was sold to Jacksons, then to Clive Cafe.
The Slapps’ property was sold to F.N. Taylor before the war, then to J Allen, about 1948, and to us in 1954. [Lynelle: This part of the property is also known as "Allen's", and the house sits in a lovely site overlooking Cunningham's Creek and the Old Mudgee Road and old bridge over the creek. Garry Briggs lived here for a few years, and Brett Whiteley rented it for a little while before that. He had wanted to buy the place, but Dad refused, despite Brett telling him that he was famous. It's a shame that he never provided Dad a painting...]
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| Bridge and Cunningham's Creek near Pleasant Valley, Ilford 1985. The cottage Brett Whiteley rented. |
A piece of land was exchanged with H Pearce, at Gawthorne’s, in 1952, to eliminate a number of flood gates, leaving only two; and, with Max Jackson, in the seventies, for the same reason.
Father owned a piece of land on top of Stringy Bark Hill, but he sold it to Hardings. I don’t know when or what area was in it.
He also owned a few hundred acres, near Hargraves, which he bought from Lawson, and sold a few years later, to Sibley.
 |
| Cunningham's Creek, looking toward Ilford Flats. Hill is Clem's land |
The creeks could not have been too permanent, as wells were dug for water and dipped with a bucket on a rope or sometimes, on a pole over a forked stick. Wells, I remember, were at Slapps, below “Terri Hi High” and at the bottom of Becol. (The forked stick left, remained there until about 1981, when I had the well cleaned out for water in the drought.) This well, I am told, was dug about 1915. I don’t remember a well at “Hillgrove”, so there must have been more of a source of permanent water there.
We used to have a yearly excursion to the Moore’s, to pick blackberries. Father and Mother used to pick us up from school and take us to Granny Moore’s place, where we’d pick up Mick and Mavis (the girls) and go on down to Uncle Johnny’s…, where the blackberries were plentiful, all along the creek.
I am told that Grandfather Briggs used to run the school bus and to take a number of kids to Warrangunyah School. This must have been after Father left school, as he sued to say he walked to Warrangunyah School.
I presume the old man delivered the cream to the butter factory, after he had dropped the kids off, as the factory was a mile or so farther on.
Changes took place in the bee keeping industry during our time. From bees being left in the same place, at the start and extracted in a bark hut, with steel knives, heated in a bucket, on a fire, to steam operated knives and shifting the hives from place to place, according to the honey flows. He also pulled a caravan, with extracting gear inside.
“Terri Hi High’s” hill, on the old road, was the steepest hill, heading north, from Sydney to Mudgee. During the coal strike, in the war years, trucks used to get over all the hills on the mountains, but get stuck on “Terri Hi High”. We used to tow some of them up with the tractor, but it got too prevalent, so we let them make other arrangements.
Your hear of some funny lunches…..
When I was going to school, two of my main lunches were: Worchestershire (hot sauce) sandwiches. I used to take a small bottle in my bag and pour it on my bread at lunchtime. And the other one was a tin of “kippered snacks”. I haven’t seen these in the shops for ages.
Here endeth the epistle according to Clem, 25 November 1989.
Comments by Lynelle 2018.
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| Snow at Hillcrest, 1986 |
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| Hillcrest house |
Very interesting,
ReplyDeleteI am a farmer from South Australia. My Grandmother was Esther Moore she was Matron of the Lithgow Hospital before she went overseas as an Army nurse during WW1 With her 2 sisters. She was descended from Michael Moore and Maria Ring.
John McFarlane
SA