South West Life

This game can be fun sometimes. We keep our eye out for stories that intrigue and mostly uplift us, in the past as it applies to this little corner of the globe.

Trouble is, I’m not a real historian, or for that matter a historian’s bootlace. I see interesting stories and follow them as far as the path is reasonably easy, then deliver them to the readers in an easy to digest form.

Every so often, I come across a real historian who has spent the hours and the sweat required to generate the facts that become our interesting stories. It’s more rare, sadly, to find a historian who delivers the details in a way that most of us can digest, enjoy, and learn from. So in the last couple of weeks I’ve been in contact with two, and it makes me smile.

The first is Penelope Ransby, the author of a book called “Dream of Margaret River”. Penelope is descended from one of three partners in a Margaret River farm, first selected in 1909 and seemingly going swimmingly, until the first world war. Penelope’s Grandfather Evelyn Wilton was the third partner in the farm, and the only one who survived the war. The story of the farm, life in Margaret River, and the way the dreams of many were crushed by that conflict makes poignant but incredibly interesting reading. We’ll let Penelope tell the story from here:


Farming at Margaret River before the Great War

‘This free, healthy, natural life, with the certainty of a good living, and with every prospect of being very well off in time.’ wrote Chris Andrews in 1913

Brothers Lance and Chris Andrews, and Evelyn Wilton, were born in England and came out to Western Australia in the early years of the last century. Lance was the first to arrive and in 1909 took up a Homestead Farm of 160 acres at Margaret River; two years later his brother Chris joined him. By 1913 they had a total of 925 acres, which included two Homestead farms, and they also had an 800-acre grazing lease a few miles away on the coast.

Their land was fertile and well-watered, with the clear clean waters of Calgardup Brook running through the property, but was densely timbered, principally with karri and jarrah, but also with red gum, blackbutt, flooded gum, white, blue and peppermint gums, and banksia. Their first and most arduous task was clearing the land, an extraordinarily time-consuming process as it meant a very lengthy period of time before the land could begin to become productive. A photograph of their homestead in the early years shows some cleared land around the house but visible in the background is densely timbered and ringbarked forest. Many settlers had to work in the forestry industry as timber cutters and hewers in their early years to earn an immediate income and to provide sufficient cash to develop their holdings, but Lance and Chris were more fortunate than most as Chris had received a gratuity when he resigned his commission in the Royal Marines to come to Australia.

By 1913 they were beginning to feel that, at last, they were getting ahead. Clearing the land was progressing well with about two-thirds of the farm ring-barked, and 771 acres fenced in seven paddocks. They had about one hundred sheep and a small but regular income selling mutton and potatoes to the timber company settlement at Karridale. They optimistically expected to have 300 sheep by the following year, at least one thousand within five years ‘and some day several thousands’. They had a stallion, three mares, two colts and two geldings, and expected three more foals that year. They confidently expected to make money breeding horses for export to the Indian army, a substantial industry in WA at that time. The State Farms at Denmark and Brunswick were experimenting with new types of crops and a great deal of attention and consideration was given to suitable seeds to be grown by settlers. On their advice, Lance and Chris introduced English grasses, including lucerne, and were pleased at how successful they were; these new grasses kept green all the year round so were introduced across all their paddocks. They also experimented briefly with growing and processing tobacco, but the results were not encouraging so they abandoned it.

But realistically, a farm of this size was too much for two people to manage on their own, and they could not afford to pay for help. The idea of a third partner started to look attractive. An extra partner and the additional adjoining free 160 acres that he could bring, plus a cash contribution to buy a third share in Komani, offered a much more promising future than struggling along on their own. Chris was still in contact with a fellow Royal Marines officer, Evelyn Wilton, and he and Lance decided to write to him to see if he was interested in joining them.

Chris wrote:
We have had a pretty hard struggle up to now, as it takes a long time to get going in this heavily timbered country, but things are beginning to go well now, and in 2 years I think the place will be paying, and in 5 years we should be making a very good return off it. In fact, there is no doubt about it. Sheep do extraordinarily well, keeping fat all the year round, and the land will grow anything.

Evelyn and his nineteen-year old wife Vera arrived in 1913. Life was good. With three to work the farm all was progressing well. They loved their life – Chris said that he never for one moment regretted leaving the service. Life was fun. They had picnics, dance parties, card evenings, beach parties and musical evenings. It was a confident, hard-working, happy community.

And then, out of nowhere, came the war. The Great War. And their lives changed forever.

 

We’ll bring more of the story in future months, but if you want to follow up the whole story, take a look at www.dreamofmargaretriver.com. Our thanks to Penelope for allowing us to share this lot with you.