My father, Son McPhee, by about 1950 found that of his four sons only one, Colin was left to work on the farm and even he was not vitally keen about it.
Colin had a lot of ideas of how to do things more efficiently and he saw how many other farmers were doing better but dad was un-receptive of Colin’s ideas and would not let him have a go. Dad was not influenced by any of the latest fads about farming and marketing and maintained that the basic principles never change, not that he wasn’t progressive, but he was not in favour of raping the soil.
Also Dad was a gentle and trusting person who would never chase up someone who owed him money and consequently never received what was due to him and there were plenty of people who purposely took advantage of him. We children went without a lot because of his too kind attitude to others.
I was home on holidays and helping in the rock melon patch when at lunch one day Sally, Colin’s wife, started to support Colin and tried to persuade dad to let him try some of his ideas which made dad very angry. On the heat of the moment dad said “if you are not happy here why don’t you go?”.
Dad and I went back to the paddock and continued weeding near the drive, after a while we saw Colin and Sally coming in the ute loaded with their belongings and dad asked me to go and work a few rows away because he thought they might stop if I wasn’t there.
Colin drove passed, l caught a look of great regret pass between them, he was his oldest son and they had done a lot together, now he was gone.
Dad started to cry.
I went over to him and he said “they didn’t even stop to say goodbye!.”
My great grandfather, Donald who came to Australia from Scotland in 1855, I suspect had the same problem and disappointment with his only son, also Donald my grandfather, because he left the farm in Strathalbyn to manage a Tannery in Mount Gambier.
Colin got a job at Hutchinson Motors in Mildura where he worked until his retirement.
Sally died in 2004 and Colin died a few months later.
Donald, my brother, had died in 1944.
Ian, in the late forties, was over-working himself on his father in-law’s fruit block under an agreement that he would keep most of the profit that he made and possibly eventually own it.
All this fell apart when he got tuberculoses.
When Ian’s daughter Lorraine, wanted to attend university to study scientific research she got a place at the Toowoomba university so with his wife Aileen they moved to Toowoomba where Ian and Aileen, his wife, bought and operated a garage until his retirement.
Ian had Parkinson’s disease and was in a nursing home in Toowoomba where Aileen took good care of him for two and a half years. Ian died on January 2nd 2008.
Keith was a successful joiner, later a cabinet and white-goods salesman, then he and his wife Fay became the proprietor of a caravan sales and repair business in Mildura to which they later added a caravan park. They have since sold their businesses and retired in Mildura.
After Colin left the farm dad struggled on for a few years but I imagine he would have been greatly demoralized, after all he had taken up farming after the second world war because he had four sons to inherit it, now non wanted it.
He sold the farm in 1972 and worked for an old friend, Harold McCarthy, as caretaker of Kulkyne station, now a national park, where he had worked at the age of 18 as book keeper and driver.
Kulkyne was in a beautiful setting on the bank of the Murray River and near the Hattah lakes.
He retired to a flat in Mildura after which he had time to visit us in Alice Springs and Ian in Toowoomba.
Son McPhee, dad, died on March 25 and Pearl (mum) died on December 5 both in 1979.
Lorna married the son of a dried-fruit farmer, Reg Morey and they had two daughters, Fay and Jeanette.
On the 17th of January 1975 Reg died of bowel cancer and Jeanette died on October 12 the same year at the age of 20 of the same disease. The doctors did not even check her for bowel cancer, they said “young women do not get bowel cancer” and they still say that today.
Lorna later married Keith Charles who died while on holidays at Ian’s place in Toowoomba on 1st. August, 1996
Joan First married Arthur Caldwell with whom she had two daughters and one son, Sandra, Lynette and Larry. They were divorced in 1952 and Joan later married Bob Watt.
Jean married Rex Lehman with whom she had Terry and Jeanette. Her husband died in 1958 And she has not remarried.
We all have heaps of grand children all of whom are doing very well. I am very pleased to hear that Natasha, my grand-daughter, has turned her life around and now has a nice boyfriend.
I have, in November 2007, had a colonoscopy, they found seven polyps one of which was starting to be a cancer and I had to have about half of my colon removed.
I was admitted to the Cairns Private Hospital (Previously Calvary, now run by Ramsay) on December 10 2007 and discharged on Tues the 18th.
During the operation the stapler that joins the bowel together jammed and they had to make another small incision to free it. The result was a narrowing of the bowel at the join which caused my first meal to totally block the bowel.
So it was back on the drip, a sign above my bed which said “NILL BY MOUTH” and a tube up my nose into my stomach so they could suck out the contents. The nurse who put the tube into my stomach was a young Philippine man who did it expertly but I said “ I wonder what bastard thought up this idea?” He replied “it’s not pleasant but it is the only way to get into your stomach without operating”.
KulKyne Station Homestead - about 1960 before it was renovated by dad.
The walls and ceilings were lined with sail cloth some of which you can see hanging out of the door
Colin had a lot of ideas of how to do things more efficiently and he saw how many other farmers were doing better but dad was un-receptive of Colin’s ideas and would not let him have a go. Dad was not influenced by any of the latest fads about farming and marketing and maintained that the basic principles never change, not that he wasn’t progressive, but he was not in favour of raping the soil.
Also Dad was a gentle and trusting person who would never chase up someone who owed him money and consequently never received what was due to him and there were plenty of people who purposely took advantage of him. We children went without a lot because of his too kind attitude to others.
I was home on holidays and helping in the rock melon patch when at lunch one day Sally, Colin’s wife, started to support Colin and tried to persuade dad to let him try some of his ideas which made dad very angry. On the heat of the moment dad said “if you are not happy here why don’t you go?”.
Dad and I went back to the paddock and continued weeding near the drive, after a while we saw Colin and Sally coming in the ute loaded with their belongings and dad asked me to go and work a few rows away because he thought they might stop if I wasn’t there.
Colin drove passed, l caught a look of great regret pass between them, he was his oldest son and they had done a lot together, now he was gone.
Dad started to cry.
I went over to him and he said “they didn’t even stop to say goodbye!.”
My great grandfather, Donald who came to Australia from Scotland in 1855, I suspect had the same problem and disappointment with his only son, also Donald my grandfather, because he left the farm in Strathalbyn to manage a Tannery in Mount Gambier.
Colin got a job at Hutchinson Motors in Mildura where he worked until his retirement.
Sally died in 2004 and Colin died a few months later.
Donald, my brother, had died in 1944.
Ian, in the late forties, was over-working himself on his father in-law’s fruit block under an agreement that he would keep most of the profit that he made and possibly eventually own it.
All this fell apart when he got tuberculoses.
When Ian’s daughter Lorraine, wanted to attend university to study scientific research she got a place at the Toowoomba university so with his wife Aileen they moved to Toowoomba where Ian and Aileen, his wife, bought and operated a garage until his retirement.
Ian had Parkinson’s disease and was in a nursing home in Toowoomba where Aileen took good care of him for two and a half years. Ian died on January 2nd 2008.
Keith was a successful joiner, later a cabinet and white-goods salesman, then he and his wife Fay became the proprietor of a caravan sales and repair business in Mildura to which they later added a caravan park. They have since sold their businesses and retired in Mildura.
After Colin left the farm dad struggled on for a few years but I imagine he would have been greatly demoralized, after all he had taken up farming after the second world war because he had four sons to inherit it, now non wanted it.
He sold the farm in 1972 and worked for an old friend, Harold McCarthy, as caretaker of Kulkyne station, now a national park, where he had worked at the age of 18 as book keeper and driver.
Kulkyne was in a beautiful setting on the bank of the Murray River and near the Hattah lakes.
He retired to a flat in Mildura after which he had time to visit us in Alice Springs and Ian in Toowoomba.
Son McPhee, dad, died on March 25 and Pearl (mum) died on December 5 both in 1979.
Lorna married the son of a dried-fruit farmer, Reg Morey and they had two daughters, Fay and Jeanette.
On the 17th of January 1975 Reg died of bowel cancer and Jeanette died on October 12 the same year at the age of 20 of the same disease. The doctors did not even check her for bowel cancer, they said “young women do not get bowel cancer” and they still say that today.
Lorna later married Keith Charles who died while on holidays at Ian’s place in Toowoomba on 1st. August, 1996
Joan First married Arthur Caldwell with whom she had two daughters and one son, Sandra, Lynette and Larry. They were divorced in 1952 and Joan later married Bob Watt.
Jean married Rex Lehman with whom she had Terry and Jeanette. Her husband died in 1958 And she has not remarried.
We all have heaps of grand children all of whom are doing very well. I am very pleased to hear that Natasha, my grand-daughter, has turned her life around and now has a nice boyfriend.
I have, in November 2007, had a colonoscopy, they found seven polyps one of which was starting to be a cancer and I had to have about half of my colon removed.
I was admitted to the Cairns Private Hospital (Previously Calvary, now run by Ramsay) on December 10 2007 and discharged on Tues the 18th.
During the operation the stapler that joins the bowel together jammed and they had to make another small incision to free it. The result was a narrowing of the bowel at the join which caused my first meal to totally block the bowel.
So it was back on the drip, a sign above my bed which said “NILL BY MOUTH” and a tube up my nose into my stomach so they could suck out the contents. The nurse who put the tube into my stomach was a young Philippine man who did it expertly but I said “ I wonder what bastard thought up this idea?” He replied “it’s not pleasant but it is the only way to get into your stomach without operating”.
KulKyne Station Homestead - about 1960 before it was renovated by dad.
The walls and ceilings were lined with sail cloth some of which you can see hanging out of the door
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