Stores were bought in Broomehill until about 1903 when the first store was built (Harry Cowan's).
There was plenty of game in the shape of roos, tammas and ducks, or even a possum or boodie rat. Anteaters were out! I seem to remember having heard that Mrs. Saggers baked a dulgite with a couple of ducks, with disastrous results.
Referring to our own early farming operations. My brother Fred and I started work on 260 acres selected by my father a year or so earlier.
We increased our holding considerably a few years later.
Surely we must have been two of the youngest settlers anywhere to start on their own— 13 ½ and 15 years old. We first lived in a 6 x 8 tent, camping near the old soak adjoining the block.
This soak was the main supply of water for Taylors and Bunces for several years.
Later on Alf Norrish carted from Tambellup a waggon load of sleepers from which we made a hut on the block.
Dingoes were plentiful and used to come howling close to the tent. Those old frogs that made a noise something like "Cooee" fooled us one night and we roamed about for some time answering one of them, thinking someone was lost.
However, within two or three years we had 60 acres cleared and fenced, a small dam sunk with pick and shovel, and other improvements. Our first crop was 60 acres of wheat put in by contract—Joe McGuire's team, driven by George Hams jnr.
The seed was an old variety called Tuscan, secured from Norrish’s.
Harvest time came. Messrs Taylor and Saggers had each bought a new damp weather stripper and each took a contract of 30 acres to strip off wheat, Mr. Saggers' stripper being operated by a Peter Carrington.
I don't remember what the yield was, virgin land, unfallowed and no fertiliser. I know it must have been light.
I do remember, however, that the wheat was far too tough for the strippers to thrash properly and we had more heads than wheat.
The Agricultural Bank was a great help to the early settlers, the late Mr. William Patterson being inspector, manager and everything else, I think. It was a great treat to see him driving a sulky tandem through the bush.
Our next crop was put in with three brumbies and a 2-furrow plough, and later we secured our own damp weather stripper. Later still the seed drill, with imported super-phosphate and Thomas phospahte arrived, with improved results all round. Grain and chaff were the chief products.
However, it was a long, arduous journey up to 1910 when we secured our first sheep, and then opens a new chapter.
The introduction of stock raising and cropping combined made a big difference. There has been plenty of uphill work since then for the farmers of this and other districts. The study of wool, meat and grain prices over the years as revealed by market quotations tell their tale.
But, oh boy! What of the last four or five years, with its steady market for meat, and grain steady and good, and its constantly rising price for wool and now its soaring price. I recently attended a wool sale in Perth and saw the miraculous, incredible and well nigh impossible spectacle of wool selling at over twenty shillings a pound. Iwent outside for a drink afterwards but found I did not need one—the prices had made my mouth water so.
But I would sure like to have been in the joke, too—here I am on the wrong side of the fence. But who could have dreamt it could ever happen. But I am afraid I am getting ahead of myself. I seem to have covered 53 years in a hop, step and jump. I had better go back to the starting point again.
Within a few months of our arrival Mr. and Mrs. Taylor and children and Mr. and Mrs. Saggers and one child arrived. This matter of the children improved as the years rolled on, and the greatest credit is due to the pioneers who raised large families in addition to carving out a home from the wilderness.
From 1897 to 1900 the following had arrived: Mr. and Mrs. Charlie Davis and child, the Threadgold Bros., Parnells, Hams, Aylmores, Hodby, father and sons, Jack Trevaskis, Dawsons, Trathams, Temby’s and McDonald, Patrick O'Neill and, I think, Flowers.
The Burridge family were at Beeginup and Wrays at Roundwood.
I do not claim this as a complete list of those arrived by 1900. I may have missed some. Mr. Poletti, mentioned earlier, became one of the earliest settlers whilst still on the railways.
There were quite a few who came but did not remain— the Kubank Bros., Jack Crowden, Frank Firman and others.
The great majority, however, remained. The Miniters and Gittens were early on the job at Tingerup (now Wansborough) and they also sprang from railroad stock. The late Mr. H. T. Bessen and family and a few others arrived between 1900 and 1903.
There was then a lull in land settlement for three or four years and then quite an influx took place from 1903 to 1906, the Moonies Hills, Pindellup and Gordon River areas being settled and Tambellup was definitely "on its way," and in spite of the two world wars, with the depression sandwiched in between (which, of course, it has had to weather in common with the rest of the country) it has continued to forge ahead.
I should have mentioned earlier that Tambellup was, for several years after our arrival, just part of the Broomehill Road Board district, some of the first roads in the district being cleared and constructed by that body.
I well remember the day when the late Hon. F. H. Piesse introduced a deputation to the Minister for Workstravelling through on the train asking for a separate board for Tambellup, which was granted without difficulty, and was a milestone in the history of the district.
The township grew as the district was developed, starting from scratch like the settlers themselves
The history of the town and its growth would take a good long chapter in itself. I would like to mention in passing, however, Cornish's Hotel built of galvanised iron and later turned into a boarding house, Cowan's Store and the Afghans—Sunday Singh's— Store, the Methodist and Baptist Churches and Bessen's blacksmith's shop in which the first concert was held.
Concerts were also held in the railway goods shed to raise money for the building of the Agricultural Hall, which is still part of the present roads board hall, the building of the first bridge over the Gordon River, lately replaced by the new bridge, and so on.
As to the amusements, there really was not much time or opportunity for sport or recreation to be indulged in in those very early days.
I have already referred to the "hops" in Norrish's kitchen, and there was cricket.
I remember one trip to the old Pallinup Station homestead, which was then under the management of the late Tom McQuire, for a picnic match. Owen Saggers, the Norrishes and a man named Spicer, who opened a blacksmith's shop for a while near where the present R.S.L. building is situated, were among those present. It was a good day out.
I remember driving up to the Goblup Station (now Condeena) with Alf Norrish one Sunday to get two rams. We had a medium draught horse in a tip dray and jig-jogged the whole 35 miles. That, I am afraid, only sounds amusing; in reality it was rather trying and monotonous, but we saw some good country that day.
Well all these things are now but distant memories, and we have lately taken possession of a comfortable suburban home and can leisurely review the past with its trials and tribulations and yet withal I should say with its real worthwhileness.
There is real satisfaction in the knowledge that one has helped in some small measure in the development and progress of such a district.
But what of the future of Tambellup and surrounding rural areas at the beginning of the second half of the century. Economically, the future could hardly be viewed through glasses of a rosier rue and prosperity appears to be falling into the laps of the present generation. The older folk remaining on the farms should be able to enjoy all the amenities they have ever dreamed about.
Provided labor and material are available, a high degree of development should be possible and really comfortable homes should be attainable.
May these conditions continue, but I think that whereas economically the future looks bright, politically and spiritually the world is in a terrific turmoil, and it will require very sane leadership and individual co-operation to maintain the advantages that have been gained and make possible the progress so desirable for this great country and the welfare of the people as a whole in the momentuous half century, with its glorious opportunities, just dawning”.
