Their only means of transport was a buggy and two horses named Mermaid and Digger. At the age of 15 years Tommy Thompson was employed by James McHardy, as they had previously worked together on a dairy in Ongerup. Together they cleared the land and built a house.
They had a few milking cows to start with and as there were no fences at that stage, the cows had to wear cow bells to be found at milking time.
Once when dad and Tommy were busy working, Norman then about 2 years of age decided to try his hand at milking a cow.
Norman took off tin billy in hand after the cows through the bush, this went unnoticed by the men.
After a hectic search, dad and Tom found him toddling along after the cows (mum was not told until later, when Norman had been found).
Norman wasn’t very old when he started helping on the farm and later he would go riding on Mermaid our chestnut mare, taking the dogs with him to catch a kangaroo.
This would feed the family and the dogs and as each of us grew older we helped on the farm also.
When there was enough land cleared, the men fenced it and father purchased some sheep. Dingos were a real problem the sheep had to be yarded every night.
Some of our jobs were milking cows, feeding calves and pet lambs, separating the milk for cream and butter and yarding sheep.
It was in 1928 (or there about) that the McHardy’s and Browns managed to get a school build (by the Government), in the corner of Brown’s paddock. Myrtle King was our first teacher, the King family hadn’t been in Needilup very long when they took over the lease of Calders. We the McHardy kids had four miles to go to school in a horse drawn sulky, while the Brown kids (six boys) had only one mile to walk. It wasn’t very pleasant getting up on frosty mornings to milk cows before going to school. I always seemed to be falling out of the sulky going to school, I did it once too often and the wheel of the sulky went right over my head. I didn’t know much for a few days as I had severe concussion, but my dear old mother nursed me better.
The only time I didn’t fall out the other three did right into the river, which luckily wasn’t very deep, the poor old horse had tripped. There were times when we had floods and the rivers were so deep we couldn’t get over them to go to school for days, much to our delight.
There were times when the sheep would get trapped between rivers and my father had to wade or swim to save them from drowning, risking his own life as he wasn’t a very strong swimmer.
After we left school we all worked on the farm picking mallee roots, stacking hay and helping to cut chaff to feed the animals.
The work horses and milking cows had to be well fed with chaff, crushed oats, bran, pollard and molasses.
We had to make our own amusement, the parents always had a Christmas tree for the children in the Needilup district.
One of the local men would act as Father Christmas (the main one being Charlie Stone) and we as kids never suspected, just thought it was Father Christmas.
We looked forward to it for ages, the one big night of the year for us. Every year, after Christmas Day all the Needilup and Ongerup district gathered down at the Needilup hall for Boxing Day. Where all sorts of sports took place including racing, tug a war, egg and spoon race and horse racing. Then at night there was always a dance, as there were no changing rooms only a bowl of water up in the bush was used to refresh before getting changed into evening dresses and the men into suits. The ladies would go to one end of the bush and the men the other. Harry Holmes played the accordion and sometimes my father, while dancing went on till the wee hours, then the long trip home in the buggy (and later cars)
New Year’s Eve was mother and father’s special night (being Scottish), they never missed going into Ongerup as that was where the New Year’s Eve dance was held.
My father died during the 2nd world war 1943 from asthma due to being gassed in the 1st world war.
Mother (Mary McHardy-nee Singer) was left to work the farm (Braeside) with us four children, Norman, Mame, myself (Roma) and Lionel.
I met Ted (Edward Wellstead) at a dance in Ongerup in about 1944. We were married at the Church of England in Armadale, Perth on the 8th of March 1947.
We remained in Perth until 1950 where Ted worked on the trams and buses. During this time our first two children were born, Philip 23rd December 1947 and Maureen 21st March 1949. From here we moved to Ravensthorpe for about 8-10 months.
Ted drove a transport truck for Daws.
In 1951 we moved back to Needilup and bought a one acre block which was a corner of my Brother Norman McHardy's farm "Yatelands". Here we transported a small house which belonged to Ted’s parents from Bremer to the block.
From here we worked the telephone exchange which we took over from Eva Brown. The original exchange belonged to Sparkes.
We also had Shell Fuel Depot and Fuel Bowser. One of the highlights of owing the fuel depot, was when the cars in the Red X trial passed through stopping to refuel. Here we lived for about nine years in which time Marlene was born 10th July 1955.
1957 we purchased a farm situated two mile north on the Needilup Road and we named it '"Macwell. It was virgin land so needed to be cleared and a house was built by Ted with help from Norm Burren of Ongerup. We moved to the farm in 1960. The telephone exchange was then taken over by Merv and Marge Vincent and then the Buchannan's.
The fuel depot was taken back by Shell. Our fourth child Cheryle was born 24th June 1961. After lots of hard work we commenced growing crops, mostly wheat, barley and oats. We also ran merino sheep. All the usual chores of a new farm were done like clearing, sinking dams, fencing etc.
The years on the farm were hard work but a very good life. Busy times like all farms were shearing, seeding and harvest. Ted would go away shearing at times as funds were limited.
Philip, Maureen and Marlene attended primary school at Needilup and Cheryle did year one.
Philip did high school through correspondence and Maureen attended Katanning High School.
We left the farm and moved to Albany in 1968 where Marlene attended Albany High School and Cheryle attended Albany Primary School leaving Philip, his wife Sigrid and baby Mark to work the farm.