Their first contract was with N.P. Davis, and work on his property alone kept them employed for almost all of the first 12 months. They earned about 100 pounds a week when ordinary wages for most occupations was 10 pounds.
They used the scoop and plough from the Gnowangerup Roads Board – they hired the scoop for 1 pound per week and the scoop for 10 shillings per week. Bill Cuneo made all the necessary arrangements. After 3-4 months they bought the ripper and after 3 to 4 months they had paid for the tractor.

The district was developing rapidly and Ross and Frank worked long hours. They would get started at around 4am, finishing the working day around 6pm, seven days a week. At first Ross and Frank slept wherever they could find shelter - in sheds, haystacks, etc.
Then they bought a ‘blitz wagon’ for 20 pounds from an auction in Perth. For several months Ross and Frank slept in the wagon.
Some time later the interior, made from thick ply, deteriorated and began falling apart. It was then they discovered that in between the ply and the outer wall were many unexploded .303 bullets!
George Hendry later bought the blitz wagon, intending to convert it into a tow truck.
Ross recalls that in the ten or so years after the end of WWII there were many farmers who used ex-army tanks to clear their properties. The Moir brothers in Borden used one.
He also recalls for many years an old tank was abandoned on the side of the Albany highway near the Brookton turn-off.
Ross and Frank used gelignite to break up rock when dam sinking, at that time it was sold over the counter at the Gnowangerup Co-op.
A plough or a ‘ripper’ (later) was used to dig in as deep as possible, to a depth of 18 inches to 2 foot. If it was pipe clay they could go down a metre, but sometimes only a few inches if it was hard. Then this was scooped out.
Ross and Frank also undertook dam cleaning and clearing.
Ross and Frank eventually bought their own farms.
Ross had 'Tal-Eifion' and Frank had 'Tarrahul'.
They had a system whereby they cleared around the paddock, moving in a circle slowly towards the middle.
It was usual to find mallee hens and kangaroos left in the middle section. Ross and Frank always shot one or two kangaroos for the dogs and a couple of mallee hens for themselves.
Ross recalled that mallee hen was very nice to eat, and was about the size of a large chicken. They later purchased a 1700-acre (688 hectare) property. There were a lot of mallee hen nests on that property, in fact Ross counted 15 in one day of clearing for a fence line.
Fire was used in the new blocks at Jerramungup. They built the fire in a circle, there were 200 acre blocks, and they were all lit on one side. As the fire got going, they lit the other two sides and then the opposite side. When the fire met in the middle there was often a huge explosion. The smoke from clearing could be seen 50 miles away.
One day whilst clearing they chopped a tree and it fell the wrong way - across the main road. Charlie Black was on the scene. He used an axe to cut the end off so the traffic could pass, then they lifted it into the back of their van, tied some wheels to the end of the tree and pulled it off the road.