WALLACE John

This house was fairly crowded with Mr. and Mrs. Hope, a son Stewart, who worked at Hepple’s store and a daughter Molly, who left to join the Women’s Air Force.

.Life in Gnowangerup must have been good as we all survived. We had plenty of room .to play in and had efficient “shanghies” and grew a vege garden.

We used to trap rabbits along the railway line, sharing the catch with Willie Dunn who lived nearby. One morning I went to inspect the traps earlier than Willie and found a very large and angry cat in the first one. The cat’s anger was fiercer than my bravery, so I left it there. Later on I saw Willie at school with lots of cuts and abrasions and a very unhappy look on his face. Another unhappy person was Mrs Hope. She said that she “could not understand how her cat cut its legs do badly”

Another incident occurred after we found a batch of rotten eggs under Mr Smith’s chaff shed. These were shied at a cow that was nearby. Later we heard the cow belonged to a Mrs. Searle, who was reluctant to milk her smelly cow for two days. Mrs. Searle lived by the railway line. She took in washing for a living and was famed for ironing sixteen mens shirts in one hour. My brother and I were duly enrolled in the local State School and inducted into various grades. I was in grade four, a bit of a shock, but a pleasant one was that most of the students came to school in bare feet which was perfectly normal for them, but unusual for us. We came from St Mary’s Convent and CBC Leederville. We soon learnt to ‘plant’ our shoes in a bush all day and go to school in bare feet, too.

My teacher was Miss Marion Walker, who came to school each day in a horse and sulky outfit. Each morning and afternoon she would call a roll, to which those present would answer “present Miss Walker”. I can only assume those absent were marked absent in red ink. Roll call was the most important part of any school curriculum. During cold weather, Miss Walker would bring in from her home a few mallee roots for the classroom fire, a great idea. Her horse was tethered nearby during class hours. Some  memories of my class mates are fairly clear, for example – Norman Thorpe was an evacuee like myself, he came from Perth and stayed at Mrs Head’s

..Roy Crisp, small but very athletic and his dad was the local barber. Tom Bray [Brade] was a little fellow who was good at high jump and could do twenty eight chin-ups  on a bar. There was Margaret Wellstead and her brother Jim. Maurie Wellstead who enjoyed a good punch up now and again. Peter Bennet, and Vera Howells, a cousin of mine.

Two characters were Bill and Charlie Frantom, each of whom had a major ambition in life, that was, to turn 14 so they could leave school. Some others were Dick, Con and Barney McKenna. These lived opposite Mrs. Smith’s in Yougenup Road and made lots of wooden boats which were sailed on any  available water. We played many games. Cards, checkers or draughts for many hours.

While we were at school, there was an area at the back made up of little plots of ground in which groups of us grew vegies in winter. Peas, beans and radishes. No water, only. Some of the kids get fertiliser or manure and grew great crops.

An exciting adventure was practising for “Air Raid Alarms” A lot of slit trenches had been dug under some trees at the rear of the school, beyond the garden plots.

At various times, alerts were called and we had to leave the classrooms and run and jump into the slit trenches. This was OK in fine weather, but during the winter the trenches were half full of water and mud. What a mess we got into, having to practice this was regarded as good fun. We wore a piece of rubber tube on a loop of string around our necks. This was to bite on during bomb alert. We huddled face down, fingers in ears, teeth gritted on the tube at the bottom of the trenches.

The headmaster at the time was Mr Cullen and every Monday morning was a general assembly. All hands were checked for cleanliness and fingernails were inspected as well. We then sang a song and marched off to our various class rooms. A great honour was to be allowed to ring the bell for start or stop and lunchtime. In later years, I met Mr. Cullen when he was in Katanning – a nice man.

My only claim to fame was reading the most books  for the year – even more books that Norman Dyson. Some innovations at school were – one was boys and girls skipping rope together. Girls were better at this. Mixed netball teams, boys would run with the ball, the girls played to the rules.

Morton Pinner (whose dad owned the hotel), sang well at school concerts “A Beautiful Lady in Blue”. There was also a Tom Brade and a Peter (Benny) Bennet.

Also, there was Glen Smith, who lived in a big house on a farm “Telyarup” on the Broomehill Road. Alwyn Wright, son of Pastor Wright, who ran the native reserve which was beyond the town swimming pool.

My uncle, Miles McDonald, an ex-soldier who had a serious war injury, lied a very frugal life on his little farm. He loved his horses and animals.

He drove a “T” model Ford car, which was hand cranked to start; as the cranking moved the car forward he would wobble backwards. When the car started, he stepped to one side, then jumped in as it passed him. Of course, the car had no top or sides so his chooks laid eggs on the back seat. My aunty Maggie in town always got the eggs from the nests. Sometimes a chook was still on the nest.

Occasionally, Miles came into town on his horse and cart, when the creeks rose too high for his car. On the way home Miles slept, the horse always took him home.

Another uncle, Bill McDonald, lived at Jackitup out of town. He had a utility, numbered GN.529. As he

to go home. Closing time was 9.00 p.m.

A cousin was Vin McDonald, he lived on “Springvale” farm. He was usually the first person at the wheat bin when carting wheat. Vin later became well known and liked in Gnowangerup and the Great Southern Region as a community leader as was his wife Connie (nee Head).

Lou Smith, husband of Maggie, had a grocer shop in town. I would often go in to weigh and bag potatoes, sugar and ginger nuts. My pay was a few pennies and I could eat any broken biscuits. Mr. Drummond was the chemist, his shop was next to Lou Smith’s. Mr. Drummond was a “very puckka” gentleman, always carried a fly whisk.

The Hope family: Mr. Hope was a railway ganger. The gang travelled as far as Ongerup on a push trolley, known as a kalamazoo.

Stewart, a son, worked at Hepple’s store and would bring home four pound tins of unlabeled jam. It was always eaten, like it or not. Stewart’s hobby was Morse Code

Stewart’s hobby was Morse Code, he conversed with Mr. Drummond’s son and David Skews [Skewes] son in town, via one of the wires on the railway fence. He later joined the RAAF at the age of 18.

Charlie Hyman was the town’s sanitary man. His son and his mate Vivian Voss, saved me from drowning in the town pool before I could swim.

Jim Grocock; One of the two butchers in town, had a horse works behind the shop. This was a device in which a horse was harnessed to a ploe and walked in circles around a gearbox, which in turn revolved a below ground shaft, thus operating a mincing machine or sausage machine inside the shop. The entire floor was covered with sawdust which was raked to improve appearance. Butchers served customers through fly wire screens to reduce fly contamination of the meat which was hanging on hooks. Sometimes butchers were asked for “Six pennorth of dog’s meat and don’t drop it in the saw dust”. Reason: Dad gets it stuck in his teeth. Mr Grocock had three sons Jim, Felix and Horace. Their slaughter yard was opposite “SpringVale” farm. A stepdaughter, Anne, now Mrs Borlini, lives near me in Collie. Anne was in grade eight when I was in grade four at Gnowangerup school in 1942

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References:                 Article:      John Wallace

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