3.  Life of the Early Settlers – The Lawrence Family 1877

The New Selection
Their first concern on arrival was the erection of a new home.  This was achieved by selecting the thickest area of scrub, clearing the required space and pegging slabs and sheets of bark to the living trees after the limbs had been removed.

As they had no nails the pegs were made of hardwood.  Their furniture and beds were made from saplings.  The one fireplace occupied the end of the kitchen, earth and clay being banked high around, no iron of any kind being available.  A green limb was set above and across the fireplace, from which, on a couple of hooks, were suspended the kettle and boiler.  Periodically the green limb would burn through, often unexpectedly.  At either side of the fireplace stood a solid block of wood with a bag folded cushionwise on top.  These were the 'armchairs'.  A camp oven was used to bake their small quantities of bread, a bag of flour having been brought in the dray from Corowa.

The fire was kept burning night and day.  If it went out it imposed a major problem as they had no matches and it had to be relit with flint and tinder.

Light at night was obtained from slush lamps, made by strips of flannel stuck in of fat, which was a scarce commodity.

A couple of tin dishes and a small drum served as laundry equipment.  At the beginning there was no soap.  As practically all the clothing they owned was what they were wearing, their washing was generally done at night, when they could go to bed. The bedding consisted of bag hammocks filled with leaves and covered with bag rugs.

Water was the main problem, supplies at first coming from the nearest Coolamon hole.  The position was relieved when a small dam had been excavated with the only tools available, a pick and shovel.  Later a cask was obtained and mounted on a forked limb as a sledge and drawn by the horse.  During the long dry spell water was obtained from a station dam about three miles away.  Owing to the dense timber the track had not been properly cleared and the cask was frequently overturned.  The muddy water cleared with ashes.

As soon as the rough shanty was completed Lawrence and his wife started clearing.  The ages of the children were 2, 4 1/2, and 5 1/2.  My father was the 2 year old, they were tied to trees to prevent them getting lost in the dense scrub.  When they were older and went into the scrub on their own, they always carried a cow bell with them.

In the scrub the bigger trees, pines and eucalyptus, were much larger than to-day.  It took as long as a fortnight for husband and wife working together to do sufficient grubbing to enable one of these giants of the forest to be blown over by the wind.

It is hard to realise all the hardships and discomforts which this early pioneering family endured.  For the first twelve months the family was entirely without milk.  They lived completely off the land.  Having no gun, birds were caught in snares and animals in traps.  The bush teemed with wildlife.  Scrub turkeys, now extinct in this district, were plentiful.  Kangaroos roamed in mobs of 100 or more, while wallabies were more easily caught.  When a Kangaroo could be captured, kangaroo tail soup and kangaroo steaks were on the menu; the same dishes being provided with wallabies. Hares were snared as were also quail and mallee fowl.  Mallee hen eggs were taken from the great mounds of soil and decaying vegetable matter which composed their nests.

Galahs were very plentiful and scrub turkeys could be taken from their roosts at night.  The rabbit had not yet arrived.  The family were without vegetables, a loss made good by various wild berries, quondongs, wild cherries, cape gooseberries, (available most of the year) yams and honey.  The honey was used for sweetening when supplies of brown sugar ran out.  Nests of wild bees were very plentiful in those days.

A quarter of an acre of land was cleared and plowed with a forked stick in time for the first sowing.  Seed wheat was in short supply and practically every grain was sown by hand.  The area was cut by a reaping hook, the yield being very good, ten to twelve bushels to the acre.

The crop was threshed by the most primitive methods.  A post was erected, from which a pole on a swivel was attached to the horse, which, walking round and round loosened the soil.  This was scooped out and the trench enlarged.  In this trench the ears of wheat were laid and the horse by continually walking round loosened the grain which was winnowed out by putting it on bags sewn together and continually throwing it in the air till the chaff was blown out.  Sometimes there was considerable delay waiting for a suitable day.  After the threshing was completed the family were able to enjoy the luxury of boiled wheat for breakfast and other meals.  The area under crop was increased each year and at the end of six years ten acres were available.

Twice a year the family visited Wagga, a three day trip in the dray, camping on the track en route.  The father left the day before, walking all the way, as there was insufficient room in the dray.  At Wagga, stores consisting of flour, hops (for yeast) treacle, salt and brown sugar were purchased.  Mail was collected and perhaps two or three letters were posted.  Sometimes a yard or two of calico print, flannel or moleskin to take the place of a worn out garment might be purchased.  The children wore neither hats nor boots and were a healthy and robust lot.

In the third year of their occupation another son was born to the Lawrences at Winchendon Vale.  Other settlers were arriving and for the first time a few neighbours considerably alleviated the loneliness and isolation of the settler's lives.

Among the first to arrive were Messrs J. Painter, J. Leary, J. Brown and E.T. Barnes.  It was in this climate of poverty and endeavour that 'Winchendon Vale' put down its roots.  A roof top could be glimsed here and there among the tree tops and occasionally a small area of clearing was visible.  The ringing echo of axes and the steady crash of falling trees helped to dispel the monotony and isolation the settlers found so unbearable.

Clothes troubled them little.  None of the women had more than one frock, usually a creation of cotton print costing from sixpence a yard.  Fashions so dear to the feminine heart to-day had little place in the pioneer world.

As long as blouses had high necklines and long sleeves, and skirts were long enough to sweep the floor all was well.  Footwear consisted invariably of long boots buttoned up the side or a lighter boot with elastic sides.  These were sometimes reinforced with heavy iron caps on toe and heel.

Children's clothes of dark flannel and denim withstood the toughest wear.  Garments were handed down time and again to younger members of the family.  For the menfolk, denim shirts and white moleskin trousers, (moleskin was a material comparative to today's canvas) were worn with a variety of hats 'hard hitters' (bowlers) and 'cabbage trees'.  Again, one outfit was the rule.  Washing was often done at night when it could be dried before the fire, ready for use next day.

There were no hospitals for the early pioneers.  The nearest medical service being at Junee, 25 miles away.  With only a dray for transport it might as well have been in 'Timbuctoo'.  Fortunately for Caroline Lawrence she had nursing experience in England before coming to Australia.  On some occasions when a doctor had been summoned he found the patient dead on arrival.  In childbirth, the midwife was a neighbouring woman who seldom bothered to call a doctor.  Three women at least lost their babies and their lives in those first years at Winchendon Vale because medical assistance could not be procured in time.

The first generation of settlers didn't worry too much about doctors.  Their doctor was the castor oil bottle.  Not the refined castor oil we have to-day, but the old blue bottle stuff that tasted like plow oil, and was so thick and greasy it stuck in ones throat for hours.  It was amazing though how fast some of the 'sick' kids recovered when the castor oil bottle was mentioned.

For six years Lawrence and his wife continued to work and prosper.  They had bought several goats to supply the children with milk, there was another horse, a dog, more implements to work with.

They had secured a much needed gun, a Martini-Henry rifle which because of its power was considered a dangerous weapon in the surroundings.  Cartridges cost about five shillings a hundred.

The manager of the station who had resented the influx of settlers had become more reconciled to the situation and would sometimes sell them a sheep; this meant that mutton would appear more frequently on the menu.

Success however was soon to turn to tragedy.

It had been a long tiring day on the farm, Lawrence hadn't rested in his 'armchair' after tea as he usually did, but had gone straight to bed.

When the baby cried he got up to pacify him.  He was stricken with a heart seizure and although he managed to struggle back to bed he was dead before his wife could fetch a light.  At the time of his death he was 29 years of age.  Mrs. Lawrence was stunned; he had never been ill in his life before.

She immediately roused her little daughter and holding her hand stumbled three miles through the scrub for help.  The daughter, many years later when she was an old lady of 80, still had vivid recollections of her mother and herself stumbling over sticks and stumps in the darkness and her mother's audible prayer.  'He can't be dead.  Please God he can't be dead'.

It was a grim situation; widowed with four children and another expected in a few weeks she was alone in the world.  She had no money, few friends, and her people were on the other side of the world.  Understandably she was afraid, afraid for the future.

However Caroline Lawrence was no coward.  In calmer moments she determined that 'come what may' she would stay on Winchendon Vale.  In later life my grandmother often said the only clear thought she had in those troubled days was that she must keep the farm.  How she did it heaven knows, but her sons grew up on Winchendon Vale.

After a time she employed a man.  He was a married man with a large family and lived some distance away.  His wages were £1/0/0 a week but no money was paid.  He obtained necessary goods from the store and if it happened there was not enough to pay the bills at the end of the year he continued to work for a further twelve months.  A store debt of £30/0/0 to £50/0/0 was considered reasonable for a year's account which included all purchases.

My grandmother was the first woman to acquire and drive a buggy and pair at Winchendon Vale.  She was a fearless driver and a woman with considerable nursing experience; consequently the buggy rendered good service to the district as an improvised ambulance.

She often told how on a journey to Junee with a desperately ill woman, one of her horses went lame.  It was nearly sunset so she went to the nearest house.  There was no one there, so seeing several horses in a yard she took one and continued on her way. When she returned the horse next day she encountered a very worried owner.  He had recognised the strange steed, and regarded the horse she had commandeered as an outlaw.

Winchendon Vale School
The education of her children subsequently became Caroline Lawrence's foremost worry.  Settlers were still straggling onto Mimosa and most of them had children but she didn't know how many.  Together with a neighbour they searched out 30 prospective pupils and began to negotiate with the Education Department to build a School.  Their efforts met with success and a new school was built on the property of Jack Bames 2 1/2 miles west of 'Winchendon Vale'.  The first teacher was Mr. Charles Ledwidge and his 30 pupils ranged in age from 6 to 18 years.  The school was named Winchendon Vale and this was to become the name of the district.

I remember Winchendon Vale school.  It was an airy building with long glass windows and one had to climb steps to get inside.  I was a pupil there in the infants' division for a time when Kinilibah school was closed.  The teacher was Mr. Collet.  Upon enrolment each child was presented with a slate and slate pencil and a cloth to keep the slate clean.  After a week or two the cloth became stiff, dirty and powdery, and instead of cleaning the slate, (slates were grey) it simply turned it white.  Then we would start spitting on the slate.

A month in the 'slate' division and kids became excellent spitters.  Maie and I had a lot of trouble with our 'spitscreen wipers'.  However education was free, germs were free and spit was free --- so what!

Pupils I remember at Winchendon Vale were Alma and Reuben Brown, Laura and Dick Thompson, Tom and Clair Walsh, Nell Hopkins and Dick Hilton.

I always remember the huge gum trees that towered above the scrub surrounding the playground and the gorgeous wildflowers that grew everywhere.  I didn't know then that Winchendon Vale was my father's old school and I had no way of knowing that apart from my father, his brothers and sisters, I would be the only Lawrence ever to set foot in it.

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Social Life at Winchendon Vale
The advent of the school was virtually the beginning of social life at Winchendon Vale.  Parents were brought together in a common bond of interest in their children, and the school became the focal point of contact.

Soon hare drives, Kangaroo hunts and hiking excursions into the forest became regular outings.
My father showed me an elevated area of ground not far from the old school, where, he said, we used to come and play rounders on Sunday afternoons.  Sometimes he said as many as fifty young people would congregate, and after, they would all go to someone's house and round the afternoon off with a dance.

He also said Annie Carroll (late Mrs. J. McCormack Snr.) and Rose Brown, (late Mrs. Tom Mulley of Marrar) were the 'Gun Runners'.  We used to stick up if they were both picked on the same side.

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First Church Service
Until the Union Church at Berry Jerry was built there was no church the people of Winchendon Vale could attend.  However several times a year a Minister or Priest visited the district and conducted Sunday Schools and services at one of the homes.  Sometimes a mass Christening Service would take place and many families were christened together.

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The Surprise Party
Synonymous with the time was the Surprise Party, the age old excuse for a 'hop'.  How the element of surprise got into it, heaven knows.  The venue for the surprise had to be chosen and it would require three or four days to prepare the dirt floor.  The 'floor' would be repeatedly sprinkled and pounded to make sure it was level and then soaked with milk alum and the sticky surface would be polished till it shone like glass.  After preparation it would need a day or two to dry out.  The M.C. kept very strict supervision over his floor.  No unnecessary walking or standing was permitted and dancing pumps had to be worn.  My father said that quite often the floor would be in reasonably good order when dancing ceased, which was seldom before sunrise.

Dances included Lancers, Quadrilles, Waltz Catillions, Polkas, Schottische and others. One would expect the floor to be a veritable dust bowl after this lot.

Some of the ladies ground-length skirts or evening dresses were a work of art.  Its difficult to imagine a creation of cream muslin and lace being worn more than once without laundering, but according to my mother it was possible to 'get three or four wears out of it' but of course 'you had to be careful'.

Musicians for dances were anyone who could play a violin or accordian.  Step dancing and singing always found a place in the programme.  Supper was served buffet style and consisted of corned meat, boiled potatoes, turnips, carrots, damper flap jacks and johnny cakes.

I remember my people discussing a waltzing competition held at a party at Winchendon Vale.  The result had obviously been a hard decision.  The competition was finally won by 'Old Mick Curran' grandfather of Norman and Maurice Curran of Marrar.  'Old Mick' had won, because, with his heels chalked he had completed the most turns around the floor with a saucer of water spinning on his head.  The family decided this was a pretty good effort on a dirt floor.