Unlocking family stories - Beriley

Once again, notes from an interview, family photographs and the use of newspaper article found in Trove combined to provide information about this part of the family story.

Beriley 1947

In the interview I did with my mother approximately twenty-five years ago she mentioned that Gran, Grandad, Lortie and Michael lived at Toogoolawah when I was a baby.

Beriley 1950

 They had cows, a few pigs and grew lots of vegetables. Berily was on a tributary of the Brisbane River. The house wasn't much when they went there but it was quite roomy. There was a lovely billiard table table which could be used as a dining room table. ... They found the vegetables were terrific but they weren't getting the right price for them.

Beriley 1952

The three photographs above show the improvements made to the property over five years. A garden was also created around the house.

Garden at Beriley 1952

Articles in Trove provide information about the change of ownership of the property plus developments made to the property after 1947. The articles also demonstrate the need to be aware of possible alternative spellings of names (Berily / Beriley) in order to locate all the available information.

 

An article in the Queensland Times Thursday 21 November 1946 page 6 mentioned that Mr Stan Nagel from Berily Farm, Scrub Creek, had returned home from hospital but was still confined to bed. As family photographs show images of Berily in 1947 when the Lord family moved to the farm the sale of Berily probably took place early 1947.

An article entitled 'Left sheep for lucerne on Brisbane River' in the Queensland Country Life Thursday 23 December 1948 page 6 described the crops being grown at Beriley.

Lucerne growing is the main purpose of Berily Farm, Toogoolawah, now owned by Mr. A. B. Lord, who formerly owned Meta Vale in the Cunnamulla district. Like so many other westerners who have moved closer to the city, the Lord family appreciates the convenience of electricity and the availability of water.

In the lucerne paddock

  Berily Farm comprises 220 acres on the Brisbane River, directly opposite Cressbrook Station, with much of its frontage suitable for lucerne and potatoes. Of 90 acres under cultivation, 35 acres is lucerne. During the warm weather the average has been a cut of a ton to 25 cwt. every five weeks.

The lucerne is mown and carted into the shed and allowed a few days to cure before being baled. When "Queensland Country Life" called, the baler was hard at work. With three men fully occupied, it was estimated that 10 tons would be baled in the day.

Harvesting the lucerne

 The bulk of the lucerne is sent to Victoria Downs, Morven, and already 40 tons this year has been sent out to feed the stud sheep. It is also intended that a reserve of fodder shall be built up on the property to tide over any future dry spells.

Harvesting the lucerne

 Mr. Lord said that he had found that superphosphate applied at the rate of one cwt. to the acre gave a most satisfactory return.

Irrigation at Beriley

  All lucerne is grown under irrigation, and power is supplied to the 3% inch pump by an electric motor.

In addition to the potato and lucerne crops, the farm runs 40 head of A.I.S. dairy cattle, using Chelmer Red Prince as the sire, and the herd includes several pedigreed cows purchased with the aim of building up a strong herd of milkers. All cows in the herd are tested under the new herd recording scheme.

Farm buildings

The following year the Queensland Times Friday 24 June 1949 page 4 reported that additional crops were also being grown.

Mr. A. B. Lord of "Berily," Scrub Creek, has commenced growing small crops - carrots, beet and white turnip - for the Brisbane market. At present he has half an acre of carrots, 2 acres of turnips, and half an acre of beet grown under Irrigation. Supplies so far sent to market have met a good demand. 'During the current week, Mr. Lord expects to send 100 bags to market.

 

Beriley was a mixed farm and dairy cattle and pigs were also part of the farming operations. When Arthur Lord sold Beriley in 1954 the Queensland Times Tuesday 4 May 1954 page 4 reported that the new owners sold the existing stock.

Dairymen from all over the Brisbane Valley and Ipswich attended a dispersal sale of Messrs. R. and F. Moyse's A.I.S. dairy herd conducted by New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Co. Ltd. on the property, "Berily," recently purchased from  Mr. A. B. Lord. The whole herd of 60 head was sold at satisfactory prices which were in advance of those at recent local sales. A stud bull brought £33/12/, cows in profit £24, cows and calves £25, springers to £27/10/ Jersey heifers to £22, and vealers £7 to £10. There was also keen competition for the stud pigs. Brood sows brought £25. AIl surplus farm machinery went at satisfactory prices. In future the holding will be used for fat lamb raising and agriculture.

The Lord family were at Beriley for seven years and during that time improvements were made to the property. In 1949 the Queensland Country Life reported on progress with pumping for irrigation.

However as the following photograph shows, irrigation was not always needed.

1950 flood

Crops of carrots, beets and onions disappeared under the flood waters. The trees show where the river banks should be.

Unlocking family stories - Rosemount

Many years ago I recorded an interview with my mother including some of her memories of Rosemount. I also found some photos that were taken on holidays at Rosemount.

Rosemount in the 1950s

Rosemount was a dairy farm with some pigs. It was a lovely spot. The house was very old. There was a creek at the bottom of the property where we used to swim on occasions. There were platypuses in the creek. There was a big mountain, Mount Archer, behind the property... Behind the main house, part way up the mountain was the share farmer's cottage (not always occupied).

Rosemount 1962

When the family first went to Rosemount they had their own generator for electricity. There was a large wood stove in the kitchen. The house had three bedrooms downstairs with Mother's bedroom upstairs and another room off that that Dad had. Mother had a lovely view from her room as she was up the top of the house. There was a little narrow staircase. Downstairs there was a big lounge, dining area and a verandah on three sides of the house.

Inside Rosemount 1962

There was huge Morton Bay fig outside the back gate. Down the side of the house was an old orchard, very neglected. It was where the clothes line was - wires with branches of trees holding them up. There was a huge barn. Aunt and Dad had about eighty sheep between them and we had to go out every evening and bring them in. They were often by the creek. We used to go for walks in a wooded area near the creek - Fairy Dell, Gran called it . It was great going in there, shady with many paths. Some of the walks were hilly but always pretty.

View from front verandah looking towards creek

My childhood memories of Rosemount were that it was a great place for a holiday. Living in Melbourne most of the year it was a different experience spending the summer holidays on a farm in southern Queensland. Lots of space, lots of animals, a very different environment from the city.

Madam, one of the pigs, liked to socialise with the cattle

As well as the dairy cows, pigs and sheep there was assorted poultry to feed and look after and, of course, eggs to gather.

Feeding the ducks

The Chev utility in the background of the above photograph is the one mentioned in one of the sale notices for Rosemount and came with the property. 

Many of the coloured photographs taken at Rosemount in 1962 have faded but they still provide a glimpse of what the house and farm was like. The photographs and my mother's recollections help record this part of the family story.

Unlocking family stories - Rosemount

When looking at a map of the Sunshine Coast recently I noticed in the left lower corner the words Kilcoy, Woodford and Villeneuve, places near where my grandparents had a farm in the 1950s and early 1960s. The initial postal address was Rosemount, Villeneuve via Kilcoy until some of the land around Villeneuve was reclaimed for the expansion of the Somerset Dam.

Queensland Places has a detailed article about Kilcoy which mentions flooding part of the Villeneuve area in 1958 and Woodford which were the closest large towns to the farm. There is also an entry for D'aguilar and Neurum. Access to Rosemount was via Neurum Road.

Checking the electoral rolls using Ancestry.com.au helps to narrow when my grandparents were at Rosemount. There are two entries in the 1954 electoral rolls - one for Beriley at Toogoolawah and the second at Rosemount, Villeneuve so the move must have been made that year. A search in Trove using the terms Beriley and Toogoolawah for 1953 to 1954 produced two articles showing that after the sale of the property, the new owners were changing to farming sheep.

Dairymen. from all over the Brisbane Valley and Ipswich attended a dispersal sale of Messrs. R. and F. Moyse's A.I.S. dairy herd conducted by New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Co. Ltd. on the property, Berily," recently purchased from  Mr. A. B. Lord. The whole herd of'60 head was sold at satisfactory prices which were. in advance of those at recent local sales. A stud bull brought £33/12/, cows in profit £24, cows and calves £25, springers to £27/10/ Jersey heifers to £22, and vealers £7 to £10. There was also keen competition for the stud pigs. Brood sows brought £25. All surplus farm machinery went at satisfactory prices. In future the holding will be used for fat lamb raising and agriculture. (Queensland Times 4 May 1954, page 4.)

As well as confirming the sale of Beriley the above article is useful for describing the type of farming previously carried out on the farm.

A search in Google for Rosemount Neurum provided a link to photograph of Rosemount, possibly taken in the 1990s, in Trove, plus the information that the property named Rosemount at Neurum near Woodford, was taken up by John Doyle in December 1875, and was still operating as a dairy farm in 1998. The house was lined and had ceilings of silky-oak.

Trove also helps provide information about Rosemount.

In 1949 two of the three properties, including Rosemount, owned by Mr Eager were put on the market. He had purchased Rosemount from Miss B V Doyle in March 1942.

Queensland Country Life 24 November 1949

An earlier sale notice for the property in 1952 provided additional information.

Queensland Country Life 11 September 1952

The property was advertised again in 1954.

Queensland Country Life 28 January 1954.

These three notices provide information about Rosemount when it was finally purchased by Arthur Lord in 1954. Rosemount backed on to Mount Archer. Mount Archer is a mountain within the Mount Mee Forest Reserve in southeast Queensland and is at an altitude of about 545m above sea level. 

The 1963 electoral roll shows that my grandparents were at Rosemount that year but five years later were living in Buderim. As Queensland newspapers for this time frame have not yet been digitised it may be necessary to wait a while to narrow the date range.

A Google search for Rosemount Neurum produced references to Rosemount Dairy, Neurum at 51 Doyles Road, which initially I ignored but when I checked this using Google Maps I found the original homestead among other buildings.
Doyles Road (named after John Doyle) probably follows the original private road that ran from Neurum Road to the main gate of the property.

A Google search for Doyles Road Mount Archer provided the sales history for a selection of properties on the road starting from 1993. According to this search number 51 was last sold in 2006.

So utilising general Google searches, examining maps, reading about the development of local towns in Queensland Places and exploring newspaper articles and an image in Trove has helped to discover some of the history of Rosemount including the time when my family farmed the property.

Unlocking family stories - journals and diaries

During the early 1930s George Hutton lived on the sheep station, Metavale, out of Cunnamulla in south west Queensland. The property was owned by his daughter and son-in-law, Nancy and Arthur Lord. George spent much of his time reading and writing down his reminiscences about his arrival in Australia in 1869 as well as a selection of family stories.

This nondescript black covered notebook contains a mine of information about this branch of the family in Australia in the nineteenth century.

George wrote in great detail about the properties he visited in 1869 and 1870 as well as expeditions with his father in 1871 until the decision to purchase Cooring Yering at Lilydale. George then worked with his father helping to establish the property until the rest of the family came out from England in 1874 when he set out to travel north and at that point stopped recording his story.

George also included notes about adventures that his parents had living in India and a short account of the journey of George Mackillop (George's grandfather) exploring part of eastern Victoria in January 1835, before the official exploration of the new colony. He also wrote about the death of his uncle, John Mackillop at the Siege of Cawnpore in India in 1857. Thanks to George we therefore have not only his account but stories to investigate further in other sources.

Unlocking family stories - photographs

Most of us have collections of family photographs - some with information attached, many without. Photographs can be an extremely useful resource when unlocking family stories.

The above photograph, taken c1935, is of my great grandfather, George Hutton (1850-1936). It was taken on my grandparents' property, Metavale, near Cunnamulla in south-west Queensland.

The photograph is useful not only for providing an image of George - 'an old man with a beard' who spent his time reading or writing (according to my mother who was a young girl at the time).  What is particularly significant is the garden in the back ground. This area of Queensland is known for its  saltbush vegetation suitable for grazing sheep but not growing lush gardens.

By comparison, the above image found online at Queensland State Archives shows what the homestead looked like in 1910.  In the 1980s I interviewed my mother about her memories of growing up in Queensland. She described the garden at Metavale -

Mother had quite a nice garden considering there was only bore water and the climate was terrible. There was a lot of bougainvillea growing on the trellis in the front. One of the things that would grow was a saltbush hedge around the house. There were also oleanders. Mother did have a nice flower garden in winter and spring. Dad grew vegetables.

Using the Images search option in Google is one way of locating images online.

Trove (Pictures, photos, objects section) is a useful site to look for images from Australian websites including the sites of the major collecting institutions in the country.

http://trove.nla.gov.au

Unlocking family stories - correspondence

If you have access to family papers you might find correspondence that could be extremely useful for your family history search.

One gem in my collection is the transcription made by my father of a letter found among papers belonging to my grandmother. The letter is dated 23 and 25 October 1855 and is addressed from Grosvenor Place, Bath. The letter was written by Jean Eleaonora Mackillop to her daughter, Eleanora Hutton, in India.

British families living in India often returned children born in India to the UK to be looked after by family members and educated in England or Scotland. The grandparents were looking after three children when the letter was written, George 5, Jean 3 and Eleonora 1. Jean had been born in India while her brother and sister were born in Bath.That morning George had had his first lesson to learn his letters and 'had been very attentive'. His grandmother hoped 'that when he can read he will learn to express himself well and clearly'.

She added, 'He does not know the Lord's Prayer quite perfect but nearly so. I do not think he is quick in learning by heart, at present, but his technical memory will probably improve when he acquires the habit of giving his mind to his occupation.'

The above is only part of a long letter with much more information about the three children including a description of new clothes for the girls for winter as they have grown. The grandparents had just returned from eleven days in Paris. There is also news about mutual friends as well information about family investments in tea in India.

As well as providing information about family members the letter provides a snapshot of life in Bath in 1855.

Also among my grandmother's papers was correspondence from a cousin who had been investigating the Hutton family story and believed that there were connections with royalty. He had a genealogist in England investigating possible links for him but there was no follow up letter in the files confirming or denying this.

With the Internet it is much easier now to research family history from afar and I therefore was able to follow the family back through the lines he suggested and it appears that direct links can be traced back to the Plantagenets, the Normans, some Scottish Kings and even to Alfred the Great. All a bit of fun which I would not have investigated if I had not found the letter written to my grandmother.

I also have a transcription of another letter written in September 1982 by the cartoonist, Syd Miller, to my father. In the letter Syd describes some of the outing he and his wife made with my grandparents in the late 1920s / early 1930s.

At that time I like to remember most a 1927 Buick Roadster. It had a dicky seat. ... This Buick seated three persons, but mostly seated four persons. Mo being wider than any of us sat against the left or passenger door, Agnes (sorry Fairy) sat on his knee, Susie squeezed into the middle, I always drove.... The dicky seat in the back we always reserved for odd bods we cared little for or for whom we cared little. It was mainly used to transport grog safely from place to place.

There is also description of leaving their children at home with relatives or people they paid to look after them. He added, 'later as the years progressed we'd say or think, "They're old enough to look after themselves." In more modern parlance:"She'll be sweet, Mate."...'

This was the first indication of the Bohemian lifestyle my grandparents must have led with their journalist and artist friends, colleagues and acquaintances. I wish that I had known about this when my grandmother and my father were alive. I would have asked them lots of questions.

Unlocking family stories - biographical dictionaries

The Australian Dictionary of Biography has been available online for many years. The ADB is produced by the National Centre of Biography at the Australian National University.
http://adb.anu.edu.au/

The entries provide a useful overview of the life of the person and are written by experts in the field.

A newer resource associated with ADB is  Obituaries Australia.

Women Australia and Labour Australia are other projects of the National Centre of Biography available online.

Another major biographical resource available at major reference libraries such as the State Library of Victoria is Who's Who in Australia. Some years ago I found a useful entry about my grandfather, including an outline of his journalistic career, in a volume of Who's Who Australia published in the early 1930s.

Anyone living in Victoria can apply for a State Library of Victoria reader's card enabling access to online databases from their website.

Similarly any Australian can apply for a National Library of Australia reader's card enabling access to online databases from their website.

Clicking the biography tab in the Browse Category menu provides access to 32 resources, both databases accessible only by using the membership card as well as websites available to anyone online. This is obviously a good place to start.

Unlocking family stories - e-books

Increasingly books that are in the public domain are being digitised and made available online. Two sites for free e-books are:

  Project Gutenberg

  Google Books

Public library websites often provide access to e-book collections for borrowing as well as links to sites providing free e-books for download to add to your collection. 

Whitehorse Manningham Regional Library Corporation website provides access to e-books via the e-resources link.

Typing the title of a book AND e-book in a search engine (especially if the title was published prior to 1955) is one way of discovering the availability of titles.

In 1839 George Mackillop submitted two articles to the Scottish publication, Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, describing his views about the possibilities of the new settlement of Port Phillip. I was unable to locate a copy of the article until I found a copy of the volume containing the article digitised as a Google book.

Often when searching for information about an individual, especially someone who lived during the eighteenth century, references will be found in digitised documents online.