GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN
Many Australians fear we are going down the UK’s path and the great life and times of former eras are changing – and not for the better. Village life has long gone but so have gentler and kinder times of yesteryear. Only memories remain.
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It is always nostalgic to revisit scenes of childhood. This writer’s early years were spent in Hexham, a compact village on the Hopkins River in the west country.
Though times were tough, it seemed an idyllic place.
A couple of dozen houses, a marvellous general store (the kind that sold virtually everything), post office, school, bluestone pub, village hall, a couple of churches and my grandfather’s blacksmith shop. Areal haven that-on the cold mornings, before school, to warm our hands at the blazing forge.
There was a cricket and football team, a tennis club, and even polo at the old racecourse.
Hexham’s polo team was for quite a time renowned.
Its horses and practitioners were drawn from the great stations nearby – Boonerah, Merrang, Hexham Park, Woolongoon, Boorkoi and Chatsworth. Station owners’ names loomed large in the history of Western District – Manifold, Weatherly, Urquhart, Robert Hood, Armstrong and· Palmer.
These were the great estates – surviving still – with their splendid homesteads and sprawling vistas of grazing land.
These estates provided employment and sustenance for many a family. Our dad was a shearer and sometime boxer- and something of a legendary bush story teller.
Yorkshire TV once interviewed him in one of the area shearing sheds seeking tales of the hardy people who plied his trade.
Memories flood back of mostly happy schooldays, visiting concert troupes and the occasional circus, the annual race meeting, intermittent dinners in the pub’s long dining hall kitchen and, of course, Saturdays at the cricket in summer and footy in winter.
It was, of course, still an era when little things were enjoyed, people made their own fun and Christmas was indeed a once-a-year treat.
The marvellous village store was a community hub. I’ve never seen another like it and sadly its kind had disappeared from Australian life in the wake of ‘progress’.
Store owners Norm and Sylvia Harding, son Bruce and daughter Valda· were highly respected folk.
A granddaughter Vicky (Whitty) teaches at Assumption College, Kilmore. today – a real link to times past.
Cricket was a big attraction for me – it always has been – and there were some fine ‘bush players’ in the area, none finer than Ian and Bill Annstrong, sons of a district family.
Both had served in World War II as young men and returned to their beloved Hexham Park station.
Excellent players they were with good techniques. For season after season in the sun they turned the scorched fields into places of grandeur.
Our mum and dad, not long married, suffered loss with hosts of others in the terrible bushfires of 1939.
Then came the war and times for many were generally hard.
But, overall, good times far outweighed the bad and there was a tangible spirit that prevailed among country folk.
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A BRISBANE THREE-PEAT
With only a few rounds to go in the long AFL season it looks like Brisbane Lions may make it three premierships in a row. Their form looks ominous at the right time, and it is looking like a possible Lions v Dockers grand final. The VFL/AFL era has given us a final four, then six, then eight and now a final 10. It seems to be really a grab for more money. For almost all sports organisations now the bottom line is “dollars”. The massive deals are the priority; the patriotic fan is well down the list. The AFL must be envious of the NRL (rugby league) massive five billion plus latest 7-year deal. The AFL pulls many more through the gates, but the rival winter code has gone well ahead in television viewership. Far too many rule changes have not helped the Australian game.
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A FINE VISTA
Long time Kilmore resident George Galea and his wife have just travelled through Queensland. One of the highlights was a visit to the Southern Downs and Granite Belt with its splendid vistas (as the photograph depicts). George is sure used to long road trips. As an employee of Seymour Coaches for many years, he drove buses to all parts of Australia.
