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Interviewee

Bert Williams

Place Recorded

Coffs Harbour-NSW

Interviewer

Sheridah Melvin

Collection

Agency

Yarrila Arts & Museum (YAM)

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Bert Williams Interview

Details

IntervieweeBert WilliamsInterview Date17 February 1987Place RecordedCoffs Harbour-NSWDuration1h16m58sAccession NumberLS2020.1.42Credit LineCoffs Harbour City Council, 1988.

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Description

Mr Williams' family selected land at Bonville in 1908 and worked extremely hard to establish a dairy herd. He witnessed the advent of the railway and the telephone and is a mine of information on many topics.

InterviewerSheridah MelvinCollectionYAM Museum CollectionVoice of Time oral history projectAgencyYarrila Arts & Museum (YAM)SummaryStandard disclaimer. Visit the 'Voice of Time' web site to read or listen to the disclaimer. Mr Williams was born in 1906 at Mount Kembla where his father worked in the coal mine -- In 1908 his parents decided to move to the North Coast. They purchased a property at Bonville when it was virgin scrub. A home was cut out of native timber; the elder son helped his father -- The family landed at Coffs Jetty -- The crops grown were mostly maize and vegetables. Dairy cattle -- The cattle followed after by boat. Clearing the land took seven years -- The earliest memories of Bonville farm life -- At this time there was no pick-up service for dairy produce. Neighbouring children walked to school and played together -- A description of early Bonville school -- Halftime teaching -- The teacher; "Now we realise he had bush boys to contend with". Schoolboy larks. Girls played football -- Getting the cane and detentions -- Bert could hear the dingoes howling if he was late going home. The problems posed by dingoes on the farm -- Detailed description of the slab-house -- Bert's mother - "She never had a recipe book in her life". The kitchen-dining room was the entertainment centre of the house -- The big box of tongue and groove timber for all the foodstuffs -- Freshly killed meat was kept in a dripsafe. Neighbours shared meat -- Bert's mother, her courage and initiative; home remedies. Most of the bad wounds were axe injuries -- There was a strong belief in making patients sweat out a fever -- A typical working day spent by his father. Bert looked after the cattle from the age of eight -- Gelignite for blasting the stumps. The vegetable garden -- The well supplied good water. Later, they had a hand pump. Later still a windmill -- Water divining on river flats -- The social life of Bonville residents consisted of surprise parties, dances, concerts etc. In 1913-14, a sawmill was built at Bonville and sawn timber was available for building a hall for local entertainment and a new school. In 1912, Bert's family joined in the cream run by rowing it up Bonville Creek until they reached the bridge where the horse-van was waiting -- Other farmers took their cream by horse and cart or on the front of the saddle. Cream was picked up three times a week -- Their journey along the river was two miles long -- There were two vans operating, one local to collect Bonville supplies and one from Coffs Harbour which took all to the Butter Factory -- The Raleigh farmers had a different system. They used the Bellinger River and had cream launches picking up from Urunga to Raleigh -- There was not much profit in this dairy industry; people still had to depend on self-sufficiency principles the farms -- The World War One Route March arrived in Bonville. People were strongly patriotic. Women's work -- Shipping on the Bellinger. The three Repton sawmills -- The building of the 'Alma Doepel'. Disembarkation points at Urunga, Fernmount and Bellingen. The silting up of the river -- The types of timber transported - hardwoods. Cedar-getting by bullock team -- Pit sawing on the riverbanks. The nature of the teamsters -- . They were tough men. "They could talk to their bullocks". Care of the animals -- The advent of the railway. The Bonville. Station was built in the middle of the Williams farm -- Building the railway bridges. The diver's role in this, Mr Williams Senior was a diver; his suit and equipment described. "Risk isn't like it is now" -- The wives and children of the railway workers lived in tents and cooked in a huge galley -- The railway improved the value of surrounding land -- The earliest form of transport was the stagecoach from Bellingen to Grafton -- The origin of Halfway Creek as a horse changing station -- Other stagecoaches from Bellingen to Dorrigo and from Grafton to Glen Innes, they looked much the same as the ones in western movies. Three horses and a special kind of man, the driver. The mail track. Service cars took over from the stages. Coffs to Thora. Cadillacs -- The accident on the route from Grafton to Coffs. The driver killed was Stan Kearns -- The railway superseded the cars -- The methods of fighting bushfires, it was a community effort -- The Pine Creek State Forest. The first telephone lines. The dedication of the early exchange workers -- The first electricity supply was from a shed at the back of the Fitzroy Hotel. Paddy Burke bought it out and expanded the service. Coffs Harbour in 1915 -- The goodwill of storekeepers. Murdoch McLean was the publican of the Fitzroy -- The Smith butcher shop and slaughter-yards -- Coffs Creek and the dam near the present site of the Catholic Club. Water was pumped from here to supply the trains at the station. Standard disclaimer. Visit the 'Voice of Time' web site to read or listen to the disclaimer (Internet link is below). Aeroplanes landed on Jetty beach - "They had to work with the tides". Bert's father flew and saw the sharks along Boambee beach and the porpoises -- Celebrating Christmas - 23 boys and girls on horseback came to see the pictures at the School of Arts in 1925 -- The advent of the Depression. "I took on anything I could get" which included blacksmithing, butchering, sleeper-cutting -- The forestry work provided jobs. Mrs Williams' household management. After the Depression Bert started tomato growing. Later he produced cattle but arthritis caused him to sell out -- His reasons for joining the army in World War Two when he could have been exempt -- Evacuation plans. Personality portraits of: Robert Garrett, his role in the building of the Coffs Hospital and the local football team; Louie Lacrosse - his special recipe for mullet bait; The Chinaman - vegetable seller and philosopher; Harry Bailey; and the Thompson Sisters - great swimmers.