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Interviewee

Alfred Cooper

Place Recorded

Coffs Harbour-NSW

Interviewer

Lesley Gibbs

Collection

Agency

Yarrila Arts & Museum (YAM)

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Alfred Cooper Interview

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IntervieweeAlfred CooperInterview Date6 December 19867 February 1987Place RecordedCoffs Harbour-NSWDuration2h58m06sAccession NumberLS2020.1.67Credit LineCoffs Harbour City Council, 1988.

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Mr Cooper was the owner of the first motor lorry to carry cream to the Bellingen Butter Factory.

InterviewerLesley GibbsCollectionYAM 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. Born Alfred William Cooper, 7 April 1902 -- Mr Cooper has six sons and one daughter. Now he has many grand and great-grandchildren -- He was raised in Kalang, born on the land selected by his grandfather Brownlee where the Bellingen Valley Motor Inn now stands -- The land in Kalang was very fertile - producing a thousand bags of corn. In turn this was carted by bullock team to the punts at Bellingen -- The long journey was hard on the bullocks but harder on the early cars because there were no bridges, just dirt roads -- Bullocks are easy to look after and if handled calmly, respond very well. Mr Cooper would start with them as Poddy calves and train them to command. Each bullock knew his name. Mr Cooper's father was a blacksmith at Kalang, making everything from horseshoes to truck frames -- Father had the cream run in Kalang for "As long as I can remember" -- The first truck and the different jobs, from carting cream to moving houses -- Innovative way the house was loaded onto the truck without the use of a jack or crane -- Life in Kalang as a child. Tennis was always popular -- Mustering cattle with his father -- The first football team in 1919. The first truck had solid wheels. The big gamble, borrowing money to buy the truck for seven hundred pounds -- The first truck registration cost three pounds; the next year the price was sixteen pounds. Bullocks cost you nothing and you didn't have breakdowns or part replacements - they're just slow -- The difficulty of driving on the rough roads and the maximum speed was ten miles an hour -- Mr Cooper is on record as the first cart cream from Thora to the Butter Factory in a motor lorry -- The only way to succeed is to take a risk -- The friendship that developed with the Bailey family after Mick Bailey drove the reo for Mr Cooper. Three pounds per week was the award wages. Truck and driver could make 6 pounds an hour under contract for the council -- The First World War and the effect this time had on the area -- The telephone arrived in Kalang in 1914. How people managed in times of illness before this time -- How the roads held up in the wet season with bullock teams working in the area. Who was responsible for the cream in times of accidents? Many unexpected accidents. Grandfather owned the land where the Motor Inn is now. The first settlers came from Kempsey -- The charcoal gas producer used on trucks during World War Two eventually changed over to kerosene to get more power -- He was married in September 1925. The best man had an Indian scout motorbike; together they had many outings and many "spills" too. His wife's mother's name was Wright -- The wedding breakfast in the Canberra Cafe. The upstairs-downstairs rule and the pie and coffee there after the pictures -- The sporting days in Kalang. The game of football was much cleaner. Teams came from all round to compete. Locals used to be much closer and the dances and parties after corn pulling were wonderful. The Kalang dances and the variety of music -- Learning music in the early days -- Managing in the flood times. The rain never worried the children at night because the sound couldn't be heard through the shingle roof -- There were no tanks in those days - the water was kept in casks brought from the river by horse and slide -- The cream could not be picked up in bad weather so it would be fed to the pigs -- Dry and canned supplies were kept stocked up in case of a flood -- He started training calves for team at the age of seven -- The problem of deciding the lead bullock. The working life and the fate of the bullock -- The board of directors of the Butter Factory -- The first wireless -- East End Bellingen as it used to be -- The changing moods of the river and the Urunga Bar. The coming of the railway and the gradual changes to the area in 1922. The Sydney trip at the age of 15 to see the Easter show. It was almost a day's travel by road and punt to Kempsey to catch the train. Then 9am until 11.30pm by train to Sydney -- The road to Sydney was just a 'Goat track" -- Lester Griffin's accident and the T Model to the rescue. The races out at Kalang to raise money during the war -- Rearing and breaking horses -- His horse accident - getting hung up in the stirrup. Attention was not given to the broken leg until days later. Moving the big boiler from Gleneffer. The advantage to farmers having their cream picked up in a motor lorry -- The Cheese Factory at Kalang -- The horse teams working on the Dorrigo Mountain -- The Kalang school two days a week and the Sunny Corner school three days a week. Some years with shortage of teachers the schools would be closed for 12 months -- Even though Mr Cooper has been very successful, a good education would have been a great help. The terrible drought of 1915 -- Father put in a very long day on the cream run, sometimes 8-9 o clock at night before returning home. Groceries were picked up on the return trip for the farms -- Father was a shrewd man, good living sometimes with a quick temper. Mother was a hard working woman -- Mother would wake early to milk the cows, tend the corn and look after the family. The trip to Coffs by train to pick up the truck and learn to drive and double shuffle to change gears -- Getting talked into buying a truck to cart cream. The contract was two pound ten shillings a trip from Thora -- The Paspalum seed gatherers. Worked so much harder to provide for the family -- Always very healthy but a head injury with the fire brigade put an end to a good record. Two hundred and seventy five pounds compensation for the loss of an eye. After retiring, Mr Cooper started bringing cars up from Sydney to earn money. The method of keeping butter. The meat safe was kept cool by wet bag -- Carting ice in 1924 when iceboxes became popular. The Cooper children have all been successful in their chosen trades -- His feelings about the children leaving Bellingen. His links with the Brownlee family -- There used to be at least forty dairy farms along the Kalang road, now there are none -- The big fire that came over Hospital Hill - the danger to the town. "Fire is perhaps worse than flood because everything is destroyed forever by fire" -- The 1950 flood, how the locals coped and some of the funny stories from that terrible night -- The 1946 flood took the Bellingen Bridge - the present one replacing it in 1953 -- Recollections of seeing the spans of the Sydney Harbour Bridge joining in 1932 -- The changes in Coffs Harbour and the occasions his father carted pigs from Kalang to the boats in Coffs Harbour. The six-day journey to Armidale with a load of furniture. Early memories of Kalang. His father and the first cream run. Many of the early neighbours and also the work they were involved with years ago -- The different people one meets and how they now deal with the land around the valley -- Cattle reserves once used for travelling stock. All this has changed since World War Two -- Big trucks and bad roads. Changing jobs due to the high costs involved in owning a business -- Six pounds and twelve shillings a week in 1942 was hard money to pass up for a family man. The cost of items the family bought daily. Many people worked for less and managed. Fuel was 18 pence a gallon and it was a long time before the lorry drivers and farmers had any assistance. What ever happened to the tax taken for road works? -- Sometimes there were fuel shortages, and then the goods came by boat. Many boats were wrecked at Urunga with the loss of the cargo -- The quarries at South Arm and Newry Forest supplied the rocks for the break wall at Urunga. Manchester Unity Lodge was out at Kalang up until about 1919. Sporting teams were also a big thing once in Kalang -- The new settlers of Kalang, now on smaller farms. Hopefully the community spirit will return. The importance of the "cup of tea" as a social thing. Transportation has made a great difference over the years - perhaps it's made people more distant -- Late night shopping in Bellingen. Bands in the street -- The first picture show in the area. Films shown in the back of a wagon -- Bill's first circus. The police station and the hall in William Street -- A library with a smoke room in Coronation Street -- Bellingen's population in the early twenties -- Yarding the bullocks in town for three pence a head -- The Braithwaites delivered the town milk -- The Post Office workers and the local telephone operator. The fires in the area -- The old school in town -- The mistake one boy made picking on Bill when he was the new kid in school. Great fun at the local dances -- The horses would always like to rush home whether under saddle or in harness -- The great intelligence of the workhorse. Some funny stories -- The risk the teamsters would run with young, flighty horses. The storms in the Kalang area, many trees were struck by lightning -- Big jobs to dispose of dead horses -- How the local roads were laid. The improvement from hand labour to horse-drawn dray -- The feed given to working horses. The problem of the time it took to manage horses. The big horse teams were kept in the paddock near the Old Butter Factory. A big mess in the wet -- The fate of the beer in the barrels being carted to Dorrigo -- The teamsters were a "Rough and tumble lot" from Dorrigo -- Bill's problem taking cattle to North Dorrigo. The traffic truck with the gaslights couldn't deal with the fog on the plateau -- Teamsters' attitude to lorries -- Trying to paint a picture of the bullock drivers and the horse teams is not easy in this day and age. Bill and his sister Amy's tragedy whilst playing with the goats in the barn -- The work done by George Barr at the original Butter Factory with old charcoal burners -- How the Butter Factory has changed over the years. Memories of how the buildings were laid out when the factory was being used. Tyson's Cheese Factory at Fernmount -- Even though Fernmount was a fairly big settlement, boat harbour was eventually the main town area and became Bellingen -- The buildings bought from Fernmount by bullock team - now the solicitor's office -- Blacksmith at Fernmount. Jack Box from Fernmount, also his brother, Frank. Many tales that Jack Box entertained people with over the years -- How the local people teased Jack Box -- The Butter Factory workers would get Jack Box to sing his songs for them. Grandfather Cooper was married four times. Bill's father had a pretty rough time being brought up by a stepmother. Bills wife was adopted and with his experience Bill has great compassion for children -- Wife's tough life because her step sisters and brothers "Gave her hell". The very religious farm worker who caused a bit of a disturbance. He lost his reason and claimed a young girl for himself. The bridge at Cobson's Crossing -- Being stranded in the river with a truckload of pigs. Rescued by a bullock team in the middle of the night -- During the thirties the bridges along the Kalang were built. The families who lived and dairied many miles up the end of the river. A tough life in a really rough area -- The Coopers originally selected 88 acres at Brierfield and later swapped for land at Kalang. Other families moved from the area because of the lack of school facilities -- Some children boarded in town to attend school until the time Kalang had its own full-time school.