1986 The Miles from Wyndham

Ada Vale Station - MAP - M.S. Liljengvist-or-Lindquist WA State Records Office (WA SRO) Cancelled Public Plans - Available to download from WA SRO - See KHS Research Links Page (Opens in new tab) to download the Lands Department's Cancelled Public Plans (a great online resource thanks to WA SRO :^)

13m 45s Jack Beasley - Uncle was here before the turn of the century.

Horses - Mother was a good horse-woman

15m 40s Funny stories - Cleanskin bull in the yard,

Bag over his head - "saw me" - Top rail collapsed as she tried to clear it to get away from bull

Got away bull stood over branding fire for a while till he got too hot!

17m Life on station - bore maintenance

Team of Aboriginal women helped her

19m 22s Aborigines on the station - House kitchen etc

Washing - Two tubs

"Nyaman (old woman) What Now?"

Make the Bread

Vegetable Garden - Milk - Plenty of eggs

Girls who could ride horses - got on well

21m 30s When boys came back from stock camp - Big 'sing song'

corroboree - Walkabout time

Staggered Supplies - RM Williams boots etc

22m 45s Giving Birth at the creek (Bow River)

Naming etc

Aboriginal name - They went to Maggie for white name

Registering at Halls Creek

Tim - Father's name became the Timms

Henry - Henrys 

Rammy - became Ramsays

25m Humpys - Only slept in building (10 rooms?) when it

rained - Hanging bags up - bits of tin

26m 15 Pull down old humpy - good shade can't pullem down

'Bush black-fella' - Bush Paddy

4 died on Bow - each one we buried

Most were put in rocks crevices in the rocks then put

more rocks around it - as there were few caves around

Turkey Creek - Faded out in the 1950s & 1960s

29m Walkabout - Took turns - discusses.

31m Fencing - Some boys who weren't mustering went with

Maggie & some of the girls - went everywhere with her.

Yard Building

Making Hobbles - Ropes - Neck Straps to hold the hobbles

32m 45s Sam good self taught mechanic

Saddles

33m Road work on way to Greenvale? 

34m 45s 'Fire Plough' for road making

The road to Greenvale

75 miles around to Frog Hollow creek cross it then 

to Violet Valley - then old road - two or three jumpups 

They made a new road only 42 miles to Greenvale

Greenvale was 1,300 ft. higher than Bow River Station

36m 45s - 1st Motor car when we were at the 9 Mile

38m Stores - Ordering and collecting

38m 45s JW Bateman's in Fremantle then by carrier

40m Donkeys as pack animals

40m 45s The 'Night Horse' - Let go at daylight

41m 45s Camels

Difference to pack horses

Very good at packing

43m 20s Funny story - Two sons of a stockman friend - Tape ENDS

Interview with Margaret Sautelle Lilly / by Ursula Brimble. Part 2

http://purl.slwa.wa.gov.au/slwa_b1821041_2

[Link goes to SLWA Oral History Part 2]

[Tape 1 Side 2]

00m 40s Story continues - Had to get cattle on the way - 

boys left at camp - Fair while later when she got

back sitting at back tyre - eating the dough - 

covered in flour white. "Never forget those two kids!"

02m 30s School at hostel Halls Creek - Kevin ran away 

(aged 6 or 7) had sense to follow cattle pad to water

3m 30s Kevin took a matchbox full of whiteants to school in the hope that they'd eat the school down! [You kids hear that? ;^) ]

4m 20s Kevin went to Narrogin Agricultural school

Into horses Won first Kununurra Cup and Bracelet [1967 - 50 Years ago this year - KHS]

5m 20s Sold Bow River in 1980 - Maureen got 'Limosin? Stud'

Out of Bindoon 

Races Dances etc of the old days

7m 50s Family names - Quiltys - Springvale - Yarn at the Panton

Before married - Horses - "Meeka"

10m Depot Races - Won - 1930 or 1931 (early 30s)

Only went to the Depot racing once! too far

11m 17s With 'uncle' ? at 4 Mile on the Ord River - 

Now known as "Riverfarm Road" [4 miles from Ivanhoe! AB]

12m 45s Maureen did school while out on the stock camp

14m 30s Took all day to get to Wyndham

1st coolroom on a station

Electricity 12v then 32v

Cursed the engine - Petrol at first then later Diesel

Belt took caught her frock

16m 30s No air strip at Turkey Creek at first

Sam got Pneumonia

Nurse - Police Station - Mabel Downs - Sam cleared a

strip - Then Connellan came - before that

A packhorse mail every six weeks - If Rivers weren't up

Early 1930s

Connellan started circa ??? "in the 40s"

19m Flying doctor - early 1940s?

RFDS Radios in the 40s [Late 30s?]

19m 45s Kerosene Fridges before that 'Coolgardie Coolers' [Safe]

Describes

Beef - Fresh for a few days - Meat was wrapped in day

Wrapped before sun came up

Salted - Dry and hard - Put in water boil and soften

"Corned Beef would last for ages"

Dry it out or smoke it

What decade - From safe to fridge?

Ice was available in later days at Wyndham 

not in early days - Ice Chests

23m 45s Kerosene Fridges came in circa ?

24m 30s Medical Emergencies? - Kevin broke his leg - unusual

break - 5 miles from station - By telephone Sam fixed

his leg - Then to Derby - No good had to go to Perth

Just above the knee - Unusual

26m 15s When and why did you leave the Bow

Bought the Six Mile Hotel - Had to go and run it

Maureen and Jim stayed and looked after the Bow

27m Ascot - Goose Hill - "Should be called Ascot"

They bought that.

Alma's kids were there as young ones then ALL of 

Kevin's were brought up at Ascot

[From Synopsis]

Sam Died in 1973

Maggie moved to Kununurra circa 1984

28m 26s 1980 then sold it - They (Sam & Maggie) were between 

6 Mile - Ascot and the Bow until they sold in 1980

Sam looked after when Maureen went on holidays

30m 30s 1967 - Got wages - Aboriginal people left for towns

35m Place Names - Lily Creek (no connection) 

Weaber Family

Cheese Tin Creek 

Horse

Matchbox Creek

37m 45s Neice & I would go bird catching

1st to drive in there - Maggie Jumpup - Maggie Creek 

in a Chev Ute

Years later Maggie Creek was named there.

39m Weaber

Parrys Creek

Kelly's Knob - Father Kelly?

Carlton Reach

O'Donnell St - O'Donnell Range

O'Donnell Brook - Sandy Bow

41m 40s On O'Donnell - BURIED right in front of the house

I remember his granddaughter!!!!

42m 40s Kim Durack - Carlton Reach

Red Soil - no blacksoil

Old man worked with him - now in Alice Springs 

[Could have been 'Gene French - AB 18 X 2015]

44m 40s Remembers meeting the Queen (1963 March 17th)

Sam & I came down - Stinking hot day

Camped at Ivanhoe - Got eaten by mosquitoes

My 1st time at Kununurra except for early days

There was nothing here when I was...

Tailing uncle Jack's horses just over there (Carlton Reach?) 

Riverfarm Road was called the Four Mile Creek 

[Makes sense as likely about four miles from the Ivanhoe Crossing - AB for KHS]

Maggie's uncle Jack Beasley kept horses there that Maggie looked after.

Could not recall anything of the Jewish Settlement idea

[TAPE 1 Side 2 ENDS]

Interview with Margaret Sautelle Lilly / by Ursula Brimble. Part 3

http://purl.slwa.wa.gov.au/slwa_b1821041_3

[Link goes to SLWA Oral History Part 3]

[Tape 2 Side 1]

1m 02s Starts - Housing types - Corrugated iron and bush timber

Living in the Gully 1917 - 1918 - In a place Dad built - 

During construction of the Wyndham meatworks when [I was] a child.

Had White washed bag walls bush timber roof - roof was 'rubberoid'

(They used to put it under tanks)

Had antbed floors - Thatch? Lined with hessian - Old Halls Creek - mud bricks

Rubberoid again in long rolls.

4m 0s Bow River - Buildings

Made cement bricks - Man came in with Sam & Kevin made good big bricks

Contractor came in later?

6m 30s Ascot made same way as Bow River

7m Pre-war years Cattle Industry

VRD Several mobs a year

9m They were going to blow up the meatworks!

10m War years - No women - I snuck in a few times!

Bombed airfield - Koolama

Bruton owned the 6 Mile - Edgar Birch taking white shirt off - 

Japs after him? Air raid at the airstrip

14m No more ships coming into Wyndham after the Koolama sank

Wait outside town while Sam went in

Where's your wife - back on road - Major's not here so she can come in

Sam would go back and pick her up

House Arrest?

15m 45s Evacuated Women & children

Sam and many men were issued with .303s

Threat of invasion - Bombings 

17m Remembers German Aviators

Tom Ronan was in town - Police asked him to go out with trackers

King - Pentecost - Durack - Once at Forrest River Mission

met with launch and - Bad travelling rough country

19m One went off - Went mad!

One of the runners only died here a few years ago

20m Aviators - I've got photos

22m 40s Halls Creek - 1930s - Sam Thomas had the Ruby Mine - was about the only one

going - Prospectors - a lot of the Aboriginal people would go out "Willy Willy" way

near the Mary?

23m 20s Wave Hill - Halls Creek way 1940s motor rallys?

26m 50s Anything we can add??

Water?

In Wyndham - A big row of tanks - Horse and cart would cart water from the

3 Mile Well - Rainwater tanks - Donkey teams and horse teams - Sometimes there were 8 teams there at the 3 Mile

4 Mile - Afghans water there

9 Mile - Drovers

28m 50 King River Pumping station

Moochlabra

Wells early - battle through diorite rock! Early miners 

Bores now - If drought they go dry - Gets very bad

30m 30s Ord River - salt to the 'bend of the Ord' now all fresh as fresh!

31m We had a dam at Goose Hill

Bow River - bore and dams - wells - rockholes springs

problem once....

[Tape Ends]

Interview with Margaret Sautelle Lilly / by Ursula Brimble. Part 4

http://purl.slwa.wa.gov.au/slwa_b1821041_4

[Link goes to SLWA Oral History Part 4]

[Tape 2 Side 2]

0m 20s Bow River no rain til Late in January - Sam bought some tankers

To Goose Hill - 12 Mile Lagoon (Marlgu Billabong) did go dry some years

NOT caused by cattle - dry years - DROUGHT caused it.

Roads used to go to 9 mile then across the 12 mile plain

2m 0s George Kinivan had a grader [fire plough - AB] - pulled by the donkeys

He did the 12 mile plane with it.

2m 20s Road those days used to go to Goose Hill - Dip there

2m 40s Then went up the Abercorn Valley - Used to be an old Pub there or something

the road came out on (new) Kununurra road - The road from there didn't 

go past Dunham River Station it went up McPhees Creek to a place called

Hells Gates - I believe an old lady had a Wayside Pub there in the early days 

[? There was a store - CHECK - AB]

3m 10s Then went on towards Bow River station but turned off to the West followed

the river up towards Violet Valley then came down through Frog Hollow (2 old 

owners buried there)

3m 30s Then went up the Ord and crossed the river a long way down from where it 

does today!

That was the road to Halls Creek - done by pick & shovel

3m 45s I can remember the men working on the Muggs Lagoon Jumpup in the 1920s

4m Cattle Stock Routes

Used to come down through Abercorn Valley

4m 45s Cattle over Mount Albany - Cement posts from wings are still there

Manila trade still went after the meatworks until the 1920s

6m 0s Even to the late 1920s

Wyndham people would go in the ships to islands - Manila etc

6m 45s Can you explain some of the Wyndham names?

"Well I don't know how 'cause they're that far apart some of them, now there is 'the Three Mile', now I don't know if you'd say it was three mile from the old Wyndham Post Office and then just down the way, was what they called 'the Four Mile' that was where the ah Afghans were in the early times - 'Afghan town!' Ah and ah, then a little further on there was a creek, I s'pose it would be about half a mile further on and they called it 'the 1 Mile Creek' then you went to 'the Six Mile' and then about another mile and a half, or probably two miles away, they called it the 'Seven Mile' and then there was the old 'Eight Mile Well' and I'll guarantee it was more than a mile from there to 'the Nine Mile' - was more like about three! And then you went out to where the Golf Course 's now, was what they called 'the Ten Mile Creek', well that's a _long_ way from 'the Nine Mile' And then over the other way, was what they called 'the Twelve Mile Lagoon', now Marlgu Lagoon, ah and then, further over was 'the Twenty Mile', don't know how they came to do this, 'they must have measured with a Greenhide rope on a wet day' as the old saying goes.

to 

8m 30s Afghans and camels - Afghan Town - Afghan cemetery

Bull camel 1938 coming from GoGo with the cattle

Eddy Fogarty - Bull camel came into the camp

10m 30s Jack Bourke - white rabbit story

11m 20s Horse Racing - 'Meeka' - Won its first race

Married in 1935

Raced him in 1936 - Went to Turkey Creek in 1937

last time I raced until 1941 races at Wyndham

No races until 1946

Took horses from Bow River - Won cup with horse 'Silver'

1952 1952 - 'The Mighty Malwood'

Green Vale Station - 300 Chain Negri - WA State Records Office - Series 4265 Consignment 4567 Item 132-4

Available to download from WA SRO- See KHS Research Links Page (Opens in new tab).

For photographs of Violet Valley see 1919-The Wyulda (Opens in new tab).

12m 24s Named the station the Bow River Station - Duracks 

[Stumpy Michael Durack & Tom Kilfoyle] named the river in 1882.

Top part Greenvale - then joined on Ada Vale

Durack and Martin had that (Ada Vale). Ada Vale was joined with 

Greenvale and Turkey Creek to become 'Bow River Station'.

Turkey Creek - Rhatigans then Lilly - 300 Chain Negri - WA SRO Series 4265 Consignment 4567 Items 132-3 & 132-4

Droving - Jack Beasley (her uncle)

Plant at Go Go

Rosewood cattle

10m Back via Karunjie - August 1938

Two trips - Louisa Downs cattle to Wyndham (2 mobs) - Redwater (lost 100)

11m - Bought Greenvale from old man McCale to join on the property

Then went down 13 miles from Turkey Creek (north) to the 

bank of the Bow River and built a homestead there