The Farm on Miamup Road

Clearing the Farm

When the land was being cleared it was very exciting. The idea was to leave the biggest tree in the middle of any particular area and drag all the smaller trees in towards it using ropes, pulley blocks and tree pullers. The fallen trees were then cut up using cross cut saws and the horses would pull these logs in to a big pile for burning. Logs too big to pull were rolled over and over using cant hooks. Then these piles of trees were burnt and the fires would go on for days and days, being most beautiful at night. Every so often the horses would pull the heaps together so they would not go out. All of this was done when the trees were still green.

There were no tractors in those days so the big trees in the centre of each area had to be left.   Another method used was ringbarking to kill the trees quickly so a crop could be grown. However if ringbarked trees were left too long they became dangerous with limbs dropping occasionally.

We had a modest creek (headwaters of the Willyabrup Creek) running through our property. This creek had a number of very large karri trees growing along it. These were too big for us to handle so we left them.

There were beautiful loamy soils along these creeks so we could grow special things there such as potatoes, onions, maize, peas and oats. The horses would deep plough the land using a single share plough and stop when they hit a root or a stone. As kids we would help cutting and planting potatoes and planting onion seedlings. We had among many pets, a magpie that would pull the seedlings out as fast as you planted them, warbling away all the time with delight.

The House

Our house was originally a four room Group Settlement House  made out of timber with two brick fireplaces with galvanised iron chimneys and weatherboard sheeting. It had a back veranda with a bathroom and wood heater. Clothes were washed in a copper with concrete troughs and a scrubbing board. My mother was a good bush carpenter making furniture out of kerosene boxes.

The front veranda served as a sleepout for my sister and me. It had a canvas weather awning. We had a pet kangaroo that liked to sleep there too and the magpie that would peck your toes for wakeup time. The kangaroo liked to sit on a mat in front of the fire in winter. The kangaroo was got as a “joey” when it fell out of its mother’s pouch when she was jumping a fence with dogs chasing her. It used to like eating used tea leaves in bran and paspalum seeds most of all. We had the kangaroo for 5 years but eventually it went back to the wild ones.

There was no electricity so we used kerosene lamps. There was no water supply  so we used  rainwater tanks and a nearby well with a windlass on it and a hand pump. Some people had small windmills.

There was no septic system so the toilet was a “dinkum dunny” about 40 m away.

Correspondence lessons at the desk my mother made from kerosene boxes.