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1925 Horace John Growden and son Keith Maxwell
came to W.A. to buy a farm, the heavy red soil
around Kondinin was the final choice. They sold
the farm in Crystal Brook, to do this. My
brother, Keith Leonard Bowe, has told me that the
Stamp Duty on this farm “Kenmuir” was paid on the
14th January 1926. I do know Grandpa did carry a
lot of money with him sometimes and he had a
small hand gun. He showed it to me a couple of
times, it was never used to my knowledge. Horace
had been in W.A. before, about the turn of the
century, water carting for the goldminers, around
the Merredin Southern Cross area.
The shift from Crystal Brook in S.A. came next.
The first stage from Crystal Brook to Port
Augusta was by road, wagons and trolley and about
20 horses walked, Uncle Rex rode a pony with
them, George Cory drove one wagon, 5 horses
pulling it, loaded with all belongings including
a piano. Grandpa drove the Hupmobile car. The
second stage was by train from Port Augusta to
Merredin, arriving in Merredin on the 7th April
1926. They had 4 cars, a Hupmobile, a Chrysler,
and 2 Amil cars. George Corey worked for Grandpa
in Crystal Brook. Con a relation of Nanny’s
followed them to WA later, to marry George. They
had there wedding reception at the Kulin Hotel,
and lived in a small cottage in the bush south
east of the Kondinin townsite.
Grandpa always had a lot of horses, a great
horseman himself. My Dad said there were always
about 50 horse mouths to feed to have 10 working
horses available to work. Many tons of hay and
many bags of oats had to be stored to feed them.
A huge quantity of hay had to be cut, stooked,
carted, and stacked. Then during the off season
cut into chaff. this was fed to the horses with
grain, generally oats, to keep their strength up.
When working they were fed three times a day,
before breakfast, a nosebag at lunchtime, and
again after the days work. Generally the best
crop was cut to feed the horses. A lot of manual
work was involved ploughing, seeding, and
harvesting with horses.
The daily routine was something like this. Out of
bed at 5am, down to the stables to feed the
horses in the stalls, breakfast about 6am, back
to put the bridles, collars, hames, and reins on
ready to walk to the paddock. Then complete with
nose bags, feed, and water, if none in the
paddock, and lunch, walk to the paddock. Hook up
the chains to each horse, grease and oil the
implement to start work. Work to about midday,
feed and water horses, lunchtime for the men.
Then back to work , until there was just enough
time left to walk home before dark. Feed and
water the horses, the rest of the day was your
own, mainly spent eating and sleeping.
The incident when his [Grandpa’s] thumb was
nearly cut off typified his approach to work and
life. He with uncle Rex and uncle Len were
castrating foals. They had this young horse roped
and tied down, Grandpa held the testicles tight
in the pouch, Len was to make the cut. His first
attempt was not deep enough, “cut deep lad cut
deep”, Len cut deep through the pouch and nearly
severed Grandpa’s thumb. The reaction was to
treat it with kerosene as a disinfectant, wrap it
up with a rag and continue to finish the job.
Another I can remember was a horse shoeing
incident in the old stables. This young horse was
playing up, no one could get near it. Grandpa
[this was in the late thirties, he had to be in
his sixties] got in the stall alongside this
horse, he patted and talked to it all the time,
finally had it’s lower leg and hoof up on his
knee in position to commence nailing the shoe on.
He had nearly finished when the horse lashed out.
Grandpa said his arm was a bit sore, but he
finished the job. The next day the arm was
worrying him, so he went into the hospital. The X
ray showed a break, he came home with it in
plaster in a sling.
I remember being in the workshop with Grandpa one
day whistling away and asking questions of him.
It must have got on his nerves, because after a
while he said to me “ would you shut up, and let
me think”.
Grandpa’s opinion of those new fangled tractors
was they were not reliable, too expensive to run,
kerosene about 1s 6p a gallon. This was bought in
four gallon tins, two tins in a pine wood case.
Steel wheels were no good, they would shake
everything to bits when the ground was dry and
hard, when the ground was wet and soft the cleats
would fill up with mud and have no grip at all.
However tractors started to come on the scene.
During the late 30’s Grandpa had a farm 6 miles
east of Narrogin. This was a great place I
thought. A nice stone house, a big orchard full
of apple, plum, peach, mulberry trees. Milking
cows, horses for riding, and a 4 wheel rubber
tyred, 1 horse cart. This was used for checking
sheep, and all the jobs around the farm that a 4
wheel drive ute is used for now. Half of the farm
was about 5 miles away, through the bush at a
place called Boundain Siding. A rail siding on
the Narrogin Wickepin railway line. I thought
this was great fun, winding ride through the tree
lined track with the dogs chasing rabbits, they
never caught any, kangaroos, foxes and birds
everywhere, until the weather turned bad, rained
or got cold.
This farm was not a profitable venture. Dad [KMG]
said it was just a drain on the Kondinin farm.
Uncle Rex [HJRG] lived and worked there with
Grandpa and Nanny.
Nanny separated the cream from the milk, this was
delivered to the Butter factory in Narrogin each
Friday when we all went to town to get the weeks
supplies, mail etc. The weekly trip to town was
highlighted when we stayed in to watch and listen
to the Salvation Army Band march and play in the
street.
The other main interest for Nanny was her church.
A little stone church about half a mile from the
farm house. All denominations used this church,
very small, but served the needs of east
Narrogin.
One day as Nanny and I were walking home from
church, she yelled out, “Maxwell” she always
called me that, “I’ve been to church without any
pant’s on”, a mortal sin in her eye’s. Nanny
being a larger lady who always wore long dresses
no one would ever now, but it really upset her to
think she had been to the lord’s church without
her pants on.
Grandpa’s total control of the farms changed
about 1941. Uncle Rex was married on the 8th
August 1941, and he took over the control
of “Maylands”, he moved into the house there
with his bride, Aunty Molly. Dad moved
to “Kenmuir” with Mum, Diana, Nona and Max.
Grandpa , with help of Dad and Rex built a one
room cottage, near the top shed
complete with open fireplace, bed , cooking
stove, storage space, and outside toilet. At
this time he was going blind, cataracts
developing on each eye. He had at least one meal
with us at the house each day, after the evening
meal one of us had to make sure he found his way
back to his home. Later he went to Adelaide to
have them removed, he regained some vision, had
to wear very thick glasses.
Nanny lived with Uncle Rex and Aunty Molly for
some years and then spent time with daughters,
Grace, Ivy and Beryl.
About 1950 Nanny and Grandpa moved into a house
in Kondinin. That is where Grandpa died on the
10th November 1957. Nanny later moved to Albany
with Aunty Grace. Nanny died on the 3rd August
1960. They are both buried in the Kondinin
cemetery.
Nanny’s cousin Cyril Symes, was our barber in
Kondinin in the 40’s. He told Betty that Grace &
Mildred Avery were very fine horsewomen, how they
used to ride from their home to the Symes home.
He remarked how nice looking the two women were.
He lived somewhere near Grace & Mildred at Orroro
in S.A. Nanny would have missed her family
greatly after leaving S.A. She named her first
daughter after her sister Grace. [Grace Mildred
Growden]
Betty recalls when I first saw “Mildred” she
seemed very stern, but once I got to know her I
found her so easy to talk to, and from the
beginning she made me feel part of her family, --
of course “Maxwell” was the apple of her eye. I
wish I could recall the times she spoke about
Maxwell and Wynona, very proud of her
grandchildren.
After Peter’s birth Nanny asked Max what name he
would be given, Max said probably Rex. Nanny
said “you can’t call him Rex before Keith”. I was
a bit concerned when Max told me, as I had the
same thoughts as Max, that we already had Keith
Maxwell aged 48 and “young” Keith aged 9 years,
so didn’t think we would have young young Keith,
so Peter was named Peter William. When 3 days old
Nanny said, they’d not had a Peter before but
there had been William Growden and William Avery,
so William got the green light.
The day I left hospital with our very new son
Peter, we made a brief visit to my Mum’s place
then on to Nanny’s, where she was waiting with
Mrs Thirlwell, a neighbough and Aunty Iris
Stubbs, to meet Peter. Nanny nursed him across
her lap and said that he was more hers, as he was
the eldest son of her eldest son’s eldest son.
She was a great matriarch, a bit scary at the
time. From then on any Friday I went to town I
called in to her home, as expected, where she
always had a cup of tea and lovely cakes and
biscuits.
Grandpa used to appear from the front room. Over
those years Ann and Maxine were born, Peter
remembers parts of those visits, mostly of
Grandpa getting him to jump over his walking
stick. Sometimes he would hold the stick just off
the floor and let Ann have a jump. He’d ask Peter
and Ann questions about what they were up to and
what they liked doing.
Grandpa expressed his great concern for Pop
[Keith Maxwell] when he was so sick and saying if
it would help at all he would send him to the
best Doctors in the U.S.
The evening Grandpa died, he had been for his
usual walk, returned home, had his cuppa in the
lounge room then retired to bed. Nanny found he’d
passed away when she took his morning cup of tea
to him on the 10th November 1957.
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