PNGAF MAG ISSUE # 10-B-PNG FOREST EDUCATION Part 1 of 6 Parts. Dr John Davidson's Journey

FROM FORESTRY CADET TO FORESTRY PROFESSOR

Memories of Youth and Living and Working in

Papua New Guinea

(Part 1)

PART 5

FROM FORESTRY CADET TO FORESTRY PROFESSOR Memories of Youth and Living and Working in Papua New Guinea

PROLOGUE

My destiny to serve in Papua New Guinea may have been set from the time I was born during World War II. This account therefore also covers the formative first 18 years of my life that seemed to inevitably steer me towards becoming a Forestry Cadet and my employment in Papua New Guinea.

World War II and post War to December 1949

My father John (“Jack”) Davidson and uncle Bruce (“Davo”) Davidson both served in the 6 Machine Gun Battalion (6 MGB) during World War II (WW II). The Battalion War Diary1 and a book by Campbell published in 20072 record the deployment of the 6 MGB to New Guinea. The Battalion embarked on the TSS Taroona at Townsville at 6.00 AM on 31 July 1943 and disembarked at “Scaramouche”, the then wartime code name for Port Moresby, on 2 August 1943. The Battalion immediately proceeded to camp “Pom Pom Valley” some distance out of Port Moresby near “Wards Strip”. Between 9 August and 2 September, “A” Company 6 MGB, including Sergeant (Sgt) Davidson, conducted exercises on the “Brown River Track”. The next move of the Battalion was to “Donadobu Camp” on the high country of the Sogeri plateau for “jungle training”. The troops frequently asked the trainers “Where’s the jungle?” while they were surrounded by eucalypts in an Australian-like savannah woodland setting!

From 24 October 1943, 6 MGB came under the command of 7 Australian Division as “attached troops”. Early on the morning of 11 November 1943, Sgt John Davidson and the rest of A Company boarded trucks in darkness to travel to Jacksons field, arriving there just as a plane crashed killing 12 waiting

American troops. Others, including Lance Corporal (L Cpl) Bruce Davidson of C Company, marched to the nearby Wards Strip. By 6 AM, they were airborne with the rest of HQ, A, B and C Companies of 6 MGB in one of eventually a formation of 26 C-47 Dakota (wartime Douglas DC3) aircraft departing out of both Jacksons and Ward strips and heading to Gusap in the Ramu Valley to provide support to 7 Division. For many of the men it was their first flight in an aircraft. Heavy equipment other than their machine guns was left behind with D Company in Port Moresby.

Around 8.30 AM, the 26 aircraft landed one after another on a short, linked-steel matting “Emergency” strip at the US frontline Gusap Aerodrome during a “Red Alert”, a bombing raid by Japanese aircraft. The very next day, 12 November, the first 6 MGB foot patrol of about 30 men armed with Bren guns, Owen guns and rifles, plus native carriers, moved from Gusap into the Finisterre Range east of “Shaggy Ridge” to locate Japanese positions. On 13 November, A Company moved into the perimeter of the aerodrome and started digging machine gun positions. Japanese reaction was swift. On 15 November, the first enemy air raid was made on the Battalion positions at Gusap aerodrome. The War Diary recorded “25 enemy bombers and fighters attack Gusap Drome. 30 bombs dropped, 20 enemy aircraft destroyed, one enemy aircraft crashed in the vicinity of Hinnigia.”

The assigned task of 6 MGB at Gusap Aerodrome, the main runways of which were then still under construction by American engineers, was to set up their Vickers Medium Machine Guns (MMGs) in fixed emplacements to add to the ground defenses of the 871st US Airborne Engineers and US Bofors 40 mm anti-aircraft battery troops already recently deployed there. There were unpopular but strict Routine Orders for the 6 MGB men not to shoot their Vickers MMGs at enemy aircraft on the assumption that the Japanese would be able to plot their fixed gun positions from the air ahead of a ground attack. The Australian troops lived in foxholes under two-man open-sided shelter tents and mainly ate hard tack biscuits and bully beef and drank tea. Each of A, B and C Companies rotated in turn through three activities: i) Gusap aerodrome and 6 MGB Base Camp perimeter land defense from the fixed Vickers MMG positions, ii) armed infantry foot patrols (with rifles, Owen guns and Bren guns, but without the heavy machine guns) into the very steep country of the Finisterre Range in the vicinity of Shaggy Ridge and in adjacent areas to the east of it to hamper Japanese infiltration and out-flanking manœuvres, and iii) rest in the 6 MGB Base Camp located on the bank of the Ramu River west of Gusap Aerodrome. The great advantage of being in a camp next to the Americans was the seemingly endless supply of equipment such as bush knives, axes and much appreciated US style knee-length gaiters, as well as food such as dehydrated potatoes, canned beef stew (called “coagulated transmission fluid” by the US troops!) and unlimited cigarettes. Entertainment was available in the form of US concert parties and movies at a

primitive outdoor theatre, where, sometimes, large numbers of insects attracted by the light clogged up the projector, prematurely terminating the show.

The Gusap airfield facilities were bombed and strafed almost every day and night by Japanese bomber and fighter aircraft operating out of airfields at and near Wewak.3 Sometimes the Battalion Base Camp itself near the Ramu River also received similar attention, as it did on 20 November 1943, when six bombs were dropped, two falling near personnel, but there were no casualties.

Bathing in the river was a luxury after a stint in the jungle and stories have been told of naked gunners running into the 2 m tall kunai on the river bank to take cover from strafing by low flying Japanese Zero fighter aircraft. On 12 November about 50 high explosive and incendiary bombs were dropped in the vicinity of C Company while they were in base camp. One kitchen, a canvas shelter and some personal kit were destroyed but there were no casualties among the troops

Locations in Papua and New Guinea during World War II, with Gusap and Shaggy Ridge shown in the enlarged inset. Source: Bradley P 2004 On Shaggy Ridge: the Australian Seventh Division in the Ramu Valley: from Kaiapit to the Finisterres. Oxford University Press, UK.

Patrols by 6 MGB into the Finisterre Range continued through November and December 1943. These patrols of up to 30 or more troops supported by native carriers repeatedly moved through many villages, mainly east of a line joining Dumpu and Shaggy Ridge, to deny them being reoccupied by the enemy. On the Gusap River, which flowed out of the mountains to the south and west to join the Ramu River, the villages included Gusap itself, Hingia, Waterbong, Bankokono (about 790 m above sea level), Butemo (1,220 m), Galowi, Kalapasi (1,830 m), Dana (1,700 m), and Sewe (2,300 m). On the Buru River headwaters lying to the west of the Gusap River, villages included Wamunti (2,260 m)4 , Ario, Wankin, and Serina. Further west again in the headwaters of Tunguat River, villages included Topin, Gomumu, Boine, Goilo, Kototuto and Simbo.5 Tracks were steep and muddy from the almost daily rain. The rough, deeply incised terrain meant that the horizontal distance from one village to the next as shown on maps and sketches meant little compared to the time taken or distance actually travelled on foot, often in the order of a factor of four or five times or more.

The log bridges over small streams, while easily traversed by natives in bare feet, were treacherous for the troops in army boots. Dangerous snakes were also a problem as the troops on patrol usually slept on banana leaves on the ground with only a rain-soaked mosquito net tucked around them. There was never any bathing or clothes washing and outer clothes were never changed while on patrol. When these clothes were falling apart as a result of the combination of sweat and mildew that

4 For most of the gunners who came from east and northeastern NSW at near sea level, the patrols at the higher elevations in the Finisterre Range were a new and unpleasant experience. As examples, both Sewe (2,300 m) and Wamunti (2,260 m) were higher than Mt Kosciuszko (the highest point in Australia at 2,228 m), and a quarter of the height of Mt Everest (the highest mountain on earth at 8,841 m). Higher elevations of over 2,500 m were often reached by the patrols when crossing over razor-like spurs from one headwaters valley into the next. Being very cold and wet at night became the norm at these elevations. Ever-damp army wool blankets and towels were cut in half to save weight!

5 Of these villages, a few with the same name still exist today, including Bopirumpu, Gomumu, Wamunti, Bakokona, Butemu, Dana and Sewe, though perhaps in slightly different locations to those shown on wartime sketches. The lesser number of current-day villages may be because of amalgamation after the War or people moving down out of the mountains over time. The present-day more-permanent settlement of Gusap, on flat land surrounded by oil palm plantations, is closer to the Ramu River than was the wartime “Gusap Village”.

rotted the stitching and cloth, new ones were issued when back at Base Camp. Malaria and dengue fever were rife, with up to 80 percent of the gunners affected during their deployment to New Guinea. Ringworm, dermatitis and tinea were ever-present. The green dye used on their clothes was blamed for aggravating the dermatitis.

Shaggy Ridge was captured from the Japanese on 27 December 1943. A Company (with Sgt Davidson) was relieved by C Company (with L Cpl Davidson) at Waterbong on 28 December and the former returned to Gusap on 29 December to begin a short rest period. On arrival of A Company back at Gusap, Sgt Davidson was handed a telegram sent by his mother stating that he now had a son John born at Karoola Private Hospital in Kempsey. On 30 December he received two letters written by his wife Reba from her hospital bed in December attempting to describe whom I looked like. In the post also were Christmas cards from home and two cakes from Reba meant for Christmas but enjoyed in late and emotional celebration nevertheless. On 2 January 1944 Sgt Davidson wrote home to his parents about being “away in the hills”6 before receiving the belated birth news, also about the delayed Christmas celebrations, and his optimism that maybe the War would be over by the end of 1944!

villages. The Australian troops in PNG rarely came across the notes as the Japanese usually took what food and other goods they wanted by force and without payment.

Sgt Davidson’s rest period ended on 7 January 1944, when, at 8.20AM, A Company marched out to relieve B Company in the airstrip perimeter defenses. On 15 January, five enemy fighters were recorded flying over the Battalion’s area and a US P-40 (Kittyhawk) crashed at Dumpu. A 6 MGB patrol located the wreck but the American pilot had been killed. The remains were recovered and collected by a Piper

Cub (small unarmed single-engine plane). The plane’s tire went flat but, after stuffing the flat tire with grass, a successful takeoff was made. On the same day, after the 6 MGB had been in New Guinea and rained upon relentlessly for nearly five months, the Australian Army Command issued plastic covers to keep the soldiers’ very important pay books dry!

Patrolling continued into February 1944. One patrol on entering a village observed an estimated 200 Japanese leaving from the other side. A Company patrolled to Dana from 4 to 6 February and reported Japanese still in the vicinity but no contact was made. “Tokyo Rose” the Japanese propaganda wireless broadcaster announced “The boys at Gusap don’t know what real bombing is like – yet!”

Nevertheless, by the third week in February, the Japanese ground troops had withdrawn from the Finisterre Range towards the north coast and Madang. Over the period 9 – 21 February, Divisions of 15 Militia Brigade relieved 7 Division, with its attached 6 MGB. At last orders arrived for the 6 MGB to leave what had become known as “Death Valley”. On 22 February A Company received the order: “You will evacuate all, repeat all, troops from Bankokono to Waterbong 22 February.” Two days later A Company, including Sgt Davidson, arrived at their Gusap Battalion Headquarters camp. On 25 February, 7 Division sent the following signal: “37 Aircraft necessary to move 6 Machine Gun Battalion Gusap to Buna. Kindly arrange movement.”

From 1 - 5 March 1944 the 6 MGB flew in several flights of Dakotas from Gusap to Dobodura via a stopover near Jacksons Field and a few days in Port Moresby. Dobodura was located east of Popondetta and 15 miles (about 24 km) SSW of Buna on Oro Bay. By this time west of Dobodura a huge complex of 15 airfields had been constructed by Australian and American engineers. On arrival the troops proceeded to Semina Camp.

On 12 March, HQ, A and B Companies of the 6 MGB travelled by road to Buna port where 420 gunners embarked on the TSS Katoomba. On 15 March TSS Katoomba arrived in Milne Bay to take on fresh water and other supplies. The ship departed Milne Bay on 17 March and arrived in Townsville on 19 March. The men were staged for a few hours at Julago Camp before boarding a train that left that same day. Two days later, 21 March, the unit arrived in Brisbane and was staged at Kalinga Camp. On 24 –25 March the Battalion travelled to Sydney by train where they were granted 24 days leave. On arrival at Central Station the men had to make their way out to the Sydney Showground at Moore Park to collect their 24-day leave passes. For my father, it was back to Central Station, still carrying all his gear, and on a train back north to Kempsey. In Kempsey he was reunited with Reba and met and held me, aged just

over three months, for the first time. On 4 April 1944, I was christened at the Presbyterian Church in Kempsey.

After leave ended on 20 April, 6 MGB troops returned to Wallgrove Camp, near Rooty Hill, West of Parramatta, where some members were discharged. Meanwhile, allied troops entered Madang on 24 April 1944, bringing to a close major fighting on the north coast of New Guinea. Sgt Davidson remained at Wallgrove Camp until 30 July 1944 when he was transferred to 1 Australian Base Depot Personnel labeled “General Reinforcements” and taken on “holding strength”.

On 7 August 1944 Sgt Davidson was transferred from to 21 Australian Infantry Training Battalion (AITB) and almost immediately again transferred to 16 AITB from 11 August 1944. He remained in the 16 AITB until discharged from the AIF, which “took effect” on 4 November 1944, by reason of “being required for employment in an essential occupation”. He had spent just over five years and seven months in the Army (“233 days overseas” in New Guinea) from the time he volunteered “for five years” back in March 1939. He, Reba and me settled on the Plummer (Reba’s parents’) dairy farm at Clybucca, near Kempsey NSW, “dairy farming” being one of the designated “essential occupations”. The household became an “extended family”, typical of rural life at the time, comprising

my grandparents on my mother’s side William and Emily Plummer, an uncle William Plummer Jnr, dad, mum and me.

The surrender of Japan was announced on 15 August 1945, bringing the hostilities of WW II to a close. From 31 August 1945, PNG was administered as a single Territory under the League of Nations as the “United Nations Trust Territory of Papua and New Guinea. The formal surrender of Japanese forces in the SW Pacific took place on HMS Glory in Rabaul Harbour on 6 September 1945.

Christmas 1945 was a happy one for the Davidsons. The War was over and both brothers John and Bruce had survived. However, my uncle Bruce was still overseas in Borneo on garrison duties with 2/31 Battalion My parents and me spent Christmas Day 1945 with my grandparents at “Gowan Brae”, Maria River (near Kundabung, southeast of Kempsey NSW) (left)

On 31 January 1946 long-serving personnel of 2/31 Battalion in Borneo were offered the opportunity to return to Australia as an alternative to garrison duty in Japan. They, including my uncle Bruce, embarked on HMAS Kanimbla and landed in Brisbane in February 1946, where the 2/31 Battalion disbanded in the first week of March. Bruce and his wife Mary moved to Kundabung where Bruce started work in the timber industry near Wauchope. This was perhaps another extraneous link that later sparked my interest in forestry.

Though the War had ended, sugar rationing continued until 3 July 1947. Clothing and meat rationing continued until 24 June 1948. Petrol, butter and tea rationing continued well into 1950. I remember when the butter ration arrived it was divided into individual portions for each person and kept separate in the refrigerator. From time to time eggs, and milk were also rationed but did not affect those living on dairy farms who normally also kept poultry. Sandwiches were made with beef dripping instead of butter. Tripe and white sauce, carrots, onions and boiled potatoes were common fare. Crumbed ox brains and crumbed ox liver fried in lard fat were served up at our home on many occasions.

For returned servicemen, the Australian Government on 3 March 1946 deposited money in an interestbearing War Gratuity Fund earning 3¼% compound interest per annum for the next five years. For my father, this was initially a sum of £63-15-0 expected to yield £74-15-0 on 3 March 1951.

William Plummer (at right with me in 1947 in front of the then old milking shed and a black and white Friesian dairy cow) was one of numerous registered dairymen in the Kempsey district. Milk was separated and cream sent to Macleay River Co-operative Dairying Company factory at Frederickton to be made into butter and cheese. The non-cream fraction was fed on farm to pigs. Pig-raising back then was a valuable sideline for dairy farmers. Poultry and eggs were transported by ship to agents in the city and sold on the Sydney market. Another crop grown on the Plummer farm was potatoes, the cultivation and harvesting of which had provided plenty of loose soil near the house for me to play in when I was little!

Visible to the northeast from the farm at Clybucca was the Smoky Cape Lighthouse7 with its three flashes every 20 seconds at night. To the east, at a distance of only 5 km, the superstructures, funnels and smoke from ships operating on the Macleay River8 could be seen, especially if their passage coincided with a high tide.

There was a small post office at Clybucca in the yard of a nearby family’s home. Mail was received daily on weekdays and sorted into pigeonholes from where it had to be collected by the various addressees. There was a small manual telephone exchange in the post office, to which some half dozen households had a connection. My parents did not and had to walk about 200m to the post office to make a call. Calls in and out had to be connected by pushing plugs into the appropriate sockets by hand. Pairs of overhead copper wires along the Pacific Highway carried the calls north and south.

7 Smokey Cape Lighthouse still directs shipping to the entrance to the Macleay River just north of the lighthouse. It operated on pressurized kerosene until converted to electricity in 1962 and was automated from 1988.

8 From the 1890s to 1954, ships of the North Coast Steam and Navigation Company ran a regular service from Sydney to Kempsey along the Macleay River. In 1954 M Bern Shipping Company purchased several of the ships and continued the service but only as far as Smithtown to carry freight to and from the Nestlé factory. This service too ended in 1959 when Nestlé switched to the more reliable railways freight service through Kempsey. The prominent navigation aids of lights and black and white marker boards at intervals along the banks of the river soon disappeared.

The immediate post-war years were tough on the farm. My dad suffered from frequent bouts of malaria and periodic “nightmares”, which today would be diagnosed as posttraumatic stress disorder. The only remedy for both then was shot of brandy, a Bex9 and bed rest. He also still smoked heavily, a habit encouraged during his military service

“to help calm the nerves” under combat conditions.

Draft horses provided the power for cropping. One horse was able to pull a single mouldboard plough or a single-row planting machine for planting corn (maize). The plough turned over the top layer of soil, which was meant to bring nutrients back to the surface and to bury weeds. Further ground preparation involved horse-drawn rolling and harrowing. The corn planter opened a furrow, dropped a measured amount of fertilizer, usually superphosphate, from one large bin with a rotating slotted plate at the bottom, and several grains (usually 1-3) of corn at intervals from a smaller bin controlled by an exchangeable horizontally rotating flat plate placed at the bottom of the planter’s seed box. The operator walked behind, steered the horse with a pair of long reins and kept the machine upright and in line with a pair of long handles. Timber “slides” were used for transporting goods. These were made on farm. The sizes of the slides intended to be drawn by a single draft horse varied from about 1.5 to 2 m long, and 1 to 2 m wide. The length of a bale of hay or two 10-gallon milk cans side by side indicated a good width. The deck was timber, comprising boards running lengthwise. Timber runners on the sides were 20-30 cm high when installed. These gradually wore down with use until there was insufficient ground clearance then they were replaced. Preferred hard woods for the runners were Tallowwood (Eucalyptus microcorys) and Iron Bark (E. crebra). A chain was attached to the outside of each runner. The chain ran to the middle of a wooden single-tree wooden spreader bar the ends of which kept the two load pulling trace chains apart behind the horse. A two-wheel cart hitched to a horse was also used for transport but because the large diameter wheels and resulting height of the tray above the ground made manual loading of heavy objects difficult, it usually was used for lighter goods like corn on the cob and hay.

The Clybucca house had electricity but only in a rudimentary fashion. There was one light globe and shade suspended from the ceiling in the centre of each room with a single black bakelite toggle switch near the door. At first there was only one power point in the house comprising a black bakelite three-pin socket and separate switch plus a red safety light globe in a wire cage to indicate when the power was

9Bex was a strong compound analgesic that was popular in Australia for much of the twentieth century. It came in the form of APC (aspirin–phenacetin–caffeine) tablets or a powder in folded paper sachets, containing 42% aspirin, 42% phenacetin, plus caffeine. A Cup of Tea, a Bex and a Good Lie Down became a common catchphrase. However, phenacetin was proved a highly addictive pain killer and later was linked to high rates of kidney disease, resulting in a ban in over-the-counter sales in Australia from1977.

on. This was mainly used for ironing. Wiring was all individual strands, copper with woven fabric covering, two wires for lights, three for power, all enclosed in rigid black metal conduits in the ceiling and walls. There were frequent “brown-outs” and “black-outs”.10

The toilet was outside and the waste collected in a drum underneath. When the drum was full it was taken out into the paddock by my dad and the contents tipped into a hole. In small towns the “dunny men” (night-soil men) collected the drums from the backyard outhouses and put them on a specially configured truck, replacing them with empty buckets, a very smelly and unpleasant job.

There was no electricity at this time for the milking shed. The six-stall (three pairs) milking bails were powered by a 6 HP stationery water-cooled C S Lister diesel engine. This crank-handle manually started engine drove alternatively the vacuum pump for the milking machine, the cream separator or the water pump that lifted wash water from a nearby well. This was achieved by changing the drive belt across separate pulleys by hand to drive each machine one at a time. I can remember milk being squirted into cups of tea directly from the cow’s teat! The tea ended up with froth on top like a cappuccino!

For the second time in three months a severe flood in August 1949 impacted Kempsey and the Macleay Valley. After the others of the household had left driving the cattle to high ground, my grandmother and me were left behind in our house with the intention of staying put. However, after more rain in the Macleay River headwaters followed nearly a metre of rain in July, the River at Kempsey was rising 5 feet (about 1.5 m) every three hours and floodwaters were rapidly rising around the house at Clybucca. My grandmother and me and one suitcase were rescued by motorboat as the floodwaters lapped the top step of the house. We were taken through swiftly flowing water to high ground on Clybucca Hill. The water rose to a level of almost 1.3 m above the floorboards in the house, enough to destroy almost everything inside. I recall it was just high enough to cover the keys of our upright piano even though it had been stood on four bricks, the best that could be managed given its weight. The piano was thrown out, thus permanently ending any attempts I was making at playing it. Some of the losses were irreplaceable including a drawer full of photographic negatives and prints. There was no insurance carried in those days. As the waters were subsiding, an Army “duck”11 delivering relief supplies broke through the wooden bridge outside our house.12 The flood washed away 53 houses and businesses in the

10 The reliability of the electricity supply at Clybucca did not improve much until the early 1970’s, after the Snowy Mountains Hydroelectricity Scheme was finished.

11 A colloquial pronunciation of DUKW, not an acronym but the manufacturer's code for a type of military wheeled amphibious landingcraft based on the chassis of an American 2½ ton truck (D meant 1942, U meant utility (amphibious), K meant all-wheel drive, W meant two powered rear axles).

12 This timber plank bridge was replaced soon after with a 2-bay concrete culvert poured on site.

middle of Kempsey. Many more were wrecked and either unusable or uninhabitable. Eleven people died (six in Kempsey). The damage bill ran to more than two million pounds in the currency of the day, the most expensive disaster in the State’s history until then. 15,000 cattle were lost. Most drowned in the Valley. Many dead livestock were washed out to sea to be cast up on north coast beaches over the following days. Other carcasses were gathered up from the receding waters by army ducks and towed to places of burial. Some 2,000 were buried in a trench at Clybucca by a large group of volunteers working mainly with hand tools.

An Army “duck” is shown towing the carcasses of drowned cattle down river for burial after the flood of August 1949.

(Photograph: Macleay River Historical Society.)

One drowned long-horned steer had its head thrust through a fibro13 panel on the back verandah of our house. When the flood receded it hung there with its full weight supported by its neck and horns. It proved difficult to remove because of its weight, requiring the head to be severed from the body.

After World War II there were many pilots flying around in Tiger Moth aircraft, often doing stunts over various farms around the Macleay where presumably relatives or loved ones lived. These stunts included spiral dives and loops at low altitude. I remember one fatal crash not too far from the farm at Clybucca. There is a poor quality photograph in our collection of a Tiger Moth aircraft parked on the ground near the milking shed at Clybucca pre-1949. My mother had a flying helmet and goggles, which indicated she might have gone for flights in the open passenger cockpit of a Tiger Moth or similar aircraft pre-war but never mentioned it. I ended up playing with the helmet and goggles in the early 1950s.

Holden cars were manufactured in Australia from 1948. The Russians blockaded West Berlin from July 1948 in an attempt to force the allies from the city. An airlift of food and supplies that lasted for eleven months caused the Soviets to back down in May 1949. In the same year a civil war in China ended with

13 “Fibro” was an asbestos cement-sheeting product typically containing 10 to 15% asbestos fibre (sometimes up to 40%) manufactured by James Hardie and Company until the mid-1980s. When cut and drilled during construction or exposed unpainted to weather and wear and tear, toxic airborne particles and fibres were produced which later were related to life-threatening diseases including asbestosis and pleural mesothelioma. The house at Clybucca had painted fibro extensions filling in parts of the north and east facing verandahs in which my brothers and I slept, and the unlined outside toilet and laundry shed were clad in unpainted fibro with fibro battens covering joins.

the communists establishing government on the mainland. The first soviet atomic test took place in September 1949. These events which marked the beginning of the “Cold War” caused a great deal of concern at home with my dad worried that he might be called up in another shooting war. The Menzies government was elected in 1949 on a platform that included banning the Communist Party, but that did not happen.

My mother and I made the journey by steam train to Sydney to visit my grandparents who had recently retired from farming and moved from Maria River to Hornsby to occupy a house in Bellbrook Avenue (right) that they had won in an art union. There were trips into the city by electric train from Hornsby over the Harbour Bridge and into the underground to disembark at Wynyard Station. I came home with a Hornby wind-up train set.

My grandparents made a reciprocal visit back to the Macleay near the end of 1949 and my grandfather brought a small signal to go with my train set. Unfortunately, my grandfather passed away on 9 December 1949, aged only 58 years.

My mother corresponded with a British war widow and her son of my age and regularly sent food parcels to them in Britain in the late 1940s. At Christmas in 1949 I received from them a UK-made metal construction kit about 25 cm long of a pale blue and black MG two-seat open sports car that had to be assembled with small bolts and nuts.

Post WW II the Department of Main Roads began extensive upgrades of the Pacific Highway.14 Along the Clybucca flat the 1949 floods were 20 – 25 feet (about 6 to 7.5 m) over the highway, so the Clybucca flat section 14

20 km north of Kempsey rose to the top of the priority list for upgrade. The highway was raised and widened. A lot of manual labour was used to break up large rocks with knapping hammers. Rocks that were too hard to break were rolled to the side of the road and left there. Graders were army surplus towed types with one operator on board. The towing vehicle for the grader was usually a small war surplus bulldozer of US manufacture. There were smooth steel drum and “sheep’sfoot” rollers towed by wheeled agricultural tractors. These rollers, which were hollow, were filled with

14The Pacific Highway was proclaimed in 1931. Sealing was not completed until 1958 (at Koorainghut south of Taree). Between 1950 and 1967, traffic on the Pacific Highway quadrupled. Until 1990 most road freight carried between Brisbane and Sydney was via the New England Highway, because of mostly easier grades and more straight stretches of road compared with the then coastal route.

water to add weight to improve their compaction ability. Steamrollers were used when available. After much preparation a bitumen seal protected by a thin layer of aggregate was applied. The sharp rightangle bend at the north end of the bridge over Clybucca Creek was eliminated by excavation of what was then a large cutting through the hill straight ahead, eliminating the narrow climbing road that formerly ran up past the Clybucca School, with its original short stretch of bitumen just in front of the school only, presumably to cut down on dust.

Towed grader similar to the type used at Clybucca. The operator stood on a platform between the two large hand wheels. (Source: Page 116, Petts R C and Jones T E. Transportation Research Record 1291.)

Towed “sheeps-foot” roller. The bung in the end was used to fill the hollow barrel with water to increase its weight and in turn its compaction ability. Smooth steel drum rollers were similar but without the feet.

Below: Steamroller similar to the type used on the Pacific highway and rural roads in the Macleay valley in 1949 and into the early 1950s.

The School, the sawmill and small settlement near the sawmill were connected in a shortcut to the highway with a new piece of road just north of the end of the cutting. From the School northwards the old main road remained to make a second connection with the diverted highway.

Primary School, Clybucca, 1950 to 1955

A new teacher arrived at the Clybucca Public School15 in early 1950. The school had one teacher and a single classroom to accommodate pupils in primary years 1 – 6. The teacher Colin Roy Campbell had three children of his own and set out to scour the district to gather in pupils, several of who were missing out on an education post WW II. My father was one of those approached in late March 1950 to enquire why I, though aged over six, had not started school. I believe my parents were both worried about war breaking out again and were waiting until I turned seven at the end of 1950 hopefully to be sent to school in 1951. The teacher prevailed and I started school after Easter 1950 at the age of six years and three months.16 My first day at school was on Tuesday 11 April 1950. There were eight of us in first class and we were all re-started on the curriculum from scratch from my first day, an amazing concession to accommodate my late start. We rapidly moved forward, catching up to where we all should have been within about a month. The remaining pupils were a motley collection of ages and backgrounds occupying classes 2 – 6 (photograph). Most of them had been born during WW II or just before. The teacher’s wife instructed the girls in needlework for one afternoon a week while the boys did craft, which involved basket weaving, making decorated cardboard magazine folders and the like.

There was no artificial heating or cooling in the school. It was very cold in winter and very hot in summer. The sash windows on each side could be opened in summer, which allowed some air movement through the classroom. Most of the pupils attended school without shoes.17 The boys mostly wore shorts in both winter and summer. I liked shorts with bibs and braces (see photograph).

I still remember the strong smell of eucalyptus in the schoolroom. This was used as a disinfectant when the bare floorboards of the school were mopped each weekend. The toilets were outside pit-toilets, the one for girls about 40 metres from the school building, the one for boys almost 100 metres away. They always smelled of cresol a water-soluble distillate of wood and coal that was used as a disinfectant back then to try and mask the more unpleasant odour from the pit. The concentrate came as a black viscous liquid that turned to a white solution when diluted with water. There was no toilet paper issued in the school supplies and a roster was set up for pupils to bring toilet rolls from home. This was a request that caused some angst among local parents since in most homes at that time the outside toilet was stocked with squares of newspaper hung on a nail!

15 Clybucca School operated as a public school from 1891 – 1970.

16 There was no kindergarten or pre-school back then; not starting school until age six did not seem to affect pupils’ subsequent academic performance.

17 I did not wear shoes on a regular basis until I started high school. I walked barefoot even on frost on the ground in winter.

When I started school, my dad took up a school run in our early model Chevrolet truck (like the preserved one at left, only with a longer flat tray back and low drop sides). Students met at our farm usually by riding bicycles or delivered by their parents. The journey in the truck by road was just over two miles, which meant dad would be paid for the service to deliver students in the morning and pick them up for the return trip in the afternoon. We travelled in the open on the tray at the back sitting on two low stools (about 20 cm high), one across the front and one lengthways down the middle. The sides around the tray were only 30 cm high. There was a roster for three students to sit on the bench seat alongside the driver in the wooden cab that had roll-down canvas blinds for doors. In wet weather a tarpaulin was spread over a pole on the back. In retrospect this was a potentially dangerous way to travel for the pupils on the open tray at the back, but there was no disobeying the edict to remain seated, and no one ever fell off over the six years this mode of school travel operated.

Some pupils from nearer the school rode horses and there was a horse paddock on part of the school grounds where the horses were kept during school hours. Sometimes there were two pupils riding on one horse. Horses were very tame and usually were ridden bareback with a bridle only, no saddle.

In June 1950 the north coast of NSW was again experiencing disastrous flooding only eight months after the previous one, with two people killed in Grafton, and 9,000 were made homeless.

The Korean War began on 25 June 1950. Australia was one of 21 nations that joined a UN force assembled soon after the attack by North Korea on South Korea. At the same time Australia became involved in the Malayan Emergency when RAAF units arrived in Singapore. We were very much aware of these events both at home and at school.

The cane was used liberally, especially on the older pupils, for the first two years. Thereafter, it was used hardly at all. The cane sat on two nails above the blackboards at the front of the classroom as a constant reminder of what would happen if any pupil stepped out of line. In mid-December 1950

Clybucca Parents and Citizens held a Christmas tree function in the local Memorial Hall. I received a book prize from the School. Santa Claus (one of the parents dressed up in a not-very-convincing costume with face mask) put in an appearance to hand out the presents that had been placed under a substantial decorated she oak tree. My present in 1950 was a high-end Meccano set in a big red metal box. There were ice cream cups dispensed from a large green canvas insulated container kept cold with dry ice. The tree was cleared away later to provide room for dancing with music provided by a small three-person orchestra. A supper was provided. This event became a yearly occurrence.

Left: The Clybucca Memorial Hall was built with voluntary contributions of labour and materials on Plummer land after WW I to commemorate young men from the lower Macleay, including John Plummer (below), who were killed during that War. Large framed black and white photographic portraits of the men hung on the wall above the stage. Below the photographs was mounted a captured German machine gun.

Right: My great uncle Lieutenant John Plummer’s portrait. Copies hung in the Clybucca Memorial Hall and also in our nearby family home. Lt Plummer, 19 Australian Infantry Battalion, was awarded the Military Cross for his action on 8 August 1918, in an attack east of Villers Bretonneux, near Amiens, capturing a total of 5 machine guns and 2 trench mortars and taking 55 German prisoners. He showed similar courage in an attack on Rainecourt on 11 August. He was killed in action on 31 August 1918, just 10 weeks before the War ended.

In 1951, the old much scarred and initialed fixed wrought iron and wooden lift-top desks were removed from the school to be replaced by moveable tables and chairs. These came in sets of one table and two chairs. There were six sizes from very small for Grade 1 to the largest for Grade 6. There was room in the single classroom at Clybucca for only six rows, one row of each size.

Social Studies included studies of aboriginal life. Being next to a sawmill and native forests, we made full-size bark canoes and constructed gunyahs18 in the school grounds. For Nature Study we raised silkworms through their life stages and grew beans from seed on damp blotting paper in glass jars.

At home a new milking shed with unpainted fibro internal lining19 and a wood plank barn were constructed during the recovery period following the severe floods. The new milking shed was connected to three-phase electric power from the outset, but because of the likelihood of frequent blackouts the Lister diesel engine was transferred from the old site to serve as a backup. On the farm 1951 also saw the purchase of a Massey Ferguson TE20 tractor called “the little grey” because of its “battleship grey” colour. An Austin truck was purchased, also battleship grey in colour, for farm use. This new truck also took over the twice-daily school run. Both were products of the industrial recovery in Britain after WW II. Also seen on the road at the time were battleship grey British Standard Vanguard cars. One of the issues with the grey colour, which apparently was a result of using up surplus stocks of wartime paint in Britain, was that it faded quickly under Australian conditions.

The old Chevrolet truck was retired to the local Jim Swan’s sawmill across the road from the School and it served out many years carting sawdust away from the mill to a pile some 300 metres away (there were no teepee or beehive wood waste incinerators around at the time). The constant noise from the sawmill easily reached the School but did not seem to cause any disruption. We were fascinated by the intermittent operation of an early model two-man chainsaw.

In 1951 the Commonwealth Schools’ Free Milk Scheme was introduced. This provided 1/3 of a pint (about 190 ml) of whole milk per day for each primary school pupil in Australia. At our school the open metal crate of milk in glass bottles with aluminium caps was delivered in the morning before school and left sitting in the hot morning sun on the schoolmaster’s east-facing house verandah until 9.00 AM then taken into the shade behind the school until the playtime break. By that time usually it had spoiled and tasted terrible. Each day I had to find an opportunity to secretly tip it out while avoiding punishment for not drinking it! School lunches from home fared not much better in summer. Left outside in containers on the school verandah the dripping or butter in the sandwiches turned oily and most of the fillings of the day like tomato, cheese and peanut butter became soggy and unpalatable. Many of the lunches were uneaten and thrown off the back of the truck on the way home.

The annual Agricultural Show was back in action in Kempsey. I found the aeroplane ride (right) especially exciting though the image here riding with one of my cousins in the rear seat seems to indicate more of a genuine “white-knuckle” experience! A square of paper was thrown on the mesh in front of the propeller to make a realistic aeroplane engine sound.

A series of atomic weapons tests was conducted in Australia at the request of the British Government between 1952 and 1956. Twelve weapons were exploded in Australia, three at the Monte Bello Islands off north Western Australia and the remainder in the central desert regions of South Australia, at Emu Field and Maralinga near Woomera 800 km northwest of Adelaide.20 Hundreds of minor trials, mostly involving components of nuclear weapons, also took place in South Australia between 1953 and 1963. The prospect of nuclear war was on many minds in the early 1950’s exacerbated by what was happening in Korea. Every school child in NSW was given a folded four-page civil defence brochure (below) on what to do to protect oneself from a nuclear explosion. Although this was probably more applicable to

20 Monte Bello Islands: 3 October 1952, 16 May 1956, 19 June 1956; Emu Field and Maralinga: 15 October 1953, 27 October 1953; 27 September 1956, 4 October 1956, 11 October 1956, 22 October 1956, 14 September 1957, 25 September 1957, 9 October 1957. Maralinga was 54 km north of Ooldea in the Great Victoria Desert, SA. Seven atomic bombs were detonated at the site, one twice the size of the Hiroshima bomb dropped on Japan near the end of WW II. “Minor trials” included setting fire to or blowing up with TNT samples of plutonium to see the result!

Sydney and other capital cities, at Clybucca School we did practise some diving under our desks to protect ourselves from blast and flying window glass! We were warned that even though we might be hundreds of kilometers from a blast we might still have to deal with fall-out of radioactive dust for days after.

Above and left: Contents of a folded brochure issued by the then NSW Civil Defence Organisation and distributed to every pupil at our school in 1952.

After the completion of the new milking bails, a switch was made from producing cream to the supply of whole milk twice a day to the Nestlé factory in Smithtown, one of the products being canned condensed milk another milo. Pig raising was phased out. The factory provided subsidized mobile veterinary services and subsidized Nestlé milk products like canned powdered milk to its participating farmers. Also available free was clinker and ash from the coal burned in the factory’s boilers, that could be used on farm on tracks and boggy areas instead of gravel.

King George VI died on 6 February 1952. News was coming to us at home by radio on a new His Masters Voice radiogram in a stylish wood veneer cabinet with a lid on the top. This was made in Australia so had on the glass backlit tuning panel all the Australian stations identified by their codes (for example 2KM for Kempsey21) and a scale for shortwave bands. Wireless signals received in the countryside were weak and we had an outside dipole wire aerial strung between two very tall wooden poles about 30 metres apart and at right angles to about the northeasterly direction. We had to tune to shortwave to listen to the BBC from London to follow the test cricket. For Australian national news we used shortwave to listen to the ABC transmitting from Sydney or Brisbane. The gramophone part played 78 rpm records with a steel stylus that wore down and had to be replaced every 20 or so records. Reproduction was very scratchy and records were hard to keep scratch and dust free.

From January 1952 I had a brother, Robert. He is pictured at left with his mum in front of our near-new grey Austin truck that was now also the family’s main means of conveyance after the Flying Standard motorcar was sold. This truck was being used also for the twice-daily school run.

The Clybucca School settled into a fairly constant routine from the beginning of 1952. The older pupils had left and there was a more balanced series of age classes matched to grade (photograph next page).

There was great deal of rote learning, with classes taking turns on the school verandah to chant out mathematics tables and the alphabet. Counting was to 100 by 1, 2s and 3s. Tables were from 2X to 10X to reach 100, 11X to 110 and 12X up to 144 (this was pre-decimal era, and many items were sold by the dozen (12), thus the 12X table). Division tables were similar. Mental arithmetic was a key subject in the curriculum. I have never forgotten these tables. The alphabet was learned phonetically also by rote (“Apple Ă, Ā says Ă, its name is Ā and the sound is Ă”, and so on for each letter up to Z, the letter in both upper and lower case was accompanied on the chart with a small picture: apple, bat, cat, etc.). Reading was accomplished by sounding out aloud any new words phonetically faster and faster, until in most cases the successive sounds almost spoke the word. Pupils had to learn to tell the time from the 12-hour round analog clock face. The government distributed school magazines that required different levels of reading expertise depending on which grade the pupil was in. Poems and songs had to be learned. It was quite an achievement for example to be able to recite from memory Henry Longfellow’s The Wreck of the

Hesperus which comprised 22 four-line stanzas, a total of almost 600 words! All this learning was done at school. There was no homework set.

One afternoon each week the school crowded into the teacher’s lounge room in his house to participate in an hour-long learning broadcast for songs that was received on his shortwave radio from the ABC and which followed a songbook that was issued at the start of the year to each pupil. According to the day of the week, workbooks for the various subjects were collected by the teacher and taken home by him for marking, grading and setting new work in the evening. They were returned next day. The teacher’s copperplate cursive handwriting examples written in our workbooks with the same steel nib pen we had to use was of an incredible standard. We had to try and copy these letters and words on the remainder of each line following the single examples given by the teacher at the beginning of the line.

The teacher kept pupils informed of major news items. In 1953 at our school these included the coronation of Elizabeth II on 2 June, an armistice in Korea on 27 July and the discovery of oil in the Exmouth Gulf in Western Australia announced on 4 December (left)

An afternoon each week was devoted to sports. Facilities were basic. The jump pit was filled with sawdust replenished periodically from the nearby sawmill. Lanes for running were marked out with used haybaling twine brought in by pupils. Events included flat races from 30 up to 100 yards (depending on age group), hop step and jump, broad jump and high jump and for teams rounders, tunnel ball and captain ball. All the events were undertaken on grass in bare feet. Each year there was a one-day Clybucca School Sports Carnival where in addition to the events mentioned above there were novelty events including sack, egg-and-spoon, three-legged and thread the needle races. Icecreams and litres of weak “Mynor” orange fruit juice cordial were served. The Lower Macleay Public Schools’ Amateur Athletics Association (PSAAA or PS3A) held an annual one-day sports carnival at the Kempsey Showground. Clybucca School excelled in these sports days. Two pupils stood out back then as individual athletesPeter and Janice King.

Shield of the Lower Macleay Public Schools’ Amateur Athletic Association (PS3A) presented to each pupil of the school as a “blue” after their 1952-53 win. It was meant for sewing on to a blazer pocket, but this one of mine never was since I did not have a suitable blazer! Pupils at Clybucca Primary School did not wear a day-to-day school uniform.

Pupils of Clybucca Primary School in 1953. There were twice as many girls as boys. All are in the school sports uniform of white shorts and white shirts with a gold ribbon vee and gold pocket shield. The photograph with trophies celebrated our multiple individual, team and school successes in the annual PS3A sports carnival. I am in the back row, on the right hand end, age 9 The sports uniform was the only type of uniform worn by the School, though briefly. Parents made the individual uniforms from purchased zip-up white shirts and elasticwaisted shorts. The Parents and Citizens Association funded the gold ribbon and screen-printed pocket shields.

Pupils used pencils for writing until entering Grade 4. Then it was time to convert to writing with ink.

Steel nib pens were issued comprising removable nibs inserted into holders with wooden handles. The black ink issued by the Government was mixed from a powder in water and was terrible. Parents were urged to supply a better quality “Swan” brand “triple filtered” blue and red ink in small bottles. This was decanted into inkwells inserted in each desktop. A marble sitting in the hole of the inkwell slowed evaporation of the ink. The pen could be dipped in past the marble. Pen wipes comprising several circles of soft cloth sewn through the middle with a button on each side had to be provided from home. There was insufficient blotting paper supplied so this also had to be supplemented from home. I remember the purchase of large green sheets (about 60 x 50 cm), which were cut into smaller rectangles to take to

school. Since I was left-handed the continuous use of blotting paper was required to prevent my writing hand smudging the wet ink.22

By this time I began to take an interest in reading at home. My parents had purchased a set of 10 volumes of Arthur Mee’s The Children’s Encyclopedia in 1950 (left) and by now I was reading parts of this often at the meal table while eating, a practice tolerated by my parents! This was interspersed with Batman, Superman and other comics of the time. My parents had a subscription to the National Geographic Magazine and I remember the colour photographs of the Coronation in 1953 as well as coverage of other events around the world.

On Friday 22 January 1954 the ABC started broadcasting from a new transmitting tower erected near Smithtown. The station designator was 2KP. Reception was good since we could see the top of the tower from home. At first only programs that were being broadcast in Sydney were repeated in real time through the local tower23but we were able to do without the large outdoor aerial.

On 19 May 1954 Vladimir Petrov, a Soviet diplomat and spy, sought and was granted asylum in Australia. Petrov provided documents and oral information about Soviet espionage activities in Australia to the Australian security service and a Royal Commission was established to inquire into the affair. This event was widely discussed at home and at the School.

At school the routine was one of constant competition with pupil pitted against pupil. This was very public with a small blackboard at the side of the room with pupils’ names and the points they had scored during the week. Points were awarded for both civic and academic achievements. An example of the first was the donation of used baling twine to repair the sport running lanes, of the second coming first in a spelling test. Workbooks were collected on a rotating schedule and marked and graded by the teacher overnight. The work was stamped with stars, 10 stars for “excellent”, then progressively down through 7 stars (“satisfactory”) to 5 stars (“unsatisfactory”). There were tests and more tests on everything. An Inspector of Schools visited several times a year and fired spelling and mathematics questions to pupils

22 Until I started school in 1950 it was policy of the NSW Department of Education to force left-handers to change to using their right hand for writing. After some observations on which hand I naturally favoured for a number of tasks and examination of wear on my shoes it was decided that I could continue to use my left hand for writing! Interestingly, later I held a cricket bat right-handed and played tennis left-handed!

23 It was another two years before an ABC studio was opened in Kempsey.

in turn around the school. Two or three plays were learned and performed each year. For the Inspector, the plays were performed with pupils usually in costume (put together by parents). All the points accumulated on the public blackboard. Each week the blackboard competition scores were assessed and the pupil in each Grade with the highest number of points received a star in a “Score Book”. Occasional ad hoc stars were awarded for exceptional performance, as determined by the teacher or inspector, and also for not missing any days at school during a term.

My Grade Six Score Book dated 27 September 1954 and with my assigned personal motto “I overcome difficulties”. This motto was kept throughout my days in primary school. At the end of my primary schooling in December 1955 this book, the last of several held over the six years at Clybucca School, held 112 stars accumulated over the previous 15 months

There was a daily timetable for each Grade setting out the subject to be done. Each pupil rigidly followed the set curriculum but with constant individual and competitive assessment it was possible for an individual to move ahead in the curriculum and ahead of others in the same Grade. In my case I was promoted from Grade Five to Grade Six in mid 1954 some six months ahead of normal which would have been at the beginning of the 1955 school year.

The Commonwealth Bank, back then the Australian Government’s bank, was operating in schools. Pupils had metal money bank tins in the shape of the bank’s head office in Sydney (right) and a bankbook in the name of a parent as trustee for the pupil. In my last year at Clybucca School in Sixth Grade in 1955 I was “Banking Officer”. Pupils brought in money each week, usually a penny or three pence (about 1 to 2.5

cents) and I entered the amount in their passbook (below) and initialed it and stamped the entry with a Commonwealth Bank date stamp.

A record of the transaction was kept in duplicate in a ledger sheet, the original of which was forwarded each week to the Bank branch in Kempsey along with the money. However, any money pupils put aside in their bank tin had to be taken in to a branch because a special tool was required to destructively prise off the top of the tin to extract the money. A new tin was issued after each deposit.

September 1955 saw the invasion of Australia by the Bald Iggle craze. An American cartoonist Alfred Capplin created the Bald Iggle character. Iggles appeared everywhere in Kempsey, especially drawn in chalk on footpaths.

“Clag” glue was the most common adhesive paste used in schools. It could be eaten, and often was, without any ill affects!

During primary school days most if not all children contracted measles. Many also experienced chickenpox. The discomfort of the rashes and the itching were soothed by frequent all-over liberal applications of pink calamine lotion. Many parents with more than one child in the household deliberately infected the remainder with measles and chicken pox by putting them in bed with the first infected individual. Another common childhood experience of the time was mumps. Elective surgery to remove tonsils and/or adenoids was routine among primary school pupils of the day. I was scared out of my wits on observing the trauma and immediate after effects of the operation on my schoolmates (not being able to eat solid food and drinking fluids through a straw for days!). My resistance must have been substantial and successful, since I still have my tonsils and adenoids!

In Sixth Grade I became interested in two pastimes. One was photography. My parents owned a 620-Kodak Box Brownie camera (left). Film for this camera had started to become readily available again after the War. I started to take black and white photographs with this camera and also to try and salvage some of the family’s negatives that had been inundated during the 1949 flood. I found that soaking the old negatives in water in the bathtub separated most of them with little damage then they could be re-dried. I was also able to wash off the fine mud that had dried on many of them.

For the new photographs my parents purchased for me a Kodak darkroom kit comprising a Kodacraft Roll-film developing tank with a 620 film apron, a Kodak Brownie darkroom safelight, thermometer, film clips and three small trays for solutions.

The exposed roll of film had to be loaded into the developing tank in total darkness, interleaving it with the plastic apron and discarding the paper backing and metal spool. The film was placed in the tank with a metal weight on it. Once the top was screwed on all the subsequent operations could be carried out in the light. The developed, fixed and washed negative strips were hung up to dry like washing on a line.

Since the 620-film negative was already fairly large there was no need for an enlarger in order to make small black and white prints about 6 x 4 cm in size. The kit contained a frame to hold a single negative in close contact with a sheet of similar size photographic paper. This frame with the negative upwards was briefly exposed to light to expose the paper underneath which was then taken into a darkened room, usually the bathroom with a blanket covering the window, and with the safelight on, where the positive print was developed, fixed and washed through the three trays and then hung up to dry.

My second pastime was an increasing interest in making model aircraft. Initially these were balsa and tissue paper models made from kits and meant to be able to be made to fly using a twisted rubber band for power. My first model was of a Spitfire with a wingspan of about 50 cm. Some of the parts had to be cut from a thin sheet with a razor blade (no laser pre-cut parts in those days!). The glue was an old formulation of “Tarzan’s Grip”, which took some time to dry, so parts had to be held together with sewing pins until it dried (no fast-setting superglue or araldite either in those days!). The tissue paper covering was drawn taught by applying a coat of dope. There was a limited supply of enamel paints that could be used to paint the model. Unfortunately, none of my models could be coaxed into flying!

At the end of term in December 1955 my six years of primary schooling came to an end. So too ended my dad’s commitment to do the twice-daily school transport run.

Secondary school, Kempsey, 1956 to 1960

West Kempsey Intermediate High School became a fully recognised Secondary High School with its official opening as West Kempsey High School on 12 April 1930. Then the school’s 277 students and 14 staff were housed in a recently built two-storey building (below). (The inscription on the façade was “Kempsey West High School 1928”, the year the foundation stone was laid, but the School was normally referred to as simply “Kempsey High School”.)

Notice dated 13 March 1930 sent by the then NSW Director of Education to my grandfather J J Davidson informing him that his son (my father) Jack Davidson’s admittance to West Kempsey High School had been “authorized”. Along with my aunt Sheila Davidson, they were among the first students to attend the School when it opened in 1930. (Note that the word “Inter.”, referring to the School’s immediate past title, has been crossed out in ink, probably by the signatory.)

It was with some trepidation that I accompanied my parents to Kempsey High School (KHS, motto: “Finish Crowns the Work”) on the morning of the first day of term in 1956. Kitted out in my summer uniform of khaki shirt and shorts, long khaki socks and black shoes I was ushered into the assembly hall that occupied most of the bottom floor of the only large permanent building then on site (photograph on the previous page). The shoes took some getting used to, as they were the first pair of shoes that I had ever worn all day, day after day!

We were allocated to our classes according to academic merit and recommendations from our primary school teachers and inspectors. I was in Class 1A. Other classes in 1956 were 1B, 1C, 1D, 1E, 1F and 1G. Class Captains for 1A were Barry Blight and Dawn Whalen. After the official welcome parents were dismissed. We then learned of our assigned subjects. For 1A these were English, Mathematics 1, Mathematics II, French, Combined Physics and Chemistry, Geography, History and Technical Drawing (for one term only). English was common to all classes but those lower down the academic scale studied general mathematics, manual arts (wood work and metal work for boys) and home economics (sewing and cooking for girls) and commerce. There was one period of Music and a Library period each week. Textbooks owned by the school were issued for some of the subjects. Most of the texts had been in circulation for some time and it was interesting to look up the names and dates in the back of the books to learn of past users. The technical drawing class for 1A provided a skill useful for many years, lasting well into university times, for scientific drawing of objects and graphs by hand before the advent of computers. I came second in Class 1A in Mathematics II and especially excelled in Geometry; it was well into the second half of First Year that the KHS curriculum in Geometry caught up to where I had reached at the end of Grade Six at Clybucca Primary School.

Most students at KHS used refillable fountain pens, usually one for blue and one for red ink, or propelling pencils with red and blue refills. The fountain pens were filled with ink at home before coming to school and were prone to leaks. It was not uncommon for shirt pockets to have ink stains. Biros existed but had not entered general use anywhere during the time I was at High School.

Students were allocated to one of four “houses” within the school for participation in events and withinschool competitions. These were Barrie, Kipling, Lawson and Masefield. Allocation was according to letter beginning the family name and adjustment was made from year to year to keep the numbers in each house about the same, but once allocated to a house at the beginning, the student remained in that

house throughout. There were inter-house competitions in public speaking, spelling, cricket, softball, basketball, hockey, tennis, swimming and athletics.

Wednesday afternoons were allocated to sports. On the first sports afternoon all first years had to walk from the School downtown to the McElhone Memorial Swimming Pool, pay one penny for entry through the turnstiles, get changed and come out to demonstrate that they could swim one length of the pool (then about 30 m). Those that could not swim that distance had to take swimming as the sport for summer and each Wednesday afternoon undertake compulsory instruction in swimming technique until the onelength goal could be achieved.

My elective winter sport was tennis that was played on clay courts in West Kempsey (right), there being insufficient facilities at the School, which then had only two courts.

In the absence of a level oval at the School, cricket was played on one of the town ovals at Eden Street (below).

The daily playground game for the boys on a mainly grassless gravel surface was marbles, usually a form of “Ringer”, where a circle of about 3 m diameter was marked on the ground, with a hole (shallow pit) in the middle. There were several games underway at any one time ranging from beginner level to some very serious contests with the winners “playing for keeps”, that is they kept the marbles they knocked out of the ring. The most serious and “professional” game was where a student’s taw or shooting

marble was actually a steel ball bearing which not only knocked the losing marbles out of the circle but could often smash them to pieces as well, especially the glass and ceramic ones.

There were two picture theatres in Kempsey, the Mayfair downtown and the Roxy in West Kempsey. Kempsey High School students favoured the Mayfair. Programmes at the Mayfair usually were changed twice a week. Two full-length films were shown each session with an intermission in the middle. Less popular films were shown on Monday to Thursday nights. Friday and Saturday nights with a matinee Saturday afternoon saw the better-known films screened in a longer programme including a serial, cartoon and news. There were no Sunday screenings. The Mayfair theatre was configured with a sloping ground floor and an overhanging tiered mezzanine floor reached via an ornate staircase and through a lounge. The upstairs seats cost a lot more than the downstairs ones. Upstairs had access to toilets indoors through a lounge area. Downstairs one had to get a pass-out and go outside and down a short side lane to the toilets.

A typical Friday movie programme started with the national anthem, which back then was “God Save the Queen” with the queen’s image projected on the screen. Everyone stood for this. Next was usually a newsreel from either Movietone or Cinesound sources. A kookaburra, with a small feather stuck on its beak introduced Movietone News items. Cinesound News started with a kangaroo jumping from the screen. Raucous cheers then greeted the start of the weekly serial (screened only on Friday night and Saturday matinee and night). Serials over the years included Batman and Robin, Superman, several woeful but much-loved westerns such as Hoppalong Cassidy, Tom Mix, The Scarlet Horseman, as well as Captain Marvel, Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon of the more science fiction genre. The hero was always left dangling at the end of each week in a precarious situation from which escape was impossible, only to miraculously survive by the beginning of the next week’s episode helped by some very creative film editing. There were usually 10 - 12 fifteen-minute episodes in a series, with the hero always triumphant but only at the end of the final episode. Next came the supporting full-length film. Then a 15-minute interval was allowed, during which pass-outs were issued to go out and buy refreshments from the theatre’s own milk bar in the foyer or to go out in the street to other nearby similar establishments which remained open until the end of the interval. After interval and before the main feature usually there was a cartoon to entice everyone to get back in and settle down with their snacks and drinks. Common cartoons were Heckle and Jeckle, Tom and Jerry, Sylvester and Tweety Pie, Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd. So the entire programme spread over some four hours. (This programme format was only varied on special occasions where the feature was high-profile and very long, for example BenHur screened in mid-1960, which was three and a half hours long and spread across both sessions with an intermission in the middle.)

After being given a King Parrot and cage by a neighbour during my primary school days, I became interested in Eastern Rosellas and budgerigars. The budgerigars started out as a single grey tame bird that turned up at our house. The number increased with the purchase of several blue, green and yellow varieties from a classmate who bred budgerigars. During my first year at high school I built two aviaries, one for the large parrots and one for the budgerigars. For the latter I made an enclosure at one end. This I constructed from fibro that I sawed by hand from large sheets ignoring the copious dust particles produced that probably included asbestos. It was painted yellow on the outside but the inside remained unpainted. I built nest boxes and began to breed my own birds (photograph).

At the age of 12 in 1956 I became interested in shooting. The family owned a 12-gauge shotgun, which I started out using but the recoil when it was fired was an issue. We decided to buy a single-shot, boltaction 0.22inch calibre rifle for me to use. One afternoon I picked this up from the Elrington’s store in the main street in Kempsey after school and carried it and a box of ammunition home to Clybucca on the school bus! Both the shotgun and rifle and bandoliers of ammunition sat in an open rack on my bedroom wall for my remaining years on the farm and for some years after.

Some of the defining images in 1956 were a number of children in the playground in leg calipers and photographs in newspapers of others in iron lungs. This was the result of the disease “infantile paralysis” or polio. In 1955 Dr Jonas Salk in the US developed the first vaccine. It was administered by injection

but required booster shots.24 From June 1956 mass immunization of school children commenced in Australia. At Kempsey High School we lined up to file through the shelter shed to receive our shot in the upper arm. This was before disposable syringes and the metal and glass syringe was repeatedly refilled from a rubber-stoppered bottle of vaccine. The removable needle was dropped into a dish of alcohol after each injection and a fresh needle attached for the next. The needles were taken away for sterilization and reused a number of times. Over the next year the process was repeated twice more for booster shots. Some of the injections hurt more than others. Perhaps the amount of trauma depended on whether the needle was new and sharp or old and blunt from repeated use!

A Tuberculin Skin Test (TST), also known as the Mantoux Test, was another imposition on all the students in 1956. It was a skin test to detect if one had been infected with TB bacteria. A small amount of purified protein – taken from dead TB bacteria – was injected under the top layer of the skin on the forearm. A sterile needle and syringe was used to do this. The needles were sterilized over an open flame and reused from one student to the next. A small blister would appear at the site. The blister would disappear within about 20 minutes. A small lump then may form at the injection site and the school was again lined up after three days to have this assessed and the size of the lump, if any, measured. The size of the lump indicated whether or not a student had a latent TB infection. If the test was judged positive the student was sent for to the hospital to have a chest x-ray for confirmation and infected students had to undergo a prolonged regime of treatment.

The Summer Olympic Games were held in Melbourne from 22 November to 8 December 1956. The torch relay passed through Clybucca on the Pacific Highway from north to south. Local runners carried the torch (left) in one-mile sections. Peter King ran the Clybucca mile. The relay was a huge logistical exercise coordinated by the Army. There were actually some four hundred identical torches. An army truck preceded the relay handing torches out to each runner. The torch had a removable solid fuel insert in the top, which was sufficient to last for the one-mile leg. The fresh torch was lit from the previous one and the used torch was collected by a following army truck and doused in a bucket of water. The solid fuel insert in each torch was replaced. Periodically the army trucks exchanged their position in the convoy with the one with fresh torches taking over the lead in the convoy. Black and white television was introduced to Australia in September 1956 in time for the Olympics but reception was only available in Sydney and Melbourne at first.

The International Geophysical Year began in July 1957. Launched by the Soviets on 4 October 1957 into an elliptical low earth orbit, Sputnik I was the first artificial earth satellite. It transmitted radio signals for three weeks on 20.005 and 40.002 MHz. We were able to pick up the steady beep – beep

beep signal near 20 MHz on our short wave radio band at home which was exciting at the time!

In 1957 the Shire of Macleay resumed portions of Plummer-owned land along Plummer’s Lane to enable it to be widened and bitumen surfaced. The upgrade spanned most of 1958 and involved relocating fences, parts of the sale yard and cattle loading ramp in front of our house and digging a new well to replace the one in the path of the road at Shire expense. Equipment used was much the same as for the highway work. The steamroller was usually parked at our place overnight and at weekends, and I observed its firing up and operation with much interest over several months.

Sylvan Jones was employed on the farm as a fencing contractor. Over several months he replaced all of the boundary fences on the property almost single-handedly. He dug the postholes by hand, put in the post and rammed the earth around each one. Holes were drilled with hand augers to take the wires. I still remember the order of the wires from top to bottom – a barb, a plain, a barb, and two plains. I spent a lot of time with Sylvan to help fetch and carry tools. In the days before sliced bread and soft margarines, he taught me how to make a sandwich without wrecking the slice of bread when applying the relatively hard butter. Turn the loaf of bread on its end with the last cut surface upwards, butter the surface while it was still attached to the loaf, add the filling, say peanut butter or slices of tomato, then lastly cut the undamaged buttered slice from the loaf!

The new fence posts were hand-split with axes, sledgehammers and wedges in the Tamban State Forest near Barraganyatti under a permit issued by the Forestry Commission of NSW at Kempsey. Other products obtained from the forest were the spauls that we used as wood fuel that were left behind by sleeper cutters using broad axes. Casuarina and acacia poles that were cut down during Timber Stand Improvement were trucked to Clybucca where they were crosscut on a circular saw bench run off the power take-off on the tractor also to provide wood fuel. Above ground parts of termite nest mounds were also harvested in the forest using a crowbar. These were transported to Clybucca and over time crushed to release the termites to provide food for young chickens

In Australia in 1958 Coca Cola started a yo-yo promotion, which took off over the following three years. Prominently branded Coco Cola yo-yos were sold for 3/9 (about 38 cents) at the time if six marked Coca Cola bottle tops were also turned in. Highly skilled “Yo-Yo Entertainers” visited schools and shopping precincts to demonstrate techniques.

I was among a small number of students that went on an exchange visit by road to Narrabri organized by the Returned Services League in late August 1958. A flour mill and shearing sheds were visited. A highlight was a visit to Mt Kaputah (4,885 feet, 1,489 masl) 50 km east of Narrabri, formed by a volcanic event 17-21 million years ago. Apart from this trip, two trips to Sydney by train, a School trip to Taree and a road trip to Clouds Creek to visit my uncle at a remote sawmill, I had not travelled more than about 30 kilometers from home in 17 years.

At the end of Third Year in 1958, I sat for the Intermediate Certificate. This was an externally set and marked examination conducted by the NSW Department of Education. I was successful in all six subjects examined and received my certificate (left) in early 1959.

Government bureaucracy sometimes intruded onto the farm in unpleasant ways. There were numerous attempts by Egg-marketing Board inspectors who arrived at the front door anonymously without warning to try and get the family to sell them eggs which were obviously being produced on the farm by the poultry visible in the paddock. To sell eggs25 direct to the general public back then was illegal, but these attempts at entrapment were never successful, since the eggs produced on the farm were sold to or bartered with only persons known to the family.

25From 1927 State governments established Egg-marketing Boards because the large numbers of farmers found it difficult to bargain with the small number of large egg-buying companies. The Egg Board enabled prices to be set within government price control regulations. The marketing Boards in each state were legally obliged to buy all the eggs a farmer produced and a farmer was not allowed to sell any eggs without the agreement of the Board. This situation lasted through the 1960s.

owned

sale yards opposite our house. The main buyer was the Midco abattoir located at Macksville. Here their trucks are loading after sales in the late 1950s. An indication of how little traffic there was at the time on Plummers Lane was that the trucks often would completely block the road while loading without disrupting much traffic!

Flood. Top left: Flooding at the junction of the Pacific Highway – Smithtown Road turnoff. Top right and middle left: Smithtown Road; a Nestlés milk tanker and a station wagon make their way through deepening water, with the swollen Macleay River in the background. Middle right and left: The Pacific Highway just north of the turnoff, soon to be closed because of rising water. Note the electricity power lines on the left hand side and the telephone lines on the right hand side of the main road.

Floodwater is seen rising at Clybucca. Left: Photographed from our front verandah looking southwest. Clybucca Memorial Hall is on the left. Right: Looking west, floodwater surrounding the house and outbuildings. Our grey Austin truck is parked on the left. In the centre is a well, pump house and water storage tank; behind over near the fence is the large bird cage housing parrots; behind the fence many fruit trees mainly pears, citrus.

left: Clybucca Memorial Hall (compare with the bottom left photograph on the previous page), Clybucca Post Office was located next to the house in the centre background. Bottom left: Yarrahapinni Mountain in the distance. Bottom right: During drought water for stock was pumped from a well into an overhead tank and from there fed by gravity to a circular concrete tank. 1. Well, 2. Circular concrete stock water tank, 3. Milking bails, 4. Grey Ferguson tractor and trailer, 5. Decommissioned stock water trough hewn from a large eucalypt log.

Throughout much of the late 1950s, extensive flood mitigation works were carried out in the Macleay River Valley and that work near the river adjacent to the Pacific Highway – Smithtown turnoff was observed nearly every day from the school bus on the way to and from Kempsey.26 Equipment used then was basic. Earthmoving equipment to form levee banks was towed by ex-army Matilda tanks from which the armament had been removed. Draglines like the one in the photograph on the next page were used to open up drainage channels. Much of the streamside vegetation of casuarina and reeds was removed from Clybucca Creek to allow floodwaters to drain away more rapidly. At Clybucca, this reduced crop inundation times by some three days, helping in their survival whereas they used to be killed by being under floodwater too long.

26The construction of flood mitigation measures on the Macleay River floodplain began in 1955 with the appointment of an engineer to implement a scheme devised by the Macleay Valley Flood Mitigation Committee. From May 1955 flood mitigation works were progressively implemented until the mid 1970’s that included the construction of 47 flood-gated structures (of various sizes), 116 km of drainage channels and 180 km of levees. In 1957 the Macleay River County Council established a Flood Advisory Committee.

Clybucca Creek years after the removal of most of the streamside vegetation as part of the Macleay Valley flood mitigation strategy to speed up drainoff of flood water and therefore decrease inundation time on adjacent farmland.

In addition to the flood mitigation works, during my time travelling to Kempsey High School it was possible to follow the construction of a new bridge over the Macleay River in the middle of town next to the wooden truss bridge that had been built in 1900. This was the one of the last open span steel truss bridges built in NSW by the Department of Main Roads and took some time to complete, construction being interrupted several times by floods of various heights. The new bridge was opened by Hon J B Renshaw MLA Deputy Premier and Treasurer of NSW on 21 November 1959.

Previous page and this page: Opening of the new Kempsey bridge on 21 November 1959. Below: The new steel and concrete bridge on the left, and the old wooden bridge on the right, before demolition had started, show their similarity in design. The old bridge was mainly iron bark (Eucalyptus sp.) and the individual span back then was governed by the length of the logs that could be found in the forest and sawn to produce the main structural elements.

Fire was a hazard during dry weather. The top two photographs show a grass fire at Clybucca, possibly started by a cigarette butt thrown from a car on the nearby road. At left is a fire that has just started on Yarrahapinni Mountain, as seen from Clybucca. On privately-owned bush blocks (so-called “dry blocks”) at Barraganyatti, where cattle and horses were relocated during floods, groups of neighbors came together in winter every three or four years to conduct a “burn-off” through private forest and woodland.

Surf carnivals were a frequent occurrence on the NSW north coast beaches and drew large crowds.

Surf

I was fortunate in keeping the same teacher for Mathematics (Mr Berriman) and for French (Mrs Gray) throughout my five years at KHS. After a series of tests administered to Fourth Year students in April and May 1959, the Youth Welfare Section of the Department of Labour and Industry NSW provided a typed up Vocational Guidance Report for each pupil tested. I had mentioned my interest in aviation,

making model aircraft, and an ambition in possibly becoming a pilot and this received a mention in the Report (reproduced below).

A second brother arrived in July 1958. The separation among us three brothers of 8 and 6 years meant we were never at school together and we spanned a period of rapid social change in Australia. In cafes hamburgers replaced meat pies for lunch, expresso machines were installed to dispense coffee, replacing pots of tea. Drive-in picture theatres opened. The frisbee and pantyhose were introduced. These were just a few of the changes.

By 1959 I had attained the rank of Cadet Under Officer (CUO) in the KHS Cadet Unit (photograph below). Participation in the Unit at KHS was voluntary and back then involved much greater effort on developing military skills than would be the norm today.

During the year a live firing shoot was held at the Kempsey Rifle Range. The Lee Enfield Rifle, the Vickers Medium Machine Gun, Owen Gun and Bren Gun were fired. When I mentioned that my dad, who was with me at the range that day, had been a machine gunner in New Guinea, the Australian Regular Army Instructor invited him to fire the Vickers Machine Gun we were using. Dad was thrilled and showed that he had not lost any of his skill in operating the gun and hitting the designated target. From that time onward he was much more open about his service in New Guinea which interested me greatly. He belatedly applied for and received his service medals 15 years after the War ended!

Father and son ready to take part in the 1959 Kempsey Anzac Day Parade. (Photograph: Robert Davidson)

While in the Cadet Corps I joined annual camps at Singleton Army Barracks in 1958, 1959 and 1960. In May 1959 I attended a Cadet Under Officers’ course at Holsworthy Army Barracks located in Holsworthy about 25 kilometres from the central business district, in south-western Sydney. For some unknown reason for our downtime one Sunday we were bussed to the Sydney Showground to hear Billy Graham speak during his Australian Crusade that he undertook from 12 April to 10 May 1959

On my 16th birthday, December 1969. (Photograph: Robert Davidson)

At the end of 1959, turning 16 seemed some kind of unofficial milestone. One final year of schooling to come!27 I received a portable gramophone for a present and could at last play modern 33⅓ and 48 rpm vinyl records. It was much in demand at our student parties.

In the early hours of 27 June 1960, Johnny O'Keefe (a popular Australian rock and roll singer), Johnny Greenan and Greenan's wife Janice were driving back to Sydney from the Queensland Gold Coast. At Clybucca, near the Highway – Plummer’s Lane intersection, their Plymouth car ploughed into a gravel truck. While the front of the large car bore the brunt of the very severe impact, all three were seriously injured. O'Keefe's face was smashed and Johnny Greenan was thrown out of the car, landing six metres away on the road, causing a fractured vertebra and loss of front teeth; Janice Greenan suffered a severe concussion. O'Keefe suffered multiple lacerations, a concussion and fractures to his head and face; he lost four teeth, and his hands were also badly lacerated. O'Keefe was flown to Sydney for treatment and recovered.

I continued on in the Cadets during 1960 and was awarded the Junior Leaders Prize at the annual Speech Day. This was a book entitled “Unofficial History” by Sir William Slim that was published in 1959.

Enrolment at the School in 1960 had reached 850. Speech Day 1960 was held near the close of the third term in the Mayfair Theatre. The Headmaster Mr Gray delivered his annual report after thanking the large assembly of students, ex-students and parents.28

“Mr Gray then attacked the attitudes of some parents and students towards secondary education. He made a strong plea to parents of High School students to insist that their children study regularly at home. He emphasized that it is virtually impossible for students today to get good passes in public examinations unless a good home study habit has been cultivated throughout secondary school. Continuing, Mr Gray went on: ‘Many adolescents, and sometimes their parents, regard secondary education as a necessary evil, forced upon them until they reach the age of 15 years.’ Mr Gray went on to say that these people refuse to derive any benefit from it and wait impatiently for the time when they switch it off, like some unpopular radio programme.

He then attacked student attitudes towards study. Mr Gray said he deplored the increasing tendency to be ashamed of serious study ‘for fear of being called a swot or a crawler.’ He said that many students ‘fell by the wayside’ because they feared the sneers of fellow students, not realizing that sometimes the most loud-voiced of their critics worked at home in secret. Mr Gray asked: ‘Why is it that many Australian adolescents feel that there is something shameful about developing the mind or striving to gain everything possible from the education opportunities offered?’ He went on to say that it was the aim of the teaching faculty to foster the abilities of students and fit them for a useful place in the community. It should be the aim of parents to encourage the child to find his ‘own particular bent and his own particular place in the world.”

Mr Brown, the local MLA, in moving the adoption of the Principal’s report also commented on the failure of some parents to support the school and the teaching staff by not encouraging their children to consolidate at home what they had been taught at school. The District Inspector Mr Tanner stressed the more serious side of school life and urged parents to encourage their children to strive to gain the best possible results. What Messrs Gray, Brown and Tanner were overlooking at the time was that there was a fundamental difference between the parents and children on rural properties in the Macleay and the parents and children residing in Kempsey. In the countryside, children, especially children of secondary school age, usually were expected to help out on the farm outside of school hours. Parents often did not come inside until after dark and often after children were in bed so they were not in a position to supervise homework. In addition, the parents believed on-farm skills of their children were more important than high-end academic achievement since most of them expected their children would remain in the rural areas and take over the farming enterprises from them in due course. As well, many parents had not completed secondary education and were not capable to help with homework. In one extreme for example, my uncle William Plummer Jr, who lived with us, did not attend school and could not read or write throughout his life on the farm. In the town several of the students were children of teachers and other academically qualified people like lawyers, doctors, dentists, accountants and so on who had the skills and time after school to encourage and help their children. I did almost no work or study at home on the school curriculum but read a great deal of non-fiction and from the set of encyclopedias.29

28 Quoted from p15 in The Macleay 1961, the Magazine of Kempsey High School.

29 It was interesting to learn later that several town-based students who undertook a copious amount of home study did well in the Leaving Certificate exam but performed poorly later at Teachers College or University because of premature “burnout” and/or being away from the driving influence of their parents. Some students off farms and living away from home applied themselves diligently, adapted well and achieved good results in tertiary courses, as they strove to attain a better opportunity in life than did many of their parents.

During 1960 the most noticeable activity in Kempsey was the demolishing of the old Kempsey Bridge.

Finally, it was time for the formal farewell of Fifth Year students from Kempsey High School at a function hosted by Fourth year students. An informal end of year breakup party and “muck-up day” marked the end of primary and secondary school life.

A “gap year” 1961

Having just turned 17 in December 1960, not having made up my mind on a career, or applied for a Commonwealth Scholarship, with the family’s agreement, I decided that 1961 would be a “gap year” spent on the farm at Clybucca, while pursuing opportunities for future employment.

The farm at Clybucca in 1961. Top left: Looking Northeast towards Smoky Cape. Top right: Towards the Northwest after good rains, with the dairy herd in the background. Left: A morning view South from the front verandah, the fence across the creek is on the southern boundary, the white-covered semi-trailer in the distance is picking up milk from a neighbour’s dairy, back then a twice daily occurrence from our place as well.

In March 1961, my Leaving Certificate scroll (right) arrived. This Certificate confirmed my matriculation pass enabling entry to any Australian university.

At this time the farm at Clybucca was run as a dairy farm with about 50 to 120 cows in milk at any one time, the lower figure being the average for the winter months. Supplementary feeding was the norm with rye-clover pasture, sugar cane, turnips, cowpeas and lucerne for hay grown on farm. Milking was twice daily. The milk was also collected twice daily and trucked to the Anglo-Swiss Nestlé’s factory in nearby Smithtown, where it was manufactured into Milo

Top left: The farmhouse and outbuildings, Clybucca, 1961. Some new corrugated iron sheets are seen on the roof of the house prior to painting. Top right: Morning milk collection. Milk was transported morning and evening to Nestlé’s factory in 10 gallon (about 45.5 litre) steel “cans” owned by the farm. Empty and cleaned cans were returned on the following trip. I drove the grey Ferguson tractor shown in the top-right photograph for many hundreds of hours with various implements attached. Bottom left: Grazing on planted rye and clover pasture. Right: Grazing in planted cowpeas with my dad in the foreground. Strip grazing was controlled by a moveable electric fence by this time. The herd was still predominantly Friesian (black and white), the only one dominated by that breed on the Macleay at the time.

My main job on farm was as relief tractor driver preparing land for cropping mainly by disc harrow. My father would drive the tractor after morning milking and breakfast through until afternoon milking. I would then take over until dark and even some time after dark later on after the Ferguson tractor had been fitted with lights. The other main task was to paint the house inside and out.

The family home at Clybucca in late 1961 after it had been freshly painted by me. The 1949 flood reached the top of the verandah railing shown in this photograph!