DOWN MEMORY LANE
"NORTHMOOR" - THE HOUSE AT SMITH’S CORNER
Letter from Mrs Gladys Hentschel dated 4th December 1979.
...How well I remember the old home of my, I should say our Grandfather’s, at Freestone, where I used to spend my school holidays as a child, and visit there regularly until the family moved to Murgon. How we loved the lovely old garden with the hedge of lilacs so beautiful when in bloom, the mulberry tree we used to climb for the fruit and the orange and mandarin trees which Uncle Tom would reach with the rake for the high fruit. The roses (I still have a rose growing from a cutting of the original which our Grandmother was supposed to have brought from England), the periwinkles and so many old plants and flowers, the persimmons and the pomegranate trees, so seldom seen now.
And the old time sliprails made from bush timber, which we always had to lift one by one when we entered, then replace. The house was some little distance up the hill. There were also olive trees (one of the old olives is still at Riverside, where Dulcie, my daughter, lives at Uncle Billy’s old home). There was also a large vineyard with beautiful grapes both white and black.
There are so many memories which I vividly remember - I could go on and on. The old home of cedar slabs, lined with first hession pasted with newspaper, then the pretty wallpaper of trailing roses to finish off, so very pretty. And the cedar chairs, tied with antimaccassars and ribbon. All the water was drawn from the creek with a trolley and a big wooden cask.
I hope I have not bored you. Now I wish you the compliments of the season, and hope we have a grand day.
From Gladys with love.
Above: Combined picnic 1911
Back Row: Mrs G Simon, Mr W Palmer, Edith Craig, E. Cox, E Larsen, M Peters, M Carmody, L Peters, Mr J Larsen, Mr G Simon, Mr J Bourke
Second Row: Mr T Ryan, G Craig, G Palmer, Mr W Phillips, Celir Ramsey, Mr J Shelley, Alice Ramsey, Mr P Ryan, Hilma Larsen, Mr Jim Palmer, Mrs Craig, Susy Phillips
Third Row: Mrs Guymer, Mr A Cox, Mrs Carmody, Mr Ewbank, Mr J Ramsey, Mr G Williams, Mr Guymer, Miss Ewbank, Mr Con Carmody, Nell Palmer, Mr Tom smith, Mrs J Hallman, Eileen Hallman
Front Row: Selwyn and Irene Guymer, F Cox, Two Shelley boys, Ned Cox, Two Shelley girls.
Above: Upper Freestone School on the road to its present site at Freestone Lower, after being closed in 1964.
Above: Attending the Upper Freestone’s 75th Jubilee were the Owens family, Mrs Eileen Phelan, Mrs Bridget Phelan, Mrs Kate Phelan, Mrs Minnie (Mary) Morrison, Mrs Maggie Rawlins, Mr Jim Owens, Mrs Annie Crothers and Mrs Suzie Ramsey.
THIS IS AN EXTRACT FROM A LETTER RECEIVED FROM CECIL THOMPSON
(Relieving teacher at Upper Freestone 1947)
.......... west out from Ellinthorp and Clintonvale just across the ridges really from Freestone. At all the schools I was very happy. Not one irate parent do I remember, though I was to strike one later down below the range at Helidon Scrub (Iredale). He waited for me one afternoon, sitting on a horse, armed with a stockwhip! I had merely roused on one of his three children for not working hard enough. At most of the schools I never saw fit to use the cane. Rambling again. But I wish to show that in those days the life of the country teacher was intimately involved with life on the land. With no motor car for transport, I was lucky enough to have a bicycle which I used to ride from the Eight Mile turnoff to Clintonvale - leaving it at Jackson’s house while I waited to catch the Warwick to Allora bus. You see whilst at Clintonvale I was able to board in Warwick at the Regent Hotel managed then by Bill Marden and his daughter. Now called the Park View, it has lost some of its old time character. It was favoured at Rodeo time by many of the buck jump riders (not cowboys those times).
I am taking a bit of time to get to Freestone aren’t I - but that’s a bit like how bushmen yarn.....
At Upper Freestone School I had room-a-plenty. Not like at Clintonvale where there literally wasn’t room to swing a cat between the front desk and the easel-propped blackboard. There were maps of the world, big round globes, plenty of blackboards, spare ones to use in multiplication tables and addition tables. Oh yes, and spelling. There would have been five different grades to teach, every school (one teacher that is) had at least four.
Monitors were used to take the other kids through their learning by rote, or to be in charge of the reading. The reading books for each grade a teacher knew by heart, if you heard a boy or girl mis-pronounce a word, you’d shout from inside the room where you would be teaching new work to a class (not grades then).
By about August all the work in arithmetics (not maths), Grammar, Parsing, Spelling, Mental, History, Geography, would have been taught......
Science was mostly nature study but this taught the children to observe more things around them more minutely than they do today.
I remember the Mauch children, one was Shirley I think, they had a pet deer or rather a fawn from the wild deer that roamed the hills back of their property.
Then there was an Imelda O’Demspey the best primary school footballer (rugby league not soccer) you ever did see. Because of the numbers needed to make a game interesting the boys and girls played together.....
But there was a lack, a lamentable lack of teaching aids. Example: Head Teachers were allowed five shillings a quarter. No radio etc..... and virtually no books other than text books. School libraries were to be a wonderous help in later years. I used books in ways which today’s gurus espouse as new methods.
The large verandahs at Upper Freestone and the ample place in the school room (did it once have two teachers I wonder) gave each class space to work unimpeded and allowed classes to concentrate on their own lessons. The period from 9.25am till 11.00am was always hectic. A teacher felt that he had done a day’s work by dinner time (not lunch).
At most little schools I taught, there was a horse paddock..... but feed would have been scarce as it was a dry cold winter in that year 1947. Many children rode ponies to school as the terrain at Upper Freestone was not suitable for push bikes. The roads were mostly, if not all, unsealed.....the only time boys and girls wore shoes would be in winter when frosts were bad....I stayed with the hospitable Noble family down on the flat.......Mr & Mrs Vince Noble treated me as one of the family. I always felt at ease with them.
I wish I could remember the gregarious kindly lady just down from the school a bit in a South West direction who ran the Post Office and Telephone Exchange, and the friendly cream carter who gave me many a lift to town (Warwick). That lady at the Post Office was really the hub of the district. Her tarts and scones stay in my memory.......
I travelled by rail motor each Monday morning....at about 7am off it would rattle across the bridge over the Condamine out along the Campbell’s Plains. Oh the frost! One’s ears would burn with the cold. Mind you it was a glorious sight to view the wonderland of white across the plain. The steamy vapour rising off the dams, the hot breath of the cows in the cow yards we passed. Off I would get at Freestone and walk and trot to my home at Nobles......
Below: Haystacks at Freestone ca. 1897
Below: Kevin O’Dempsey’s home
Below: Haystack
Below: O’Dempsey’s galley.
FREESTONE MEMORIES ARE SWEET BY MEL IVEY (O’DEMPSEY)
As a child growing up in the Freestone area I have many pleasant memories of farm life and its people. My earliest memories centred around a farm house and galley which belonged to my Great Uncle’s Jack and Phil.
I would visit them when my father was working around their farm. I can remember sitting in the galley and having large slabs of bread and butter or bread and jam, but never the two together, washed down with huge mugs of tea.
Below: Mervyn and Jack O’Dempsey’s home
The little cottage consisted of one large room half the size of the house and two small bedrooms plus a verandah. It is amazing to think 12 children were raised in this home in the late 1800’s.
I vividly remember the cone shaped haystacks which dotted the countryside at the time. Our house was slightly more modern because it had three bedrooms, a lounge and enclosed verandah with a detached kitchen connected by a covered walkway. The farm was set on 300 acres and was a mixed farm, dairy, crops (corn, wheat).
Below: Pie melons galore!!!!
I can recall my father growing a crop of piemelons which were carted into a small paddock near the house and from there we fed them to the pigs and cows as it was a fairly dry period about 1945.
The "Red Rocks" down from Aub Nobles property were a popular spot for the local people to swim and picnic. I remember the lovely water cress which used to grow there and Elva and Mrs Mauch used to make us lovely sandwiches with it.
"HOW THINGS HAVE CHANGED........" EILEEN MAUCH
I started school at the age of 5 1/2 years. Always walked. Weather seemed different to these days......very hot and cold windy days. I left school at the age of 13 1/2 years. There was no special uniform but mostly we wore navy tunic (serge) and white blouse, and panama hat with navy trim.
The biggest worry to the children was the sight of swagmen. These men used to mostly camp under the bridge or in the grain shed or under the Apple trees near Drysdales. School sport was mostly vigaro, tennis, cricket, football, rounders. Classes were always mixed, boys and girls.
There was always a picnic held once a year. Towards this the pupils had to collect money or some gave trophies. Money went towards bread, fruit, lollies etc. You would be given a note pad to take around collecting to write down donations. All committee men started off each book by giving a donation. I think it was then five shillings. There were races for buffers, young mens races, ladies races, young ladies races, throwing the broom, stepping the distance, guess the height of pole, catching the rooster or pig, weight of bullock, school races, three legged race, all comers race, egg and spoon race, sack race etc. Several people gave trophies, these were always used for prizes. It was always a big day and night as there was a dance at night. We always walked to the dance as Dad had no car. If I’m remembering correctly, the cost of door price was three shillings and sixpence gents, one shilling and sixpence ladies, children free.
How things have changed..................
Above: David Mauch’s steam engine thrashing wheat (Freestone 1920’s)
It was a great treat those days to call at the local store and purchase a packet of sweet biscuits and some lollies which included a whip of licorice. As there were no refrigerators, ice chests were the only way of keeping things cool. Most people had butter coolers and water bags. Wet sack bags were used too, especially if you had a watermelon.
I remember one day two pupils were caught talking. This led to them both having to write out 100 lines: "My tongue is joined in the middle and wagging at both ends". Another thing I remember was two boys unlucky enough to get the cane. This was called a black jack, so they soon fixed that up by putting it down the boys’ toilet vent.
BITS AND PIECES ......"THE WAY WE WERE"
On frosty mornings Lucy Ryan remembers picking up wood from the horse paddock for the school stoves.
Things were never quiet where horses were concerned. Elva Gillespie (Upper Freestone) remembers her horse was a bit on the wild side so she spent more time catching it than she did riding. Catching the horses in the afternoon was a problem too. The teacher would line all the children up to corner the animals, there was much yelling and cooeeing till all horses were caught. Elva’s horse was well known as an escape artist as he would open the gate with a nudge and take all the other horses with him........
"One day there was a hare down in the horse paddock. The teacher asked the boys to try and catch it....they raced and raced. They knew they couldn’t catch it and they were just killing time till it was three o’clock.
Elva finished here schooling at Upper Freestone and went on to Rural School in Warwick. She would get a lift by cream cart to the rail motor then to Rural School to study dressmaking, cooking etc.
Below: (L-R) Nell Booth, Vera O’Dempsey (Queen), Molly Ryan, Maggie Peters, Mick and Peg Booth (twins) and Dorrie Doran at the Freestone hall (year unknown).
During the War...do you remember the zig zag ditch used as an air-raid shelter? Did you carry a match box with a clip for your nose and cotton wool for your ears? Was your name and age burnt into a piece of ivory worn on a leather strap around your neck?
DOUG AND VERLIE MADSEN’S MEMORIES
The teacher in the 40’s was a keen gardener and he had the children grown potatoes in the paddock where the oval is now. When it was time to reap the crop each family was given about 1/4 of a bag of spuds to help the family budget. Verlie and Doug Madsen used to ride a horse to school, and since Verlie was only small, she had to stand on something to mount this large horse. They had no end of trouble getting these spuds home, if it wasn’t the spuds falling off, it was Verlie, more often than not dragging Doug off with her. They spent a lot of time dragging the spuds to a gully so they could get back on the horse, drag the spuds up and go a bit further. They DID finally get home.......
The roads haven’t changed much! A gentlewoman was going to visit her relations when she got bogged in her buggy outside Madsen’s home. She and her children stayed the night and in the morning when the relation was informed of her plight he came to fetch the family to his place. His wet weather outfit consisted of a horse drawn sled, boards across a couple of logs. The gentlewoman and her brood were ignominiously dragged through the mud to their destination.
Then there was the time in 1957 when the Year 7 boys were rolling the tennis court with the cement roller. Somehow the teacher’s son couldn’t keep up and was flattened under the roller. No harm done thank goodness.
Help came from some unusual places in 1944. Verlie Madsen was having lots of trouble with her mental arithmetic when from outside the window came help from above. The Department painter had seen her distress and helped her to success!
When corn was pulled by hand, workers used to camp on the properties and sleep out. The ‘loo’ was the closest stand of bush and a shovel. Well one night (let’s call him Jim), Jim had to go for a walk. As he was squatting, he heard a rustle in the grass and the next minute he was horrified to feel a bite on his bare behind. He rushed to camp "I’ve been bitten by a snake", he yelled in panic. Sure enough there were two punctures about 1/4 inch apart on his cheek! The men at the camp all took turns at sucking the poison out of the wound after it had been cut to allow it to bleed, and poor Jim waited to die.
The next morning, apart from a sore behind, Jim was no worse, so the men went into the shrub to find the culprit. Was there ever such a red face when one of the men found a clucky chook on a nest beside Jim’s temporary loo. She had been disturbed and taken her revenge.
RENE (DORIS) SHELLEY LOOKS BACK.....
The Tucker and Shelley families were two of the original settlers in this district. John Henry and Ellen Tucker immigrated from England and first settled on the hill behind the present Anglican Church. Walter Tucker had the first killing yards and butcher shop in the Freestone area. Only the slab base remains on Graham and Margaret Shelley’s property.
The Shelley’s first home was down near Freestone Creek, where now only a few pepperinas remain to mark the spot. Rene remembers the former owners of her property, the Briggs family, who moved their house to Maryvale by bullock team.
When people died in the early 1900’s the hearse, drawn by two black horses, would lead the funeral corsage, changing horses once on its journey to Warwick.
MORNING TEA WITH COLIN AND MABEL MAUCH AND ROY AND EILEEN MAUCH PRODUCED THE FOLLOWING RECOLLECTIONS...
Freestone was a busy place when Mabel and Eileen were young. A lot of wheat was grown - Freestone produced 40 000 bags of wheat in some seasons. The large grain shed which was beside the railway line couldn’t hold it all at times, so they had to make a dump outside as well. Grain was sent to Warwick from Freestone, Gladfield and Maryvale receiving depots. Mabel and Eileen’s dad grew vegetables for their big family, there were 13 of them. Maize and cattle were their main source of income. The whole family had to help at harvest time. Mabel remembers her eldest sisters always saying that they had it better than they did.
During the early years of World War 1, Roy’s father Dave and his brother James Mauch would often work away from home as far as Thane and Karara, thrashing lucerne seed. They only had one horse and would return home at night sharing this horse; one would ride for a mile and he would stop and tie up the horse and start walking. The other fellow would catch up on foot and ride the horse a mile, and so on, and that’s how they got home. The horse was well trained (or smart perhaps)! When they came to an empty watering trough the horse would watch and wait for someone to fill the trough. Also when the horse was going up hill (pulling a cart), and he needed a spell, he would turn sideways so he would not have to take the weight of the cart. Eileen and Mabel were always told to beware of ‘swaggies’ whilst they were on their way to school. There were often swaggies around the railway yards so they would cut through the paddock to avoid them.
Below: Colin, Mabel, Eileen and Roy Mauch.
The concerts in the hall were always great events. Proceeds from the concerts were used towards lining part of the ceiling of the hall.
Mr Maclean and his wife supported these events enthusiastically.......Mrs Maclean played guitar and would often make up songs about all the different characters who lived in the district: "Arthur’s corn wanted rain to make him Sir Arthur again, the rain didn’t come so that meant no rum to celebrate Arthur’s great name" (Arthur Shelley being the subject of this ditty).
"Our Bertie and Bill were fond of climbing the hill. They climbed the hill where the Stinson crashed...our Bertie and Bill" (Bertie Madsen and Bill Mutch).
"Maurice Angland was yawning when he unlocked his jaw in the midst of a yawn, he went to the quack who soon put it back....Maurice won’t yawn anymore."
Fred (nicknamed Bangy) and Maggie Lancaster lived in the house near the hall. He owned a sulky and horse and used to go to Warwick each Sunday and bring the papers to the hall where locals would buy them. He would boil the billy for the dances and sell lollies and drinks. Maggie would wash all the cups and tidy the hall for the payment of five shillings.
BACK THROUGH THE YEARS.......WITH HENRY (HARRY), WILLIAM (BILL) DRYSDALE, MAVIS (JEAN) NEE DRYSDALE AND PATRICK (PADDY) BOOTH....
As children Arthur, Harry, Bill and Jean lived on the corner near Bruce and Glenda Drysdale’s home. They didn’t have far to go to school but according to Bill they were always late because of playing the wag in George Booth’s (Paddy and Lucy’s father) corn paddock across the road.
Jean Booth recalls "A big day is happening at the school, the photographer is coming. So we are all spruced up for the day. Marching off to school.....hair neatly done, shoes and socks and our Sunday clothes. When we get the photo home Harry is in the front with no shoes on. Mum disgusted asked, "Where are your shoes?" Harry replied, "They were hurting me Mum, I thought they might spoil the photo."
On the subject of horses.....Harry remembers...."Old man Booth gave them a horse called Nigger Boy. The biggest bloody rogue you would ever get."
Paddy with a grin said, "chase him for three miles to ride him ten chain.....used to leave him tied up a lot."
One school teacher would encourage us kids into helping him garden. He would borrow a horse and single plough from George Booth. Bill and myself and Arthur had one leading the horse and the others holding the plough down. We worked it up and harrowed it. She (his wife) blew out from town with some cabbage plants and we had to sow them into the ground. It was about one o’clock when the teacher asked his wife to "put dome lunch on for the boys," she replied, "there’s no meat, Harry kill that rooster and we’ll have some lunch." We just backed out of the room and went home to Mum.
Below: (L-R) Patrick Booth, Jean Booth, Harry Drysdale, Bev Christensen and Bill Drysdale.
Where have all their toenails gone? Harry lost a toenail under the tennis court roller and Paddy lost a few in hills up Charley’s Gully when he kicked a stone from under the wheel of a truck (no hand brake).
They all remember the Wilson boys who would walk to school and back every day from up the end of Charley’ Gully.
Bill’s school days are remembered with amusement. "When I went to school there were seven of us in the class. There was Bert Tucker, Stevie Nolan, Ray Porter, myself and two girls. We were all fairly good kids (chuckle) until one day the teacher was giving us a rough time and when he went for lunch one of us (who Bill?) snuck in and put all the drawing pins in his chair. When he came back from lunch he dropped into the chair and yeeeeeeoooooo. The class got six cuts each and kept in for half an hour that evening.
One particular teacher (Harold Francis) was fond of racehorses. He would work the horse himself but get one of the young lads (Frankie Watts) to ride fast work. One evening he had a barrier set up along the school fence. The horse was just learning to jump out of the barrier. He had his wife positioned at the back with the rubber (a band stretched between the sides of the barrier behind the horse) and he would tell her when to let it go. The horse took off before he was ready. Over the fence and down the road helpless rider and horse flew. They were at Christensen’s before they were caught. The teacher was more worried about the horse than himself but his wife could not keep a straight face because she had let the rubber go too soon.
It did rain quite a lot once in Freestone, in one particular flood Harry remembers the swimming hole by the old oak tree near the school was about 10 feet deep when Mick Booth said to Harry "Jump in Stumpy". They were forbidden to go swimming, and when Harry expressed reservations, Mick said he could swim and if Stumpy put his medal round his neck he wouldn’t drown! Harry said (showing common sense) Pig’s a....e! Booth, YOU go in with it! Harry never really learnt to swim!
An aboriginal lady called Mrs Smale lived in a slab hut up Charley’s Gully road. The hut, due to continual scrubbing, had a lovely white floor. Mrs Smale often fed Harry, Pat and Bill. She was a good cook and grew a lot of corn. Mrs Smale acted as the local midwife and helped many a pioneer lady to deliver her children. She would walk down to the railway to catch the rail motor to town. Sadly, the hut is no longer standing.
Pat Booth recalls Walter Gould giving him the cane for making rude noises. Some of the reasons for giving the cane were: lying, disobedience, careless homework, lateness in the morning, inattention to work, idleness, incessantly talking, playing in school, mumbling after being spoken to, laziness, staring about, wasting time, making undue noise, walking noisily across the floor, littering the floor with paper, playing truant, writing on walls of WC, pencils not sharpened, going down the creek, lifting up girl’s clothes, throwing mud, writing in girl’s mapping books, loitering up lane on way to school, dangerous riding of horse on way home from school.
Haven’t things changed! Children are now encouraged to talk!
Boiling the billy was a chancy operation at Swan Creek. The boys went to check the water at 11.30am and the tea in the kero tin billy looked about ready. When they pulled out the bag of tea leaves and were about to hoist it, the billy boiler yells, "Hey! don’t throw that away, that’s my good sock!" Flavoured tea!
Often neighbours would help each other out by picking up supplies and sometimes clothes when they were in town. One such neighbour was waylaid by his bachelor friend taking cream in his sulky. "Safe enough boy! Don’t know what the place is coming to - brand new pants and the full crutch is out of them!" "Can’t be". "Look" he says as he stepped down from his cart revealing his pants on back to front - "me a...e is cold from back to front!"
Paddy would go to the dances as a young man, with five bob. Two and six for him and one and six for Lucy (sister) and one shilling for cigarettes.
The kind of dry humour of the day is shown in another incident when one of a family of brothers died in Willowburn. When they brought his body to Freestone in the mail train and horse-drawn hearse from station to cemetery, surviving brother went up to the guard to thank him very much for fetching his brother home. "Did he give you any trouble? He’s been a contrary bugger all his life!" he said.
They used to go to school at Swan Creek. One day the teacher asked "Where’s your brother today?" The youngster replied, "It’s my turn to have the trousers."
In our young days, everyone would give presents of silver - teapots, trays etc. We had a sideboard full of it. Every October, in the last week, it would all come out to be cleaned. The cupboard was cleaned also and then it was all put away until next year. Nobody ever used it.
"There’s silver in that thar well". The long term maid who used to serve the former family in our house didn’t like the newly married mistress, so she gathered all the silver and ditched it down the well! The well has silted up but one day I will dig it up" said Harry.
Below: Tennis party at the Palmer’s residence (early 1900’s)
Arthur recalls a day in school when, a trifle bored, he tied a rock to a string and dropped it through a convenient hole in the floor (next to his desk). The end of the string he held in his pocket. By pulling on the string, a sharp knocking was heard. The teacher would go to the door to answer the phantom caller, much to the amusement of the children.
He was a good shot with a rock. This was, to his dismay, to prove his undoing. Taking a bet from another child that he could hit the school clock - he won - but it had a glass front. "A bird flew in, teacher" came a flash of brilliance from Arthur. Sadly, the teacher saw through this flimsy excuse and Arthur suffered.
Below: Cr Palmer presenting Cup to W Gross at Maryvale School (29 August 1952).
Below: (L-R) the Bourke, Palmer and Smith trophies. These were competed for in the first annual school sports (29 August 1952).
EPILOGUE
With 125 years of history behind it, the Freestone School Community can be justly proud of it’s educational achievements. I’m certain that this community will not rest on it’s laurels, but will continue to be at the forefront of educational innovations well into the future.
As we move into a new century with new challenges, the same values that have been the hallmark of the Freestone School Community for the last 125 years will continue to serve it well. A community which values the family, the individual worth of each of its’ members and its’ environment, is well equipped to meet the challenges of the 21st Century.
Drew Jackson
Acting Principal
Freestone State School 1995