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Tronson
Australia |
Walter Vivian (1881 -
1965) |
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Written
in 1985 by Seymour Tronson (1917-2002) 2006
transcribed by Mark Tronson and re-edited by Deidre Tronson [Assistances
by elder sister Viva Sealy (1910-) and selected quotations by his
elderly mother Jessie Tronson (1887-1987) – these have been added where
a personal note was considered helpful. We
have summarised several documents, one by Jessie Tronson in her hand
writing, one by Viva in her hand writing, one by Seymour in his hand
writing, and a much more detailed account typed by Seymour over several
months while Jessie was still alive and with Viva’s assistance. It is
Seymour’s voice that you hear in the unidentified personal anecdotes. Walter Vivian Tronson was
born in Gympie Queensland 20 July 1881. His father was Thomas Bleakley
Tronson and mother Mary Anne Davis; they were married in 1869. Walter grew up mostly in Gympie, Qld but also
spent a little time in Melbourne where he received a finishing
education with his attendance at the Melbourne Agricultural College and
where he worked for a further six months before returning to Gympie. A
reference dated 21 March 1896 reads: The bearer Walter
Tronson has been in our employ for the last six months as messenger and
useful in the factory and we can recommend him to anyone requiring his
services. Bridgland
& King, Melbourne Boxing At this time he
was also keen on boxing and later took the Middle Weight championship
of Queensland. An
excerpt from “Toowoomba Chronicle” 8th
February 1909 reads JENNINGS AND TRONSON Boxing contests are
evidently fashionable here now, as the Toowoomba Athletic Club is
holding another fight at their new stadium at the running grounds. This
will be the third fight since its inauguration and will be the best of
the lot, as the men are evenly matched, both in weight and science.
Jennings, who is a good boxer with a good record, having 44 fights to
his credit, winning 40, drawing twice, and losing once on points, and
has never been knocked out. Tronson, a young fighter,
with a terrific punch, who defeated Max Pardella a few weeks ago here,
will arrive in a few days and should give a good account of himself. Jennings will spar at the
stadium tomorrow (Wednesday) afternoon at 3 o’clock. The public are
cordially invited. Outcome – Walter Tronson
won knocking out Jennings in the third round. An
excerpt from “Gympie Times”, December 1907 reads BOXING
- TRONSON
V. GROUNDWATER Tronson wins easily. W. Tronson and D.
Groundwater at the Oddfellows Hallon Saturday night in a boxing contest
for %10 a-side and the middleweight championship of Gympie. The
conditions were best of 20 rounds, one to win, not withstanding the
heavy rain, there was a fair attendance, and all the arrangements were
faithfully carried out. As preliminaries Masters
Wilson and Hogan had a bout with the gloves, and Robbo (Sydney) and
Sinclair (of Tiaro) gave an exhibition spar, in which the Sydneyite
showed the most cleverness. Robbo then challenged the winner of the
chief contest. For the principal event Dr Ahern was appointed referee,
and Mr Hardy timekeeper. In Groundwater’s corner were
and Hill while Tronson’s seconds were A. Tronson and West. As soon as the fight
started Groundwater rushed Tronson and tried a left hook but Tronson
timing his hit nicely, got home with a hard left on the opponent’s left
eye, causing it to purple visibly. Groundwater appeared rather dazed,
went in again aggressively, when Tronson gave him encoreon the eye and
thence crossed him with the right on the jaw. Groundwater went down and
took 9 seconds. Rising again he once more went for Tronson and struck
him on the shoulder. Tronson baulked, and with the left and right, as
before knocked his opponent clean out. The referee thereupon awarded
the flight to Tronson, the contest having lasted about two minutes.
Groundwater was fairly well marked for the short time he was on active
service and Tronson was obviously much above his opponent’s class. On
this showing the winner should hold his own with any welterweight in
Queensland. At the conclusion of the
flight, Tronson accepted Robbo’s challenge for the %20 a-side, the
contest to take place in a month’s time. He also challenged any
middleweight in Gympie or any welterweight in Queensland, for %10
a-side. An
excerpt from “Ipswich” Tuesday March 16
1909 reads IPSWICH CHAMPION TRONSON
AND JONES Tronson of Gympie and
Jones welterweight champion of Charters Towers fought here tonight. The
fight lasted seven rounds, when Jones’ seconds threw in the towel.
Tronson had the better of the fight all through. Tronson is a good gritty
lad who’ll come on if he gets any sort of chance, he loves the pug game
for its own sweet sake, otherwise he wouldn’t be in it. For fate has
been kinder to him than most exponents of the game, he has the
where-with-all to live comfortably, and is also the son of a well-to-do
father. Veteran Billy McCarthy licked Tronson into shape during the
laters short stay in Sydney some time ago, and vows that, given a
reasonable period, he would have sent the young Queenslander out to
throw down the gage to the top notches at his weight. Tronson is a good
living manly young chap and deserves to do well. Securing
the Ringwood Farm Walter was asked
by his mother when he was 19 whether he would like their farm, which
had come into their hands through the previous owner not being able to
keep up payments of a debt. Although his father had a
draper shop in Gympie, it was the land Walter liked best and worked so
he had for some time on a farm before this opportunity arose. It was in
1901 that Walter and his mother came to take over the property (which
they called Ringwood). His mother had a little money. There was a ridge
with a shack house already there and down along Ringtail Creek there
were about 50 acres of scrub. The remainder was low lying country
covered in ti-tree. Jessie
Tronson states: “Walter’s
parents had friends who owned a farm and Walter stayed with them until
he was eighteen years old when it was time to go home. His mother asked
him what he would like to do, and Walter responded he would like to go
on the land. ‘You could go on our farm’ his mother responded, ‘I didn’t
know we had a farm’ Walter said. ‘It fell into my hand by a mortgage’
she said. Walter could not wait to go and inspect it.” Besides having to
fall this flat area (ie: clear it of trees) Walter had to drain it.
Their neighbour Mr Sherrit (a Scotsman) had some experience in similar
country back home and was able to advise Walter what best to do. His
mother brought two cows for milk and butter, then Walter did some scrub
felling and burning off allow the grasses to grow so that they were
able to graze more cows. As soon as they had enough milk to skim off
the cream and make butter, they delivered and sold the butter in
Tewantin (six miles from Ringwood) once a week. In those days they made
their own roads. Jessie
Tronson relates: “On
the next farm lived an old man, Mr Sherrit. The old man took a great
liking to Walter and advised him to go on the farm. There was nothing
to live on, but his mother said she would help, there was a house so
they settled in. She made a garden and started to grow vegetables,
acquired a few chooks then his mother brought a few cows.” Establishing
the Farm His first major work was
to fell the scrub country. He had two Aboriginals working for him.
Being young with plenty of energy he built a tennis court, then friends
would come out from Tewantin. So apart from the game of tennis on
Sundays, it was hard slogging work and long hours. All this time Walter kept
on his boxing, and also helped with his father’s shop in Gympie. In
those days he owned and rode a pushbike to Gympie, 21 miles from
Ringwood, on poor roads without the good grades we have today. In 1906
on one of those trips he met an English girl, Jessie Lake who was head
milliner of Rankin & Carey’s, another draper shop. They kept
company from this time, until their marriage in 1909. Jessie
Tronson recalls: “Easter came and
Walter went to friends in Gympie. We met each other; I had come from
England when I was 19 years old. I was a milliner and working in a
shop. I was nearly 22 years old when we met and we became friends.
Walter had someone working on the farm for him and he was working in
his father’s shop, so we met often. Then we decided to get married.” “Uncle
Will Crooks, a Member of Parliament in England gave me away. After our
honeymoon, which was only a few days, we went back to the farm. It took
me a while to get used to the change of life. We took our butter to
Tewantin - how I liked these Wednesdays - a cup of tea and a chat to
everyone. We served everyone in Tewantin but not the two hotels”. By this time the farm was
producing enough milk for cream and butter to be able to sell their
produce and butter to Tewantin. So once a week they made a trip in the
buckboard with the butter and other produce to Tewantin. A great day it
was, meeting friends for chats and cups of tea. They would sell 17lbs
in billies especially for the purpose, £1/- per lb, this was from 1909
to 1910. When Walter got married he said he would not box again and he
never did. Late in 1910 their first
daughter was born, Viva. By now there was more land cleared and many
cows to milk, all by hand, so they put on share farmers, Mr & Mrs
Dunn. At some time the Dunn’s must have lived bear Boreen Point known
as Dunn’s Beach, a sandy beach on the Cootharaba Lake. At a later date
many a school break up picnic was there, with three or four country
schools would combining together. It was about that time
the railway line was constructed from Brisbane to Gympie. We remember
Walter talking about the gangs of men building that line. The Ringwood farm was
1400 acres. Just after Mr Dunn came and worked for Walter, someone else
started a cream run, picking up cream and other produce and taking it
all to Pomona (to be railed to Caboolture) and on the return journey
bringing back the empty cans, bread, mail and any other back loading.
Mr Dunn stayed on for three years. Then another share farmer, a Mr
Fraser was employed. More land was cleared, fences put up, more cows
milked, by then 60 or more. In 1915 Jessie and Viva
then 4 set sail to see her mother and father in England. Altogether
they were away six months, the trip itself took five weeks each way.
Viva says she does not remember much of the trip. Viva went to school at 5
years of age, walking 2 ½ miles to Cooloothin Creek Provisional School.
It was a building constructed by the local residents and the Queensland
Department of Education supplied the teacher. At that time there were
16 children when there was a full roll call. Viva recalls it as a
lonely walk but she had a faithful dog (Smiler) for company. The road
was only a cleared track through the timber so one could drive a buggy.
Soon the share farmer’s children were going to school, then it was not
so lonely. Farm
Development Towards the end of 1914
Davis (1914-1984) was born. By this time cattle ticks had spread over
the coastal regions of Queensland. This meant the cattle needed
spraying. At that time arsenic and caustic soda solution was used. The
first attempt at speeding things up was a cage dip, in which one cow
would walk onto the cage, be lowered into a shallow well by windlass,
and its head would be pushed under the dip. The windlass would then be
wound up to release that cow, ready for the next one. It took two men
to work the windlass. Later the plunge dip was
built. This was a narrow deep dip with high sides and a draining yard.
The beast would jump or slip in, swim to the steps and walk out under
its own steam. One hundred cows could be dipped in an hour. Viva still
remembers helping by letting the cows out, especially the time when one
stood on her foot. There were plenty of tears that day, and she still
carries the scar. Mark can recall seeing the dipping process occur when
he was a boy on holiday at the farm in 1957. After Mr Fraser’s three
years as a share farmer, he purchased his own farm not far away and a
Mr Teirney came in 1916. Then Walter dug the first
drain by hand, from the lagoon to the Noosa River. It wasn’t the
success he had hoped because high tide was much the same level as the
lagoon, about 12 inches, so there was not much drainage possible. By this time Viva had
learnt to ride (horses). This meant she needed to catch and saddle her
own horse or pony each morning riding to school. Cream carriers had
changed hands and the cream run had also become the official mail run.
1916 was a drought year. A sheep farmer from near Pittworth (Mr Baker)
came with their sheep. He and his son and a friend, made sheep yards
near their property, to yard the sheep at nights and shelter them
during the day because there were always dingoes which, given a chance,
would kill more than they could eat. One day when they went swimming in
the lagoon, Mr Baker’s son got cramp and drowned, this was very sad. Walter got a few sheep
from Mr Baker then, and always had them on hand for meat. The dingoes
got their share in spite of all the care taken. Walter always used hand
shears and later taught Viva to shear, a skill she maintained for many
years. Farming During this dry period
they ring-barked a lot more of the ti-tree bushes in the swamp areas.
Soon after the dry period the cattle were getting around as if
crippled. A vet was brought in and said it was commonly known as soft
bone. It’s a calcium deficiency. Walter sold 22 for £1 per head thinking it
was an incurable disease. But it can be cured by careful management.
For a start, they needed troughs with salt and bonemeal. As a more
permanent cure, they needed to plough and plant a paddock of cane, or
soft sugar cane, then they had to chaff the cane as cattle feed and add
Tricalis (a bone flour) at the rate of about one level desert spoon per
cow, along with cottonseed meal. Later, they just used molasses, which
is made from sugar cane, as it contains calcium as one of its natural
nutrients. Even now although there
is not enough labour to grow the cane the molasses and Tricalos are
still being fed to the cattle. I can remember Walter
telling me the share farmers was built for £95, a 10sq house with
veranda. Both this and our house were built on low blocks. Our house
was built in 1901-02 as soon as Walter arrived at the farm, and
improved over the years. They decided to raise our
house and put in the high blocks with the help of a carpenter. Jessie
went on as usual with cooking and house work and still talks about the
cat not knowing the house was higher, and jumping off the veranda and
finding herself 7 feet in the air. Walter had beech timber from this
property sawn up and added another large dining room and lounge, plus a
veranda and fernery. The fernery was always pleasant to look at. The next big project was
the erecting of a large windmill frame with the wind driving generator
to charge six large 2-volt American batteries (the acid was made up
with distilled water to a recipe I don’t remember now). The old acid
was emptied out and replaced with new and topped up with more distilled
water as needed. The distilled water was caught into glass dishes when
it rained. Those batteries were still in use 30 years later. Jessie
Tronson comments: “Walter
erected a windmill to put up a generator to charge the batteries for
lighting the house. It was good up to a point, but if there was not
enough wind to run the generator we had no light. Later on when milking
machines were installed, the generator was put on the engine to run
these. Also a very deep well was sunk not far from the cow yard”. Another big project was
the well, 49 feet deep with an associated windmill to pump the water
into the two water tanks on ten foot high blocks. This supplied
abundant water for use in the milking yard and the house. Our first big wireless
and the two large dry batteries which ran it are still the talk of the
district. Brisbane was the nearest transmitting station, and some
nights so much static you couldn’t hear properly. People came from
Tewantin to hear our wireless! When reception was clear you could hear
the Sydney clock striking. One man just could not believe it – he never
forgot that. The family now consisted
of: Viva and Davis as well as Hepsey was born, March 1915, a son
Seymour 1917 on 17 December (1917-2002) and another Daughter Illma
April 1918. Cream
Run For some time now Walter
had the cream run, that meant an extra three coach horses and they were
fed with chaff and corn. By 1919 there was so much
cream brought to Pomona to be railed away that then they built a butter
factory at Pomona. It was a busy day at Pomona on cream days, with so
many carriers coming in. They were mostly horse drawn. From the
Ringwood farm we had three horses and the buggy. They would eat while
the coach driver would attend to all the back loading, packing supplies
to take back for low lying farms along the way. Road
Travel Another big event was the
day Walter brought home the first car, a T Model Ford. Viva remembers
that day. When she arrived home from school, there was Dad and the car.
‘Would you like a ride in the car?’, her smile was a mile wide, and all
piled in. Viva can still remember all the fuss and how proud dad was.
Our roads in those days were a real bone shakers. Dad was forever
cutting out roots and filling in holes. In 1920 Walter and Mr
Maynard drove to Melbourne in the T Model Ford, and some people
couldn’t believe that they had driven from Queensland until they saw
the Registration No. It was No.000. Later in 1922 dad brought
the Studebaker car. The first trip in the Studemaker was to
Rockhampton, and Walter taking Lionel Donovan, Mrs Lennox, Mum and
Viva. In 1923 Dad, Mum and Mr
& Mrs Curran drove to Melbourne. Mr Curran was the bank manager
from Pomona. We remember a Mrs Ferguson looking after us while they
were away, us five children. We played the wag from school one day. A
spoon full of caster oil was a cure for all complaints, besides being
used for ointment for cuts and sores. Viva recalls going
through a sugar mill and Mrs Lennox got sick. They came home through
Mt. Morgan and Banana. The country was covered with prickly pear. The
weather was dry and extremely hot, the trip back to Ringwood took 10
days. Another trip was to
Goondwindi. There was dad, Mum and Mr Maynard, Illma and me Seymour.
That trip was to visit Uncle Bert (Arthur) and Auntie Millie. They were
managing a sheep station. I remember the plague of rabbits. Passed
several camps where men stayed while rabbit catching, they would send
them to the factory where they would be packed and frozen for export to
England. I remember another trip
we all had to Pyalba. Many a time we got bogged on the bad roads. Dad
did many smaller trips in the Studebaker. There was a trip Viva went on
her own to Melbourne with a label tied to her wrist, “I am Viva Tronson
going to Melbourne to see Uncle Jim and Auntie Hilda”. Viva just told me about
one noteworthy Pialba trip. Dad had the car checked at Gympie for the
trip. They forgot to fill the oil again at Tirro when the worst
happened. There were three grownups and five children. It was some load
for such a small space in that car. It was a very hot day, however by
some means Dad got the car going again. Off we went and had our
holiday, only that we children came home with measles. Medical
Emergencies Viva talks about the time
she had her broken arm. They took her to Pomona by sulky, then on to
Gympie by train, there the doctor put her arm in splints. I can
remember Hepsy’s arm being broken, and by this time there was a doctor
in Pomona to treat her arm. I had my middle left finger nearly cut off
with a cane knife. I was old enough then to ride into Pomona on my own.
It was thunder storm time and just before I left there had been a
narrow cyclone go through. It lifted houses and broke off trees on it’s
way. Then Davis cut his foot
so badly and lost so much blood that he fainted. He and dad had to walk
home from where they were working and then Dad drove him into the
doctor at Pomona. He had 10 stitches and stayed a few days in hospital.
When he got home, he hopped around on crutches for a while. There was a time three of
us got hook worm. That prompted Dad to get a design for a septic
system, which he made. It has been in operation ever since 1920 without
having any trouble at all. Long
Hours On the Ringwood farm we
all worked long hours and when Dad spoke you ran or received due
punishment. We children were seen and not heard and ‘no answering
back’. I remember one belting at
4.30am for not getting out of bed as soon as we were called, and Davis
got it too. In 1924 after the milking
machines were put in and share farmers were hard to get, we children
did the milking. 100 cows plus in the summer down to 35 in the winter.
I was seven then. Viva and Hepsy stripping, I bailed up the cows, tied
the leg, washed the udder and teats, and changed the cups that attached
top the teats. The machines were driven by a 4 ½ h.p. kerosene engine,
that also drove a pump, a separator and a 32 volt generator. There ws
also a chaffcutter, which once broke down and Dad had to send to
England for a part. An emery and a bench wood saw were also all driven
off that one engine. It was “go on the double”
to milk those 100 cows, round up our school ponies, ride to Cooloothin
Creek School, hurry home on the horses and again get into the milking.
At least Dad believed in getting everything finished before dark. There
were 30 to 40 poddies calves to feed, and a similar number of pigs to
feed. I can remember those days, with everyone shouting at one another.
In those first machines
the pulsation mechanism worked by vacuum. Many a time it would stick
and wouldn’t release the milk, then the milk would fill up the vacuum
tank, go through the pump, and out into the yard. In dry times and very
high tides, the tide or salt water would flow right back into the
lagoon, then we had to sand bag at a narrow place to stop it. It was
like Holland, where they have put in very high levy banks, and pumped
the water from the low country. Then one very big flood we had, we were
down in the flood area pushing logs off the fences and decided to go in
the motor boat down to Rest Down. At the river’s edge we cut a mark in tree and later measured it 20 foot above high
tide. In drought time this farm
is at its best always able to take a few extra stock. Dad was a well respected
man in the district, but he had we children scared. Do or else, he was
quick to make up his mind. Modern
Farming Methods In about 1924, the Noosa
Shire Council had bought a Jelbart tractor, a big cumbersome thing that
frightened every horse in the district when working. However it was for
sale, and Dad reckoned he could use it on the farm as he had previously
bought a horse- drawn grader with which he made numerous drains in the
paddocks. Dad had all the gates on
the farm coloured, named and numbered. It was a great help when
mustering, when Dad said to bring them through the blue gate, or No. 10
gate. As all the district roads
were made for horse drawn vehicles, they were not very good for cars.
Dad got a contract to fix a part of the Pomona Road that was notorious
for bogging cars in wet weather, which in those days we had plenty of.
So with a motor mechanic, a Mr Wolds, a well known and very good
mechanic, with the tractor and grader they set off to fix the road.
After a lot of trials and errors, breakdowns and whatever the road was
gravelled and graded and is still a good piece of road today. Dad did a lot of work
with the tractor after that, but it proved not suitable to work on our
kind of country. It was sold to a Gympie man who used it as a
stationary engine crushing the stone in a Gympie gold mine. Dad was very particular
about his cattle. He had an Ayrshire herd and bulls in a paddock away
from the herd. Each cow was taken to the bull and recorded, with each
cow named. The cows would start calving in August, and no more after
Christmas. At weaning time, the
calves were numbered with a tattoo in their ears, branded and ear
marked. Dehorning day was also busy with lots of shouting and laughing.
Later on we were told about burning off the horns with caustic soda
sticks at a week old. This was very successful. Although Dad had
planted a lot of improved pasture it was never a real success. But some
poorer type grasses did reasonably well supplemented with some feed
concentrate. This country carried a cow to 4 acres. In rich pockets a
cow to 2 acres. Horses It was 1928 and I
was 11. My horse was Phop, a scybala red and white horse and we got
going quickly toward the mail gate and he bolted. Going flat out toward
the mail gate and unable to stop, but instead of jumping over the gate
he went through it; bits of gate went each way, but he kept his footing
and kept going. Did Dad go mad !! It was wooden gate and it had to be
rebuilt. Then there was
old Bounce a quiet horse about 15 hands. Mum would go into Pomona about
11 miles to dress making lessons and we children would saddle up Bounce
for her. About 2 miles up the road Bounce wouldn’t budge another inch.
Bounce thought it was far enough. Mum did all she could to try and get
him to move. So Mum had to turn him and come home. We still remind Mum
of that day. I remember Dolly,
one of the school horses, was sold to a family in Coran for their boy.
Eighteen months later Dolly was out side the mail gate waiting to be
let in. Poor Dolly was skin and bone, in such poor condition. Glory was the
boss draught horse, always a bit timid and we had to be careful because
when frightened, Glory would kick, and we had to be careful with trace
chains. One day Glory bolted with the dray, round the yard through the
gate grazing the gate post, down to the
harness shed, turned a right hand wheel and ran over the 4 horse scoop
turning the dray on its side and Glory too. We took the harness off in
the downed position, talking to her to reassure her, she got up and
walked away, but still frightened, but no further damage. The scoop was
a bit bent. Another school
pony Don, on one occasion didn’t want to go to school, so reared up on
his hind legs. Again Dad turned upon the scene, and ordered me to get
on. And then walloped Don with a big stick on the rump. Don nearly
jumped from under me. Then Dad handed Hepsy the stick, and told her to
hit him. He told us that if he stopped, hit him again. No more trouble
from Don. Prince was a
riding or sulky horse we bought, but stumble over his own shadow. Hepsy
and I were mustering one day when Prince stumbled over a root and went
completely over, front legs down first. Hepsy quickly stepped off and
got out of the way. Prince scooped a hole in the ground with the pummel
of the saddle, then after struggling to his feet again, I mounted and
went on with the mustering. One day the draught horse
Blossom stood on my foot, it became a foot like a dinner plate. I tried
to push so did Blossom, then I said “woo-back” and she stepped off. We had 21 horses
on that farm. Ponies, coach horses and draught horses. Tronson’s
Canal It was about 1929 that
Dad dug the big drain from the Lagoon to the river, now known as
Tronson’s Canal. It is 70 chains long. The first 45 chains length was
higher and drier so we used 3 horse teams and scoop, with extra teams
on standby during the construction. I remember both Davis and
Dad working on the scoops. Further down amongst the titree, a bullock
team first pulled the trees out and away. Percy Anderson owned that
team and he also stuttered very badly. He had the most wonderful cattle
dog that looked after those bullocks. After those trees were
out of the way, Dad then employed a team of men from Tewantin to dig
thed canal 12 feet wide and 3 feet deep with draining shovels. The
payment was £1 a day. At most we had 13 men on the job. The wet swampy
soil was like peat. Horses and men were always tired by the end of the
day. Dad stayed to finish I remember, as he worked Christmas Day, and
it rained that night. It took three seasons to complete and was
finished in 1931. Mr Dunn was a hard worker
and a good leader, so Dad paid him extra money. The men received 8
shillings a day. After the drain was
finished we bought a 12 foot open motor boat and we put up a boat shed
at the top end of the drain. We had to take the boat slowly into the
drain because of the wash of the banks. Home
Life Prior to having
the boat we used to go to the swimming hole every Sunday. Although Dad
believed in everyone working hard, Sunday was always a day off between
milking. Once we had the boat we went further afield.
Mum would have the picnic lunch ready, then everyone would
hurry down to the boat and over to John Johns as he would join us and
go fishing; or better still, we would anchor the boat down near the
lake ocean side and walk across to North Shore Beach. There was good
swimming there or if the tide was right we could go fishing over there.
John was a master at catching worms, they were the best bait. Whiting
was plentiful. It was about a mile and a half to the beach. We would
leave early enough to get home to milk before dark. One night we were in the
row boat with Davis, Jack and Bill Gard, I had the lantern burning when
a Long Tom jumped in the boat with us. It took some persuading to stop
Jack from diving into the Canal. We got the rowlock and hit its head
in. Long Tom has a 6 inch mouth with needle sharp teeth. As we got older the
dancer of each Saturday night were very popular. Viva
wrote: “To go
to the dances we had to ride which we thoroughly enjoyed, e girls would
tie our dresses up around our waists and put on a riding skirt, no
jeans in those days.” On a day trip to Double
Bay Light House after we crossed the river by car barge near Tewantin,
we seven all had to get out to push until we hit the hard sand on the
beach, and it was then 40 miles to the Lighthouse. Illma and I being
little were not allowed to walk up the big climb to the Lighthouse, so
we built little houses and then caught locusts and shut them in. These
little houses were built of sticks, twigs and leaves. I remember when the
bridges were first built to Noosa Heads. To go up that last rise, we
had to get out and push. Soon after that Dad brought an allotment and
built a house in Noosa. Mum always had our
Ringwood farm house spick and span, as we were always having someone
over to stay. For a few years the teacher boarded with us. Jessie
Tronson remembers: “I
could not always make Walter hear when meals were ready, so he said we
will get a bell, a bell it was, a big church one, erected at the end of
the house and on certain weathers if windy, it could be heard for
miles. Only the other day (1985) after years of service it fell, we
still have that bell.” Time
to Move On Viva
writes: “Time was moving on, the depression had been
around, Mum and Dad could see the family was getting older and some
move had to be made. I had had a holiday on South Mole Island with
friends of Dad’s (Mr Henry Lammond, a writer) and I came home very
enthusiastic about the Whitsunday Islands. Dad went up to see what it
was about, and on seeing Long Island he could see (envisage) great
things could be done on the Island to make it into a holiday resort.
There was only one tin shed on the Island when he looked at it, so he
tried to get a lease on it as the present owners didn’t want it”. Jessie
Tronson explains: “In
1932 Walter went on a holiday to the Whitsundays, he went with a friend
Mr Samond, who was an author, They went near Daydream and Mole islands,
and looking around Walter could see the possibility of starting a
tourist resort on Long Island. So after much thought he would do
something about it. . By the time Viva was 25,
Illma was 14 and ready to leave school. Viva was engaged to be married.
What next? This was in 1934. Dad bought out a lease on the northern end
of Long Island. Viva and Cyril married and they took the Ringwood farm
on share, while Dad, Mum, Davis, Hepsy, Illma and I went to Long
Island. We unpicked the second
house to take with us. Video
Recollections In 1997 Seymour was
recorded on video recollecting many of his memories of these, his early
years growing up on the Ringwood Farm. His stories include his winning
the school swimming races and doing very well at school, especially in
arithmetic, riding to school on the various horses, and fleshing out
many of the incidents recorded in these writings above. His vivid
memories of Walter’s discipline was likewise recognised by all his
siblings. Walter’s loud talking voice was astonishing, it didn’t matter
where you were at the Gympie Show Ground on Show Day, you could hear
Walter talking, even if he was across the far side of the Show Ring.
More so, years later everyone in the family recognised how astute and
clever was Walter. His capacity to think through a problem and come up
with a practical solution was remarkable. |
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