TROVE Tuesday – It Happened in Tamworth in 1910 – Retirement

Police Magistrate’s Retirement

It is interesting to note that the Tamworth Police Magistrate, Mr E. Jones, retired from the service after 26 years and 6 months.  His duties in Tamworth must have commenced sometime in the year 1883, or maybe early 1884.  For this reason I strongly suspect that my grandparents Edward Thomas Bailey & Ines Maud Bailey nee: Smith would have known the man, especially my grandmother. 

My great grandparents, John Edward Smith and Mary Ann nee: Whiteman, were married in Tamworth in 1877 and they had Ines Maud in Tamworth during 1888.  This of course means that both my grandparents and my great grandparents would have at least known who Mr E. Jones was, if not known him well enough to call him friend. 

Source:

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article107718786

Our Annus Horribilus – Reflection 3

 

 

Julie with Koala – 12 mths approx

My next post is a little sad so I wanted to share with you a photo of a much happy time that reflected my love for our Australian wildlife.  The first photo is of me on a family trip to the wildlife park not far from our home in Sydney, and it shows me as a baby, being held steady by mum, interacting with an Australian Koala.  I have held a Koala a number of times in my life.   

Julie and Joey – 1962

The second photo – taken in about 1961-62 was taken in the back yard of our home and  shows me with our pet baby Kangaroo that my sisters and I named Joey – yes, I know – very original.  I don’t think that I have ever been this close to our beautiful Kangaroo’s again, however I have photographed them may times.  Joey was an orphan that needing feeding and caring for until he could return to the wild.

14 Jan 2020

I stopped writing, I stopped watching, I actively did other things. The fires and the devastation have been too much to take in, even though it hasn’t directly impacted on me. The television coverage has been nonstop, and it seemed to me that everyone was living and breathing the catastrophic conditions.  

I saw a news report on telly that showed a Kangaroo flailing around in a blackened landscape somewhere in country New South Wales, and it took me a moment to realize that the poor creature had a broken right leg. The broken leg flopped and bounced around as if it had a life of its own, as the animal tried to hop away on one leg, just aided by his tail. In the end the roo fell to the ground exhausted and just lay there amongst the ashes and burnt trees, a hollow shell of the proud and majestic animal it had once been. Totally defeated.

As bad as that vision was I realized that the more distressing thing for me was the thought that, when this poor creature laid down in abject terror and pain a human could think of nothing else to do but take out a camera and record the horror. Why in gods name didn’t they pull out a rifle and shoot it – or report it to Wires.  (Wires in Australia is a Wildlife Rescue Organisation, manned by volunteers)

Our wildlife have taken the full brunt of the fires with estimates circulating that roughly half of our gorgeous Koala’s have been lost.  Daily we see people arriving at animal shelters with deliveries of injured Koala’s, which are very prone to stress – on top of everything they go through with their horrific injuries.  We will loose thousands of them during this bushfire season.

Of course, there have been wonderful stories of help arriving from overseas, and volunteer work being done within our country. Enormous amounts of money has been raised to aid in the recovery of our nation. I am so grateful to the Fireies, the police and the Army and Reserves for all they have done.

But my mind, and my broken heart, keeps travelling back to the vision of that desperate, terrified Kangaroo.

Source Photos:

Julie with Koala – my private collection

Julie and Joey – my private collection

Kangaroo – https://cosmosmagazine.com/biology/how-kangaroos-evolved-with-a-quick-jump

Koala – https://www.savethekoala.com/donate

Annus Horribilus – Reflection – 2

January 2nd through to 4th were much of the same.  Terry and I watched the news, me more so than him, but I couldn’t seem to leave off.  I have just never seen anything like it.

2 Jan 2020  

24.5 to 43.2 degrees

25ml of rain

Today was more of the same – heat, fires – but I did get to hear that my cousin Lynette Gleeson who lives in Batemans Bay had been evacuated.  They are safe and her home did not burn.

In the evening Terry and I sat on the back patio and watched as a storm rolled in. Bit of a laugh though, when we realized that there was a dust storm ahead of it!! Lots of lightning and some quite loud thunder, but just for a little while before it became to windy, it was beautiful. Holly, our 15 year old Border Collie, didn’t think much of it though and was off hiding somewhere.

 

3 Jan 2020

24 to 41 degrees

On the news this morning it said that NSW was put on a state of Emergency with all these fires. There is a mass evacuation going on down the South coast where people have been told to leave before Tomorrow when conditions for fire danger are expected to worsen. I have lived in Tamworth for 40 years now, as well as for about ten years as a child, and I have never known it to be this dry or for the temperature to be above 39˚ for such an extended period.

It’s quite heartbreaking this year to see all the work you have put into your yard and gardens drying to a crisp in the scorching sun. Terry and I were talking this morning about how we miss working in the veggie patch or gardens. The time we spent out there on lawns, weeding, fertilizing and mowing was considerable and it is leaving a whole in our day that seems impossible to fill. It’s such a minor problem that I feel guilty even thinking about it, but I miss my veggie patch badly. That veggie patch provided me with produce that had to be turned into pesto, passata, breads or cakes and main meals. The cooking was a fair amount of time on its own.

 

4 Jan 2020

26 to 43 degrees

OMG – so hot overnight.  It seems the air conditioning just goes 24/7!  Even so, I had to check it this afternoon as it just didn’t seem to be working.

Smoke haze has been a huge problem over the last few weeks.  Some days are so bad that we can only just see into the next block.  The smoke blots out the hills, the other side of town – even the sky.  It’s a very eerie sight, often tinged an orange colour.  The winds are driving the smoke from the coast, over the mountain range and into our beautiful valley.  You could say it stinks, and heaven knows what so much sustained smoke is doing to our health.

What a day it has been for our country. 3000 Army Reservists have been called up to help with the bushfire crisis doing things like clearing roads, helping with evacuations and getting power and food where is it needed. A lot of people are stripping shreds off the Prime Minister, Scott Morrison , for the way in which he has handled the crisis – but short of fighting the damn fires with his own hands I can’t see what more people could want him to do! How terribly unfair. He has also organized 4 extra water bombers at the cost to the nation of $20,000,000.00, he’s organized the Army (helicopters) and the Navy to assist in mass evacuations from the south of the state. These actions have never been taken in Australia, so are unprecedented. Thank God that the day passed without loss of more lives.

Terry and I spent a good portion of the morning watching the special broadcast relating to the bushfire crisis on the ABC.

Charles Frederick Beh – Accident to Boy

February 18, 1926 was a big day for little Charles Frederick Beh who was the son of Charles (Snr) and Lucy Elizabeth nee: Allsop.  I guess that horse riding accidents were very common back then, but it was especially interesting to find a snippet about a day in the life of my husbands 1st cousins 1 x removed.

Young Charles Frederick was probably quite uncomfortable for a week or two, to say the least!

Source: 

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article81055538

Miss Bertha Drake

Miss Drake

Bertha was my husband’s 2nd cousin 2 x removed.  She was the 5th child of Edward and Sophia Drake nee: Chilcott and I came across her name whilst upgrading the family tree just a few weeks ago.  By reading the two accounts of her death she certainly seems to have been a beautiful young soul and her death from head injuries seems to have been a lingering affair.  The accident itself would have happened on the way home from church in very late March or early April of 1891.  I found this such a sad tale.

TROVE Tuesday It Happened in Tamworth in 1910 – Lucky Escape

Mr W. Brown’s Lucky Escape

It would appear that Mr W. Brown, who as far as I know was unknown to my grandparents, had a very lucky escape.  His injuries could well have been much worse.  If Edward Thomas & Ines Maud Bailey did know Mr Brown, they will have thought him lucky indeed and may have even visited him in the local hospital – I will never know.

I had to actually Google  to find out what a Hod Carrier was, as I had never heard of that profession before.  I think the Collins Dictionary website had the best description and it said that Mr W. Brown was simply a labourer carrying a hod (container to carry bricks and building supplies) for bricklayers and plasterers.  Here in Australia today we would call him a bricky’s labourer.

Sources:

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/hod-carrier

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article115249399

Lemon Cakes

Granma’s Lemon Cakes

Lets get into some yummy lemon cakes!  The instruction in this entry in Granma’s cookbook are very vague, but I managed to work it out as follows:

Ingredients:

1 tbsp butter, 1/2 cup sugar, 2 eggs well beaten, 1 cup of flour, grated lemon rind from 2 lemons, 1 tsp baking powder

Method:

Beat eggs and sugar with butter then add rind, add flour and baking powder.  Add a little water if necessary.  Ice with lemon icing

Verdict:

TROVE Tuesday – It Happened in Tamworth in 1910 – Death of a King

Headline News

Death of a King

An event of great importance to Australia occurred on 6 May 1910, one that would have been of keen interest to much of the population – my grandparents included.  Ines Maud and Edward Thomas Bailey would have read newspaper reports of King Edward VII’s death with great sadness.  Reports of condolences appeared in newspapers all over the country, with many churches holding special services to his commemorate his life and mourn his loss.

Tamworth appeared with reference to the loss of the King alongside 12 other townships from all over rural New South Wales.  All public buildings and schools were closed from lunchtime on Tuesday Monday 9 May in respect for the burial of King Edward VII. 

Source: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article239406918

Eliza Ann Haneby nee: Armitage – A Strange Tale

Eliza Ann was my husband’s 1st cousin 3 x removed and she managed to live through a very harrowing ordeal.

Description of Accident

As you can see from the Newspaper reports that Eliza’s injuries must have been substantial to have been found lying in a pool of blood on or about 2 Nov 1912.  The strange thing is that there were only 2 articles relating to the incident and I could find no follow-up to the situation at all.  I know that she did recover although I don’t know if she suffered any permanent disabilities from the fall and have no connection with any family member that might know about the story.

Eliza lived another three and a half years, finally succumbing to Pneumonia on 27 May 1916 in Wellington, New South Wales. 

Source:

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article111368222

TROVE Tuesday – It Happened in Tamworth in 1910 – Riotous Behaviour

I must admit the headline of this article published on 24 May 1910 in the Moree Gwydir Examiner & General Advertiser was what caught my eye.  I decided to look at what actions classified riotous behaviour and discovered that it could be almost anything.  I guess it is most likely that, as the incidents took place in pubs, it would have involved drunkenness but other riotous behaviour includes:

1. Indecent Language
2. Fighting in front of a crowd
3. Shouting your opinion over the top of someone addressing a group
4. Creating a wild or noisy scene whilst at the theatre
5. Encouraging a mob of people to be unruly

I remember my grandfather Edward Thomas Bailey quite well and I am positive that he would not have indulged in such behaviour.  To the best of my knowledge grand dad never drank.

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article112802090