INTERVIEW WITH ALF BEASLEY, born 1916 AT TOWAMBA - died May, 1999
INTERVIEW DATE: 21st, January 1999

Alf and Mavis Beasley

The Beasley family has been prominent in the Towamba area since the late 1800's. Numerous family members married and settled in the district. The Beasley men farmed, worked in the bush and with their horse teams carted produce between the coast and the Monaro.
In his eighties, Alf Beasley is the son of James Beasley (Jim) and Florrie McDonald. In his matter-of-fact way Alf tells of his early life, and life in general around him in the 1920's and '30's in Towamba.

KATE. DO YOU REMEMBER THE NAMES OF YOUR GRANDMOTHER AND GRANDFATHER? I WOULD LIKE TO GET AN IDEA OF THE FAMILY LINE AND WHERE THEY CAME FROM.
ALF. Well, the old Beasley's came out from England and his name was John and her name was Elizabeth.
KATE. DO YOU KNOW HER MAIDEN NAME?
ALF. No. That's going back a bit. And when they first came to the district they landed at Pambula and.....and see, I often wondered how they all came to be at Towamba. There was a family of six boys and five girls.
KATE. AND DID THEY ALL COME OUT TOGETHER?
ALF. No. They had two. When they came to Pambula they had two and then they shifted to Towamba and there's....you know Roberts' ('Parkside') well we knew it as Roberts'. It's South's farm now?
KATE. YES.
ALF. Well, down on South's farm, down near the river....the little old house there. That's where they were, years ago. And of course, we lived just a couple of hundred yards across from there. That's where we were born and reared.
KATE. ACROSS THE RIVER?
ALF. No. Just over from.....you go down that back lane behind McLeods....
KATE. THIS IS IN TOWAMBA?
ALF. Right in Towamba. You go down that back lane...
KATE. IS THAT WHERE LAURIE'S HOUSE IS?
ALF. No. That's next to the billiard room. (Where Matthews' now live) Well they bought that in later years. Mum did. But we were right down at the bottom near the river, our house and the old Beasley fellers, like when they landed out there, that's where they landed. (approximately where young Trevor Duggan now lives) And anyway, there was........all the boys, no...all bar one stayed about Towamba, married, and one feller went to Delegate. Up in the Delegate area, Bendoc, and he was the eldest. And the girls, of course, they all married about. One was married to a Farrell. That's how we are related to the Farrells. One of them Beasley women married a Farrell and......
KATE. WHICH ONE? WAS ONE DAVE FARRELL'S MOTHER?
ALF. Yes. She would have been Dave's aunty. Dave's father was Brickie and he got run over by the bullock wagon. You would have heard that. And killed in Towamba.
MAVIS. (Alf's wife) She would have been Dave's granny.
ALF. Yes. She would have been Dave's granny.
KATE. SO THAT'S THE GRANDPARENTS. NOW YOUR PARENTS?
ALF. My parents....see Jim, he was the youngest of them. Jim Beasley, he was the youngest of the family.
KATE. OF THE ORIGINAL FAMILY. THE ELEVEN CHILDREN.
ALF. Yes.
KATE. WAS HE YOUR FATHER?
ALF. Yes. And he married Florence McDonald.
KATE. WAS SHE A TOWAMBA McDONALD?
ALF. No. Well, yes, they did come from that family but they were up at Craigie. That's where Mum's family were born and reared. And her eldest brother must have come down to Towamba, or he might've married up there, and come to Towamba. That was Donald McDonald and that's where all the McDonalds come from. Old Donald McDonald was my uncle and he had a big family and then they seemed to all pretty well stay around Towamba. Mum came down and worked......and Jack's (Beasley) mother, they were two young girls together....
KATE. YOUR MUM AND JACK'S MUM.
ALF. Yes. And Jacks' mum. Oh, they were like that, you know. Their mothers were sisters.
KATE. JACK'S MOTHER WAS A McDONALD TOO?
ALF. No. Jack's mother was a Tindall but their mothers were sisters. And there's a Rankin in there somewhere. One of their mothers must have been a Rankin because we were related to the Rankins.....back. And anyway, these two girls came on to the dairy the other side of Burragate. Right on the road the dairy was. Binnie owned it. And anyway, they picked up with these two Beasley lads and they married them. And of course Mum married Jim and Aunty Carrie was her name... Jack's mother, and she married George. Unfortunately George died. Fifty, I think he was. It's all up on the stones up in the cemetery at Towamba. But of course Dad didn't live all that old either, he was only sixty-five. Mum said after that leukemia came about. They didn't know of it in them times and they reckon that's what he got, was leukemia.
KATE. HOW MANY BROTHERS AND SISTERS HAVE YOU GOT?
ALF. Two brothers and three sisters.
KATE. WHAT WERE THEIR NAMES?
ALF. Well, the eldest brother was Ray, and Vera, Mrs. Cox in Eden.
KATE. MRS. COX IN EDEN. SHE'S YOUR SISTER?
ALF. Yes. And Ida, she married Jim Sawers. Did you know the Sawers'?
KATE. I'VE HEARD OF THEM, YES. NOW I KNOW HOW TO SPELL THEIR NAME CORRECTLY. I WROTE IT 'SEERS' AND IT'S NOT.
ALF. They bought 'Log Farm'. See, that's where we were reared, at 'Log Farm'. We were there twenty-five years I think.
KATE. I HAVE BEEN CATALOGUING THE OLD PHOTOGRAPHS AT TOWAMBA SCHOOL AND THERE WAS ONE THERE WITH A HORSE AND CART WITH, I THINK, YOU AND LAURIE WITH JACK STANDING NEAR THE HORSE, AT 'LOG FARM'.
ALF. Yes. That could be. You see, Jack put a lot of time in down at 'Log Farm'. Worked there a lot when we were growing up.
KATE. SO THERE WAS YOU AND YOUR SISTERS. ONE WAS VERA.........
ALF. Yes, and Ida and Thelma, she married Bill Harris, in Kiah. And then there was Ray and me and Laurie. He was the youngest. Well, there was only twelve months between us. We're both getting about now like two old cripples.
KATE. WHAT YEAR WERE YOU BORN?
ALF. I was born in 1916 and Laurie must have been born in '17.
KATE. SO YOU GREW UP IN TOWAMBA. WHAT WAS SCHOOL LIKE THERE? WHO WAS YOUR TEACHER?
ALF. I had pretty well the one teacher the whole time. When I first went to school Mr. Dalling was teaching but he was just about to retire. And I think I only went a few months to him and then a bloke came.......Verner and Clive would have told you about him, I suppose ..........anyway later this bloke came. We heard he got thrown out of the teaching after he left Towamba. He nearly killed us!
KATE. WHY?
ALF. Well, I was one of them, I suppose I was doing the wrong thing. By jeez, he used to belt you with that cane. Oh, he was cruel! But he was only there twelve months and we heard afterwards that he got thrown out of the Department and then a bloke by the name of Brown came. And he finished the term. Like I finished my term (time) with him.
KATE. DID YOU GO EVERY DAY OR WAS IT A HALF-TIME SCHOOL THEN?
ALF. No. It was every day. We had to walk from 'Log Farm' up to the school where it is there now. I can't remember missing much school. But we did leave a bit early, like, to work on the farm. I was only thirteen when I left school. The girls all got married........and .....Vera...I don't think Vera was at 'Log Farm'. No. She was working in Eden when we went to 'Log Farm'. Yes, she was working in Eden and then she married a feller in Eden.
KATE. SO YOU MAINLY GREW UP ON 'LOG FARM'
ALF. Yes.
KATE. DID JACK (BEASLEY) LIVE THERE TOO?
ALF. No. Jack lived up......you go straight up the hill from Hartneady's and across. Like, you can't see it from the town. Somebody said it got burnt down.
KATE. THE PERSON WHO BOUGHT THE BLOCK BUILT A NEW HOUSE THERE.
ALF. That's Pongratz.
KATE. THE SON, YES.
ALF. You see, Jack didn't marry. Well, he had a brother Gordon and see, when I left 'Log Farm', I went sleeper cutting and stripping bark and Jack's brother, Gordon, I worked with him most of the time and then the poor beggar, he got leukemia. And he was dead at fifty. See, Jack was fairly comfortable and he owned that land in Towamba where he was living and Gordon had another place, a little farm down the bottom end of 'Log Farm'. Jack had a sister, Molly. Have you heard of her?
KATE. YES.
ALF. Yeah, well Molly came up to Towamba and was looking after Jack and then she died.
KATE. THEN YOUR DAD, DID HE HAVE A BULLOCK TEAM?
ALF. Horse team. The Farrells had the bullocks and the Beasleys had the horses. Jack had a horse team too.
KATE. WHAT WAS YOUR DAD'S JOB THEN. DID HE HAUL WHATEVER FROM THE COAST TO THE MONARO?
ALF. Yes. Wool and bark and you know, they used to chop the bark then and bag it and cart it down in bags.
KATE. DID IT GO OFF IN A STEAMER?
ALF. Yes.
KATE. AND SO HE'D GO FROM EDEN BACK HOME TO TOWAMBA AND THEN WOULD HE GO TO BOMBALA?
ALF. Yes. I think he did go as far as Bombala.
KATE. HE HAD A RUN.
ALF. Yeah. Because I can remember him saying about coming down Mt. Darragh. But you see, we were only....he gave the horse team up when we went to 'Log Farm' and Laurie and I was about six or seven when we went to 'Log Farm'.
KATE. WHY DID HE GIVE IT UP?
ALF. See, the motor trucks started to come.
KATE. OH, RIGHT! SO HE DIDN'T BUY A TRUCK?
ALF. No. Oh, no. No fear. The old man, he wouldn't have that on his mind. No. It was all
horses with him. He enjoyed them, so they tell me, he used to look after them, you know. Done his own shoeing too. He had a team of eleven....... eleven horses.
KATE. THE ODD ONE, WAS THAT OUT THE FRONT?
ALF. No. He had three sets of threes. In the double shaft, see. Three threes are nine and two in the shafts. I didn't have much to do with bullocks. I had two bullocks at 'Log Farm'. I was about ten or twelve, I suppose. I started with these two little bullocks and then I finished up ploughing with them. Drawing wood......matter of fact, at one stage there, Laurie and I used to supply the school with wood, with the bullocks. Bring the wood up to the school for the winter.
KATE. DID YOU PULL THE WOOD ON A SLED?
ALF. Yes. Two wheels on the back and the sledge in the front.
KATE. TWO WHEELS ON THE BACK OF THE SLED.
ALF. Yes. And you'd have a brake on it because it used to run a bit downhill. Dad made the sled sling with the two wheels on it. Oh, we used to cart a fair bit of wood on it. We only had two bullocks but apart from them I never had anything to do with bullocks. Only I used to like to go on..... when a team would come, they'd camp across the river there at Clements' ('Model Farm') and I liked to go over and watch them yoking up. You know, it was marvelous how them bullocks....they'd speak to them and they'd just all walk up into their places and then they'd put the yokes on the necks.....
KATE. A LOT MORE DOCILE THAN THE HORSE.
ALF. Yes.
KATE. ROLLO SOUTH MENTIONED A LITTLE BEASLEY GIRL THAT DROWNED IN THE RIVER?
ALF. Yes. That was Arthur's sister. You know the farm we were talking about that Souths own now? It was always Roberts's?
KATE. 'PARKSIDE'.
ALF. 'Parkside', yes. Well, that was where we were living when we left Towamba. I went down there dairying for Roland (Rollo South) for a while. About twelve months or so. It wasn't for long and anyway, Arthur's family, they went down on to the dairy. Roberts's owned it then. That's where they were when the first world war broke out. There was nine boys and two girls.
KATE. THESE ARE THE.....
ALF. This is Bill Beasley's. He was the oldest of the family.
KATE. WAS THIS JACK'S FAMILY?
ALF. No. Jack's is a separate family. Jack's father was George.
KATE. SO WHO WAS BILL?
ALF. Arthur was one of Bill's sons.
KATE. ARTHUR IS NOT JACK'S BROTHER AND HE'S NOT YOURS EITHER.
ALF. No. Cousin.
KATE. SO THERE ARE THREE MAIN BEASLEY FAMILIES THEN.
ALF. George and Bill and Jim.....yeah, they must be the three main ones.
KATE. THEY WERE THE CHILDREN OF THE GREAT GRANDPARENTS?
ALF. Yes. They were the children of that.....now where's the other three....Old Jack, as we called him, he was the feller who went to Delegate. But there's two more.
MAVIS. Ben?
ALF. Oh, Ben. That's right. He lived just near you.
KATE . YES.
ALF. Well, Ben built that. Where Terry and Lola live.
KATE. NEXT TO THE CHURCH?
ALF. Yes. Just above the church.
KATE. SO MRS. BEN.....
ALF. Oh, now this is going back to the Young Ben.
KATE. IS THERE ANOTHER ONE? (laughter)
ALF. Yes. Arthur's brother.
KATE. THERE'S AN OLD BEN AND A YOUNG BEN.
ALF. Yes. You'd get confused that way. That Old Ben, he was living there (next to the church) when we were going to school and .......but he lived to a good age. But his wife, she died early, and he had a daughter and they both died. I just don't know what happened. They only had the one child.
KATE. SO BACK TO THE LITTLE GIRL WHO DROWNED.
ALF. That was Bill Beasley's daughter and she was the baby of eleven. When the war broke out, the first world war, there was five of them nine boys went to the war. And Arthur was one of them. They was Arthur and Hampden, see Hampden stayed about Towamba, oh, and another Alf. The good Alf and the bad Alf.
KATE. WERE YOU ONE OF THOSE? (laughter)
ALF. He always said that. How he got the 'good' Alf , see, he was about the middle of the family, of eleven, and they reckoned he should have been a girl, the way he helped his mother. So it was a good thing one of them helped their mother out. There was Arthur and Hampden and Alf and Harry. But Harry went to Sydney after he came back from the war.
KATE. AND THEY ALL CAME BACK?
ALF. Yes. They all came back.
KATE. WHO WAS HERB BEASLEY?
ALF. Herb was another one of that family. He was the baby. But there was just something not right with Herbie. He was born with a hair lip and he used to go off a bit. I don't really know what his problem was.
KATE. DO YOU HAVE ANY MEMORIES OF YOUR MOTHER AND THE DAILY THINGS SHE HAD TO DO. SHE MADE HER OWN BREAD?
ALF. Oh, yes. She made all her own bread and I'll tell you where she had a big job when we were small, living down there. I told you about the bottom end of that lane. Do you know where the old McLeod place is, we used to call it, and it's full of new houses now, just the other side of the sports ground. Well, over there, there are five or six homes built in a small area. All new places now.
KATE. YES.
ALF. Well, that was the old McLeod place in my time.
KATE. THERE IS NOTHING THERE OF THE OLD PLACE NOW.
ALF. No. It was all pulled down. We used to go down that back lane where we were born and reared, well we had no water much. Only a tank and in the dry time, Mum and the two older girls used to carry the washing from over there to down below where Moyna (Price) is. There was a good well there, and used to do the washing there.
KATE. AND CARRY IT ALL THE WAY BACK?
ALF. You know, I think they used to hang it on the line there until it dried. And then we were living in Arthur's, (where Alf and Mavis lived when they married) it was the same problem. We didn't have any water much, like with our family. I used to cart the water from there, with the horse and drum. A forty-four gallon drum up to the house.
KATE. FROM THE RIVER OR THE WELL?
ALF. From that well.
KATE. SO THERE'S A WELL ON 'PARKSIDE'.
ALF. Yes. There used to be. It was really good water.
KATE. THERE WERE TOWN WELLS, WEREN'T THERE? NEAR THE SPORTS GROUND.
MAVIS. Down from George Parker's.
ALF. Yes. That's right. There was a town well there. It was always very wet about there. Like you couldn't get in close to it, like in my time. It was very boggy. But the one down at 'Parkside' it had a proper cover on it. That's right.....the Council did, in the later years, I think after I left there, they put a pump on that one I'm talking about up at Parker's. The boggy one. Yeah the Council....it still might have a pump on it.
KATE. DID YOU EVER TAKE WATER FROM THE RIVER?
ALF. No. I didn't ever get water from the river. Have you seen any floods since you've been there?
KATE. I'VE SEEN THE WATER OVER THE RAILINGS ON OLD BEN BEASLEY CREEK BRIDGE.
ALF. It seems funny, like, with people now calling him 'old' Ben Beasley. He was always 'young' Ben.
KATE. AND THEN JACK WAS ALWAYS 'OLD' JACK. AND HE WAS REALLY 'YOUNG' JACK.
ALF. Yes. He was 'young' Jack.
KATE. I MOVED IN TO TOWAMBA THE SAME YEAR AS THE NEW PEOPLE TOOK OVER THE SHOP. HE USED TO RIDE HIS OLD WHITE HORSE AND HAVE A BAG SLUNG OVER HIS SHOULDER OR ACROSS HIS HORSE. I THINK HE HAD ULCERS ON HIS LEGS AND HE WOULDN'T GET OFF THE HORSE. SO HE'D YELL FROM THE FRONT STEPS OF THE SHOP FOR SOMEONE TO COME OUT AND GET HIS ORDER.
ALF. Oh, he was a tough man, Jack. When he was real bad...oh, well, it was just before he died, he was in the hospital up here, (Bega) and I went up to see him. The feller who was in hospital with him, he said, 'They've just taken him out but he'll be back directly.' He said, 'Are you a relation of his?' And I said, 'Yeah.' 'Jeez,' he said, 'He's a tough man.' He had a walking stick and all the wall, it was a fibro wall, was all marked where he'd been belting the wall with the walking stick, trying to get attention. And I suppose they were getting sick of him. So anyway, that evening, the matron said to me.......they did bring him back and he was talking all right but his legs were terrible and she said, 'You know we're taking him to Canberra in the morning.' I said that I didn't know that. Anyway he didn't get to Canberra. That's when he died, the next day. It must have been his legs that killed him. But, look, the way that man used to knock himself about and work, he was one of the hardest working people living, you know. He was a feller who never took anything easy. Like a lot of people would look for any easy way of doing things. Jack would do it the hard way. But he made eighty-two. I was surprised that he made that age. Oh, Jeez, he knocked himself about.
KATE. HE WAS A BIT OF A CHARACTER.
ALF. Oh, dear. He could swear! Oh, Jeez, he used to swear.
KATE. SO BACK TO YOUR MUM. SHE'D WASH DOWN AT THE WELL AND MAKE HER OWN BREAD. DID YOU HAVE A DAIRY THERE?
ALF. No. Not until we went to 'Log Farm'.
KATE. SO WHAT WAS HER DAY, THEN? DID SHE HAVE A VEGIE GARDEN?
ALF. Not too much. No. I don't know. I don't suppose she had time while she was looking after us fellers. Different today, you know, the young mothers go out to work. But them times ....'course, there were no conveniences. No electricity or anything like that. I think it was only a ground (dirt) floor in the old kitchen. The old kitchen and then another three rooms. Two bedrooms and a lounge room.
KATE. DID SHE COOK ON AN OPEN FIRE OR DID YOU HAVE A STOVE OR A CAMP OVEN.
ALF. I Don't remember having a stove. No, I don't remember a stove. I think she had a camp oven. No, there was no gardens there and, oh, I suppose we were on a half acre, there.
KATE. DID YOU EAT WELL?
ALF. Well, we must have done. Like I said, we were six and seven when we left there. We used to go over to Hartneady's (general store on south side of the river) if she didn't have much for school. We'd go over to Hartneady's shop and get some biscuits. I remember doing that. There used to be some beautiful peaches over at Roberts's and she used to make jam. Donald Laing lived straight across the river from where I'm talking about and their farm ('Nereman') used to run along both sides of the river and we'd always get jam melons from the Laings and Mum always made melon jam or anything that was going in the fruit line.
KATE. AND WHAT ABOUT MEAT? DID YOU KILL YOUR OWN MEAT?
ALF. Not there. We did down at the farm. ('Log Farm') I don't know what they did for meat there. Of course, meat wasn't as dear to buy as it is now.
KATE. RABBIT?
ALF. I don't remember having any rabbit there but I do remember having rabbits on the farm. I went back to the farm, years after Kurt Pongratz bought it with a feller who was selling stuff for drenching and I went off for a walk around while they talked business and when I got back he (Kurt) asked me, 'Well, have I improved it or buggered it?'
KATE. HE HAD YOU PICKED OUT. (laughter)
ALF. 'Well,' I said, 'I hate to have to say it but you've improved it all.' Gee, he's done a good job there. 'Course Jack worked with him a lot, you know. Jack lived there to finish and anyway he said, 'You Beasley buggers,' he said, especially Jack, he said, 'If there was a little tree about somewhere, the first thing he'd do would be to chop it out.' He's really done a marvelous job. And that little place where I said Gordon had down at the bottom, well, he bought that too. On the top of the hill, at the back of Clements's there's a good view, well he's had the bulldozer in and cleaned that all up.
KATE. DID YOU TRAP RABBITS AFTER SCHOOL?
ALF. Yes. Trapped rabbits a fair bit.
KATE. WAS IT THE SKINS THAT WERE WORTH MORE THEN, THAN THE MEAT?
ALF. Yes. The skins was the thing then. And I did do a little bit, not in a big way, the carcasses. See, over there at Towamba and Burragate they used to live on the rabbits. The skins. (the money from the skins) And then when the carcasses came it was a big thing, the carcass. A feller by the name of Lucas came from Brogo over to around Towamba picking up the carcasses and he had the freezer and the feller at Candelo got a freezer, Charlie Rolf. Then he used to go around....see that place....who's on that now? 'Dunblane'.
KATE. HAYES.
ALF. That was a great rabbiting paddock. People used to pay so much for a paddock here and a paddock there. It was a big area.
KATE. DO YOU REMEMBER HOW MUCH?
ALF. No. I wasn't in on that. But I know they used to buy a paddock and have a paddock for the winter. They was moving with rabbits, you know? And 'Jerusalem', do you know 'Jerusalem'? Although they've changed the name.
KATE. 'HILL-N-DALE'.
ALF. That's right. That was another great trapping place.
KATE. THEY WERE ALL OWNED BY BINNIES WEREN'T THEY?
ALF. And you see, Binnies owned down where Pongratz is. ('Log Farm') They had no family, Alec and Sarah Binnie and we went working there. They were very shy family people. I think there was only one child between about four of the Binnie men.
KATE. YES. THERE WERE A LOT OF BACHELORS AMONG THEM.
ALF. Yes. Alec had no family. Arthur Binnie had no family. In my time, Arthur Binnie owned that place just straight up past the plonk shop. I don't know whether it is still standing there.
KATE. THE OLD POST OFFICE?
ALF. You know where the old wine shop is, you go on past there.....
KATE. ALONG THE RIVER OR UP THE HILL?
ALF. Along the river.
KATE. THERE'S AN OLD HOUSE THERE THAT USED TO BE THE POST OFFICE I WAS TOLD.
ALF. Oh, not in my time.
KATE. I THINK IT WAS WHEN THE CROSSING WAS USED UP THERE BEFORE THE BRIDGE....
ALF. Oh, yes, there was a crossing up there. I never heard that one then, it being an old post office. Well, Arthur Binnie owned that and he had no family and then Herbert Binnie, he owned 'Jerusalem' and he had no family. Then Dave Binnie owned 'Dunblane' and he had one boy. And that was the family, them four boys.
KATE. WHERE DID THEY COME FROM?
ALF. I don't know. And there was one sister and she was a nurse about there. Ginny Binnie. And she never married. So there was still no family. She got 'Log Farm'. When the old Binnie people died, it was left to Ginny. And then Ginny died and then this one boy that Dave Binnie had, Harold, it was left to him and then, I told you about my sister Ida marrying a Sawers, well they bought it then, off the Binnies and then when they sold it, there was two people come from Sydney, they were a good age too, bought it off Jim (Sawers) and they sold it and Kurt bought it off him. That was the story of 'Log Farm'. It is a pretty good farm. It and Clements' ('Model Farm') across the river.
KATE. YOUR SOCIAL LIFE, THEN. THERE WAS CRICKET AND TENNIS AND THE RIFLE CLUB.
ALF. Yes. The races just about cut out when I left school. The last race meeting.
KATE. THAT WAS UP ACROSS FROM THE CEMETERY.
ALF. Yes. That's right. That was the race course. Dances were the main thing. We used to go to Burragate and Wyndham and Nethercote.
KATE. DID YOU HAVE DANCES AT THE HALL NEAR THE SHOP?
ALF. Oh, yes. Never miss. They used to have fortnightly socials. They'd have one at Towamba and one at Burragate....we never used to miss the dances.
KATE. PERICOE HAD A HALL THEN, DIDN'T IT.
ALF. Yes, we used to go to Pericoe too. But Pericoe did peter out in the finish. I think old Rollo's father bought it.
KATE. THE HALL?
ALF. Yes. I think he bought the hall and I think he might have pulled it down.
KATE. SO IT DIDN'T GET BURNT DOWN.
ALF. No. I don't think so. I think Roland's father bought it. He might have bought it and built where he is now.
KATE. ROLLO SAID HIS PARENTS ORIGINALLY CAME TO FARM NEAR
'NUNGATTA' BUT THAT FELL THROUGH AND THEY MOVED BACK TO PERICOE. ALF. I can remember as though it was yesterday. I suppose I would have just left school. See, Roland, he's a couple of years younger than me. He'd be about eighty. He's a bit younger than me. They came from Sydney.
KATE. YES. HE SAID HE CAME TO TOWAMBA WHEN HE WAS ELEVEN.
ALF. Yes, that would be about the time....I would have been about twelve or thirteen. Well, they were over at Clements' and bought eight cows and a draft horse ......and you knew Fred Orman?
KATE. NO. I ONLY KNEW DAVID.
ALF. Oh, Fred was gone, was he when you came there. But you would have known Dorothy, his wife.
KATE. YES. SHE LATER MARRIED WILF INGRAM.
ALF. Yes.
KATE. SHE'S MOYNA'S SISTER.
ALF. Yes. And she's got another sister, Yvonne. But anyway, they went out into the bush, to this place where they went to, you know. And they had a pretty rough time and then they shifted into the 'Two Mile' at Pericoe there and then they got burnt out. The fire came through and burnt them out. And that's how he came to be where he is. And then, 'course, he bought 'Parkside' then. Apparently Harry South didn't have much. It was Fred Orman that had the money. And then over the years when Dorothy grew up he married her. They had a family of three, I think. David, Albert and Edith.
KATE. SO FRED ORMAN AND HARRY SOUTH WERE IN PARTNERSHIP?
ALF. Yes. They were in partnership when they went out to Yambulla. I don't know what they did out there.
KATE. YAMBULLA WOULD HAVE FOLDED UP BY THEN.
ALF. Oh, yes. Years before that. But they took a short cut, you see. They came across from Clements', through 'Log Farm' and went out through the bush with their cattle.
KATE. WAS THAT UP YAMBULLA FIRE TRAIL, PAST WHERE JACK LIVED, AND UP THE 'MANNING' HILL?
ALF. Yes. Out to the 'Manning'. It was a great saying, that 'Manning', if you had an old horse. 'I'll take him up to the 'Manning' and shoot him.
KATE. WAS THAT THE HORSE'S GRAVE YARD?
ALF. Oh, and Herbie, you know, Beasley, you was talking about, that had the hair lip, well that was his job. It wasn't a good job for him, the state he used to get in sometimes. If you had a horse that was finished and Herbie would take him up there and shoot him in the 'Manning'.
KATE. WHY HERBIE?
ALF. I don't know. Whether he was the only one who had a gun or why they picked on Herbie. He was a good dancer, Herbie. He used to love his dancing.
KATE. SO YOU'D HAVE YOUR FORTNIGHTLY DANCE FOR WHATEVER REASON.
ALF. Oh, yes. Some of it used to go to the school, I think and the churches used to hold a social and then there'd be the big ball. See, the Catholic ball would be a big ball in Towamba one time.
KATE. AS FAR AS RELIGION GOES, I WAS TOLD THAT THERE WERE THE RYANS AND THE McMAHONS AND THEY WERE ABOUT THE ONLY CATHOLICS LEFT IN TOWAMBA AT ONE TIME. AND THE BROTHERS OF ONE FAMILY MARRIED THE SISTERS OF THE OTHER, SO TO SPEAK, TO KEEP WITHIN THE RELIGION.
ALF. Yes.
KATE. DID YOU HAVE ANY COMPETITION BETWEEN THE RELIGIONS OR DID
YOU ALL GET ALONG TOGETHER.
ALF. There wasn't that many Catholics in Towamba. The Roberts' was Catholics, the Dickies....no. Only one of the Dickies. There was two Dickies. See, one of Dad's sisters....one of them Beasley girls married a Dickie. You might have heard of the old butcher's shop that used to be up near Love's there, (near Ray Love's house) well, that belonged to Jim Dickie and he married....she'd be my aunty.
MAVIS. We've got a docket Gloria Clements, she's Gloria Grant now, that Dickie that married the Beasley, he had the butcher shop and his daughter kept .......what was her name Alf?
ALF. Connie.
MAVIS. Connie. She kept the old dockets and she gave them to Gloria Clements....Gloria Grant now, and she's always been in contact with us, and she sent us one. So I've got one here somewhere.
ALF. There was two brothers, Jim and Jack.
KATE. ONE OF THE DICKIES LIVED AT 'PUCKAWIDGE'. SOMEONE SAID HE WAS ENGLISH ...
ALF. Yes.
KATE. AND HE PLANTED A CHESTNUT TREE .
ALF. Oh, yes. I know where that is. I've got chestnuts off it. Well, that was Jack. He was straight across there (the river) from 'Log Farm'. He had a little farm there and this Gordon Beasley I worked for, he died. He married that Jack Dickie's daughter and she was the youngest. He had six daughters, Jack Dickie and anyway they all went to Sydney. He put them all through schooling and they were the Catholic ones. But not the Jim Dickies.
KATE. THEY WERE BROTHERS? ONE WAS CATHOLIC AND ONE WASN'T.
ALF. Yes. But it must have been the women, you see. One married a Beasley and......... the Dickies couldn't have been Catholics, it must have been because old Jack married a Ryan.
KATE. JACK MUST HAVE TURNED CATHOLIC.
ALF. Yes. He must have turned....he married a Ryan.
KATE. AND THE RYAN'S WERE CATHOLIC.
ALF. Yes. That's right.
KATE. SHE WASN'T ISSIE'S SISTER, WAS SHE?
ALF. No. I think she was a cousin. Was Issie in town when you came there?
KATE. YES. HE WAS STILL THERE FOR A COUPLE OF YEARS.
ALF. I went up and seen them.....they were up in the home (nursing home) together and I went up and seen them one day. But he was a bloke that you couldn't stop him from talking and this day he was just too far gone.
KATE. DID YOU PLAY CRICKET OR TENNIS?
ALF. I never played much cricket or tennis. The brother did. I played a bit of football but I took on umpiring. And I umpired for years. That Verner Clements he was a very good cricketer and footballer too.
KATE. DID YOU RIFLE SHOOT?
ALF. No. But I scored. I used to go ......me and another feller, go up and score for them.
KATE. THAT WAS UP THE TOP OF THE HILL THEY CALLED THE 60'S?
ALF. Yes. Up the back of Issie's (Ryan) place. Ede would have bought all that. It was all ti tree then. Good for nothing. But he could have cleaned it up.
KATE. WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF YOU BROKE YOUR LEG OUT THERE OR WAS BITTEN BY A SNAKE. DID YOU HAVE SOMEBODY LOCAL TO FIX IT OR DID YOU HAVE TO GO TO PAMBULA HOSPITAL?
ALF. No. It's a funny thing. A lot of people since shifted here ask, 'How did you get along if you got sick?' But that never seemed to worry you. No, never seemed to worry us. You see, I cut my foot twice with the broad-axe and split my toe right open and......a feller had come up to the bush, just shifted all his tools up there with his horse and slide and anyway, in the meantime he was still there....
KATE. THIS WAS WHEN YOU CUT YOUR FOOT?
ALF. Yes. Up in behind....do you know where the old Towamba mill, sawmill...
KATE. ON STONEY CREEK?
ALF. Yes. Up in there we was. And I used to drive the car there at the road, and this feller said, 'Look, you better take this horse and slide and go back down.' It was a rough track too, and the blood was pouring out of my foot, so I got back down to the car, and the blood had eased up then, and I got Darcy. Do you remember Darcy Parker?
KATE. NO. HE WAS GONE.
ALF. Darcy took me to Pambula. I had a stitch there.
KATE. WAS THAT IN A TRUCK?
ALF. No. Darcy had a car then.
KATE. SO BEFORE THE CARS CAME IN IT WOULD.....DO YOU REMEMBER THE CARS COMING TO TOWAMBA?
ALF. Yes. Pretty well.
KATE. WAS THERE COMPETITION WHO WAS GOING TO BE THE FIRST TO HAVE ONE?
ALF. Yes. Wilfred Ryan was one of the first fellers to have a car.
KATE. ISSIE'S BROTHER?
ALF. No. I don't think they were any relation. You'll know those people who bought his place. Just below 'Elmgrove'. They were the people who bought Ryans out.
KATE. MIRAMS. 'RESTALRIG'.
ALF. Yes. well that's the place. That Wilfred Ryan was the first person to have a motor car. And Mirams are still there?
KATE. I INTERVIEWED THEM A FEW WEEKS AGO BECAUSE THEY CAME IN THE MID SIXTIES. THEY WERE ONE OF THE FIRST PEOPLE AT THAT TIME FROM OUTSIDE THE VALLEY TO BUY LAND. THEY MET SOME OF THE OLD PEOPLE. THE SAME WITH HEATHER AND PETER MATTHEWS. THEY BOUGHT THE MAIL RUN FROM ALBIE LOVE. THEY CAME IN JUST WHEN THE OLDIES WERE LEAVING. IT WAS GOOD TO GET THOSE IMPRESSIONS. YES...SO HE HAD THE FIRST CAR, DID HE?
ALF. Yes. Wilfred Ingram....no Wilfred Ryan. Wilfred Ingram bought my first car that I had. Wilfred Ingram bought it off me. Wilfred was like me, he was a good age before he got his licence.
KATE. WHAT MAKE WAS YOUR CAR?
ALF. It was a Dodge.
KATE. A CAR OR A TRUCK?
ALF. A car.
KATE. IN THE OLD NEWSPAPERS, THERE WAS A WOMAN WHO ADVERTISED TO TAKE PASSENGERS FROM TOWAMBA TO BEGA FOR A DAILY TRIP. ONE POUND WAS THE FARE.
ALF. Was it Butcher?
KATE. NO. I CAN'T REMEMBER....
ALF. Oh, Violet Love?
KATE. YES. THAT'S RIGHT.
ALF. They were in opposition. Butcher had the mail run. When it first started from Towamba to Bega, Butcher, like he wasn't married then, and I don't know where he came from. Anyway, he put in and got the mail run and then he finished up marrying a Towamba girl. She was a cousin of mine. Anyway, he had it for years and this Arthur Love and Violet they cut him out. Then there was great cutting then. Butcher run a separate passenger service then and they were cutting one another's prices.
KATE. WHO LASTED?
ALF. I think the Love's. I think Butcher had to get out in the finish. He went on to that little place across the river. You know Ronnie McDonald's?
KATE. YES.
ALF. That's the old Slattery place. ('Limerick Vale') Well Butcher went over there and he dairied there for a few years and then he went down to near Pambula there...... Greigs Flat. He went on to a dairy there and then when he left there he must have gone to Canberra because that's where he died.
KATE. DO YOU KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT....YOU KNOW WHERE CHARLIE LAING LIVED ('NEREMAN') JUST ACROSS THE RIVER, THERE'S A LITTLE CEMETERY.
ALF. Ah, yes. That's where we were born and reared just near there.
KATE. DO YOU KNOW OF ANYONE WHO WAS BURIED THERE?
ALF. No. Unfortunately I couldn't tell you. I thought there was two buried there.
KATE. THERE'S A MOTHER AND DAUGHTER BURIED THERE IN THE ONE GRAVE. BUT THE HEADSTONE IS BROKEN UP AND THE GRAVE HAS SUNK.
ALF. Have you been there?
KATE. YES.
ALF. And is that big weeping willow still there?
KATE. IT'S ALL OVERGROWN.
ALF. There was a big weeping willow in that grave yard. You see, we used to go to school from 'Log Farm', we used to come around the cliffs there, they called it......Ormans own it now, or Parker's owned it then, and we used to come past that cemetery and around past where we were born and reared and we used to walk then, to school. We got a horse later on.
KATE. DO YOU REMEMBER ANYTHING ABOUT MY HOUSE, HARTNEADY'S?
ALF. I can't say I was ever inside it when Hartneady's had it.
KATE. OH, YOU WERE THERE WHEN McLEOD'S HAD IT?
ALF. Yes. See, he started up a barber shop and we used to go there as young fellers to get a haircut. That was in a big room just off the shop. The shop used to be on Ben Beasley's end and then the next room was the big room he had his barber shop in there.
KATE. THAT'S MY LOUNGE-ROOM NOW. THAT MUST HAVE BEEN THE BARBER SHOP. JEFF KNIGHT, WHO I BOUGHT THE HOUSE FROM......
ALF. Oh, Jeff Knight had it. Did he buy it off Charlie Page?
KATE. I THINK HE MUST HAVE.
ALF. Yeah. Charlie Page was there when I left. And then, you see, right on the end, on the Ben Beasley end, (the west side) there were steps going up to the veranda. Are they still there?
KATE. NO. YOU SEE, I THINK THAT SECTION HAS GONE. YOU CAN SEE THERE WAS ANOTHER SECTION THERE. THE VERANDA FLOOR IS AT A DIFFERENT LEVEL THAN THE REST.
ALF. It was a good big lump of a shop. You see, they had the drapery on the Ben Beasley side. As you walked in they had two big counters and the drapery on Ben's side, and all the confectionery and that was on the other side.
KATE. AND THEN THE HAIRCUTS.
ALF. Yes. Jack (McLeod) had the haircutting in the big room. And you walked around the veranda into their kitchen. But you might've gone through the big room to the kitchen too.
KATE. JACK (BEASLEY) SAID THAT THE BEDROOMS CAME FROM A HOTEL IN YAMBULLA.
ALF. Oh, he'd know. I can remember the veranda. We were talking about it just this morning. Whether Charlie Page put a new veranda on it. It used to be rough.
KATE. OH, IT'S ROUGH. STILL ROUGH. (LAUGHTER)
ALF. Jeez, it's a wonder its still there! When we used to walk along to go into the shop, the boards would be all moving.
KATE. THEY STILL ARE.
ALF. It's still the same?
KATE. YES. (LAUGHTER) WHEN I FIRST WENT TO LOOK AT THAT HOUSE I WAS ON MY OWN WITH THREE BOYS AND I WAS LOOKING FOR SOMEWHERE TO RENT. I WALKED INTO THAT HOUSE AND THAT WAS IT. I JUST LOVED IT. ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT. IT HAD PAPER ON THE WALLS OF THE BIG ROOM AND I SCRAPED ALL THAT OFF BECAUSE IT WAS PEELING AND AS THE STUMPS UNDERNEATH THE HOUSE HAD SUNK THE TONGUE AND GROOVE LINING BOARDS HAD MOVED. THE PAPER WAS A MESS. NEAR THE DOORWAY THERE WAS WRITTEN ON THE WALL, 'FONE INSTALLED 20th of OCTOBER 1926'. DO YOU REMEMBER THE ELECTRICITY COMING?
ALF. Oh, yes. We were living there at Arthur's (Arthur Beasley's house in the village) when they put the electricity on. See, we didn't have electricity when we first went there. It was that old, the house, that they put it on the outside of the walls, on the paper.
KATE. YES. THAT'S WHERE MINE IS.
ALF. Now I couldn't tell you what year it came on but, Jeez, that was a big thing for Towamba.
KATE. A BIT OF EXCITEMENT?
ALF. Yes. It was a bit of excitement there, the electricity. See, Ira Parker, he owned the shop then, and he had his own generator and he used to run the lights on the hall and he had a pretty good setup. I think when those first people came they closed the hall....... who bought the place off Ira?
KATE. I THINK, KELLERS.
ALF. Kellers, that's the name. They reckoned the hall was condemned. Or well, they had to do a lot of work to it, or something. Then of course, they built the little one up at the sports ground and they used that then. I think the last time we were there was Albie and Clare's (Love) fortieth anniversary. There's not many of the original people left there now.
KATE. NO.
ALF. See, George Love........
KATE. WAS GEORGE ORIGINALLY FROM TOWAMBA?
ALF. Not really. He went to school there but they were more or less, Pericoe.
KATE. IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE YOU WOULD ADD?
ALF. Well, I think we covered how Mum used to wash on the board and carry the clothes over to the well.
KATE. DID SHE DO A LOT OF FANCY WORK?
ALF. No. She never did anything like that.
KATE. YOU HAD THREE SISTERS DIDN'T YOU?
ALF. Yes. Mrs. Cox, Mrs. Sawers and Mrs. Harris. And the older brother, he had a family of eight and they are all up about Moruya. But see, those old fellers, they would have known a lot about Yambulla. Jack, he would have had a horse team going to Yambulla because he had to leave school...I remember now. When his father got that complaint, you know, Jack had to leave school, when he was twelve, and take over the horse team, his father's horse team. When Gordon left, he went with him and his brother. There was another boy and he got killed down on the Eden mountain with the horse team.....Leslie, they had a brother Les..... Jack and Gordon, and when Gordon had a boy, he called him Les. Anyway, Jack was coming home from Eden with the horse team and a truck was coming along. It was up the top of the mountain there, and the horses took fright. They wasn't used to the trucks, you know. They hadn't been around for very long. Anyway, the horses took fright and crushed him against a tree.

AND THAT'S THE WAY IT WAS.


BEASLEY

JOHN BEASLEY
ELIZABETH BEASLEY (nee ?)

John and Elizabeth had three sons: James, George and William.

James Beasley married Florrie McDonald
Their children: Ray, Vera, Ida, Thelma, Alf, and Laurie.

George Beasley married Carrie Tindall
Their children: Molly, Jack. Gordon, Les.

William Beasley married Sarah Target
Their children: Ted, Tom. Dick, Harry, Ben, Alf, Hampden, Arthur, Herbie.