The Mallee kids

A useful source of information about my family is an album of photographs that came to me from my parents-in-law Peter Young (1920 – 1988) and Marjorie (1920 – 2003).

A few years before he died Peter spent an afternoon going through the photos with me, explaining where they were taken and naming the people in them. I wrote this information on the backs of them, and I’m very glad that I did, for without this it would be very difficult now to work out who was who. Even so there are gaps. I can’t identify all the people in every photograph.

The photos below are of Peter’s cousins, who lived at Carwarp, near Mildura. He called them the Mallee kids.

Peter’s mother Elizabeth Young nee Cross (1900 – 1949) was one of ten children. One of her older brothers, George Murray Cross (1890 – 1962) served in World War I, was wounded in France and returned home in 1917. In 1918 he married Elsie Agnes Brown (1889 – 1959).

When they married George and Elsie Cross moved first to Ouyen then to Ginquam West, close to Mildura. Not long afterwards, they took up a wheat and sheep farm at Carwarp, about 30 kilometres south.

The Mallee dry and harsh, tough to farm, and many Soldier Settlers couldn’t make a go of it. George Cross, however, ran his farm there until near to his death in 1962 when his son Alex  took it over.

One of George’s grand daughters remembers the farm was

640 acres & dry land cropping. Wheat & sheep as l recall. He apparently said that if it were irrigated, he could grow anything. It’s now a winery !

Some of the frustration of Soldiers Settlers can be detected from a letter George Cross wrote to the Soldiers’ Settlement Board in 1923: “My wife and family left here on the 10 January last as I did not consider that the camp we were living in was fit for any woman to live in. I have since pulled it down and there is no possibility of their return until such time as someone at your end comes out of their trance and gets the job done.” His wife and children rejoined George Cross at the end of the year.

The Cross’s farm was 640 acres, 1 square mile (just under 260 hectares), the size of the average Soldiers Settler farm. It was new country, not previously cultivated.

In 1929 George Cross gave evidence to a committee looking at the size of viable farms (see below).

In 1935 an inspector of George Cross’s wheat and sheep farm noted “ the eldest boy assists with all the farm work”. Jim Cross was then 16 years old. “The Limits of Hope”, a history by Marilyn Lake of post-WW1 Soldier Settlement, notes that the work of grown-up children often contributed significantly to a farm’s success.

George and Elsie Cross had five children:

• James Murray (Jim) 1919 -2007 born Ouyen
• Alex Watson (Alex) 1921 – 2005 born Mildura
• Caroline Elsie (Carol known as Elsie when young) 1923 – 2017
• Frederick George (Fred) 1924 – 2003
• Beryl Lillian (Beryl) 1934 – 2006

The following photos are from the collection of my father-in-law

Jim 3 years 10 months, Alex 2 years; 1923

Jim & Alex carting wood Christmas 1924

Elsie and Fred Christmas 1924

Fred Cross age 10 months in 1925

“This was taken at a Birthday party last August. I put a mark near Jim & Alex. I am in the shade of the tree with Fred in my arms & Elsie is along side of me.” Caption presumably by George Cross. Fred was born September 1924 and looks about 2 in the photo so I think the photo dates from August 1926. Jim would have been 7, Alex 5 and Elsie 3.

The Mallee kids: Jim Elsie, Fred and Alex Cross

“This was taken from the lower end of the dam looking towards the house.”

“This is rather a good view, only the top of the mill is cut off. Better luck next time”

“Do you recognise this building?” I am not sure why FJ or Ann Jane Cross should recognise the building – was it moved from Homebush to Carwarp?

“This is a good view of the mill & tank. The three boys up the ladder. Alex at the top.”

“HOME MAINTENANCE” AREA FOR FARMERS (1929, June 21). Murray Pioneer and Australian River Record (Renmark, SA : 1913 – 1942), p. 8. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article109383159

Sources and further reading

• For the Empire. Welcome to Corporal George Cross (1917, November 7). Avoca Free Press and Farmers’ and Miners’ Journal (Vic. : 1900; 1914 – 1918), p. 3. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article151687264
• Wedding Bells. Cross – Brown (1918, July 17). Avoca Free Press and Farmers’ and Miners’ Journal (Vic. : 1900; 1914 – 1918), p. 3. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article151682981
• “HOME MAINTENANCE” AREA FOR FARMERS (1929, June 21). Murray Pioneer and Australian River Record (Renmark, SA : 1913 – 1942), p. 8. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article109383159
• Public Record Office Victoria
  • File of G. M. Cross, DSL 217. Cross to CSB, 22 March 1923. VPRS 749, item 69, quoted in Marilyn Lake, The Limits of Hope: Soldier Settlement in Victoria 1915–38 (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1987) p. 155.
  • VPRS 5357, P0, unit 2667 : Land Selection And Correspondence Files 01695/198.6 GEORGE MURRAY CROSS THOMAS LANIGAN WILLIAM LEAMON CARWARP WEST 1 1A 695–2–0
  • VPRS 5714, P0, unit 2409 : Land Selection Files, Section 12 Closer Settlement Act 1938 [including obsolete and top numbered Closer Settlement and WW1 Discharged Soldier Settlement files] C11768 GEORGE M CROSS CARWARP WEST 1 1A 695–2–0
  • Will and probate VPRS 28/ P4  unit 2858,  item 595/791 and VPRS 7591/ P3  unit 477,  item 595/791 George Murray CROSS Date of grant: 23 May 1963; Date of death: 12 Aug 1962; Occupation: Farmer; Residence: Carwarp
• Marilyn Lake, The Limits of Hope: Soldier Settlement in Victoria 1915–38 (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1987) pp.155, 164

A picnic in the Ballarat Botanical Gardens

I don’t have a favourite photograph but I appreciate the photograph collection of my parents-in-law. I can remember sitting down with my father-in-law Peter Young (1920-1988) and asking him who was who in his collection of photographs. I noted down his answers in pencil on the back of each photo. Because we had that conversation, I have been able to work out the identity of many of those pictured. But despite these annotations there are still many puzzles.

Peter Young (1920-1988) sitting on a lion at the Ballarat Botanical Gardens about 1924

Peter (wearing a tie) and Elizabeth Young nee Cross (wearing a striped dress) sitting on a cannon opposite the Ballarat Botanical Gardens in about 1924

stamped “3 73” on the back, Peter identified this as perhaps Uncle Fred and Maggie. Uncle Fred could have been Fredrick Beswick Cross (1893-1959), brother of Elizabeth, father of Ethel and Freda Cross who might be the two small girls pictured picnicking. But it could also be Frederick Fletcher (1890-1967) who married Margaret Cross (1897-1926), Elizabeth’s sister and Peter’s aunt.

A picnic near the Ballarat Botanical Gardens about 1924. Elizabeth young nee Cross (1900-1949) is wearing a striped dress. Her son Peter is the small boy seated wearing a tie. The older woman in a black dress is probably Anne Jane Cross nee Plowright (1862-1930), Elizabeth’s mother. I suspect the man in the hat might be Frederick James Cross (1857-1929), Elizabeth’s father but I am not sure. The two little girls might be Ethel and Freda Cross, born 1919 and 1920, Peter’s cousins and about the same age. I am not sure about the other two women, though the woman sitting by the tree is most likely one of Elizabeth’s sisters.

 

The last three photographs were all developed from the same roll of film based on the stamp of “3 73” on the back. I assume they were taken on the same day. Perhaps some cousins also have photographs taken on that day and can better identify those pictured.

The locations of these photographs are still recognisable. Children still sit on the lion and have their photos taken when visiting the Ballarat Botanical Gardens.

Sepia Saturday: street photography

This week’s Sepia Saturday prompt photograph is of an itinerant photographer.

ITINERANT PHOTOGRAPHER IN COLUMBUS OHIO (1938) : LIBRARY OF CONGRESS (via FLICKR)

Among my mother in law’s photographs is one of her and her sister Violet Buckley in about 1943, probably taken by a street photographer.

Marjorie and Violet about 1943

Stella Violet Sullivan (1914-2005), known as Violet, was the oldest daughter ofArthur Sullivan (1891-1975) and his wife Stella Esther Gilbert Sullivan née Dawson (1894-1975).

Violet had five siblings:

• Lillian Mavis Sullivan (1915-2009)
• Arthur Stanley Sullivan (1919-2014)
• Marjorie Winifred Young née Sullivan (1920-2007)
• Royle Lawrence Sullivan (1926-2009)
• Gwendolyn Phyllis Sullivan (1933-1935).

Violet married John Arthur Buckley (1908-1958) in 1938. In 1960 she married again, to Stanley Norman James Spicer (1909-1990).

In 1942 Violet was living at her parents’ house at 9 Bowden Street, Castlemaine. Her occupation on the electoral roll was home duties.  Violet’s husband had enlisted in the Australian Army on 27 February 1942. He was discharged in March 1946.

About 1941 Marjorie left home in Castlemaine to live in Melbourne, where she found a job as a weaver. In 1943 she was living at 59 Osborne Street, Williamstown. Marjorie married in 1944.

This photograph of the sisters is from those years when street photographers operated. It was sometimes controversial and banned in some places, for example Newcastle, New South Wales in 1942.

PHOTOS IN STREETS BANNED (1942, December 8). The Newcastle Sun (NSW : 1918 – 1954), p. 3. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article167573927

Sepia Saturday blogger Scotsue described her experiences of street photographers in the 1950s.

This  week’s Sepia Saturday photo prompt awoke my  memories of  seaside holidays and the photographers who plied  their trade along the promenades,  taking snapshots of people strolling by – hence the term  “walkies”  – as opposed to the current trend for   “selfies”!  
You paid money and either collected  the photographs later at  a kiosk, or could arrange for them to be posted home to you – just hoping they would arrive and this wasn’t  what we now call a “scam”.  We often did our best to dodge the photographersand not get caught by their hard sell.  

I was interested to read how the system worked and amused by the idea of dodging the street photographers. It reminds me of the photographers on cruise ships and in shopping malls taking pictures of children with Santa Claus.

Y is for Young family photographs

In the early 1990s, when I started our family history research, we met Noel Tunks (1943-2008), a cousin by marriage, the 2nd great-nephew of the husband of the 2nd great-aunt of my husband. Noel was very generous in sharing Tunks family photographs. Some were of members of the Young family.

I am still puzzled by two of these photographs. I have slightly different conclusions now than I did more than 20 years ago but I am still not convinced I have the answers.

The notes I have on the back of the photo, made about the time it was given to me by Noel Tunks, read: photographer Charlie Farr Maryborough (no 15198 (?) handwritten on back). Jack Young inscribed on back. My own notes say “looks like George Wilkins with Ethel and George (son) & Jack & Cecil Young“.

Cecil was born in July 1898. His brother John Percy, known as Jack, was born  in August 1896. From the inscription on the back of the original I am fairly confident that the two young children are Cecil and his brother Jack and, looking at the age of the two small children, the photograph was taken about 1899.

According to the Victorian genealogist Susie Zada, quoting Australians behind the Camera, the photographer Charlie Farr worked in Marybough from 1893-1906.  So my guess that the photograph was taken in 1899 matches the photographer’s business dates.

Looking at this photo again recently I assumed that the adult must be of John Young (1856-1928), posed with his two sons and his two step children, Robert Whiteman (1883-1957) and Mary Ann Whiteman (1884-1945). John’s wife Sarah Jane Young formerly Whiteman  née Way (1863-1898) died at the time of Cecil’s birth. In 1899 Bob Whiteman would have been 16 and his sister Mary Ann 15.

However, this interpretation is complicated by another photograph from Noel Tunks.

Again the photo is noted as having been taken by Charlie Farr Maryborough (no 14556 handwritten on back). I wrote that this picture was of George Wilkins, Charlotte Young, Ethel (Grose) & son George died WA.

The two young people standing appear to be the same people in the first photograph. However, the girl’s dress is different and she looks younger in the first photograph, so I don’t think the photographs were taken on the same day. The numbering sequence suggests that this might be an earlier photograph but I think the two teenagers look older.

Cecil Young and his brother Jack lived at Homebush near Avoca with their aunt Charlotte Wilkins née Young (1861-1925) and her husband George Wilkins (1857-1944). Charlotte and George Wilkins had two surviving children, Ethel (1883-1955) and George (1884-1909).

I think the girl in the two photographs looks older than the teenage boy and so I think it is more likely that the two teenagers in both photographs are Ethel then about 16 and George Wilkins, who would have been about 15.

I don’t think the two men are the same, but I don’t know why John Young would be photographed with his niece and nephew George and Ethel Wilkins as well as his two small sons.

It would be nice if there were other photographs to compare with these. Perhaps some other Young or Wilkins family descendants have some.

An update – October 2016. Yesterday we visited a cousin of Greg’s on the Way side of the family from Parkes. She had a magnificent family photograph album. The first photograph was among her family photos. To my mind this indicates the two teenagers are the Whiteman children and a photo of the four children was being sent back to their Way relatives in Parkes.

Although the teenagers look similar, with similar hairstyles I think they are in fact different – one is the Young and Whiteman family, the second family is the Wilkins family.

Related posts

• Cecil Young and family: Cecil’s early life up to end World War I
• Trove Tuesday: Obituary for John Young (1856 – 1928) 
• W is for George Wilkins writing from Western Australia