Collins Edward Josie. Collins Edward Josie. Collins Edward Josie. Collins Edward Josie. Collins Edward Josie.
Memories of Josie,
with not all dates and ages remembered. 19.10.2011
Ted, Josie, Jo, Elizabeth. Front- Bill, Bessies’ son Colin and husband Ted Brennan
Joseph and Elizabeth Collins came from Gippsland, Victoria as a young couple and settled in Kalgoorlie, where Joe took up employment on the sinking of the Kalgoorlie Water Supply dam. This dam was roofed and used for many years. It was dug by men using picks, shovels and wheel barrows. Mother (Elizabeth), at the age of eighteen was thrown from a sulky as it overturned, landing on a fence post and breaking her hip. This break was never set right and caused her to walk with a limp for the remainder of her life. While living in Kalgoorlie their first, very tiny and frail daughter Elizabeth (Bessie) was born.
Joseph, Elizabeth, and daughter Bessie, were later to move to Nyabing, bringing with them the trusty though heavy, galvanised wheel-barrow. Here they took up land adjacent to the Moornaming Siding, seven miles West of Nyabing and forty miles East of Katanning on the Katanning – Pingrup road.
The Angles Homestead, Nyabing
Hence what would become their property’s name “The Angles” and on it they built a shed of bush timber and corrugated iron to house them. Five boys (including twins) were added to their family in these years and. When the boys were in their early teens, and with the help of family friend Joe Brighty, they built a four roomed house of rammed earth with a ten foot cemented verandah all around.
The Collins children attended the Nyabing Primary School, travelling by horse and cart. On one occasion as they travelled to school they stopped to drink from the public well on the adjacent roadside and while they did, the horse who was obviously tired of waiting went off without them, leaving the boys to walk the seven miles to school.
Joe & Elizabeth Collins in Albany
The elder son Bill (who remained a bachelor) eventually purchased a small holding north of Albany and several years before the out-break of the second world war, Joe (Joseph) and Elizabeth retired to Albany, leaving the home farm to be divided between the four younger boys. Daughter Bessie married Edward (Ted) Brennan who worked for the Postal Department of Albany. They had one, Colin.
Twins Ted & Keith in front of the ‘Picket Fence’ around the house. Pickets were made out of small jam posts
When war broke out in 1939, Bill, Dick and Stan joined up but Ted (much to his disgust) was man-powered. His younger twin Keith was declared medically unfit. In 1945 Keith married Norma Sugg and, on leaving the farm, was employed by Thompson’s Glass in Katanning. They had four children, sadly losing their second daughter in infancy and adopting a little four year old boy.
Dick married a Scottish woman and he, with her two sons, later left the farm to live in Perth.
Stan married Margaret Pyke, they had three sons, also losing their first born in infancy. Margaret died of cancer, leaving behind her husband Stan and young sons Ken and Ron. Stan later re-married, his second wife being Ivy Murphy, and he adopted her young daughter. They had three sons and two daughters. In 1959, they left Nyabing to live in Napier.
In 1949 Ted (Edward), married Josie Parker. They had four children. When Ted’s asthma forced them to sell the home farm “The Angles”, they settled in Kendenup where three more children were born. In 1950, Bill sold his Albany property and returned to Nyabing, taking up a farm on Collin’s Road that was previously owned by Bill Colquhoun.
#2 Sunshine Harvester acquired soon after WW2. Stanley stands proudly on the W40 Tractor, also recently purchased.
Ian with cousins Ken and Ron (Stan and Margaret’s sons) at ‘The Angles’
Nyabing Farmers on a fox cull – L-R -Stan Collins, unknown, Ted, Keith & Bill Collins, unknown, Front 3 unknown.
Footnote … Ted had taken with him, on his move from “The Angles” to Kendenup, his father Joe’s trusty and heavy galvanised wheel-barrow that they had continued to use as a wood barrow. In 1968 a person representing the Kalgoorlie Historical Museum came to visit with a request for Ted to relinquish the barrow into their care. Both Ted and Josie happily released it, feeling that it was indeed part of Kalgoorlie’s history.
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