Foxall Family, Geoff & Rosslin
1968 –1989
Written by Ros Foxall
We bought our farm in 1968 from Vic and Mary Batt, who had several offspring and their families also farming in the Nyabing District at that time. Geoff and I arrived with our eleven month old daughter Vicki, dog and cat in March and, as the district had had an early break to the season with February rains, Geoff was on the tractor in no time.
Although I had spent my childhood years on a sheep station in the Mid-west where we only had mail and provisions delivered once a week, I felt that Nyabing, being so much more heavily populated than pastoral country and having a store and greengrocers, would have a constant supply of fresh produce readily available. I was somewhat surprised to find that vegetables were delivered just once a week and found out the hard way, that if shopping was not done on that day, then you missed out.
I was also rather startled to find my bread order sitting, unwrapped, on the floor of the local store when I arrived to pick it up, but much to my relief this practice soon ceased.
When we left Nyabing in 1989, some twenty one years later, we had the luxury of having a Four-Square Store in town, run by the Gannaway family, with weekly specials and fresh produce always available.
Bruce & Robert
Vicki and Robert with pet kangaroo “Merry”
We added two sons, Bruce and Robert, to our family while in Nyabing. All three children went to the Nyabing Kindergarten, started and mainly run by local mothers and held in the CWA Building, and then the Nyabing Primary School, where they received a very solid basis for their further education. They must have been the luckiest schoolkids in the district, as an anomaly in our school bus route meant that they were always the last on and first off Robbie Stephens bus.
Our children were able to have the usual carefree life of country children, although there was a constant complaint that their friends who lived in the Nyabing township didn’t have the chore of feeding chooks and other animals each night. We were fortunate to inherit a small orchard from the Batt’s and there were no complaints from the kids about the fruit, especially the wonderful oranges and mandarins. We also milked our own house cow, ground our own grain for bread flour and occasionally grew vegetables, so it was a pretty healthy existence, and a happy, carefree place to bring up a family.
On Saturdays, Vicki played junior netball in Katanning and the boys played Junior Football. Vicki also went to Brownies and Girl Guides, most ably run by Jo Addis.
Our house was made out of railway sleepers, chicken netting and cement render, so needed extensive renovations in the years we lived there. With a Metter’s in the kitchen, and a pot-belly and a Franklin stove in the lounge rooms, it was very snug inside. The more modern houses, with their modern heating, that we have lived in since, have been nowhere near as comfortably warm.
Our kids had lots of pet lambs over the years, a couple of goats, kangaroos, horses, a magpie, galah and several pet chooks and geese. When we left Nyabing, as well as the kids we moved four horses, two sheep, three almost fully grown kangaroos and three dogs.
Foxall home after extensions
Geoff with Tom Bailey in crop
We were lucky to have excellent neighbours and made some wonderful friends in the district, but as the farm was always on the small side and none of our offspring seemed likely to take up farming, we sold to Graeme and Cathy Crosby in 1989 and moved to Boyanup.
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