Garlick family. Garlick family. Garlick family.
1912 – Current
Written by Chris Garlick
My Grandfather Albert came from NSW to Kalgoorlie in 1895 with his young wife, Henrietta. They had four boys and then she passed away in childbirth with her fifth child, a girl, who also died. So Granddad was left with four boys, my (Chris Garlick’s) half uncles. After a few years of chaos, Granddad married Rose May Stroud , from Heathrow, England.
Albert and Rose, my grandparents, moved from the goldfields to Ewlyamartup siding, East Katanning in 1912 where Granddad worked on the Katanning/Pingrup railway line. He also had a small farm where he grew crops for chaff. They had four more boys, Richard, Stanley, and Claud with Lloyd Arthur, my Dad being the youngest. Three of the boys from Granddad’s first marriage fought in WW1 and two of them, Clive Lancelot Garlick [ii] [iii] and ?? Garlick, lost their lives at The Somme, in France.
Some of the descendants of Albert and Rose are still farming in the East Katanning area.
1920’s Ewlyamartup near Chesterfields Farm
My Dad married a girl from Tasmania, Hilda Maude Liddington, and worked for Hannaford Seed Grader for two years, while leasing a farm at East Katanning, now known as Koobelup. In that time he had earned enough to pay a deposit on the farm known as “Morialta” on North Kwobrup Rd, in the Nyabing shire. They lived in an old mud brick house on the property and had five children, Margaret, Helene, Neville, Maxine (deceased) and Chris.
In between the farm work, Dad was busy making bricks for the new house. They moved into the new house in early 1950’s. I only remember the new house and riding my bike up that long hill to catch the bus to Nyabing Primary School.
Building house at Morialta
I still live in the same house with my wife, Libby (nee Christian). We have gradually renovated the old “new” house and the old house has become a cattle shed and yards. Our son, Regan, and his wife Angela live in a newer house on the property and we enjoy farming together. The Garlick family has lived in the Nyabing district for about 70 years.
Maxine Garlick 1951
We grow oaten hay for export to Japan or to sell locally, depending on the season. We also grow about two thousand hectares of crops, including barley, lupins, canola and wheat, similar to most farmers in the district. Sheep are quite valuable at the moment and we have changed from Merinos to SAMMs, in the past few years.
In 1993 we bought a small property at Badgebup from Rodney Goodchild, then in 2003 we bought another 420 hectares on the North Badgebup Rd. Just three years ago we got another nice block on the Datatine Rd – so we are not short of a job!
Regan and Angela are the third generation to live on this farm – I wonder if we will see their children, the fourth generation, growing up here in Nyabing, too?
1940 Model A Ford Truck with Lloyd Garlick and the Hannaford Seed Grading Plant
All my brothers and sisters went to Nyabing School and some of Libby’s also. Then our four children, Janelle, Sharon, Regan and Rachel attended Nyabing School from 1982 until 1996. All four children were enrolled at the Nyabing School at the time of the 75th Anniversary. They went on to Katanning High School and the girls went off to study in Perth, travel and find good jobs. Regan came to work on the farm after some time away when he was 19 to work in England and travel the world.
We appreciate our grass roots at Nyabing and marvel at the huge changes in living standards and farming practices just in our lifetime. We never stop learning. We have family and friends scattered across Australia and in other parts of the world and, in September 2011, we travelled to Britain and Europe. On our trip we included a visit to The Somme Valley [ 2 ] where we saw the grave and memorials of our Uncles who died in France. It makes Remembrance Day more real to us and helps us to appreciate our freedom to carry on living and farming in peace at Nyabing. Farming will always have its ups and downs but remember, We love a sunburnt country!
Helene Garlick at ‘The Old House’ approx 1950
Garlick’s building the ‘new House’ early 1950’s
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