Hammill Family. Hammill Family. Hammill Family. Hammill Family. Hammill Family. Hammill Family. Hammill Family
Memories by Di Hammill
Some of my earliest memories of Nyabing are of the freedom that we had to play anywhere we liked (except up at the dam!). In winter we spent many hours picking buckets of mushrooms either in the paddock at the end of town, which I think belonged to Batt’s, or the golf course. Every Monday was washing day and Tuesday was ironing day. Both of these activities took much longer than they do now.
Mum iced wedding and birthday cakes for many of the people in the district. I loved eating any spare bits of icing but these were very rare. The wedding cakes in particular took hours and were very intricate, often with a lot of extension lace work and finely modelled flowers. I guess I was a bit of a pest always underfoot and occasionally bumping the table at a crucial time.
Les and Noreen in front of the old railway sheds in 1948
Les & Noreen and Jo-Jo c1949
Mum & Dad, the Charsley’s and the Cheetham’s often played bridge on Friday nights and every few months Mr Smith would show a movie in the town hall. Tennis and golf were important sporting and social outings. Every Sunday in tennis season we would get the white shoe paint out and clean and whiten our Dunlop Volleys ready for tennis in the afternoon. Children got to play on the end court which was not as well maintained as the others. While Mum and Dad played golf we entertained ourselves and remember many weeks when Arlene Manuel and I would light a little camp fire and cook damper, having learnt the recipe at Guides. We had very infrequent visits from entertainers like Slim Dusty and most of the population would turn out for these performers.
The Nyabing Show was a major event on the calendar and we would spend weeks sewing and knitting items for entry. The days immediately preceding the show were spent cooking and we were always up early in the morning to take our exhibits to the show.
Mum and Mrs Smith spent many hours catering and worked very hard to raise money for the church which was built behind our house. Of course they weren’t the only members of The Ladies Guild but I had the most to do with them and saw the huge amount of cooking that they did when there was a wedding or other event that they catered for.
Out toilet was a long way from the house and backed on to the “back lane”. This was where the “night soil man” [2] drove his truck, opening up the back of the toilet, taking the full pan out and replacing it with a new pan. This was done regularly on Friday nights around 6pm, however there was a period of time when there was no predictability about when the man would arrive causing a great deal of concern if you heard the truck pull up at an inconvenient time. I remember being very anxious that people might see me walking up the back yard because they would know what I was doing. The toilet was a very frightening place for an impressionable young girl who was sure that there were red back spiders under the seat just waiting for a victim to sit. I was also convinced there were snakes all the way up the path to the toilet and, as I was afraid of the dark, it definitely was not a place to visit after the sun went down.
The arrival of new teachers in town was an exciting event, particularly if it was a new Principal because they might have children which would mean I would have someone new to play with.
HAMMILL, Les & Moya
Memories by Les Hammill
I remember living in the old railway barracks, near the sheds where they stored the motor trikes and the little push pull velocopede [2]. Our next door neighbour was Alan Jury and his family. They had a cockatoo which sounded just like Alan’s wife when it called “Aaa lan”. It also whistled beautifully.
I remember watching the men getting ready to go out on the line and one spent his time dropping an obviously sharp pocket-knife from waist height, between his toes into the sleeper [2] floor of the shed.
We had an area at the back of the house filled in with Broom bush and we had a willy wagtail nesting. Mum put coloured wool on the fence which it built into its nest.
Behind the house was a reserve, later the golf links, which had an old soak in it which was lined with boards. Not far from this, old Billy Larwood had his camp. I recall him sitting on the seat outside the post office, cutting tobacco off a block for his pipe.
Dad set a rabbit trap on the reserve and we went to check it and were greeted by a huge feral cat which frightened us both as it charged out of the hole spitting and snarling. It met a sad end.
Mrs George Sargeant taught piano and I had the opportunity to learn, but declined. There were so few motor vehicles in town at this time that I knew it was Batt’s truck, Jock Guelfi’s or others by their individual sounds.
Obviously, I walked to school, where my first teacher was Mr Henry Colmer. I once received a prickle bush up the bum as I used the school outhouse and on one occasion was coerced into locking the door on the headmaster. He took pity on my angelic face and let me off without a flogging. I remember sitting in the front row; as we were the bubs; in the old desks with the fold up tops and seats. One of the main games was rounders played with a bush stick a tennis ball. We also played football, usually without boots.
Dad became ill and we moved to Katanning. He passed away in 1949. Mum remarried one of his Nyabing friends and we moved into the house in Richmond St. I was lucky enough to take trip to Point Ann with Jack Quiss also known as camel Jack. He was the rabbit proof fence inspector.
I used to run errands and cut wood for old Mrs Charsley who lived down the street. Dianne was born 1958 (She is now Di Fry and lives in Albany) and Ian was born in 1951. (He now lives in Canberra.)
I went away to school and ultimately, teachers’ college, then returned to teach from 1963 until 1967. I met my “wife to be” at the school, Moya Rodgers, and we have been married for 42 years. The latter part of our life being in Toodyay.
COATE, Lesley (Les) & Eileen (nee Hammill)
Written by Eileen Coate
When the war finished Les and I went to live in Nyabing where he worked on the railways. We lived in the barracks belonging to the railways. There were two homes towards the west end of town. We had a two bedroom weatherboard with a laundry on the back with a copper and troughs. We had a Coolgardie safe on the verandah and there was a bit of a garden and a toilet, or dunny, as we called it then. The kitchen had a Metters stove [2}and a basin and tray for washing up. Some people used a kerosene tin to wash up in. Noreen was born while we were there.
Les went to the little one teacher school where Mr Colmer was one of the first teachers.
Written by Noreen Hammill
My first recollection of Nyabing was after my father died and Mum married Kenneth Coate. We then moved to a house in Richmond St and the headmasters house was next door.
Anzac Ceremony at school, 1960
I went to what we called the little school and Mum could hear me crying all the way there. School was not my most favourite place but I survived and went to the big school for a while. I remember once, and only once, it snowed but not enough to even cover the ground. Then I went to high school in Perth
1953 – When I started school in Ray Aitken was headmaster.
1954 – Muriel and Ray Aitken
1955 – Peter McGuckin and Mr Edmonds.
1956 – Lesley Wells and Mr Boxall ( he had 2 boys Neil and Ian )
1957 – Glenys Ogilby and Mr Boxall.
1958 – Kevan Hamilton and???
1959 – Kevan Hamilton.
After completing my junior certificate I returned to Nyabing and worked in Bulla Stephens shop. The post office and telephone exchange were next door. I worked with Astrea Smith and Sam Dye (who later married). There used to be money exchanged for empty cool drink bottles and I remember one day the same kids kept coming in with lots of bottles. They were going to the back of the shop and bringing the same ones back. The petrol bowsers out the front of the shop were the hand pump type. The local Inn was a couple of doors down and I think the first publican I remember was Harry Gillis.
Martin St James the hypnotist came to town and did a show. He hypnotised a few people and told them they had no pants on. One man was so embarrassed he ran out of the hall and jumped in his car and headed home. Someone had to go and bring him back. When the circus came to town all the kids would spend every moment hanging around the tents and animals and the show was seen by most of the community.
Noreen at Ngala
My childhood was fairly carefree. We spent our days riding our bikes around and playing in the bush, eating yams and picking wildflowers. At night we would read or listen to the radio and the girls would sew but we went to bed fairly early because our only lighting was kerosene lanterns. I left Nyabing in 1964 to go nursing.
Dad became captain of the golf club in 1949 and continued to play and be an active member of the club until his death. He was made a life member of the tennis club in 1968.
He started with the Shire at least as early as 1947 and bought the house in Richmond St in 1950.
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