HERSEY FAMILY

Hersey Family

1923-Current

Written by Norma Hersey

Henry James William [known as Jim] and Lydia Dennett (known as Denny) Hersey where married on 28^th July 1922 in Kent, England. They left their jobs (he worked at London Bridge Station in the accounts/secretary section and she worked in a newspaper business) packed up and left England by ship, the S.S. Diogenes, on the 16th August 1922 from Tilbury. It was a cargo ship with accommodation for passengers. The ship arrived at Albany on 23 September 1922.

S.S. Diogenes

After all the paper work had been done, some in Perth which they went to by train, they arrived in Katanning.  Jim worked for a farmer in Katanning area and Denny worked in a bank and looked after a young child in Katanning, boarding in town while Jim was on the farm.

A job became available with Ted Goodchild (Peter Goodchild’s parents) on their farm so they moved onto “Badgeminnup” at Nyabing (Sheryl and Gordon Browne now have the farm). The Goodchild’s house was made of mud brick with a verandah all around which kept the house lovely and cool. Jim and Denny’s quarters were a corrugated iron room right next to the main house with a breeze way in between.  

Lydia and Bob Tree

The room had smoke blackened ceiling and walls caused by a huge open fire.  A hand-hewn bush table, two rickety chairs (plus a deck chair they bought with them), a double bed (wire mattress supported on a trestles) and a tin basin for their ablutions (balanced on a box) were their only furnishings.

This room was hot as Hades in summer and cold and draughty in winter. They were rudely awakened on their first and subsequent mornings, by a deafening clanging of a cow bell suspended from the roof, over their heads. This was in place of an alarm clock.

Denny helped with the house chores and the children while Jim started to learn about farming. What a hard job that would have been, straight from London to a farm in Western Australia. There were many, many things to learn. How to drive a team of horses, do seeding and harvesting, hay cutting, put a fence up in a straight line, chop down trees with an axe, milk the cows and separate the milk so they had fresh cream. There were no fridges, only cooler safes. When meat was needed a sheep had to be killed; something else to learn, plus how to catch a sheep in the yards to start with.

There were no phones either. Denny had to learn how to drive a horse and sulky so she could go into Nyabing in an emergency when the men were busy.

Ted Goodchild got sick and Jim had to ride the horse into Nyabing and ring the Doctor who said “get him in here to Katanning immediately.” There was only one car in the district available for hire with its owner driver so Ted was soon on his way. He had an operation for acute appendicitis. This meant the Boss was away for weeks but they carried on under the boss’s wife instructions.

Poison plants had to be picked before sheep could be put into paddocks. Dingoes were a menace to all outlying farms and the sheep had to be yarded before sunset each day, to guard against attack from packs of these wild dogs. Foxes were a menace and attacked lambs and poultry. Spotlight shooting and poison baits helped keep the numbers down.

Whenever an abandoned farm came up, Ted would harness up the two horses into the buggy, and take the Hersey family to have a look. These excursions where a picnic day out. A property at Kwobrup that was threatened with bankruptcy came up. After an inspection, and Ted pointing out all the hazards, not at least that it was overrun with poison that had to be hand-picked and had no buildings, Jim and Denny decided to buy it. There was 2760 acres with only 40 cleared and no boundary fencing (This is the farm that Ross and Norma live).

As there was no house, the Hersey’s stayed on at the Goodchild’s. On 31 December 1923, the papers where signed for the farm. At the same time Jim and Denny where offered an unoccupied house at Yellanup Reserve, next door to the new farm. Eventually a corrugated iron building, with dirt floor and a wooden wall to divide it into two rooms, was built.  There was no ceiling or lining on the walls, a wood stove in one side and a big fire place was included.

Jim and Denny had their first child, a girl, Margaret was born in January 1924. Another daughter, Helen, was born in July 1927, and their only son Ross was born in September 1933.

There was lots of very hard work for them over the first few years, and many disasters, while learning the ropes of farming and living in the country. They did their shopping at the Kwobrup store, which was started up to cater for the railway workers (who lived at Kwobrup) and surrounding farms.

There was a weather board hall in the bush on the north side of the railway line where socials where held and it was also used as school.  A plaque now marks the spot.

The Hersey girls were taught school by correspondence lessons as there weren’t enough children in the district to keep the school open. Working their lessons around the outside farm chores, that Denny had to help with, was difficult, When a baby arrived it was harder still. Swagmen were often around, calling in looking for a meal in return for chopping wood.

In 1937 Jim and Denny bought a second hand Dodge utility but Jim didn’t have a driver’s licence. After a few tips from the car salesman, Eric Thomas, he got the licence. They had a little Fordson tractor which cost less than a team of horses and their harness however, they still used the horse team for carting grain etc .

Jim had been in the Boer War so was an obvious choice to be the instructor for the Badgebup V.D.C [Volunteer Defence Corps] which started in 1940.

Tragedy occurred in 1940, when Jim died suddenly at home from a heart attack aged 42. With the youngest child Ross only five years old, Denny and the children moved to Katanning and the farm was leased. Denny worked in Katanning until she married Bob Tree who had a farm at Carrolup west of Katanning.

The Hersey Family on 11^th May 1991
Nola, Pam, Ross, Norma, Lynette & Steven Hersey

Hersey family. Hersey family. Hersey family. Hersey family.

Return to PEOPLE H – P Page
Return to HOME Page