Hobley George Emilie. Hobley George Emilie. Hobley George Emilie. Hobley George Emilie. Hobley George Emilie. Hobley George Emilie. Hobley George Emilie.
How and why he came to Western Australia
Information supplied by his elder son Evan Charlton Hobley
Mr Percy H Johnston, from Gippsland in Victoria, on his return from service in the South African War (1899-1902) elected to be discharged in Western Australia and travelled to his uncle’s cattle station at Halls Creek in the Kimberley. He had worked there for some three years, during which time he drove a large heard of Ord River bullocks across the Northern Territory to Queensland.
On his return, via Victoria, he called on members of his family in the Wimmera wheat growing district. He wrote, that he had decided then, wheat growing in a white-man’s country was better than cattle raising in a black-man’s country.
He arrived in Katanning in February 1909 and, within a month, had take up land at Kuringup. Mr H J Charsley, a tea planter from Ceylon had earlier taken a large area of land at Nampup (Nyabing). He was probably one of the few settlers with capital to clear and develop. As with most of the early settlers it was necessary to take jobs to provide an income. For many people Mr Charsley filled that need and Mr Johnson was awarded a contract to clear a large area requiring a lot of axe work to fell the timber.
Seeking help, he wrote to his brother Frank who worked in the timber industry in Gippsland. Frank had a mate called George Hobley and they both went to Western Australia to work on the contract. They travelled by ship from Melbourne to Albany, thence by train to Katanning where Percy met them on 12 August 1909.
In 1910 George Hobley selected land five miles to the north of Mr Johnston’s property. The area involved was some 4,200 acres (4046 ha). At that time the district was controlled at the local level by the Katanning Road Board. Local Government did not come to the area until 1923 when the Kent District Road Board was formed. George was a founding member and served continuously for twenty-three years, serving as Chairman and Vice Chairman during that period.
Frank Johnston also selected land to the north of Pingrup only to abandon it a little later and return to Victoria. It seems his bride had no wish to go West. A sister of Percy and Frank married Harry Burston at Lilydale in Victoria and, encouraged by her brothers and George Hobley’s venture, migrated West. They selected land next to Frank’s block and took it over when he decided not to return. Frank enlisted in the 1914-1918 War and on his return became a successful apiarist (somebody who keeps bees, often for commercial purposes) at Bruthern in East Gippsland.
1914 was a bad year, added to the severe drought and shortage of water many of the men joining up, including George, the war put the extension to the railway on hold. The farmers had been depending on the railway going through. Some farmers gave up, others like Bill stuck it out and worked improving the property while George was fighting to defend our land.
During this time Mr Burnston died and Percy Johnston took the responsibility of care of his sister and her family along with his own family. When Percy and his wife retired to Perth his sons took over the land which, like the Hobley land, still remains within the family. A witness to the successful planned improvements from the early days and a determination, coupled with the love of the land, to make it work.
George Hobley enlisted in the armed services 1 February 1916 at Katanning. He was declared fit for active service 30 January and sworn in on 12 February. (31 January was his mother’s fifty-first birthday). His number was 5116 and he was allocated to the 11th Battalion. According to the army records he was 28 years and 11 months, in fact his 29th birthday was on 2 February. He was six feet tall, weighed 185 lbs, chest measurement was 42 inches and he had fresh complexion, blue eyes and brown hair.
George Hobley home from War 1917
The 11th Battalion was sent to Egypt as reinforcements for Gallipoli but that campaign was abandoned abut the time of their arrival. They disembarked from HMT Shropshire at Suez 24 April 1916 and on 29 May 1916 embarked on HMT Tunistan to join the British Expeditionary Force at Alexandria disembarking at Marseilles on 5 June 1916. Between 20 and 23 August 1916 during the Battle of Posieres he received multiple gun-shot wounds and was transferred to England per HS Western Australian and admitted to Alexander Hospital, Cosham (on Portsmouth Harbour) with gun-shot wounds to the chest and for amputation of the right arm, his condition was dangerous. He was discharged 20 February 1917 for return to Australia per HS Karoola which was due in Fremantle 1 April 1917.
The Peninsula Post, Friday 7 September 1917 records a social to honour George Hobley who – though he had enlisted in Western Australia had spent his boyhood in Rosebud and his numerous friends throughout the district could not let the opportunity of his presence among them pass without acknowledging his sacrifices at the front, returning incapacitated and unable to continue fighting. George was presented with a suitable inscribed medal and gold chain.
A letter from Frank Johnston to George, dated Easter Sunday 23/4/1916 ‘out from Ismalieh (sic) Suez Canal, Egypt. (No 4541 Frank Johnston was with No 3 Section, 8th Field Company Australian Engineers). Frank was obviously unaware that George had signed up and, in actual fact, landed at Suez the next day, Easter Monday.
Frank tells of a thirty-five mile march over two days with the last ten miles in soft sand. He wrote “I have not been so ‘done-up’ with a march since the time you and I walked from Nampup to Katanning (about forty miles) you haven’t forgotten that bit I guess?” The two men had overlooked the need to lodge their land application and had no option but to walk to Katanning if they were to get it in on time.
In his letter Frank goes on to tell George of meeting a big chap the day before and checking with him where he came from, then telling him who he was. It was Dick Hobley who was curious to know how the stranger knew so much. Frank told him he used to work with his two ‘little brothers’. The two men spent some time together, unaware that ‘big’ brother and friend was disembarking from a ship not that far away.
Sergeant Richard Hobley was killed on Sinai Peninsular August 9th of that year and George was severely wounded in France 20 August.
George and Emilie married 1920
At the age of thirty-three George Hobley married twenty-one year old Emilie Wisbey on 28 July 1920, in Nyabing, Emilie was born in Tooma, a small town not far from Albury on 15 April 1899 (she died in Perth 20 November 1990). Her father Carlton Wisbey (her mother was Ada nee Charlton) had several jobs including being a New South Wales policeman. He always seemed to have the wanderlust or pioneering spirit. He went to Western Australia in the early 1900’s, his family followed later. He settled briefly in the York district until the lure of a new area brought him to a virgin block about a mile and a half south of Nyabing where he lived in tents and no doubt suffered the problems of all new settlers.
G & E Hobley Homestead built 1920
He built a house himself but when it came to putting on the roof he realised he did not have a head for heights. A friend suggested one George Hobley and so the roof was completed. From that time George would have become aware of a young girl and would have seen her grow into an attractive, energetic, capable young lady, not very tall perhaps, but a tower of strength in any situation. And so they married on 28 July 1920 and had two sons and two daughters.
The elder son, Evan Hobley, signed to join the royal Australian Air Force in 1940 and was sworn in on 3 March 1941. His initial training was at Pearce, Western Australia before being sent to train as Wireless-Operator-Air gunner at Ballarat then to Port Pirie Gunnery School before leaving on the Queen Mary for Egypt in November 1941, thence to Kenya for operational training at Nakuru, before joining 55 Squadron Royal Air Force, Western Desert in time for the Battle of El Alamein, 23 October 1942 and covered other war zones before going to England after leaving the Squadron at Brindisi late 1943.
A forerunner to the Royal Air Force, the famous 55 Squadron was formed in 1916 during the First World War During Evan’s time with the Squadron in 1942 they were flying Baltimore Aircraft. At the time of the Squadron’s disbandment in 1991 they were using Victor Aircraft as air-to-air- fuel tankers, in between they had used many different machines, 55 Squadron also served in the Falklands and Iraqi wars. After 75 years of noble service and celebrating its 75th birthday it was laid to rest.
The balance of Evan’s time he was instructing in England at Radio Schools in Hereford at Cranwell in Lincolnshire, before leaving per ship De France for New York then M V Glenstree to Melbourne, arriving early November 1944. No.406653 E C Hobley was discharged 23 February 1945.
In civilian life back in Western Australia, apart from the demands of farming, he made time to serve on the Kent District Road Board, 1953-56 and 1958-61. In 1961 the Road Board became the Shire of Nyabing-Pingrup and he served as a Councillor 1961-63 retiring because of increased family commitments.
Joyce George Evan (at back) Ken Emilie and Rita
With my younger daughter, Heather May, I explored Uncle Bill and Uncle George’s original properties. That was in March 1969, a long time ago now, though it seems like yesterday. Aunt Edith still lived in the blue stone home and the box Uncle Bill used to sit on outside the back door was still in its place. The WC or ‘dunnie’, was down the backyard covered by creeper to disguise its presence. The gum trees, the space, I had no trouble understanding my late Uncle’s love of the place.
I browsed among his books, studied the family Bible and found some notes he had made about things that moved him at the time. His liking for books and poetry was similar to my mother’s.
I found these lines in his handwriting:-
How dreary a prospect life is to a man who
stands alone on a bleak barren desert
with no green oasis, no distant city to
which he may direct his footsteps.
A lonely pilgrimage leading nowhere.
Cousin George’s property was a five mile hike away while Cousin Dick was less than two miles away. Touring the property in the Land Rover, visiting ‘Siberia’ (the name they gave the paddocks!) and finding Mallee hen nests was a delight that left one pondering why people crowd into the big cities. It was interesting to note the sacred areas where stands of timber were left to maintain a habitat for native fauna on their wheat and sheep farms.
Three of Dick and Sheila’s boys, Terry, Neil and Jeff, in later years took over the farms including Cousin George’s property. Their other son Michael has the Post Office and store at Pingrup, all of which means there are plenty of Hobley’s out West. Cousin George Tomas died of leukaemia on 13 September 1984, just seven days short of his sixty-eighth birthday, and his wife May died 29 May 1988. Their son Trevor lives at Wagin.
On Uncle George’s original holding where Cousin Evan and Vi were living, we were shown the site of Uncle George’s first home where he and Uncle Bill had lived. After Uncle Bill married, he and Aunty Edith lived there while George was overseas with the 11th Battalion.
Extended Family at Reunion April 2011
The original hut was framed, poled and bag with a galvanised roof set in the salmon gums. They obtained their water supply from a nearby soak – the only one for miles around which they shared with aborigines and animals or anyone else who might need water. On the gum trees were still the markings where the brothers had pinned up the fox and kangaroo skins to dry all those years ago. The well kept farms are a testimony to the earlier had work of the men who dared to go out West.
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War tragedy remembered
Shannon Smith
Albany Advertiser
Wednesday, 25 April 2018
Evan Hobley
An emotional Albany Anzac Day dawn service was attended by thousands yesterday, paying their respects to soldiers who fought for our country many years ago. Crowds gathered in darkness at the Desert Mounted Corps Memorial at the peak of Mt Clarence, with some arriving as early as 3am. Continue reading
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Unflagging Albany veteran part of the fabric
Albany Advertiser
Liam Croy
25 April 2019
Evan Hobley
Every morning, World War II veteran Evan Hobley raises the Australian flag with pride outside the Albany RSL sub-branch. The 97-year-old has been doing it for almost 20 years, since the sub-branch moved into its Stirling Terrace headquarters. A former wireless operator-air gunner in the Royal Australian Air Force, one of his first fields of battle was El Alamein.
“We’d just been on the squadron for a couple of weeks and we were told when the battle was going to begin at 10pm,” he said. “I think it was the biggest artillery barrage in history. You’ve seen the sunrise with the big red arc — that’s what the sky was like with this barrage.”
Mr Hobley flew over North Africa and Italy during the war before he returned home and married his late wife Violet. He has fond memories of his bomber crew, but other memories of the war still haunt him.
Evan Hobley, bottom left, with his WWII bomber crew.
Today, he will wave to the children who line York Street for the Anzac Day march. Albany RSL president Geoff McNeil said Mr Hobley was “part of the fabric of the place”. Mr McNeil said he was the most active of the sub-branch’s WWII veterans.
“He’s just a mine of information,” Mr McNeill said. “He’s been in Albany all his life. He has a lot of history behind him. “It’s fascinating to sit and listen to the stories of what things were like in the early days. “He’s really one of the last of his era. Just sitting and having a chat with him if you’re lucky enough, it can be fascinating.”
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