Sutherland family. Sutherland family. Sutherland family. Sutherland family. Sutherland family. Sutherland family. Sutherland family. Sutherland family. Sutherland family.
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STAN & MURIEL
1966 – current
Old Homestead at Chinocup
In March 1966 Stan and Muriel Sutherland from “Braeside Farm”, Katanning, bought Chinocup Farm (when the farm was purchased it was named “Aorangi” and was later changed to “Chinocup” by Geoff and Geraldine (Gerry) Sutherland). Chinocup is an Aboriginal word of unknown meaning.
The farm was run by John, Geoff and Ross Sutherland (brothers) along with help from their father Stan. The farm cost £28,000.00 ($56,000.00) and was bought on a walk-in-walk-out basis. Its area was 4200 acres (1,700 ha) with only 700 acres (284 ha) cleared at time of purchase.
The previous owner of the farm was Gordon John Grindell who had been a much-decorated Battle of Britain pilot. He was a desperately ill man at the time of the sale and he died six weeks later. Because of his ill health, the farm was badly run down when the Sutherland boys took it over. The farm consisted of a core of old country surrounded by land held under a conditional purchase lease which was either virgin or re-growth country.
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GEOFF & GERRY
Geoff & Gerry Sutherland
June, 1964
Geoff met Gerry in Katanning. Gerry was from Perth and was working in Katanning at the hospital as a nurse and so they courted. They were married on June 27th 1964, and initially began their married life on a farm in Westonia where Geoff was assistant manager. They stayed there for eighteen months and then, when the opportunity arose to head to Nyabing, they took it without hesitation; and so then the partnership with the brothers began.
After Geoff and Gerry’s first child was born (Matthew), Gerry and the new arrival came out to live on the farm. The house was made of stone and mud brick and was without a bathroom, lavatory or running water. Only one room had a ceiling in it while the others had hessian bags covered with whitewash. It had dirt floors with lino on top.
Geoff with Polo Cross horse “Chester”
In the late 60s and early 70s times were very hard. Wheat quotas were introduced and, in 1969, most of Western Australia was drought stricken. This was very different for Gerry and examples of gifts at the time were a new water tank on the shearing shed which was a Christmas and birthday present for two years.
Geoff, Gerry, Matthew & Ben
January 1972
The couple’s second son (Benjamin) was born in 1968. At this time Stan was able to sell part of the Katanning farm and was in a position to give some financial assistance to each of the boys. It was decided that the boy’s partnership should end, and that Geoff and Gerry should take over “Chinocup” and its outstanding debts (which were considerable) as well as a cash payment. This left them with a heavy financial burden and they might not have managed to keep their heads above water were it not for a Rural Reconstruction loan they negotiated shortly after they left the partnership.
The first land to be cleared was held under the conditional purchase scheme. 600 acres (242 ha) of this was re-growth which was difficult to clear because of the thick and uniformed growth of the mallee. This would sometimes act like spears, flicking up from the clearing chain and flying towards the tractor. Another source of trouble was the tractor tyres which were often punctured by the broken ends of mallee roots. This situation was improved by the introduction of wire mesh reinforced tyres.
Ben, Matthew, Ellie and Gerry
In early 1973 Geoff and Gerry purchased a block of land adjacent to their farm (Litchfield’s) taking the total area of the farm to 5000 acres (2,023ha). Later, in the same year, their little girl Eleanor arrived and completed the family.
New House at Chinocup
After a run of better years (and with extra money made from share cropping) in 1976, work started on a new house not far from the old one. A lot of the building was done by Gerry’s father Max who was a capable amateur builder and, on several occasions, friends and neighbours helped with the building.
On the morning of Thursday 9th September 1976, Geoff’s father came out to visit and had a good look over the farm which was showing the results of a good season and the prior years of hard work. In the afternoon Geoff was trialling a new crop spraying machine. After dinner that evening, at the age of 38 years, Geoff suffered a fatal heart attack. His funeral was held the following week and he lies in the Katanning Cemetery which is situated opposite land that used to be part of the Katanning farm (Braeside).
After Geoff’s death the farm work still had to be done and one of these jobs was mulesing the lambs. So Gerry decided to contract out the work and consulted friends Bob Guelfi and Ross Davies. They said they would sort it. The next day help arrived but it was not contract labour. It Bob, Ross and friends; Geoff Germain, Don Batt, Geoff Foxall and John Cheetham. Gerry insisted on paying them the going rate and they all donated the money to the Nyabing Tennis Club.
A busy bee was organised for the harvest of 1976 at Chinocup by Bob Guelfi and Ross Davies with 25 headers and up to 60 trucks turning out to harvest the 1200 acre crop. By late afternoon the entire crop had been harvested and lay safe and sound in the Kuringup Bin. Gerry went out and got an 18-gallon keg to quench the thirst of the community helpers!
Gerry made the decision to leave the farm and, over the next 14 years, it was either leased or share cropped until the early 90s when Benjamin (Ben, Gerry’s second child) came back. When Gerry and the kids left the farm, they went to Katanning for one year where the children attended Katanning Primary School. They then moved to Albany where the children attended Albany Primary School for three years and then both Matthew and Ben attended Bunbury Grammar School and Eleanor attended school in Perth.
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BEN & ARLENE
Ben was always keen to get back to the farm and after school he went to Albany TAFE where he studied wool classing. After this, he went to the north west to work in the shearing sheds for two years. He then came back to live on the farm at Chinocup whilst working for KR Stephens as a wool classer. At this time he used to run the sheep on the weekends and the cropping was done by share farmers until the year 2000.
In 1992 Ben bought a third share of the farm from his mum. He had saved a lot of money wool classing and was able to give a sizeable deposit and the balance for the third was paid off over the next few years.
In 2001 Ben started share cropping with Gerry and bought his own machinery and, up until 2006, when he purchased his first header, the harvest was done by contractors (Joe Davies).
Geraldine lived in Albany and spent her remaining years as a nursing lecturer at the Albany College; she retired and sadly passed away in the November of 2003. The remaining two thirds of the farm was purchased by Ben from Gerry’s estate in 2004. The farm is still run traditionally with cropping wheat and barley, and running sheep, lambs and wool. All that was missing for Ben was a lovely girl to share his life with!
In 1998 Arlene Irving arrived into Nyabing from Scotland on a year-long working holiday. She arrived in Perth initially staying with family and then found a job through the Pastoral and Graziers Agency in Perth. She was sent down to Katanning where she began a job with G. Badger of Birdland for the harvest season. At the time Ben was share cropping with G. Badger and after a week of Arlene being there she and Ben met. And the rest, as they say, is history!
Arlene worked there for harvest and then went over east. She then flew back to work with G Badger again for seeding of 1999 and then continued with her travels back east. Arlene returned to Nyabing before she left to go home to Scotland in November of 1999.
Arlene was brought up on a hill farm (Shinnelhead) in South West Scotland, 25 miles north west of Dumfries; very different to Chinocup! And so, a romance blossomed, and between 1999 and 2006 Ben and Arlene made several trips back and forth to Australia and Scotland. Eventually the hard decision to leave her home; family and friends was made by Arlene in December of 2006, and she moved to Chinocup. Once here she applied for a de-facto visa at a cost of $2500.00 which was granted in May of 2007.
Up until then Ben had been working at Chinocup on his own but now he had a full-time assistant! From when Ben returned to the farm, and then Arlene joining him at Chinocup, there have been a lot of changes and progress to the farm. Today, the Merino is still the main breed, however in the last few years crossbred rams have been introduced and fat lambs are now part of the yearly income. There have been improvements to the house which, in most cases, have been done by Ben and Arlene. Ben like his grandfather Max, is keen and capable with D.I.Y!
Arlene worked for a time off the farm with Co-operative Bulk Handling (CBH) in Katanning until changes came in to the company and redundancies were made. So once again Ben had his full-time assistant by his side. In the January of 2011, Ben proposed to Arlene, after a lot of family and friends thought it would never happen!
The wedding was in Scotland and Arlene and Ben began organising a wedding from Australia for October 7th, 2011. They were married at Penpont Church, where Arlene was brought up, and then a reception in the village of Tynron [ii] not far from the family farm. Visitors came from far and wide to celebrate the day. A wonderful Scottish wedding was had with bagpipes, Scottish dancing and, of course, the whisky was flowing!
The newlyweds had a few days in Paris after the wedding before returning to Chinocup Farm as Mr and Mrs B B Sutherland. Whilst in Paris they visited Villers Bretonneux to see the Australian War Memorial. Ben’s great uncle is buried in one of the many cemeteries, Heath Cemetery at Harbonnieres [ii] which was a profound moment to find the grave. However, at the time Ben and Arlene did not realise that Lieutenant Alfred Gaby VC [2], who was from Nyabing and worked farms around the Chinocup area, is buried in the same cemetery.
Ben & Arlene Sutherland on the Australian Wedding on 31st December 2011,
The newlyweds hosted a wedding celebration on New Year’s Eve of 2011 for friends and family in Australia. Ben and Arlene strive to achieve and make Chinocup even better than it is today, with hard work, whilst always remembering how hard it was for Geoff and Gerry in those early years and to lose Geoff so young and then Gerry in the later years. Ben and Arlene can only look forward and know that Ben’s parents would be proud of the achievements and progress that have been made at Chinocup.