__________________________
|
_Peter BETTERIDGE ___|
| |
| |__________________________
|
|
|--Zoe BETTERIDGE
|
| _Colin Eric MEPHAN _______
| |
|_Deborah Joy MEPHAN _|
|
|_Jeanette Marie MEDHURST _+
________________________
|
_Douglass COLLEY ____|
| m 1951 |
| |________________________
|
|
|--Magaret COLLEY
|
| _James COOPER __________
| | (1901 - 1970) m 1925
|_Margaret COOPER ____|
m 1951 |
|_Mary Harriett FRANCIS _+
(1908 - 1948) m 1925
[1514] living - details excluded
_Partick DRIES __________
| (1886 - 1965) m 1907
_William Albert DRIES _|
| (1915 - 1976) m 1950 |
| |_Maria Adeline MEDHURST _+
| (1889 - 1953) m 1907
|
|--Neville Patrick DRIES
|
| _________________________
| |
|_Joyce Doreen HICKS ___|
m 1950 |
|_________________________
[152] living - details excluded
___________________________
|
_Ian FLETCHER ___________|
| |
| |___________________________
|
|
|--Craig Andrew FLETCHER
|
| _Ernest Anderson PETERSON _
| |
|_Denice Murial PETERSON _|
|
|_Sylvia HANCOCK ___________+
[761] living - details excluded
_John MEDHURST ______+
| (1832 - 1905) m 1854
_Joshua James MEDHURST _|
| (1872 - 1929) m 1893 |
| |_Sarah Ann DIPLOCK __+
| (1836 - 1911) m 1854
|
|--Albert Roy MEDHURST
| (1907 - 1975)
| _____________________
| |
|_Ada Martha MERRICK ____|
(1874 - 1960) m 1893 |
|_____________________
[827] twin to Clarence Rowe
[828] Whittingham Cemetery, Singleton
_Jonathon James MEDHURST _+
| (1860 - 1938) m 1888
_John (Jack) Roland MEDHURST _|
| (1895 - 1971) m 1930 |
| |_Eliza CAFE ______________+
| (1873 - 1938) m 1888
|
|--Ila Vera MEDHURST
|
| __________________________
| |
|_Doris May INGRAM ____________|
(1909 - 1955) m 1930 |
|__________________________
[435] living - details excluded
_John MEDHURST ______+
| (.... - 1887) m 1833
_George MEDHURST ____|
| (1838 - 1888) m 1857|
| |_Catherine SHAW _____+
| (1799 - 1894) m 1833
|
|--Rowland (Rowley) Matthew MEDHURST
| (1972 - 1961)
| _Joseph BRIDGE ______
| | (1814 - 1891) m 1834
|_Ann Matilda BRIDGE _|
(1839 - 1927) m 1857|
|_Sarah WOODBURY _____
(1819 - 1904) m 1834
[996]
"Clancy's gone to Queensland droving and we don't know where he are".
These could well have been the words of Ann Medhurst, mother of Rowland Matthew Medhurst when family and friends aked "where Rolly was". Rolly left Inverell in the Northern part of N.S.W. and made his home in Queensland, never to return to the town of his birth. He was born 27th May 1872 the seventh child and fifth son of George and Ann Matilda Medhurst at Inverell, N.S.W.. This babe grew up to be a man of 5ft 10ins. with eyes of blue fair skin and ginger hair, who was well respected by all who knew him.
Rowland was only a boy of 16 years when his father George Medhurst died on 19th December at Parramatta and was buried at Rookwood Cemetery, leaving his wife Ann Matilda with a family of 4 girls and 6 boys, the youngest being 9 years old. George Medhurst was a teamster.
Whe quite young, Rolly came to Western Queensland where he bacame a drover, station manager, property owner and soldier, never to return to N.S.W. to live. He drove cattle from the Gulf to Adelaide, Northern Territory to the Channel Country or North, South, East and West of Winton, which he used as his home base. When he wasn't droving he worked his own property or managed stations nearby.
While at Charters Towers he met and married his wife Harriet Bettens Ryan on the 6th of May 1903 who was holidaying there. It was a very quick romance and they settled into a house in Vindex Street, Winton, where their only child Mary Elizabeth (Mem) was born on the 2nd of August 1904.
When Rolly would go droving, he would be away several months at a time. Once when he was taking cattle from the Gulf to Adelaide, he became ill. When his wife heard that Rolly was sick, she packed up her daughter and herself, caught the coach to Longreach and Jundah, where she caught up with the drovers.
The cattle, because they were travelling so far, did not travel very far each day. Some days they travelled further than others, depending on the water and how far it was to watering places. Harriet nursed Rolly back to health and continued with him and his cattle to Adelaide where the cattle ware sold as fat cattle, no mean feat to have fat cattle at the end of such a long treck such as this. The stock route they followed would have been more or less the Birdsville Track. After they disposed of the cattle, they returned over the same route.
Rolly tried to get a seat on the boat from Adelaide to Brisbane for Harriet and Mem, but was unable to do so. They all travelled by buggy back to Queensland the same way as they went down. At one stage they thought the horses were going to die from lack of water. The horses that were pulling the buggy just laid down. Rolly said to his wife to stay there, we should not be far from water. He was able to find water and bring some back for the horses. They survived and were able to continue ther journey. Sometimes when they got to where they thought there should have been water, they had to dig in the sand for it.
The Aboriginals often helped them find water and also where the best native food to eat, that is fruit and herbage. Once when they were camped two Aboriginal women came along to help them and when asked "what was the matter with one of them", the other said "she gona die", although she looked healthy enough to them. Several days later they saw this one again and was told that her mate had died. She was the victim of the Witch Doctor.
The main food on these droving trips would have been corned beef and damper. The damper would have been spread with fat and maybe some syruo, washed down with plenty of tea. Sometimes rice was taken too. If they passed by a Station Homestead, they would replenish their supplies of flour, sugar and tea. They killed their own meat which was salted down. They only had fresh meat steak and roast for the first day or two after killing, but most of the drovers survived and lived to a good age. It was the cooks duty to go ahead and set up camp every night. At night the cattle had to be watched, no yards to shut them in. Each man would do a shift, about a two hour watch.
They would ride around the cattle, talk, whistle or sing to them and at no time did the drover like all the cattle to lay down together as this meant trouble, should something give them a start there would be a stampede on their hands and this was no good for man or beast. Cattle could go for miles in a stampede and they would take a long time to them back together again in one mob. Some cattle would have been killed and lamed in stampedes.
About 1912 Rolly selected a property called "Farewell", which was part of "Elderslie Station", North West of Winton near the Combo waterhole where Banjo Patterson wrote "Waltzing Matilda". The harnessed up the same pair of horses called Digger and Snow, into the loaded buggy that had been taken to Adelaide and back again, and set out from Winton to Farewell. The trip taking a couple of days to complete. On this property, sheep were run for a living with a few head of cattle for milkers. In the early days most properties had their milking cows which had to be milked everyday. The milk was scalded to keep it fresh and set in large trays to cool and then the cream skimmed off and made into butter. Some properties had separators which separated the milk from the cream. Any milk that was not used was fed to the dogs, fowls and possibly a pig or two. When Rolly and his family first went to Farewell there was no house only a tin shed, which was used to sleep in, and they built a rough shed for the kitchen. The cooking was done over an open fire in ovens and billy cans. At a later date a house was built on high blocks with sleeping upstairs and a schoolroom and the kitchen down stairs with a stove (wood) and dining down stairs.
A Governess was employed to Mary the 3R's and what qualifications to have. Most of the Governesses were expected to teach their pupils music and painting as well as the 3R's.
[997]
In 1914 the first world war broke out and although life went on in much the same way for a couple of years, word was received that the Governess's brother had been killed and this made Roly decide to go to war. He sold Farewell and bought a property called "The Don", south of Winton, which was a cattle property which he hoped would be easier to manage while he was away serving his country. How different these two properties were. Farewell an open downs Mitchel grass property, where as The Don was covered in Mulga and Spinnifax. The water was in water-holes in Mckenzie Creek. In drought years there was no water and the cattle would have to be taken to a nearby water-hole called "Devil Devil". This was a job that Mary often did on her own when Rolly was away droving.
Rolly enlisted and did his training at the Army Camp at Seymour, Victoria, his wife and daughter staying withhim there. On his way south, his mother Ann Matilda met him in Brisbane, bringing with her a lovely bunch of flowers for mary. He was alloted the No. 380 and the rank of private. He embarked at Melbourne for the Middle East with the 4th reinfrcements, 11th Machine Gun Company per H.M.A.T. "Port Lincoln" on the 20th October 1916 where he disembarked at Sierra Leone and transfered to H.M.A.T. "Ulysses" and proceeded to England on the 5th December 1916. Disembarking at Devonport on 28th December 1916. He went to Number 6-7 camp at Perham Downs on 30th December, 1916, joined 5th Division Machine Gun Company on 13th February 1917, appointed Lance Corporal on 15th May 1917. He went overseas to Belguim in June and France in September 1917, made corporalon the 28th October 1917. Promoted to temporary Sergeant on 3rd Nevember 1917 and later to Sergeant on 3rd February 1918. He waswounded in action at Viller Brettoneaux and sent back to 3rd Southern General Hospital at Portsmouth on 29th April 1918. He embarked for Australia per H.T. "Sardinia" on 19th October 1918 and disembarking at Melbourne 27th December 1918 and was discharged at Brisbane on 9th February 1919. He was awarded the British War Medal and the Victory Cross. His sister Berthat Bridge (nee Medhurst), wrote the poem "The Soldier's Return" about Rolly at the war.
Explanation:- Ships H.M.A.T. = His Majesties Australian Troop Ship.
Ships H.T. = Hospital Troop Ship.
After the war was over and Rolly had recovered from his wounds he returned to Winton and his property The Don. He still went droving, taking cattle to Winton or the Channel Country for fattening. He would take his own cattle from The Don to Winton some 90 miles on his own. His daughter would help him on his first day or two, and then he would be on his own, which was no mean feat concidering there were no yards to camp the cattle in at night. He was a good horseman and Stockman always put his animals before himself, his horse and dog had to be fed first. He would break in his own horses to be ridden, driven in a buggy or to carry the pack saddles when he was droving.
During the 1940's The Don was sold and Rolly and his wife Harriet went to live in their house in Winton, until ill health forced them to go to live with their daughter Mem, who was living on a farm called Robertford near Beenleigh. He often told his daughter that Beenleigh had the best bread he had ever tasted, a lot different from the bread that he would have had on his droving trips, which could have been a week old at the time he received it.
Rolly died in the Greenslopes Repatriation Hospital, Brisbane on the 16th September 1961, and was cremated and his ashes along with those of his wife Harriet, who had died a few months previous, were later taken back to Winton and placed in the grave of their first grand-child Stuart Medhurst Patterson, who was born on the 6th April 1934 and died on the 14th April 1934.
Robert Patterson.
[998]
THE SOLDIER'S RETURN
(On my brother at the front)
by Bertha Medhurst Bridge.
I wandered through the woodland In sunny free Australia,
At evening's sunset glow, Land of the Wattle's birth,
I plucked the sweetest flower Fragrant golden Wattle,
That Australian soil could grow The sweetest flower on earth.
Graceful golden Wattle, Evening's golden sun-set
Simple and sweet Silver mist and shower,
Would grace the crown of Royalty, Reflects back the glory
With simplicity complete. Of the Wattle's golden flower.
A fragance sweet is wafted' An Australian soldier resting,
Fanned by the evening breeze After victories of the day,
Over Queensland's Slopes and Pastures Enjoy the fragrance sweet,
Across Australian seas. From Australia far away.
In the glad new year the soldiers, Far away in the distance,
When the Battle's done and won, A farm he loves and knows,
Enjoy Australian sunshine, Is gathering golden Wattle,
While resting on his gun. When evening sunset glows.
The Australian sun is setting,
The evening stars appear,
Meemie greets her father,
In the glad new year.
[994] Greenslopes Repatriation Hospital Brisbane
[995] His ashes were taken back to Winton
_____________________
|
_Len MYERS __________|
| |
| |_____________________
|
|
|--Neil MYERS
|
| _Hunter MEDHURST ____+
| | (1898 - 1973)
|_Valerie MEDHURST ___|
|
|_Myrtle FOOT ________
(.... - 1975)
______________________________
|
_Neil PIKE __________|
| m 1969 |
| |______________________________
|
|
|--Fiona Malissa Francis PIKE
|
| _Geoffrey Ernest CAFE ________+
| | (1908 - 1996) m 1934
|_Maureen CAFE _______|
m 1969 |
|_Mildred Francis Pearl BATES _
m 1934
[1724] living - details excluded