Joan McFie - a personal history of the bay

Joan standing on the deck of her house. Below is a picture of the same house in 1910

Joan McFie was born in December, 1928, in a house which is still at the junction of Lower Mountain Road and Scrub Hill Road, Dundowran. “Mum’s sister, Minnie Kinbacher, was the midwife” explains Joan.
Joan has shared her early life living in Hervey Bay. She begins “Dad was the teacher at the Dundowran School, which is now at the Hervey Bay Village Museum.”

Circa 1915 The Dundowran Provisional School opened in 1891, on the sloping road from the Dundowran Hall to Nikenbah, a track locally known as the 'Red Road'. The school was later shifted to about a mile from the Hall in the other direction, near the entrance to the quarry. (Information taken from: Joan Christiansen, They came and stayed, 1991). Hervey Bay Historical Village & Museum  This image is free of copyright restrictions. This image is provided for research purposes only and must not be reproduced without prior permission. Please contact Fraser Coast Regional Libraries library@frasercoast.qld.gov.au or visit http://www.frasercoast.qld.gov.au/web/your-council/libraries for more information.

In 1890, the parents of the small farming community at Dundowran decided they needed their own school. On May 10th 1891, the first committee was elected for the establishment of a school. On August 15th, 1891 the school was completed on five acres of land on Red Road.Water supply was a rain water tank. In August 2004 the school was donated to the Museum and re-erected on stumps near the Goodwood Railway Station. 

Hervey Bay Historical Village & Museum This image is free of copyright restrictions. This image is provided for research purposes only and must not be reproduced without prior permission. Please contact Fraser Coast Regional Libraries library@frasercoast.qld.gov.au or visit http://www.frasercoast.qld.gov.au/web/your-council/libraries for more information. 

Dundowran State School 1935   

“The highest daily attendance recorded at that small one-teacher was 51 in classes from grade one to eight. It was approximately three miles from where we lived and Dad rode his bike or horse or on Thursdays when Mum went to the school to teach girls knitting and fancy work, the family went by buggy.” continued Joan.
“Everybody walked to school, mostly bare foot and some lived at four mile at Craignish, on farms opposite and beyond the Country Club Golf Course which was then Campbell’s farm.”
 Joan explains “Drinking lots of water was not a big deal like it is today. Plastic wasn’t heard of, so glass jars would have been a nuisance. Teachers were required to sweep their school out each afternoon and scrub the floors every weekend. When Mum went to help with that, it was an outing for us kids, to go in the buggy and then play at the school. Teachers had to keep the school paddock clean, so on sewing days when Mum took sewing and knitting, Dad and the older students went out and grubbed suckers – about a five acre area. Dad prepared lessons for the eight classes after tea, by lamplight – no electricity. The last day of the school year, all the desks and seats were carried downstairs and all the kids had a great day, scrubbing them with Lysol and water. How deadly these days, that would be".
She reflects on how safe she felt life was then “It was always safe to ride our bikes, day or night and prop them on the kerb or against the walls of buildings and go to the pictures or a dance and the bikes would be still there untouched when it was time to go home.”
Joan reflects about her life after school. “When I passed scholarship in 1941, there weren’t any high schools in Hervey Bay, so we had to travel to Maryborough. That meant catching the Urangan to Maryborough train or rail motor at Walligan at 7am. I would ride my bike four miles from Dundowran, then leaving Maryborough at 5.30, to Walligan at 6.30, then the four mile ride home.” “We had to stay at school to do our homework until five unless we had a note from our parents to get something from the shops. Trains and railmotors came to Maryborough from all directions of the Wide Bay area, full of high school students, workers and service men and women and day trippers.”

This photograph shows Adelaide Street, Maryborough in the early 1930s. The building in the right foreground is the Commonwealth Bank. This stands on the site of the original fire station tower. This photograph was copied for the Maryborough Wide Bay & Burnett Historical Society by John Hall. 
Original photograph Maryborough Wide Bay & Burnett Historical Society 
This image is provided for research purposes only and must not be reproduced for other purposes without the prior permission of the Maryborough Wide Bay & Burnett Historical Society. Maryborough Wide Bay & Burnett Historical Society 

Joan paints a picture of Maryborough of yesteryear “Most students left school after Junior (grade 10) and started work. There were plenty of apprenticeships available and I got a job at Alston’s printers, eight  to five, Monday to Friday, 17 shillings 6 pence ($1.75 cents) a week, but I enjoyed it. Mr Sid Alston employed eight men and three women and was renowned for the excellent stationary he delivered far and wide. During the years between the mid 1940’s to the mid-fifties – the years I worked and lived in Maryborough, it had everything and very little unemployment or crime.

This photograph was donated to the Maryborough Wide Bay & Burnett Historical Society by S. Hingst.

Original photograph Maryborough Wide Bay & Burnett Historical Society

This image is provided for research purposes only and must not be reproduced for other purposes without the prior permission of the Maryborough Wide Bay & Burnett Historical Society. Maryborough Wide Bay & Burnett Historical Society

There were three picture theatres. The  Wintergarden and Bungalow opened every night and a few matinees except Sunday and the Embassy the same except the City Band ran a movie night on Sunday after Church. Then there were three sawmills, stove foundries, soft drink manufacturers, Walkers Ltd with the top shop and ship builders yard, the General Hospital with its own; kitchen, laundry, sewing room, nurses quarters, cleaners etc; employing hundreds, swift abattoirs, Reids Bacon factory, numerous hotels and smaller businesses. There were hockey fields at Doon Villa, vigoro at Kangaroo Oval where there was a cricket pitch and tin shed, rugby league, tennis and bowls, a skating rink and several dancing venues, open every night and well supported. A popular Saturday night outing was window shopping, when all the shops left their lights on until nine when a man (I think Ernie Twigg) went around with a long stick and turned switches off. The Salvation Army played outside the Town Hall Green on a Sunday night, in the middle of where Kent and Adelaide streets cross was a small mound.” 

Joan has worked as a volunteer at the Hervey Bay Historical Village and Museum and still lives in the same house that she and her husband bought in 1968. More of her reflections can be found in the Fraser Coast Libraries Vertical files.

Tags #Dundowran #HerveyBay #Maryborough #FrasercoastLibraries 

Maryborough hosts the 2016 Small Museums Conference

The 2016 SEQ Small Museums Conference Storytelling - Reinterpreting the Museum Experience was held in Maryborough from Friday 7 to Sunday 9 October 2016.  The Community and Culture Section of Fraser Coast Council organised the event which was held at the Brolga Theatre, Maryborough, Queensland. The theme of the Conference this year was storytelling and how museums can create an experience that engages visitors, empowers discovery and ignites debate, sparking the imagination in a unique way.

Fraser Coast Council showcased the Story Trail Project.

Part of the Story Trail project which weaves through Maryborough CBD

Fraser Coast Libraries and Maryborough, Wide Bay and Burnett Historical Society Inc were invited to  present the results of their Local History, Local Music project found here 

Ken Brooks President Maryborough Wide Bay and Burnett Historical Inc in Partnership with Kathy Shilvock from Fraser Coast Libraries present Local History Local Music Historypin project.

The variety of speakers powerpoints are available here:

Tags #maryborough #storytrail #localhistorylocalmusic #historypin #smallmuseums #museums

Johnny Anderson and the Newtown Rodeos

John (Johnny) Lee Anderson as a young man

Today is the anniversary of the passing of John Lee Anderson who is fondly remembered as a rough rider for the Newtown Rodeo and a trick horse rider. 


Newtown Rodeo Team 

Robert (Robbie) Walker

His nephew Robert Walker (Robbie) recalls helping Johnny between 1959 and 1962. “Although I was quite a bit younger, I helped Johnny with the trick roping” recalls Robbie. “We also bought 27 buck jumpers and had them in the 1100 acres which was known then as Jocumsen Paddock – it is now called Oakhurst Gardens”. Valmai Christopher; Robbie’s sister and Johnny’s niece, kept a photo album and a history of Johnny. From this we found out Johnny was born on the 24th of November, 1927, in Maryborough Queensland.  He went to Sunbury School as a child and then to the boys intermediate after which he worked for six years at Wilson Hart Sawmill. Johnny decided to buy himself a cattle truck and worked at carting livestock using an Austin at first and then a Bedford. He lived on his father’s property at Copehagen Bend called the Bar-Line until his death on November the 9th, 1997. He owned another property at Island Plantation. He worked in the collieries, did seasonal work at the Sugar Mill, worked for Matheson and Kindt on a survey team for around nine years and worked for a meat works. 

Johnny getting an award wearing the Newtown Rodeo uniform; Pioch's Paddoch, 1940s.

“Johnny won his first open bullock ride at the age of 12 years and did buck jumping” recollects Robbie. “He was a rough rider in the Newtown Rodeo, winning many ribbons and cups during the mid 1940’s and mid 1950’s” Robbie continued.

Johnny rope spinning on Trigger

“Johnny did rope spinning, whip cracking and entered a number of rides such as Bare Back Riding, Saddle Bronc Riding, Bull Riding , Steer Riding and Bull Dodging.

Johnny and Trigger with lots of happy children at the Pioch's Paddock rodeo.

He lived for his horses and loved children, putting on ventriloquist and magic trick shows,” Robbie reflects.

Although Johnny had enormous amounts of charisma he never married. He was engaged twice but both were broken off.


Johnny and Trigger

Johnny owned and trained several trick horses. His first horse was Trigger.

Johnny and Trigger

He then trained a grey called Silver.

Johnny and Silver number one.

His most famous horse was also called Silver but was a Palomino who lived until he was 27 years old.

Johnny on his second horse called Silver.

Rex was a red and white Skewbald who lived for sixteen years . He trained a Clydesdale horse call Prince for processions. As a final tribute Prince brought his casket to his gravesite for his funeral.


Do you have any memories of the Newtown rodeos?

Dick Eckert has published a book call the Newtown Rodeo which can be found in the Maryborough and Hervey Bay Libraries Local History Collections.


This has been published with consent from Robert Walker.


Tags: #NewtownRodeo  #PiochsPaddock #Maryborough #Newtown #horses

The Maheno – an Icon

The Maheno just beached. These images are part of the Hervey Bay Historical Village and Museum collection. Copies of this image can be purchased from the Hervey Bay Historical Village and Museum . Contact The Secretary.   PO Box 519.  Pialba.  Hervey Bay.   4655. Tel:  07 4128 4804

The Hervey Bay Historical Village and Museum has a permanent display of the Maheno. A replica of the Maheno Bell, chairs beds and wash basins are among the many items that you can see when you visit the museum.

 
Also among the collection is original correspondence including that  from Captain Tanaka when the ship ran aground.

Captain Tanaka

Original correspondence from Captain Tanaka

John Andersen - President of the Hervey Bay Historical Village and Museum. Behind him is the permanent display found at the Village

John Andersen, the museum president, will be presenting a talk on the iconic ship The Maheno on the 25th of November, 2016 at Hervey Bay Library at 10am.
To see the display you can visit the museum Friday & Saturday
1 - 4.30pm
Sunday
10.30am  - 4.30pm

The Maheno circa late 1980s. This image is part of the Hervey Bay Historical Village and Museum collection. Copies of this image can be purchased from the Hervey Bay Historical Village and Museum . Contact The Secretary.   PO Box 519.  Pialba.  Hervey Bay.   4655. Tel:  07 4128 4804 

 A fantastic Maheno Display can also been found at Discovery Sphere until the 31st of December, 2016. More details can be found here

Tags: #Maheno #Herveybay #frasercoastlibraries #herveybaylibrary #historical