Introduction

Here we have two family stories spread over three chapters. The Brace

family and their beginnings at Wallala Rocks in the 1920s, and the

sentimental visit on the 15th May 1994 to those early sites. Then there

are Seth Joy’s stories from the early 1900’s. Both families came together

with the marriage of Bob Brace and Merle Joy on 1 September 1947.

We all physically change and pass on. Jesus said, “He who believes in

me shall never die.”(or see death) John 11:26. We cannot hang on to

the past as if meaning and purpose only comes from reliving our

yesterdays. That’s why Jesus made it clear that our real life and hope

reside in our relationship with him. Yet the yarns, experiences and

values of our ancestors can teach us much and need to be preserved.

This is what this booklet is about.

Special thanks to my wife Beryl for her time, and use of newly acquired

computer skills.

Ted Curnow

Author: E A Curnow

Published by the author: October 2000

ISBN: 09595911-5-X

Copyright 2000

Typesetting: Beryl Curnow

TELLING WEST COAST STORIES 1, 2000

Brace Family - Wallala

BushYarns

Including the Seth Joy Story

Compiled by Ted Curnow

from the early stories told

by Bob & Jack Brace,

& Thora Pearson (nee Brace)

A familiar farming scene from our yesterdays!

Bush Family and Wallala Yarns

Rare Gems

Out in the arid marginal country, between the sand ridges and stunted

Mallee there are undiscovered nuggets of gold to be found. Often missed

and easily overlooked by those pre-occupied with other things, this is not

a matter of a rare mineral but of a rare people, outback people who have

quietly lived out their lives in isolated places so that they have almost

merged with the country around them. These people have never known

the lure of suburban life, only the harsh and the beautiful rhythm of the

seasons, a way of life as tough as limestone but at the same time as soft as

drift sand. Their wit can be as dry as the land they live on but they are

innovators, survivors, unpretentious people whose thinking and living is

shaped by the small communities they belong to, communities who more

readily reflect the tested values and ways of their pioneer forefathers,

rather than the latest trend or technological gadget of the day. The last of

these rare gems still exist, but let’s start from the beginning.

Diggers returning from the First World War were offered the chance of a

lifetime. In the early 1920’s the Government granted Victor Cyril

Harold Brace a small Soldier Settlement (repatriation) block, An

opportunity to farm the untamed Upper Eyre Peninsula.

Vic and his wife Helen Dulcie (nee Miller), like many before them raised

their children Jack, Bob, Thora Tom, and Rona in the bush amid

incredible conditions. This is the story of a bush family’s way of life.

Here we catch a fleeting glimpse of the sparkle in a few rare gems.

Old Mr Miller, Dulcie’s father, remembered for his white bushy beard

and blue eyes lived on Block 7 in the Hundred of Koolgera. By 1929 Vic

and Dulcie had saved enough to buy their own property known as Block

10. It was about a six kilometre walk across the paddocks from Mr

Miller.

Granddad Miller lived by himself after being widowed and once a week,

his granddaughter Thora, remembered how he would cook stew and

dumplings in preparation for their visit, then before walking home in the

dark, sardines on toast and one or two yarns of yesterday were shared

around the open fire. (He just loved sardines!)

Preparing the Block

The area was booming. With settlers families arriving the Wallala

School had opened the year before, in 1928. With a good deal of

excitement Dulcie and her young family left Wallala to live at Fred

William’s place while the new block was being cleared by Vic. Then in

1931 they moved back closer to live at Linc Wilson’s place while

contractors built a shed on the block.

Mr Wilson, the friendly neighbour who was always ready to help out had

300 acres of his own scrub to clear. Ten Greek axemen worked as a team

together on the job. Each man cut about one and a half acres a day and at

19 shillings an acre it was big money in those days. After the long day,

young Jack Brace would join them for tea. They sat around and all ate out

of one central dish. To Jack’s delight, while having tea, he learnt a few

Greek words that stayed with him over a lifetime. Together they ate

rabbit, kangaroo and mutton cooked with wheat, a strange mixture!

Vic Brace and his older boys Jack and Bob worked hard at clearing their

own wild patch of virgin scrub. Vic sowed the first crop by hand then the

boys managed to borrow some equipment, but sadly they never did reap a

crop from that block of land. Today, in spite of the investment of those

early years the stubborn country has returned to its original state.

When the day arrived to move to Block 10 every family member was

allocated a piece of furniture. Father Vic himself, fresh from the infantry

was always a bit of a fitness fanatic so he took the kitchen table. Off

through the scrub the family and the furniture trekked. While this seems

almost unbelievable today, in those times is was reasonably common, just

as it was for Vic to throw a sugar bag over his shoulder for his regular

walk to Wirrulla to pick up the groceries. It was long days walk there

and back. The family knowing the time he was due back, would light a

bonfire to guide him home through the dense scrub.

Snowy the Horse

The closest settlement to Wallala was about 30 kms north east of

Wirrulla. The Brace children walked a good part of this distance down a

small scrub track to collect the bread and mail. They followed the same

track (that at times ran alongside the fragile overland telegraph line) to

reach their school and further their education.

Some compassionate soul, we are not sure who, gave the children a white

horse. Jack recalled, “He would stand very still until we had all piled up

on top one behind the other.”

The day usually started before dawn for the children with crushed wheat

for breakfast. Current rock buns and kangaroo tail soup were also special

treats, but every morning before breakfast or anything else, with her stool

and bucket in hand Thora milked the cow.

Leaving home around daylight with a cut lunch of bread and dripping or

golden syrup sandwiches, the children would head off. Bob, Tom and

Thora often piled on together or took it in turns to ride their pride and joy.

After school Snowy was turned out on the spear grass to feed, and if he

wandered off overnight by the time he was found, sometimes it was too

late to even consider going to school.

The family mascot eventually died and was buried on Block 10 in some

sacred and now forgotten corner.

Childhood Yarns

These were the tough days of the Great Depression. Instead of plastic

junk toys the kids made their own. The Brace kids were no exception.

They loved their home and made bats and used tennis balls. Tennis courts

were popular and simply made by leveling a piece of hard ground. The

family enjoyed some great games. One day the story goes, Mrs Reich

found herself locked into a long drawn out game. Her husband Billy

decided to provide a running commentary. As the ball was rallied he

called ping, pong, ping, pong and then, “oh mother ponged it out.”

Like other bush kids the Brace children grew up alongside an aboriginal

culture that became second nature to them. They played and mixed freely

with the local aboriginal people who camped around Wallala Rock. The

rock out crop was a ‘stones throw’ from the Brace’s early weatherboard

home. Duncan’s, (another family), lived on the other side of the rock.

Mother Brace never panicked if after sundown she found herself

venturing beyond the brush fence to find her barefooted children sitting

cross-legged by a campfire listening to the stories of their aboriginal

friends. Blonde haired, five year old Thora with Bob and Jack sat spell

bound more than once, the light of the fire catching the white of the eyes

of the aboriginal folk. In deep tones the old man would say, “I

remember the day I was born, not a cloud in the sky ------------.” Then

there was the story of a fight over a woman and the hanging of a man on

a tree ----- that’s how Poochera got its name, the old man explained!!!

(In the book ‘Towards the Mist’, it is noted that Poochera was named

after King Poojeri who died in 1917.)

Memories of childhood years often remain special. At Wallala Rocks the

arrival of the camel trains carting wool from the North and heading for

Port Haslam brought much excitement. Then there was the deadly

‘shangai’ made during the Linc-Wilson days from the scrub that also

provided tons of fun. The spindly mallee branch had a good spring in it

and when a suitable forked branch was pulled back and let go, it could

send a missile flying a good distance. “whang” went the super ‘shangai’

on this fateful day. Tom being in the wrong place, not knowing what hit

him, copped a rock from heaven. Holding his bleeding head he

disappeared yelling, “You killed me, you killed me!” The shame and guilt

weighed so heavy on the aggressors that they decided to wait and return

home under the cover of darkness.

The Schooling Struggle

These were early days when snakes and goannas and wild turkey were

plentiful, a normal part of every day life for bush families. The children

knew how to fend for themselves, their survival skills were good and if

they were feeling tired it was not unusual to take “timeout’ by curling up

under a bush for a brief sleep.

Emerald Rise School

The Education Department wrote to the family on more than one

occasion encouraging the children’s education. This was out of concern

for the children’s education but also to keep the tiny bush school going.

In her best hand writing, Mother Dulcie wrote back, “Since no income is

forthcoming from farming, Mr Brace now works for the Streaky Bay

Council 50 miles away and as he can only return on weekends, the

children are often without transport for their schooling.”

Twenty kilometres north of Cungena there was another one teacher

school of 17-19 students who were part of the Yarama Community. Vic

Brace made a track across the country to the Yarama School but in the

winter months the children were leaving home in the dark and arriving

home in the dark. The tyranny of distance was just too much, needless to

say a consistent education for the children was an ideal hard to sustain.

Some attempt at schooling via correspondence was undertaken. Tom and

Thora walked several miles to collect the next two weeks lessons from

the roadside mailbox of a neighbor. At the same time leaving the

completed lessons to be collected on the following mail day. In those

times a boy Bob’s age could earn seven shillings and sixpence an acre

clearing land, and that amount again for clearing up before ploughing.

The horse team with an eight furrow plough and the clearing of scrub

seemed more attractive options for father and son, especially with labour

being in demand on local farms.

Mum’s Kangaroo Pasties

Visitors in the bush were unexpected but hospitality was usually

generous. A swaggy known as “Church Warden” usually arrived at the

Brace home towards evening. He was a strange, but well known character

who roamed the country with his swag. Experience always led him to

homes where he could count on a meal. He was never a problem but

Thora found it a bit hard when her folk were away picking up rations and

old “Church Warden” arrived looking for a meal. Thora recalled his pet, a

huge spider that sat on his shoulder and somehow travelled with him over

the miles. It is said that Church Warden died in the bush somewhere and

that some caring soul erected a memorial to him.

These were times when communities knew how to work together. Two

big annual community events were looked forward to throughout the

district. The New Year’s Day Picnic at Perlubie Beach or Port Haslam

and the Wirrulla Hall Christmas Tree with strawberries and home-

made ice-cream. Thora can remember occasions when they threw a

blanket on the seaweed and camped the night. It was wonderful fun!!

Jack recalled going to Haslam on the back of Pine MacGuiness’s truck.

Children, mothers and all the cooked goodies were loaded together. The

big problem was keeping the goodies from the children so that they had

something to eat when they arrived at Haslam.

Mother Dulcie Brace had made some lovely “kangaroo” pasties for one

outing, but she was mortified and deeply embarrassed when her own

children insisted on asking her publicly in front of all and sundry for

more of her “Kangaroo pasties.”

Another memorable yarn centered around the parents trips away from the

home to collect stores. On these occasions the boys took the opportunity

to let off a little steam and to scare their young sister. Thora was left

petrified, when the boys raced through the rooms and shadows of the

small home flourishing burning house lamps. As soon as the horse and

jinker appeared on the stony rise the boys not only returned everything to

normal but by the time Mum and Dad appeared at the door they would be

as innocent and angelic as anyone could possibly imagine!! How the

family home escaped from being burnt to the ground we will never

know!!

Jobs for the Boys

One of Jack’s first jobs was droving sheep with the Benny family of

Pimbaacla between Nunjikompita and Wirrulla. They were on the road

for months at a time travelling four or five kilometres a day, just enough

to keep the feed up to the sheep, a sort of non-stop bush picnic on the

road. In fact work was anywhere that it could be found.

Young Bob was a promising 12 year old when he was introduced to scrub

cutting and horse teams. You needed tough, hardened hands to weald the

axe and there was a painful period of breaking through the “blister

barrier” first. The thing he detested most was turning the handle and

pouring water over the grindstone as his Dad ground the axe. Grinding a

new axe head was an art form, a skilled business that took up to two

hours to get it just right. Some of the imported labourers from overseas

would lash into the scrub and bruise the timber with their blunt axes but

not the locals, sharpening the axe was a matter of meticulous care for an

effective cut.

In the clearing of the land, the family followed a routine. First they would

borrow a horse and cart from Jack Wilson (Linc’s Brother) and take their

water and supplies to the job site to get it set up, then they would return

home. Next day they walked to the job site where they would camp out

for a week. Eating plenty of damper under a bag shelter and sleeping on a

chaff bag slung between two rails with cross stick legs, they survived

quite well. The conditions certainly were not considered hard in those

days; this was normal, life as it was.

After clearing with the axe, when the scrub dried out it was burnt.

Following the first burn the blackened sticks were piled into a heap for

another burn. By the end of the first year they had to tackle “come back”.

The mallee scrub would start to re-shoot so it was usual to cut it again.

According to Bob Brace, clearing was not that hard really, it just took

time to get the nack of handling the weight of the axe head.

Clearing was tough on the horses though. They would develop sores on

their shoulders. The chaffing occurred whenever an uncovered stump

caught on the spreader bar behind the horse. With the help of everyone in

the family the farmer would wander the paddock heaping the smaller

mallee around the bigger stumps for burning. Mallee in the early days

was bigger than it is today. All of this bigger “100 year mallee” has gone

now. Sadly much of the bird and animal life has gone too. You do not

find possums in mallee scrub today but when the Braces were cutting the

heavier timber they often identified cut marks where aborigines had cut

possums out of the tree. This was certainly not typical; in fact according

to Bob it was unusual for the local aboriginal people to destroy any

habitat.

There were other jobs like stone picking or caring for the horses. Stone

picking was tough because it wore the tips off of your fingers. The stones

were tossed in a tip-dray and carted into one heap.

Working the Horses

Life was largely lived in the paddock around the horse team, around the

smell of sweat and chaff. Men got to know their horses and the horses

knew them, it was a learned co-operation between the farmer, the animals

and the seasons.

With a horse team the day started around 4.30 am. This allowed for an

hours feeding time, and yoking up, (Working teams were fed chaff mixed

with grain.) and it meant you were ready to start work at daybreak. At

midday the horses would be fed for an hour on the nose bag. If it was

very hot, work would stop, but generally the aim was to have the team

home, watered and fed before the sun set. This meant they could dry off.

Otherwise the sweat would form a scabby hair cover. The horses were

served supper at nine or ten pm to ready them for overnight rest. You

needed a ready supply of water for a team of horses. One horse could

drink six gallons a day and they needed water at least every other day. A

team of ten needed a decent trough, water wagon or under ground supply.

In those times it took 11 weeks for a team to work one paddock. It was

usual to plough three times. To sow 300 acres was as much as a farmer

could manage in a season. Today that area is covered in less than two

days.

Crystal Set Farmer

Mother, Dulcie Brace eventually moved to Adelaide with Rona and later

Jack followed and stayed with her until 1942. Tom was sadly killed in an

accident in Brisbane. Three of the Brace children were caught up in the

war effort. Yet after all the years on the farm, today Vic Brace’s children

agree that their father was never really a farmer. His gift of ingenuity

should have been put to good use in some other quarter.

For instance, Vic dug an underground workshop, a little uncommon to

say the least. He was apt with the latest technology – building crystal sets

with razor blades and odds and ends. The family were called to attention,

“Listen, listen, I’ve got it, don’t move!!” Clear reception was always the

problem. Thora remembers well the first sounds of music over the air-

waves was Percy Granger’s, “In a Country Garden!” Lashing mallee

together on one occasion Vic erected a high aerial supported by fine

guide wires. Some thought it was the highest aerial on the West Coast!

Unfortunately the cockatoos thought it was a special perch put there for

them. When young Bob, the best shot in the West, was talked into

Ted Benbolt with team of ten horses

knocking the cockies off, in an unbelievable feat, Bob’s shot not only

knocked the cockies off but clean cut through the aerial wire bringing it

tumbling down much to the shock and stunned horror of his Dad.

More Horses after the War

Bob worked for a number of farmers. In 1940 before the war he worked

for Alan Harper. It was in the same year he left the district to serve in B

Company, the 2nd, 43rd Battalion that served at Tobruk and El Alaeim.

He was wounded a number of times and repatriated in 1944 returning to

Murray Bridge and Courela.

In 1945 Bob still had a love for horses so he found work with Mr Pat

Holland, a farmer and racehorse trainer as a strapper. He was up at the

crack of dawn everyday to exercise the horses and to prepare for trips to

race meetings. The only problem was the absence of a Horse Float. A tray

top horse trolley with a front turn-table was loaded up for the journey

with camping gear, water bag, billy and hay for three to four days. Three

or four gallopers were tethered to the back and off they would set

travelling to Cungena, Streaky Bay, Minippa, Lock, Cummins,

Ceduna, Penong, camping and sleeping on the roadside. Then there were

the unregistered Picnic Meetings at Perlubie Beach.

Bank of SA

1940’s

Pat Holland won a good number of races but the prize money never

amounted to anything more than a few pounds. In 1946, Bob who had

served in the army with Alby Joy came to Poochera to work for Seth Joy.

Seth was President of the Cungena Racing Club at the time and so again

it was in 1947 that a common love of horses led Bob to discover yet

another love, the President’s daughter, Norreen Merle Joy whom he

later married.

Bob and Merle later purchased the Joy farm at Emerald Rise where they

raised their family of five children, Helen, Malcolm, Reginald, Heather

and Jenny. They later retired to the little town of Poochera on the Eyre

Highway.

Back: Malcolm, Heather, Helen, Jenny, Reg.

Front: Bob and Merle Brace

Taken at Bob’s 70th Birthday, 1991