A day in the life of a pioneering family in Australia
Carol Burrows, 78, is an amateur writer and poet. Here, she shares the story of a family tragedy. It’s the story of her grandparents, Deborah and William Watt, a pioneering family in Australia whose life was filled with hardships as they struggled to survive at the turn of the 20th century.
The morning began like any other for this pioneering family in the depths of Western Australia. Little did they know that this day would determine the rest of their lives.
Deborah had come to Australia 16 years previously, the youngest of nine children from County Durham England, and moved to Perth with her family. Bill left New Zealand where he was born, aged 19 hoping to make a fortune on the gold fields and met Deborah when her sister married his mate and she went to holiday in Kalgoorlie with her. She was just 19 and he was 28. They married in Boulder in September 1902 and had recently won a land grant in a government ballot. In 1904 the government decided to hold a ballot to open the land up so it could be farmed and to increase the population in this part of the country. The young couple were very excited when their names were drawn and were looking forward to a much better life after living on the gold fields of Kalgoorlie since their marriage two years earlier. This seemed to be their chance to create a better future and a better life for themselves and their baby, now six months old.
The isolated land was a 121 acre block many miles from the nearest town and had to be cleared for farming. As the land was cleared the government paid the farmers so much an acre to sow wheat or anything else that would be profitable. It was an opportunity for Bill to establish himself as a land owner in a new land.
The life was hard for a city girl but Deborah rose to the occasion even though the living conditions were very primitive. Bill built a two roomed dwelling out of canvas and lined the walls with newspaper. The floors were compressed mud but they managed to get some old linoleum to cover these. He had made them a table and chairs and they’d been given a bed so they had the essentials. The ablution block was very primitive as there was no water apart from the creek and every day Bill would carry six buckets to the dwelling for all their needs. There was a long drop toilet usually full of spiders, snakes and toads that were prevalent in the area. Cooking was done over an open fire and the washing outside in a large bowl on a shelf Bill had constructed for the purpose.
Bill left home early this particular morning to carry on clearing trees down by the creek. It was quite a walk from the house and after Deborah had finished her chores she intended to take the baby to meet him as she did each day for lunch. They would picnic beside the stream in the fields that were full of wild flowers at this time of the year. Deborah loved to pick these to decorate their primitive canvas home.
The work on the land was extremely hard as it was covered with scrub and large trees. Bill had to dig around the trees after ring barking them and cut the roots, except the main one, before lighting a fire under each one of them. In the evening he would go around them again with fuel to keep them burning. Eventually they would be burnt out and ready to fell.
This particular day there was a terrific wind blowing and Deborah begged Bill to stay home but to no avail. He intended to just check that the fires were alright then come straight back. He hadn’t been gone long when she heard him calling her name. She was horrified to see him trying to crawl home with blood pouring from his face and arm. The wind had blown a tree over as he was attending to it and a branch caught his arm doing terrible damage.
He was bleeding profusely and fainted as she managed to get him onto the bed. The bedding was quickly soaked with his blood. Grabbing the baby, Deborah ran the two miles to the nearest house crying as she ran and calling to Mr Conway, a neighbour. Luckily he heard her before she had gone too far as the strong wind carried her voice towards him. Together they ran back to the house where Mr Conway was able to help control the bleeding and also assess the damage as he was a trained First Aid officer.
Bill had a compound fracture of the upper arm and two breaks below this and a severed artery in his arm. If the bleeding was not stopped he would bleed to death. To stop the bleeding Mr Conway tied the artery together with string saving Bill’s life and then left him with Deborah while he went to get help from the people who managed the railway station. As it was several miles away this took some time but they loaned him a horse and cart to collect Bill and Deborah and transport them to the station. There was no doctor in the district but there was a goods train due in four hours that could take them to the nearest hospital. Bill was suffering terribly as they had no painkillers to give him to ease the pain.
The station master and his wife helped look after them while they were waiting, and looked after the baby so Deborah could accompany Bill on the train. He was taken on a stretcher in the luggage van and suffered terribly on the 90 mile journey as there was no way to make him comfortable and each jolt caused him to suffer more pain.
When they arrived in Northam, the nearest hospital, the ambulance men didn’t realise that Deborah was with Bill and in their haste to get him to hospital she was left to find her own way there. After a very long walk she eventually arrived but couldn’t find where in the hospital they had taken him. She was so exhausted she sat on the steps and cried. A sister from the hospital found her there and took her in to see Bill and gave her a bed for the night.
They set Bill’s arm and he was forced to stay there for several weeks. However, it never healed and eventually he was transferred to Melbourne for further surgery. Unfortunately Bill lost so much blood it had weakened his heart that the doctors couldn’t perform surgery. He lost the use of his arm. He did recover and lived until he was well in his 80’s learning to live very successfully with one arm.
Deborah stayed on in Northam while Bill was in hospital and managed to get a position with a family housekeeping and looking after six children where she was paid 15 shillings a week.
They had to walk off their land as Bill took many months to recover and they lost what little they had. They eventually returned to New Zealand during the depression years and after enduring many months of abject poverty when Bill could not get any work he obtained a night watchman’s job on the wharf in Auckland where he stayed for many years. During this time they raised five children, four boys and a girl.
It was certainly the most traumatic day in their life and set the seal on their future.
Carol Burrows (right) with Melissa, her youngest daughter.
What have you discovered about your ancestors when looking into your family history? Tell us in the comments below.
If you have a story to share please get in touch with melody@oversixty.com.au
Related links:
My grandparents’ World War I love story
Why everyone should share their life story
Why you should write your parent’s biography