Good times, hard time and a life lived well - The Crump family
1 Apr 11
Reg and Jean Crump were much loved parents of Toni, Lesley and Craig and it is with their gracious permission that we include the story of the pioneering Crump family in these memoirs.
Reg was born in Kieraville, Wollongong, 18th January 1916 and Jean, 17th June 1922 in Clovelly, Sydney. They married in 1944.
Reg was a grandson of Ebenezer and Fanny Cook, who in the 1860s came from the Kiama region with pack- saddled donkeys and selected land. [Portions 118, 119, 293, 213, 238] at ‘Cook’s Nose’ along Brogers and Lamonds Creeks.
Albert Crump came from South Australia to work on the farm, eventually marrying Sara Louise, one of the daughters of Ebenezer and Fanny. On inheriting the family farm they raised Reg and his two brothers, Alf and Ray.
The family home with a detached kitchen, was constructed with pit sawn logs
and lined with cedar that still showed the curve of each tree.
Suspended above the open fire place were pots and boilers for hot water and the cooking was done on a ‘No1 Younger’ fuel stove.
A chimney, made from galvanized iron, had a habit of leaking during heavy downpours but at the other end of the room the family could be snug as they enjoyed hearty meals and plenty of conversation.
Their first meat cooler was a thick concrete box with shelves and a hessian front cover. Water trickling over it kept the contents quite cool. The arrival of modern kerosene ‘Silent Knight’ refrigerator brought many benefits, not the least being, homemade ice cream!
A road up to the house was a very winding track, so it was decided to straighten it out using gelignite, picks and shovels.
The main house facing east/west had a large living area, several bedrooms, a bathroom and verandahs, the whole area being joined to the kitchen by a covered way.
The laundry and store room were separate again and a favourite place for snakes to enjoy a retreat.
Between 1914 and the 1930s there was a coal mine on the back part of the property and the boys could easily fossick for the pure black coal to burn in the open fire.
The farm had a capacity of 63 milkers so in the very wet times the yard became quite muddy. Reg remembers his dad standing in the rain one day calling the cows and being so exasperated that he lost his false teeth! The family cat, Ginger, loved fresh milk and would come into the bails, stand on its hind legs and gleefully accept the squirt of milk straight from the teat to its open mouth. The boys would help their mother work the butter churn and of course were expected to be present for the twice daily milking chores.
Their Ayrshire bull created a few problems with his amorous wanderings into neighbours’ paddocks and one attempt to keep him from their heifers was fortunate not to have been fatal.
Reg’s dad was trying to yoke the animal when it broke free and with the unfortunate man holding onto its tail jumped two rail fences and dragged him some distance. The repentant bull returned in a few days but poor Albert was very bruised and sore for a lot longer.
Another bull gored a horse but Reg’s mother was quick to respond with twine and a packing needle and sewed the wound.
Reg and his brother had to cross two creeks to get to Wattamolla School which was ‘half-time’ with Woodhill. The teacher, Edmund Street, taught two days one week and three days the next, at both schools.
Later, when their father bought them ponies the boys rode the seven and half miles to Broughton Vale Primary.
Not all children wore shoes to school in those days and sometimes accidents occurred.
Reg trod on a broken bottle while working in the school garden and suffered a nasty cut under his foot. However this did not prevent his riding home. All would have been well, but the boys encountered a swarm of bees hanging from a tree. Could they resist the temptation to whack the nest? No.
The bees were not pleased and were all over the young riders in seconds. Alf took off, he and his horse covered with the agitated insects. Reg dismounted and opened up the cut. He and the pony waited for the bees to run out of stings before galloping after Alf. Neither boy repeated the folly.
Trapping rabbits was a safer pastime and good money was paid by
Winchcombe and Carson for the pelts.
After shearing the sheep, the fleeces were also sold to this company. Shearing was done with hand shearers and it was the boys’ job to dab any cuts with tar covered wads attached to long sticks. One year two wild mountain dogs maimed and killed some of the young lambs, but they didn’t depart quickly enough, Reg’s mother was very handy with a shotgun!
The family grew fruit and vegetables, made preserves and many household necessities and were well fed and clothed.
It was a carefree, rather boisterous childhood and by Reg’s own admission they got up to some silly pranks. Disregarding personal safety, they made an ingenious flying fox deterrent. A detonator stuck in half a stick of gelignite with a short wick was hurled at the fruit trees. It was very effective. A homemade bomb in a stone ginger beer jar was made for no other reason than it made a very loud bang when set off one still night. The neighbours were not overly impressed.
Swimming in the creek was fun and fishing for ‘red tails’ or mountain trout ensured a change of diet. Also, racing traveller’s cars along the uneven roads a chance to show off their horsemanship, trips to the movies in Berry with their dad driving the two horse buggy and the boys lying under the seat, were great entertainment and dealing with flood bound days in winters and bush fire threats in summers, were all experiences packed into those years on the property.
In 1927, a fire, thought to be deliberately lit, destroyed the milking machine, saw bench, fencing, yards and buggy.
The house was spared. Neighbours helped the family survive and re-build their assets.
Reg remembers many a time of flooding rains, in particular being flooded in for two weeks, having 27 inches in one day!
When Reg was fifteen he took an interest in Boxing and would spar with other young men in the area. He was also keen on Cricket and joined the Berry Club in 1932, either hitching a ride on the milk lorry or riding on horseback to attend the games. He remembered listening to the Ashes series from England on a radio powered by the car or truck battery.
In 1940, Reg was drafted to the Army, the 34th Battalion, but on the eve of their departure for New Guinea he suffered an injury and was declared unfit for combat. He was in the Army for 2 years, 3 months and 4 days.
In 1944, Reg married Jean, a Sydney girl and after a few years on the Crump family farm they moved to Cambewarra, then to Nowra where Reg’s parents had purchased a house and 10 acres of land off the Princes Highway, south of the township. They occupied and eventually purchased the home which remains in the family to this day. The family ran a few head of cattle prior to the land being sub-divided.
Two streets in this area were named after Reg’s father Albert and Ernest.
Reg then operated a ‘bread run’ in his old ‘Essex’ car around the Terara, Bolong, Numbaa, Pyree and Greenwell Point areas.
In subsequent years his working life centred around the Shoalhaven. He and Jean raised three children.Reg enjoyed sporting success at the Bomaderry and Nowra Cricket Clubs, being a life member at the latter. Jean had a great interest in the Nowra Players and enjoyed ‘treading the boards’ in between caring for their children and encouraging Reg in his various recreational activities and pastimes.
In 2003 Reg re-visited his old home and met the present owners. The original 365 acres have been subdivided into thirty nine hectare blocks, one owned by Graham Agnew, the old house plus 26 hectares was owned by a doctor.
Other owners may be John Christmas, Brown, Ingold, Pepper, Sampson, Rich, Moore, and Brickhill families.
Sadly, Jean passed away on 17th December 2001, after a fall in the family home. As Reg became housebound he decided to write his memoirs in 2003-4. Assisted by Barry Cruwys, a friend Reg made through the Neighbourhood Aid Programme, these were published for the enjoyment of his family and friends.
Grateful acknowledgement is given to the source of the personal memories in my story.
Lesley Crump