Growing up on a dairy farm in the 1940s and 50s.

Small family Dairy farms used to be the predominant farm on the Koo-Wee-Rup Swamp until the 1970s or so. In the 1920s, for instance, it was estimated that there were close to 12,000 dairy cattle in the Parishes of Koo-Wee-Rup, Koo-Wee-Rup East and Yallock (approximately Koo-Wee-Rup to Bunyip and south to Bayles, Caldermeade and Catani) at the same time the human population would have been maybe 4,500.

My father, Frank Rouse, grew up on a small dairy farm on Murray Road at Cora Lynn and this is his story.  Family farms relied on the (generally unpaid) labour of family members and Dad, his brother Jim and their two older sisters were expected to take part in the daily chores on the farm.

The family milked cows and separated the cream which they sold to the Drouin factory to make butter; the rest was fed to the pigs, which when they were fat enough were sold at the Dandenong Market.  This wasn’t especially profitable and around 1949 when Jim was 18 and Dad was 16, Jim got the family a milk contract.  This meant they no longer had to separate the milk; it was sold as whole milk for the Melbourne market for a much higher price and thus the family income increased by 250 per cent.  Jim had arranged the contract through Campbell Buchanan, of Cora Lynn, who was also the carrier.

Lucy Rouse (Dad's aunty) and the little girl is Dorothy Rouse (Dad's sister), c. 1938. 

When they got the milk contract the family began the change from Jersey cows, which produced less milk but more cream to Friesians, they were bigger cows, had less trouble calving and produced more milk.

However, this meant that they had to build a new cow shed. The original cow shed had been built by Frank and Jim’s grandfather when he took up the block in 1903. It had six single bails, 25-30 cows were milked daily by hand, before school and after school.  Neighbours, including Joe Storey and Johnny King had milking machines. Maybe not everyone did but Dad feels fairly sure that they were the last dairy to become mechanised.

Rouse family farm, 1928.  Dad remembers it as 'acres of mud'

The new cow shed was built by Frank and Jim and, because of the conditions of the milk contract, the shed needed concrete floors and walls. For the concrete they needed sand, so they had to take the horses and dray up to the end of Dessent Road to the Main Drain. There was no levee bank then so they walked the horses, attached to a scoop, down into the drain where they pulled the scoop along, filled it up with sand and pulled it up the bank where Dad and Jim shovelled it onto a flat section then later shovelled it all into the dray, which belonged to their neighbour the aforementioned Johnny King, take it home and shovel it out.

They had purchased a second hand 2hp Rosebery petrol engine which powered the concrete mixer, thus the floor and lower wall (five feet high) were built (using formwork, not bricks) and the rest of the walls were timber, with a corrugated iron roof. The dairy, connected by a 6 ft wide breezeway also needed to be concreted.   Once the shed was built, Joe (Jim and Frank’s dad) purchased a second hand Mitchell milking machine plant from a farm in Koo-Wee-Rup. It took 90 minutes to get to Koo-Wee-Rup with a wagon and three horses – then Frank and Jim had to take the plant apart, load them and then they had to put them back together and install the machines. The plant was powered by the Rosebery engine.  After this, the family milked 45-50 cows. The Rouse family had four horses, which Dad describes as ‘3 reasonable and one mongrel’ – the best two were called Ned and Rats.

Dad had been used to working with horses as when he was 15 he worked a team of horses for Sandy Priest who lived near Bayles. He used to plant crops, scuffle spuds etc. Sandy was also a top cattle breeder and often topped the sales at Newmarket. Dad was actually paid for this work which was a bonus as they never got paid at home.  Sandy Priest, who lived somewhere on the Bayles - Longwarry Road had 100s of acres, his land backed up to the Railway Line, but he lived in a small shed.  His bed was two spud bags stretched over poles, there was a stove in the shed and a windmill outside which filled a trough for water.  When Dad was about 16 he grew some spuds on Sandy’s land and which he rented and then paid the rent in labour.

Rouse farm at Cora Lynn, c. 1930s

Around the time of the construction of the cow shed, Jim and Frank also began growing potatoes together, at home. Initially, all the work was done by horses but it wasn’t long before they purchased a brand new grey Fergie tractor - it was petrol, 16 hp and even though they were only aged 19 and 17, the Company financed them.  Four years later, in 1955, they purchased 60 acres from Johnny King, in Sinclair (now Bennetts) Road at Cora Lynn. It was, we believe, about £6,000 but he allowed them to pay it back a certain amount per year – he had always been a good support to them. Jim and Frank milked cows for a year or two after that, then other family members took over and the Rouse dairy farming came to an end on June 22, 1960 when all the cattle and plant were sold at a clearing sale. 

The Rouse family buys a car

The first car ever purchased by the Rouse family of Murray Road, Cora Lynn was an Austin A40 ute from Brenchley’s garage in Garfield. This was in 1948. It was dark blue with black guards. Previous to this, the family travelled in a jinker pulled by the ‘white horse’, apparently the only name the animal ever had, or else rode their bikes.  Part of the deal of buying the car was that Mrs Brenchley had to teach nineteen year old Dorothy and seventeen year old Jim how to drive. Frank, who was fifteen, taught himself to drive. Jim could get his licence at seventeen, but by the time Frank was that age, the law had changed so he had to wait until he was eighteen before he could get his licence in December 1951. However, the lack of a licence did not seem to be an obstacle to driving as he used to drive his parents, Joe and Eva, to the Dandenong market where they sold eggs, chooks and calves (all carried on the ute). He also used to drive his eldest sister, Nancy, out to Pakenham Upper on a Monday morning, when she was teaching at the school and pick her up on the Friday afternoon and bring her home.


According to Dad (Frank) the Rouse family were about the last in the area to get a car.  At the time neighbours, Joe and Stella Storey, had a 1930s 4 cylinder Dodge (we think)  with a cloth top; Bill and Rubina Vanstone had an American car, most likely a pre war De Soto, with a gas producer on the back. Dan McMillan had big Ford; Mrs King, who lived on Sinclair Road (as the northern part of Bennett Road used to be known) had a Standard. Dad’s uncle, Frank Weatherhead, who lived on Pitt Road, had an Armstrong Siddley and a 1920s Chev truck. Other cars that Dad remembers from his early years included Norman Kinsella’s 1938 Chev and Mrs Rita Simcock’s late 1940s Chev that she used to deliver the papers and the mail.  She later purchased a VW Beetle to do the mail run.

This ad is  from the Koo-Wee-Rup Sun of January 15, 1950.

Home Deliveries to Cora Lynn in the 1940s and 1950s.

The Rouse family have had the newspaper delivered to Cora Lynn and Vervale since the end of World War Two. Dad remembers that Mrs Simcocks, from the Garfield Newsagency, used to deliver papers and the mail in her Chev (or it may have been a Dodge, it was a big American car). In the late 1950s, Mrs Simcocks got a VW Beetle and used that for deliveries.  We also got the mail delivered by Mrs Simcocks - apparently she took it from the Garfield Post Office to the General Stores at Vervale and Cora Lynn, where it was sorted and then delivered it with the papers.

If you lived less than two miles from the Post Office / General Store at Cora Lynn or Vervale, you didn’t get a mail delivery you had to pick it up from the Post Office.  Mrs Simcocks would also bring out small parcels such as items from the Chemist or even meat from the butchers if you rang early enough. The Rouse family on Murray Road always had the Sun News Pictorial delivered and this continued when Dad and Mum got married in 1956 and moved onto the farm on Main Drain Road. Sadly, our newspaper deliveries stopped at the end of June, 2017.

This is Grandma and Grandpa (Joe and Eva Rouse) and Delacy* the dog, taken around 1950. Joe's reading the paper, delivered that day from Garfield. I think Grandma has her apron in her hand. It's taken in front of the toilet, obviously a sunny spot!.

After Mum and Dad were married in 1956, they also had the bread delivered from the Garfield Bakery. Clarrie Lindsay delivered it on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Mum always ordered a Vienna loaf and this was delivered, unwrapped, and put into the letter box, which sometimes meant that if Mum and Dad had been out during the day it was a bit crusty when they took it out of the letter box a few hours later. In the 1950s, some of the owners of the bakery were the Umlaufts and the Lowndes.

The butcher, Mr Cumming, from Bunyip also delivered meat to Grandmas. Dad says that the butcher came out in his van and would do the butchering on the spot - the carcase had already been skinned etc, but he would just cut off chops etc to order. It sounds like a bit of a health and safety nightmare, but obviously people were made of sterner stuff in 1940s and 1950s!

This photograph shows some of the shops in Main Street in Garfield. 

It is possibly an Anzac day service as they appear to be laying a wreath, 1960s.

Mum always went to the butcher in Garfield; she went to Jimmy Fawkners, who was up near the Opp shop. She also went to Ernie Robert’s grocery shop (where the cafe is) which was a general store and also had hardware, crockery and groceries. Philip and Vera Wharington also had a grocery store in Garfield and they also stocked haberdashery.  However, around 1968 Robinsons in Pakenham opened up an experimental self service store and Mum began to shop there. Robinsons had operated a grocery store in Pakenham from the 1950s and later had the SSW store until Safeways took it over (around 1980)

Grandma, and most of the surrounding area, also had groceries and other goods delivered from Dillon’s store at Cora Lynn.  Les North, the delivery man, would come around the day before and take the order, which would be delivered the next day. The Cora Lynn store had opened in 1907 and the Dillon family took over in 1927 and operated it for decades.

* the dog was named after Grace De Lacy Evans, of Vervalac, Iona. She married Percy Pratt on June 24, 1919. Mr Pratt is on the Iona Honour Board, you can read about him and the other soldiers with an Iona connection, here.

Royal Melbourne Agricultural Show 1960

This is what the Royal Melbourne Agricultural Show used to be like.  My dad, Frank Rouse and my Uncle James Rouse (J. & F. Rouse Potato Growers, of Cora Lynn, telephone Iona 331 ) demonstrated  the washing and packing of potatoes, on machinery provided by Port Implements. You could buy the finished produce, 4 pounds of potatoes for 2 shillings and six pence. The spectators were very formerly dressed compared to today.

Show special advertisement in The Age September 23, 1960

That's Dad, leaning on the machine with his back towards the rollers.

100 years ago this week - Food production

One hundred years ago, this week in March 1913, this appeared in the West Gippsland Gazette, and is a reminder of what a rich area this once was for food production.

West Gippsland Gazette   Tuesday 4 March 1913, page 7

http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper

At Iona, a Creamery run by the Fresh Food and Frozen Storage Company, was opened in 1897 and by 1900 it had 50 suppliers. The Creamery operated until around 1907. In 1906 Drouin Co-Operative Butter Factory established a factory in Iona on the corner of Little Road and the Main Drain. It closed in October 1928 and was demolished in 1930. Another butter factory, operated by Holdenson and Neilson, operated in Iona from 1912 and was taken over by the Drouin Co-Operative Butter Factory in April 1921. If you have been to Iona recently, it is hard to believe that it ever sustained two butter factories.  Cora Lynn also had a cheese factory, click here to find out more about it.

This is a photo of my grandparents (Joe and Eva Rouse) farm at Cora Lynn, taken in 1928. It was typical of the many small farms on the Swamp.

Swamp wedding

 It is 90 years since my grandparents, Eva Eleanor Weatherhead and Joseph Albert Rouse married at the Methodist Church in Garfield on November 2, 1922. Joe was the eldest son of James and Annie (nee Glover) Rouse. You can read more about his arrival on the Koo-Wee-Rup Swamp in my first blog post. Eva was the youngest and and ninth child of Horatio and Eleanor (nee Hunt) Weatherhead of North Tynong. Horatio and his sons came  to North Tynong, from Lyonville, in 1909 where they set up a timber mill. Eva and her mother stayed behind in Lyonville so Eva could finish school and they then moved to Tynong. Eva was Post Mistress at Tynong from late 1919 until she was married three years later.

Joe and Eva lived on the 56 acre farm at Cora Lynn selected in 1903 by James Rouse which they ran as a dairy farm. They had seven children - Nancy, Florence, Dorothy, James, Frank, Daphne and Marion - with six surviving to adulthood. Grandma's passion was her garden, and you can see in the photographs of Evesham, as they called their house, below.

Evesham, soon after it was built, after their marriage, and below, around the mid 1930s.

Life on the farm, Eva and Nancy, taken about 1929. 

Joe with Jim and Frank, taken about 1937.

Joe was born November 9, 1892 at Clydebank (near Sale) and after he died on on September 3,  1954, Grandma run the farm with her children. She was born on August 30, 1901 and she died on February 8, 1982.

Koo-Wee-Rup Swamp - early drainage schemes

We will start this blog off with a brief overview of the drainage works on the Swamp. Small scale efforts to drain the  96,000 acre  (40,000 hectare) Swamp began in the 1850s and in 1875 landowners including Duncan MacGregor, who owned Dalmore,  formed the Koo-Wee-Rup Swamp Drainage Committee.  From 1876 this Committee employed over 100 men and created drains that would carry the water from the Cardinia and Toomuc Creeks to Western Port Bay at Moody’s Inlet.

It was obvious however that major works needed to be undertaken to sucessfully drain the Swamp thus the Chief Engineer of the Public Works Department, William Thwaites (1853-1907), surveyed the Swamp in 1887 and his report recommended the construction of the Bunyip Main Drain from where it entered the Swamp in the north to Western Port Bay and a number of smaller side drains.

A tender was advertised in 1889. In spite of strikes, floods and bad weather by March, 1893, the private contractors had constructed the 16 miles of the drain from the Bay to the south of Bunyip and the Public Works Department considered the Swamp was now dry enough for settlement. At one time over 500 men were employed and all the work was done by hand, using axes.

The picturesque Bunyip Main Drain, taken in the 1940s.

Koo-Wee-Rup Swamp Historical Society photograph.

In spite of what seemed to be good progress - the Public Works Department had been unhappy with the rate of progress and took over its completion in 1893 and appointed the Engineer, Carlo Catani (1852-1918). The 1890s was a time of economic depression in Australia and various Government Schemes were implemented to provide employment and to stop the drift of the unemployed to the city. One of these schemes was the Village settlement Scheme. The aim was for the settlers to find employment outside the city and to boost their income from the sale of produce from their farms. It was in this context that Catani implemented the Village Settlement Scheme on the swamp.

Under this Scheme, all workers had to be married, accept a 20 acre block and spend a fortnight working on the drains for wages and a fortnight improving their block and maintaining adjoining drains. The villages were Koo-Wee-Rup, Five Mile, Vervale, Iona and Yallock.

Many of the settlers were unused to farming and hard physical labour, others were deterred by floods and ironically a drought that caused a bushfire, however many stayed and communities developed. By 1904, over 2,000 people including 1,400 children lived on the Swamp. By the 1920s, the area was producing one quarter of Victorian potatoes.

There was a second wave of settlers in the early 1900s where those selected had previous farm experience, such as my great grandfather, James Rouse who had been a market gardener in England. James, a widower,  arrived in 1903 with his eleven year old son, Joe. He had selected 56 acres on Murray Road at Cora Lynn and his arrival started the Rouse family's 115 year connection to the Swamp.

That's James Rouse, my great grandfather, above.  He was born July 26, 1862 at Stratford on Avon in England and died at Cora Lynn on August 29, 1939. He had married Annie Glover of Clydebank (Victoria) on February 2, 1892 and they had five children. Sadly Annie, born July 24, 1865 died on February 7, 1899 aged 33, two months after she was thrown from a buggy when a horse bolted, in early December 1898.  The children were -  my grandfather, Joseph Albert Rouse who was born at Clydebank on November 9, 1892 and died September 3, 1954; Emily, born December 20, 1893 and she was found drowned in the Yarra on August 24, 1919 at the age of 25; Lucy, born September 2, 1895 died October 27, 1981. We knew her very well and saw a lot of her. She was living at Garfield when she died; Ruth, died aged 6 months on February 22, 1898. Annie was pregnant at the time of her accident and the baby, their child, little Annie, was born prematurely and lived only a few weeks.