Experience outback life on a cattle station - Myella farmstay is personal and relaxing

  
   
   
   
   

      

THE EATHER FAMILY 

Peter and Olive have three children who all attended school in Baralaba state school, then finished their education in Rockhampton.  The eldest, Ken, joined the farm partnership with his parents when he left school.  He is currently living in Sydney doing construction work.   Daughter Barbara and her husband.  Lyn, the youngest child joined the Farm Stay Partnership in 1993.

PETER EATHER’S FAMILY
Peter Eather was born 29 January 1933 in Singleton, NSW.  Peter was the fourth of five children of Grace and Ivo Eather.  The family grew up on a wheat/sheep farm in an isolated area and Peter attended a one-teacher school.  Ivo was injured in France during WW1, at the Villers Bretonneeux on the Somme, 100km North of Paris. As a result, he spent years in hospital, then finally returned to his family at Bulga where his brothers were running farms.  He married Grace Pankhurst in 1926 and they reared 5 children on a farm called Harparary in NSW.   Ivo and his brother Arthur married sisters.

After leaving school Peter and his brothers joined a partnership and ran the property.  In 1954 the brothers were looking for more land.  They travelled North 1000km and bought a property 16km from Myella.  Peter and brother Don worked the new farm in Qld, while brother Dick and Harry continued to run the wheat/sheep farm in N.S.W.

Eventually the Eather brothers bought a farm for each other, then they ended their partnership.  The eldest, Dick, still owns the original farm in NSW and his son now runs it.

In 1964 Peter married Olive (nee Oram), a farmer’s daughter from Baralaba.  Olive was born 9 August 1943 in the Baralaba hospital.  She was the sixth of eight children of Digger and Cecilia Oram.  Olive worked on her family’s cattle property 10km from Myella.

OLIVE’S FAMILY ANCESTORS
Olive’s Great Grand parents Joseph and Elizabeth Oram married on 14th June 1865 in London and travelled to Australia on the “Bays Water” three months later.  Joseph worked for his passage as a baker on the ship and paid for his wife’s ticket.  They started a family in Central Queensland Joseph bought and worked a butcher shop in Blackwater (2hrs west of Myella).  Joseph’s son Louis had 12 children.  Louis and his son Lewis (Olive’s father) bought a property at Baralaba for 90 pounds in August 1930. This farm is still in the family.  It was given to Olive’s brother Bill.  Out of the 8 children 7 of them have been cattle farmers at one stage.  Currently 4 of them are still farmers.  Olive is the forth child on the horse.  She had to ride her horse 6.5miles to school for a few years until there was a school bus.

HOW  THE  NAME  EATHER  BEGAN
The name Eather first appeared in Australia 1797.  A man called Thomas Heather was sent to Australia as a convict. The name changed from Heather to Eather gradually.   A variety of spelling errors appeared in the records of baptisms, marriages and death certificates; but there was a low level of literacy.  Thomas Heather’s name was first printed as Thomas Eather when he received his first land grant.  Heather was spelt when he applied for his second land grant and Thomas Either was written on his will.  Soon after 1827 the name was frequently spelt 'Ether' or 'Eather'.

THOMAS HEATHER, OUR CONVICT ANCESTOR
Our ancestors Robert Heather (1710-1780) and his wife, Elizabeth were living in Bexley in Kent when their youngest son Thomas Heather (1764-1827) was born.  Thomas had no formal schooling and went through life unable to sign his own name.  At the age of 23 years Thomas Heather was working as a labourer at Chislehurst when he was arrested and charged for robbery.  Found guilty, he was sentenced to death, but this was commuted to a 14yr sentence.  After a year in prison Thomas was moved to the hulks and on 19 January 1790 he sailed from England with the second fleet on the "Neptune".  The ship arrived at Sydney Cove on 28 June 1790.
The conditions under which the Second Fleet sailed were different from those of the First Fleet.  Of the 520 convicts that embarked the Neptune 31% died.  Merchants were contracted per convict,
the more deaths amongst the convicts en route, meant more surplus food left for
sale at the ports visited. The following year Elizabeth Lee (1773-1860), an 18 year old Lancashire lass arrived on the "Mary Ann".  She had worked in England as either a domestic servant or a shop assistant and pleaded guilty for stealing from her employer a grey cloak valued at six pence.   Elizabeth was sentenced to "be sent and transported to some part beyond the seas for a space of 7 years".
The ship, 'Mary Ann' left England on 16 February 1791 and arrived at Port Jackson 9 July 1791.  It was the fastest voyage out by a convict ship up to that date, only 9 convicts dying on the way.

Thomas and Elizabeth Heather married within a few months of her arrival in the colony and they had 8 children.   Land was granted to Thomas on 1 June 1797.  He still had five years of his sentence to complete, but Elizabeth had recently completed her sentence.  Thomas was granted a thirty-acre farm named "Eather Farm" situated at Windsor on the Hawkesbury River in NSW.  The conditions of the grant were: that he should live on the land for five years; that the land would be free from all taxes for ten years; and that he was to make improvements and cultivate the land deemed fit for naval purposes.  They fulfilled these requirements and, in 1803, they sold the farm for eighty-nine pounds.

In 1802, Thomas was granted his ticket-of-leave; then, in 1820, he sought another grant of land and was granted fifty acres.  Thomas was living in Windsor as a store keeper during his last years before he died, aged 63 years.  Elizabeth passed away in Richmond at the age of 88 years.  All of her children lived to at least eighty years of age. She left 157 descendants.

PETER'S MOTHER
Grace Eather (Nee Pankhurst)

Grace was born in Brangxton in the hunter valley to Allen and Virginia (Nee Russell) on 30 th September 1899. Allen and Virginia had a small dairy farm at Mitchells flat some 8 or 10 miles east of Singleton and about the same distance from Branxton where Virginia’s parents lived. Grace was the third daughter , the others were Jean and Eleanor(Nell),  as there were no milking machines in those days all the milking had to be done by hand , so as soon as they were old enough the girls had to do their share of milking, morning and night. Grace related how she as a primary school girl had to milk her 6 to 8 cows before school then again in the afternoon.  She was apparently good at handling horses as she related that her pony had to be put into the shafts of a sulky to collect an aunt from the rail in Singleton as the normal horse was lame, grandfather was on tender hook but when Aunty was told she said there “wouldn’t be any worry with Gracie’s pony”. The main worry was when the first motor cars began to appear and the horses couldn’t face the noisy vehicles.

Later grandfather moved to William St in Singleton, a two story house which has recently been renovated and looks grand. Grace began piano and elocution classes in Maitland and had to travel by train, practicing her elocution silently got her some strange looks from fellow passengers. She  received her cap and gown in music and enjoyed playing most of her life, playing for services at Gracemere retirement home.

Jean married Arthur Eather and they lived on Meerea, Bulga, later moving to “Milgarra” Bunnan  and had three boys. Eleanor married Charles McNiven who eventually lived in Drummoyne. Eleanor and Charles with his brother Ron began McNivens Ice Cream  a successful business which was eventually sold to Peters.

Grace met Ivo Eather a younger brother of Arthur who had been severely wounded in France at Villiers Brettoneaux with his brother Jack They married in 1925 and moved to Harparary, raising five children, four boys and a girl, Ivo died in 1952 and Grace lived there till Harry married in 1961 when she moved to Queensland first to the property Fairhaven then to Baralaba before retiring to Gracemere.

Grace was renowned for her heavy foot when driving and there are quite a few stories told of her escapades .The family eventually persuaded her to stop driving the 800 odd kilometre journey from Baralaba to Baan Baa as she couldn’t seem to stop and had to do the trip in one day, she made her last trip when she was 76.

Grace had to hold the fort many times when we were small when Ivo had spells in Hospital in Sydney, one cold winter day we asked if we could go for a swim in the creek which looked very inviting , she said yes so we  went for a whole five seconds.Lucy used to call her Grey and complained one day coming home from school she had no grandmother being most disappointed to find her Grey was her grandmother. She was  a favourite with her grandchildren and “Gran” became her name to the wider community eventually passing in her 88th year.

 

The other night, by the campfire some guests and I (Lyn) enjoyed listening to my father (Peter) performing bush poetry.  He was good, really good and I thought to myself, I bet his mother would be proud of him. 

 

Peter’s mother Grace, died in 1988 before Peter began reciting poetry.  Grace herself had a love of poetry and she holds some wonderful memories for me. We called her Gran and she would often perform for friends and family. 

 

During my childhood she would come to visit every family member for their birthday.  I remember my 9th birthday I walked past the toilet and could hear Gran’s voice having a deep conversation with herself.  Concerned, I ran calling, “Mum, I think Gran’s going crazy!  She’s talking to herself on the toilet!”  After some investigating my mother reassured me that Gran was just being Gran.  You see she was worried she may loose her marbles or forget her poems, so she would practice whenever she was on the loo!

 

When I think of Gran my heart is filled with the warmth of memories that always bring a smile to my face.  Yep, she was quiet a character and anyone who knew her seem to have a story about how she touched their lives.  Then I started wondering, has anyone written down these stories, has anyone recorded the life of Grace Eather (Nee Pankhurst).

 

    Rachel Eather 
   Richard Norris
                                    

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