Early years in Australia - April 1932

1931: March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December

1932: January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September

Burrinjuck, April 7, 1932

Sverre is now quite busy since the trout are going in the net again. Yesterday we got a nine pounder, a beautiful fish. They have to be cleaned and then hung up for a while until they are dry on the outside. After that they are sprinkled with salt and brown sugar and left for three days. Finally, they are smoked for 36 hours. Until the fourteenth of this month we are allowed to catch trout. After that it has to be done in secret. Unfortunately, it’s against the law to sell trout. They are reserved for sports fishing. However we sell them underhand at a shilling a pound and a thank you as well. Mr McLeod, whom Sverre is at this moment driving to the train in Yass, bought six pound and is also taking two fishes with him to give to Gilberts and Hindwoods.

Sverre has got a little job, about which he is quite happy. A shed belonging to a farmer, Mr Barber, burnt down and he wants to have it rebuilt. As soon as we heard this, we jumped in the boat, along with Jip, and rowed the eight or nine miles to the mouth of the Goodradigby River. From there it was about another two miles by foot to the farm. Sverre asked for the job and got it. That will give two men work for three weeks. They will ask 35 pounds for the work and go down to 25. In this country one always has to bargain. I am so happy for Sverre. It's not the same as building houses, but still, a little bit like it. Sverre is taking a carpenter, Heaton, who is also unemployed, as his assistant. So we will be earning another 12 - 15 pounds. Meanwhile, I manage the trout. By now I have learnt most of the tricks of that trade.
Next Tuesday Mr. McLeod (he is an engineer at the power station) is returning from Sydney and has asked Sverre to pick him up in Yass. I will go with him then and drive the car all the way to Yass. I didn’t go this evening because I don't want to drive in the dark. As yet we have had no arguments about the car. Isn't that marvellous? It is Sverre's property, not mine. That is because of an argument we once had. I said that the peas we harvested at Xmas wouldn't grow again straight away, and Sverre said they would. I told him that if he was right, then the car would be his property, all alone. And he was right. However this has caused me no suffering. We both do our bit in the nurture of the child.
I am knitting again - this time socks for Sverre's birthday. He has only three pairs. That is too few.

Burrinjuck, April 18. 1932


I looks as if this winter is going to make just as sour a face as the last one. On Sunday, as Sverre and the other man rowed over to Mr. Barber's, it rained cats and dogs all day, so they came home soaking wet. It was cold and windy too. Since then it has been nasty all the time. We won't be sorry to leave Burrinjuck.
You have been wondering if all the fruit trees just grow and bear fruit all on their own. The answer is no. The trees here is Burrinjuck were all grown when the dam was being-built. That took twenty years and about two thousand people were living here then. They had houses and gardens. The houses are gone now but the trees remain. Places like the one where we picked all the pears, on our way to Taemas, used to be gardens too - of deserted farm houses or camps.

Most farmers around here have an old homestead, i.e. a modest little house, generally with an orchard surrounding it. Later when they have built a finer home closer to the main road, they leave the homestead. You come across places like this every now and then when wandering through the bush. Sometimes there are just the foundations of a house, sometimes there is a complete, though empty house, and sometimes only the fruit trees and perhaps a few roses witness the fact that once a house stood here. About 10 or 12 miles from here, some distance from the road, there is a tremendous pear orchard, with hundreds of trees. Unfortunately we discovered it too late. All the pears were gone and all we found were a few quinces. These were however, extra good, very large, yellow and pink. They are only good for cooking, though. If you bite into the luscious looking skin you get goose pimples.

A car like ours costs 260 pounds new. Small used cars are comparatively expensive. We got ours cheap, for 65 pounds, since the engine is excellent. One of the labourers here, who bought a Chevrolet, gave away his old Ford to a mate. The car was in working order too, with new batteries, good tires etc. Another man bought a Buick for 3 pounds. Mr Tierney has a modern Chevrolet in perfect condition. He can maybe get 50 pounds for it, but it is hard to find a buyer. The big cars are so expensive to drive. It costs 5 - 6 pounds a year to register them (ours costs 2) and they only do about 20 miles to the gallon. 1 gallon costs 2/4 and our car does 45 miles to the gallon. Everything is cheaper with a small car, which is why everyone wants one, now that everybody has to save. When Sverre gets a job again we are going to have a good look at Australia with our Baby. We'll take Bryan Gilbert with us in that case. Keith's legs are too long. A little car like ours doesn't drive as smoothly as the big ones. But what difference does that make to us? We're not made of glass and the roads are not all bumpy anyway.

Sverre talked to Mr. Barber last Sunday about terms for the job. Barber wants it finished by October 1. However he cannot get building material until in about two weeks’ time when the horses have finished ploughing. We would like to sell our camp and move over to Barber's, since he has a little house we can use. Afterwards we would go on to Sydney. There is probably not much chance of selling our camp, since most people are moving out.

Burrinjuck, April 25, 1932


This will probably be my last letter from Burrinjuck. We are off on our wanderings again. I have no objections and look forward to leaving this place. We have sold our camp - that is, just the house. We are keeping the tent. Ola Nordmann has bought it, although we have not yet agreed on the price. It will probably be 7/10/-. We have also found a buyer for the sacks of the garage and the visitor's house. We are still looking for someone to buy Sverre's bike and the boat. One man had already bought the bike for 2/10/- but he brought it back because he had damaged his back and couldn't ride it any more. Ola is going to put the camp up about 8 miles up the river and use it as a weekend place. So this week we will be pulling it all down, loading it in Ola's boat, and re erecting it on the new site. Yesterday we went to Barber's to ask if we could live there while waiting for the job to begin. About 100 yards from his house Barber has an empty house with 6-7 rooms and a kitchen. There are beds in all the rooms. In the shearing season the shearers live there with their cook.

He said we can stay there as long as we like, and he also promised Sverre that he could learn shearing if he wanted. But Sverre has no desire to learn this dirty, heavy work which starts in the beginning of October. However, if by then nothing else has turned up he will probably take the opportunity. A good shearer can earn a lot of money, but it's not as simple as it seems. The shearer get rashes, wounds and abscesses on their arms and hands. Also it is easy to cut oneself on the shearing machine, which vibrates heavily and makes ones hands feel funny. Mr. Barber is a terribly rich man. He has endless stretches of land. His hands and arms are crippled from the elbows down and his arms are very short and thin, and his hands are all crooked. He also has a high piping voice. It is quite tiring to listen to him. He has quite a pretty wife and three children. The children also seem, in some way, to be not quite normal. One boy, aged about 17, has a tremendous bottom, and his father's voice. A 12 year old girl is abnormally fat and wears glasses. I saw them for only a short while, when we were there last Sunday. We will stay at Barber's until Sverre is finished there, and then we will go to Sydney. If Sverre doesn‘t have any work by October, we can always return to Barber's. We don't yet know where we will go to live in Sydney, perhaps somewhere in Crow's Nest. That was a nice suburb. I am so looking forward to getting back to Sydney, and I do hope Sverre soon will get a job - and not out in the Never Never either.
Sverre has gone to Bowning. Snowy Pedersen came to Burrinjuck with a load of fish, but missed to post truck. He can't just leave the fish, so he asked Sverre to drive him to the railway station 29 miles from here. I will have some hot tea ready for him when he gets back from the cold trip. The weather has cleared up and it is not cold here, but when you get away from the sheltering mountains, and onto the high open plains, about 10 miles from here, the wind is icy. Snowy will have to make the last stretch of his trip home, about 10 miles across the water in his motor boat. Not an inviting prospect in the dark, especially if it gets windier.

Sverre has been busy this week, mending nets. When we go to put our camp up, and are on the Murrumbidgee for four or five days, we want to catch as many trout as possible, so we can take a load of them to Sydney. I have been reading aloud while Sverre mended the nets.

I have already removed tablecloths, cushion covers and curtains, as well as the bed cover. Tomorrow I will wash them all and then pack them away. The camp does not look so cosy any more. We will probably send the trunk to Bowning and then on by rail to Sydney. All the rest can go in the car. That makes it easy. We don't need trunks and oases for everything. Poor little Jip! I wonder how she will take to city life after the freedom of the bush. However we do not intend to stay here for her sake


NEXT: May 1932