Wee Jasper, May 12, 1932
It was a Monday when I last wrote. That week we did not yet know exactly when we would be moving. Then on Friday- Ola Normand turned up and asked us if would drive him to Yass on Saturday. He wanted to talk with a farmer there about permission to put up the camp. So on Saturday we went off and didn't get back until evening. Ola provided a lovely lunch, and we went shopping for all sorts of things. That’s about all you can do in Yass. On Sunday the work started with packing and pulling out nails etc. I had already packed tablecloths, curtains, pictures, etc. and sent them to Bowning, where they will stay until we are ready to go to Sydney. The camp looked so empty all week, so we were not at all sorry when the time came to pull it down.
Early Monday morning, Ola arrived with his motor boat, and Mr Ansell with his as well. Everything was loaded onto the boats and off we went. Not that it was as easy as it sounds. Several journeys back and forth had to be made before everything had been transported. We had it all done, though, and our tent put up before it got dark. I had even made the bed and cooked some dinner. My cupboards look quite picturesque standing there under the trees. The stove is the centre piece with all the other furniture surrounding it. The tent was just wide and high enough to get the bed in. Everything else had to be left under the open sky for a whole week. However, the weather, for once was exceptionally good, almost like summer, with not a breath of wind, making it lovely to camp out. The camp was again right up on the shore of the lake, in the first deep bay on the right side of the mouth of the Murrumbidgee. A lovely little spot, green and sunny and protected. In the evenings we made a big bonfire and relaxed. One morning, when Sverre had gone hunting rabbits with Jip, three kangaroos came quite close. Naturally I took a shot at one, but it got away. One needs a heavier weapon for these big animals. I was sorry. I would have liked to have one of their skins. I had bad luck with hunting again a couple of days later. I was hunting rabbits with Jip this time, when suddenly, about 20 yards away, a fox flashed past. He had not seen me so I made a noise like a rabbit caught in a trap, and scratched with my foot in the dry leaves. Sure enough, a couple of minutes later the fox reappeared, a beautiful big-animal, not more than 12 yards away, and there he stood. I had plenty of time to take aim and I hit him too, but he still got away. Boy, was I mad! First he did a jump in the air, then off he ran. Jip chased him but he still got away. Oh, if only I had had another rifle. It’s going to annoy me for a long time to come.
When we had finished building the camp, Snowy Pedersen arrived with his motor boat and took us back to Burrinjuck from where he took our boat and all our things to Wee Jasper. We ourselves, drove via Yass where we stopped for dinner, to Wee Jasper. To get there one has to cross the new Taemas bridge. The country around Taemas is really spectacular. We got to the highest point on the mountains just after the sun had set and the light was wonderful. We didn't get to Wee Jasper before it was dark. Snowy served us tea and sandwiches and we went straight to bed, leaving all our things in the boat till next morning. We cannot see the Goodradigby River from the house since it lies in a deep valley. However it takes only five minutes to get to the river, and fifteen minutes to the lake. We have a big room to ourselves and an enormous kitchen with a very good stove. There are several big tanks of rain water. The car is standing on the verandah with the tent over it. We didn't sell the tent since we can make good use of it ourselves.
We're very comfortable here. Wood is delivered. We get free milk and meat. When Sverre asked Mr. Barber if we could get milk, he said we could take a cow. The cows here don't need to be fed. They always in the paddocks, day and night. But we had no desire to start milking so we manage with 3 or 4 litres of milk a day. If Sverre doesn't get a job in Sydney, we can always come back and live cheaply and well here. The house has seven rooms, kitchen and bathroom. Besides us, two rabbit trappers, an old one called Tom Archer, and a young one, Clairy Baley, are living here. They get 3/10/- week plus 1/-/- for every 200 rabbits they catch plus free lodging, meat, milk and wood. The ears are cut off the rabbits they catch, and they are paid by the pairs of ears. The trappers sell the skins themselves and dogs are fed with the meat. Tom has four dogs: two sighthounds , one hunting dog and a mongrel fox terrier. Clairy has two. I like that - seven dogs. Their names are Streak, Bluie, Skipper, Tiger, Monte, Don and Jip. There are lots of horses too. Tom has promised to let me ride his pony. It is the quietest of all. Clairy‘s horse ran off into the bush after it was born and it lived wild for four years until it was caught. Clairy has to be very careful with it as it is still quite wild.
Sverre has yet to start work. He is going to start on Monday and it will probably take three or four weeks. I have brought a lot of books with me to read, and I also have plenty of sewing to do, so the time is sure to pass quickly. Everyone was very friendly towards us when we moved. They lent us their rowing boat and motor boat, and helped us is every possible way. Tom and Clairy are also very friendly, so we feel good about being here.
I have been reading Mama's last two letters which I just found. Everything got mixed up when we moved and some things I am still searching for. As Hjalmar Bengtson says in his book ‘Time stands still in the country in Australia’. It seem to stand still here too, and everything that happens elsewhere in the world seems too far away to matter. When I read in Mama's letter, of all the want and misery, it becomes close and touches me, but then it fades again and all I perceive is the silence, the peace, the sunshine, the gum trees and the entire bush. If I were to stay here for very long I think time would stand still for me too. I would sleep long into the day and think ‘What does anything have to do with me?’ I find it very easy to imagine myself in that state.
I have been sitting by the fire in the kitchen since the sun went down a little while ago. Now I will soon start preparing dinner – rabbit with cabbage and fried potatoes, baked plums and custard. Sverre caught four fish in the net today. The biggest (a trout) weighed 7 ½ pounds. Tom has kept interrupting me while I was writing. He broke a rib when a horse threw him, and is not working. He likes to talk.
Goodradigby Station / Wee Jasper, May 19, 1932
We have been here now for two and a half weeks. It seem: twice as long since everything is new to us. How lucky we were to have such fine weather when we were moving. Since yesterday the sky has been full of heavy clouds, and now it is raining softly. I shudder to think what it would have been like if it had been raining while we had no roof over our heads, or if it had been cold and windy. That would have been just horrible. I don't like rain anyway: but now that we are in a proper house it's not intolerable. I hope it doesn't keep up for too long, however, because it delays Sverre in his work.
Tomorrow Snowy is going to Burrinjuck and he will collect our mail for us. I can‘t wait. It is so long since I have had a letter. I will go right down to the lake and wait for him. From there you can see a long distance. Snowy, by the way, caught a platypus in his net the other day. I had never seen anything like it before. It has a bill like a duck, only much bigger, four legs and beautiful fur like an animal. But it lays eggs. On its hind feet it has a spore which is very poisonous. Snowy had to hit it on the head before releasing it from the net, since it is quite dangerous to handle. Unfortunately it didn't recover properly after that and in the end he had to kill it. He wants to give it to us. Anyone who kills a platypus has to pay a five pound fine, which means we can't use the fur. However we might ask Keith or Norman Chaffer if they could get it stuffed for us since it is such a beautiful creature.
Next Saturday we want to go to Yass to see a buck jumping show - i.e. they will be riding wild horses. A lot of young people get together there and try to ride the wild horses. Whoever succeeds and doesn't fall off wins a prize. Clairy's brother and another young man from a small town about thirty miles from here, were here on Monday. Trying out Barber's horses to see if they would buck. Four of them did their best, but the riders managed to stay on their backs. But then they took on a 1 ½ year-old that had never been touched. Just the catching of it was quite a performance to see. Finally Clairy mounted it. It looked quite dangerous and at the same time terribly funny as the horse jumped high and then arched its back. Clairy was thrown but didn't hurt himself. It really is a dangerous sport. Barber's lost their eldest son in this way about a year ago and the day before yesterday Mr. Barber himself fell, hitting his face and shoulder on the hard ground, and was knocked unconscious. Sverre picked him up and helped him afterwards. He's alright again now. If it keeps raining like this though, I don't imagine there will be any show.
The day before yesterday Clairy, his guests, Sverre and I were in the caves. We had been there before, coming from Taemas, but that time we didn't find the right entrance. There are two different caves you see. There is the small cave which has a large hall like entrance, which is the one we saw last time. Then there is the big cave, the entrance to which is narrow, and concealed behind bushes. You have to crawl in through what seems little more than a crack in the rock face. It is a strange feeling to wander around under the earth, through narrow tunnels and great halls. Small caves like chapels with all sorts of strange shapes. They are limestone caves, and the stalactites and stalagmites make many peculiar formations which glitter in the light of the lamp. We had a roll of string with us and we fastened one end of the string at the entrance and let it out as we went along so we could find our way back.
Otherwise it is quite easy to lose one's way in there. The caves fork out into one another, and when you stand in the middle of a dark room and shine your torch around all around the walls are black openings. Before long you have no idea where you are. I would not like to go in there on my own. I would die of fear. It is uncannily quiet down there, and very warm.
Wee Jasper, May 24, 1932
It's Sverre‘s birthday on Friday, the 27th. I am hurrying to finish knitting the cap and socks for him. I won't be able to bake a cake as I don't have the ingredients for one. We were not able to go to Yass on Saturday as we had intended, because of heavy rain. It is six miles from here to the main road by way of a bush track. Since there is a lot of clay, the track gets terribly slippery in places when it rains and the car skids all over the place quite out of control. It might be alright during the day, but we would have had to come home after dark and we didn't want to risk it. So this week we just have to do without various things. Hopefully it won‘t be wet next Saturday as well. The last two days have been lovely and sunny, but it is cold. In the mornings the grass is white with frost. I am still rejoicing over the fact that we have the move behind us, and that we were able to enjoy such warm weather just when we needed it. Sverre is working hard and getting ahead with the job. He is not working with Eaton from Burrinjuck, who found himself another job, but with a young fellow, Jack, who knows nothing about building and just helps Sverre. Out of the 30/-/- (not 25/-/-) that Barber is paying, Sverre will get 22/-/- and Jack only 8/-/-, whereas Heaton would have required half. Sverre is looking very well. I am really glad we are finished with Burrinjuck. Sverre really seemed to suffer under the bad working conditions there. Also the climb of several hundred steps and the long bike he had to make at the end of each working day was very strenuous. Sometimes Sverre looked quite miserable, and he didn’t feel well either when he was working. That has all changed now, although he works from 7.30 am until dusk, i.e. around 6 pm. Do you remember Sverre s first boss in Taemas, Robert Westerlund? It was his nephew, Waldemar Westerlund who got Sverre the job. When Sverre was in Sydney he talked to both Bob and Waldy, and both promised him work as soon as they get a contract with the State Monier Pipe works.
This week has been quite uneventful, one day more or less like the next. Jip is giving me a headache. We have to keep our eye on her which isn't easy with all these dogs around. At night we lock her up in the bathroom, but during the day we can't leave her on her own all the time. She whines so. So I follow her around, which is a big nuisance. At this moment she is tied to the leg of the table and is lying, lazy and blinking at the fire. We don't give her too much to eat so she stays nice and slim. In the kitchen we have, besides the fuel stove, an open fireplace where the fire-is kept going all the time making the room nice and cosy.
Wee Jasper, May 31, 1932
Last Thursday we went to Yass. That was an unspeakably horrible trip. The road is like a Russian village street, with deep holes and big stones, steep falls below and above the road. Besides there are seven gates (in rabbit fences) to open and shut, between here and the main road, which means you have to keep stopping and starting, getting in and out of the car all the time. Having got through all that, you have to tackle the dreadful main road - thirty four miles of it. It also has gates at regular intervals that have to be opened and closed - six altogether. We were in a hurry too, as Sverre had been working half the day and it was late. So we got properly shaken up and Jip, whom we unfortunately had taken with us, sicked up on my stockings. When we got to Yass all the dogs in town followed us around. I went into a shop and five or six of then followed me and started lifting their legs on bed linen etc. I was on my own since Sverre had gone off on some other business, and I was desperate with no-one to help me. I had to really pull myself together so as not to start crying. Later, Sverre came to my rescue and on our way home we did not hurry so much. The car was loaded too and didn't shake so much. The trip really took it out of me though, and I was kaput for two days after. When we go again we will give ourselves more time and also leave Jip at home.
I baked a cake for Sverre's birthday and in Yass I had also got hold of some extra good cigarettes. Sverre was pleased with his presents. In the evening Tom and Jack and Snowy came and we had coffee and cakes, and many tall tales were told.
Mr. Barber pays 7/6 for every eagle head you bring him. So Tom is hunting eagles. He puts a cadaver somewhere and places rabbit traps all around it. Then when the eagle come, its feet are caught in the traps. He caught one on Sunday and one yesterday. I plucked the one he caught on Sunday. It had beautiful feathers and down. Tom has promised to bring me all the eagles he catches. There is a fortune in feathers on them. From one single bird I got enough to fill a whole cushion. If he brings me a lot I will only keep the down. Tom also shoots cockatoos to use them as poison bait for foxes. Yesterday he caught a fox in a rabbit trap. Today I will go with him to see the eagle. Tom has kept it alive and chained outside, so it will attract more birds. I will take some pictures of it.
Sverre is working hard and Barber is very satisfied. First the price for the job was set at 25/-/-. Then he decided he wanted an annex so the price went up 5/-/-. Now he wants something more done and Sverre is going to ask another 7/-/—. So we're not doing too badly at all. If Sydney doesn't work out, Sverre can probably always get something to do here, since Barber seems to admire his ability. That was not the case with his previous bosses, who often owed their positions to protection and not to any skill, so all they were good at was being unpleasant and making trouble. They took whatever they could lay their fingers on. I am so happy for Sverre. If times were not so bad and if Sverre had plenty of work in his own profession, we would soon do very well. We're not doing too badly anyway.
NEXT: June 1932