Emily English
Emily talks about her childhood and growing up in the family home "Fairview". She takes the interviewer through her family albums describing people and events as they go
Interview with: Emily English (nee Pattemore)
Date of Interview: 4 December 2007
Interviewer: Amanda Wilson
Place of Interview: Maleny
Emily talks about her childhood and growing up in the family home "Fairview". She takes the interviewer through her family albums describing people and events as they go.
Images of the Fairview in the Sunshine Coast Libraries Catalogue.
Image: Bill and Emily English (nee: Pattemore) pictured in front of their first home at Nambour, ca 1941.
Audio
Emily English oral history - part one [MP3 14MB]
Emily English oral history - part two [MP3 1MB]
Transcript
AW Good morning Emily. I'm just wondering if you could start off by telling me your name and where and when you were born.
EE My name is Emily Elwyn English. I was born in Maleny in 1923 in a home owned at that time by my aunt who was a Mrs Bates.
AW Whereabouts is Mrs Bates' house?
EE Up there near the … um … not the rubbish dump ... the council dump.
AW The Council depot?
EE Yes, right up the other end of town.
AW Up near the hospital?
EE Yes.
AW OK so that's up in …
EE And that house is still standing.
AW Oh, is it? OK. So you were born up in Mrs Bates' place. So she was a Pattemore?
What was her ...
EE She was Emily, she was Emily.
AW Emily?
EE That’s where all the Emilys come from. Grandma, old … first one was Emily too.
AW Right. So you're named after your aunt.
EE I'm the third.
AW Ok, thank you for that. So you were born at your auntie's place. The hospital is just down the road, how come you weren't born at the hospital?
EE I don't know that. But when I left the home of the aunt when we were dismissed, that was … Fairview was my first home.
AW When you say you were dismissed, what do you mean?
EE Oh well when my mother was let out of ... they used to keep you in hospital or wherever you were for a week after birth …
AW Yes.
EE And ... then my mother and father were living at Fairview and that was my first home also.
AW OK. So was Mrs Bates a midwife?
EE Yes oh well I guess so yes. She acted that way anyway.
AW So that house ... that street is called Palm Street ...
EE. I've got photos of there.
AW Yes, we'll probably go past there later on today. Alright, so your first home when you were taken home from ... with your mother was Fairview. Now whereabouts is Fairview?
EE. Oh, Porters Lane. Do you want me to describe it from town?
AW No, so in those days it was called Porters Lane?
EE Yes, oh, I don't think it had any name.
AW Didn't have a name at all?
EE No.
AW OK. So your family ... your father's a Pattemore? What was your father's name?
EE Ernest Edward.
AW And he was one of how many brothers?
EE Four boys and three girls.
AW Now, did the whole Pattemore family move to Maleny?
EE Yes.
AW They all moved.
EE Yes.
AW Mother, father and all the children.
EE They came from Tilba Tilba. Central Tilba.
AW Yes.
EE And there was a severe drought down there and they were farming people and some of the people from down there came to Maleny with its lush green pastures, so a terrific amount of people moved from down there …
AW From the northern rivers in northern NSW …
EE And Grandfather bought five properties, one for himself and one for each son.
AW So was he dairying down in Tilba Tilba?
EE Yes.
AW He was. Cos it's a very lush area then. So that would have been, like there was a big drought in 1902 and there was also red water fever, you know, that went through a lot of the dairying. Did you hear stories about that at all?
EE No, no. Never heard about that.
AW So the entire family moved up, now I read somewhere that ....
EE They didn't all move at once.
AW No. OK.
EE Some of the girls were married.
AW Right.
EE And they all eventually moved up here.
AW OK.
EE There was my father and his two brothers, Stan and Bill moved up to Maleny.
AW Right, so I understand that Stan and Bill were possibly timber getting up here before the family moved and they're the ones that …
EE And my father too, Ernest.
AW Was he? OK. So the three of them were timber getting up here? In the Blackall Range?
EE I'd say Ernest and Bill did the felling of the trees, and the pitsawing, but Stan being a carpenter and my father a carpenter they built the house.
AW OK right.
EE They started in 1907, and it was 1908 when John Robert and Emily, that's the old people, came to Maleny.
AW So do you know whether the five blocks of land that your Grandfather bought, did he select those or did he actually purchase them from somebody?
EE Oh he purchased them.
AW. Do you know who he purchased them from?
EE Yes I do, but I'd have to find it.
AW That's all right we can write that down later. OK, so I'm just trying to find out whether the Pattemores were selectors or they purchased ...
EE. No they purchased ... I have got the name I just don't know where it is in all of this.
AW Ok, so I was reading somewhere that your Uncle Bill was, he was very into the timber industry … and he had a sawmill.
EE Sawmill with uh ...
AW Ted Thynne, was it?
EE Was it Thynne, Pattemore Thynne, I think it was. Yes.
AW Right. Well I've read it … they said it was at Fryer's Creek, the mill, is that correct?
Do you know?
EE I don't know where Fryer's Creek is.
AW It's on the way into Maleny, we'll pass over Fryer's Creek.
EE Possibly, possibly.
AW Not far down the road from where we are now.
EE Possibly, it was out that way somewhere.
AW OK, so you'd remember it when you went past the area would you?
EE No, I don't think I would now, I don't think it would be there would it?
AW Oh no. No no.
EE No I wouldn't, no, but I know that he had it and that’s the vicinity.
AW So did you ... with family gatherings and things like that, do you remember many stories of your uncles talking about the old days when they were timber getting before there were many people living in the Maleny area?
EE Well my father, and I think it was Bill, felled a lot of timber in the early days up on Bald … what we used to call Bald Knob.
AW Right.
EE Is it still called Bald Knob?
AW Yes it's still called Bald Knob.
EE Well they felled ... they were the early tree fellers in that area.
AW OK, because Bald Knob later was ... there was a number of returned soldiers from First World War, English soldiers, settled in that area, a lot of banana growers, so ... and Thynnes owned a lot of land out there as well around that Bald Knob area.
EE It could have been, it could have been in the time when Thynne and Pattemore had the mill that they did the felling, but I know my father felled timber out on Bald Knob.
AW OK. So was your Dad married before he came up to Maleny?
EE No. My mother came from Milton and they came from Tilba which is close. And they didn't know one another till they came to Maleny.
AW Right.
EE. And they were married in Brisbane. They were both …
AW. They were both in Tilba and they didn't know each other?
EE One was Tilba and one was Milton.
AW Milton. OK.
EE Yes. They didn't know one another.
AW Right.
EE But anyway they married in St John's Cathedral in Brisbane, but they were both a fair age, I think my mother was about 29, I think my father might have been about 33.
AW So that's old for those days getting married.
EE Yes.
AW So when you say Milton, you mean Milton, Brisbane?
EE No No No. I mean Milton down there, Tilba.
AW Sorry I’m showing my ignorance geographically!
EE Milton, Ulladulla.
AW OK.
EE Near Tilba.
AW So your mother was from a dairying background as well.
EE Yes.
AW So your mother’s name was …
EE Cork …
AW So she was a Cork … and is that the same Cork family that are here in Maleny now?
EE Well, when they came out from England there was two brothers, there was Robert and (hesitates thinking) …
AW Your grandfather …
EE No, it was my grandfather’s grandfather that came out …
AW Right OK.
EE Robert and James … well, these ones that are out here now are descendents of Robert Cork and the ones, my parents, my mother came from, was James.
AW That’s interesting that your father married a girl from a close area in NSW …
EE Came way up here (laughs) …
AW Came to Maleny to meet her and that she came … her relatives were up here and I assume she was up here staying with relatives …
EE They were living here.
AW Right.
EE I will show you the old Cork house when we go into town.
AW OK … So you said you were born at Fairview. Now I am interested in Fairview
EE I wasn’t born at Fairview …
AW Sorry. You said Fairview was your first home. So, did you grow up at Fairview?
EE No.
AW Where did you grow up?
EE After I was born, well you know Maleny is a foggy, wet and horrible place in the winter and …
AW I know the drizzly days …
EE My mother kept getting pleurisy …
AW Right …
EE And the doctor told my father if he didn’t get her out of Maleny he wouldn’t have her. So he had a sister at Forest Glen and we, I think they stayed there a few months and bought this property then in Nambour.
AW So Nambour would have been a lot warmer and drier …
EE Oh yes.
AW Than Maleny … but did you call it “Namba” or Nambour?
EE No.
AW Always Nambour.
EE But, my grandmother Cork always called Maleny “Malenny”. But her mother was Scots.
AW There is a town in Scotland called “Malenny”. A lot of the old timers would call Nambour, “Namba” …
EE No.
AW You grew up there?
EE Yes. Oh yes. As I said I was the first day pupil at the new school in Nambour.
AW OK. So what school was that?
EE The one that is there now.
AW The Nambour Primary School?
EE Yes. I was only in, I think, second year at school.
AW Can you remember what year that was? You would have been about six.
EE Yes. There was a little school at Highworth at that stage and I went there for a year. My brother was going there and I went …
AW So Highworth is along the Range here.
EE Highworth is between Nambour and Mapleton.
AW OK, yes. I think those district names are coming back again. Your parents lived at Highworth for a while?
EE No No. We lived in Nambour but we were sort of up on the Mapleton Road …
AW OK.
EE And, yes I would say when I started school in Nambour I would have been six so that would have made it 1929.
AW I am going to get back to the Pattemore houses up here. So how many houses were there? If there were five blocks of land, were there five houses?
EE No. There was only the one that they built. Then later on they did build one further across the paddock. I’ve got photos of it. Further across the paddock where the sharefarmer worked. Stan Pattemore built a beautiful home but the rest of them seemed to just sort of amalgamate into the home farm.
AW There was the original home, Fairview, that was your Grandfather’s house.
EE That’s the one my father and them built.
AW So your father, Ernest and Stan and Bill built Fairview and that was in about 1907 you said.
EE No I would say probably 1908.
AW 1908.
EE See they had to fell all of the timber and pitsaw it and cut it into housing pieces and build it. So they started that in 1907 but it was 1908 when it was really built.
AW While we are talking about the house then we might as well keep going. So, they pitsawed. Do you remember stories of them talking about when they were pitsawing, like the process of building their house?
EE Not really. But well see I wasn’t around then.
AW No. When you were young …
EE Do you know what pitsawing is, do you?
AW Yes I do … Did they explain to you, like you understood at the time, your grandfather …
EE There was a big hole in the ground, one gets down in it and the other one on the top with a great big saw and they cut all these beech trees.
AW They used a big cross cut saw?
EE No it was similar to a cross cut, but it wasn’t a cross cut.
AW So, did they ever tell you where they got the beech trees from.
EE All off the property.
AW Off the property.
EE That’s how I came to get the Heritage Listing. Because it all started from the property. That’s what they said. That was one of the big …
AW They sawed the beech trees off the property and they cut it up …
EE It was all tongue and groove.
AW I was reading that … it was six inch tongue and groove. I was reading about it … it was six inch tongue and groove so that would have had to be specially hand planed.
EE Well the grooves and the little tongue thing that comes out they had to do that by hand.
AW Yes, they did all that by hand.
EE Yes.
AW And was the house double skinned inside or you know a lot of Queensland houses are single skin. Do you know?
EE The inside I would say it was all just beech.
AW No, but was it two walls, like double skinned, or single skinned?
EE No, I think it was single. You can see that today.
AW They had the best side on the inside … like the main rooms inside.
EE Yes, but it was beautiful timber both sides.
AW And was it painted?
EE I don’t think so. I don’t think so.
AW Because beech when it’s really old … I live in a house that’s old, really old beech from around here VJ … they call VJ … which is vertical joint … tongue and groove vertical
joints with a little bevel on the side … and when it’s old it goes a beautiful honey colour. Do you remember the walls being that colour?
EE Yes.
AW So it was never painted?
EE No, I would say it was never painted.
AW And the floors were also beech, do you know?
EE Oh yes. All beech and everything under it. The whole thing was beech.
AW And they did that because it was impervious to white ants. Is that …
EE I think it was just the timber that was available.
AW The easy timber there. So they would have had to … it would have been very hard … did they have a big shed, do you know?
EE Yes there were big sheds, and one of them is still there. I have got photos of it.
AW Maleny weather is renowned for a lot of rain and drizzle so it would have taken quite a long time to dress all that timber.
EE Yes.
AW So they would have pulled the logs out with the bullock teams, do you know? Have you ever heard any stories about that?
EE No I do not know how they got it across really.
AW When you say across …
EE Oh well I think there were about 100 acres or something … it was a big paddock and they cut the trees in the paddock and they had to get them across … so they did all this close beside the house. And there has been …I don’t know whether it is still there or not, a huge pile with grass all over it and that was sawdust from the pitsaw.
AW From 1907-08.
EE Yes, but it would be dirt now of course.
AW And do you remember stories, like did your uncles tell stories of what it was like?
EE My father did.
AW Your father did. Have you got any stories that you want to share with me? Of when they were building it, course it would have been terrible for the person in the bottom in the pit. They would have been covered …
EE I never heard any complaints or anything about it. I think it was such a feat …
that they thought it was just so marvelous …
AW So your father was a carpenter.
EE Yes and so was Stan.
AW So they knew what they were doing with timber.
EE Oh yes yes yes. They were both carpenters. The old people had a butcher shop in Tilba Tilba.
AW This is your Grandfather?
EE Yes. And the house that my father was born in is still in Tilba Tilba.
AW And it was built by whom?
EE I don’t know …no, and there were people living in it and we were down there one time and I got talking to them … I talk to everybody (laughs) … I got talking to him and I said about there being a butcher shop there too. Oh yes he said the butcher’s hook is still in the ceiling and he took me in and showed me and I have got photos of that too.
AW OK. Are any members of your family carrying on the butchering trade up here in Maleny?
EE Yes, one of the younger sons did, Albert. There are still Pattemore Butchers in Brisbane … and they are descendants.
AW In my job recording the history of the area the name Pattemore comes up quite often.
EE Yes, a lot of them lived in Maleny for many years and there was one only that I know of that is anywhere close and that would be a great granddaughter I think of Stan Pattemore.
AW So when they mention Pattemores. Like it is usually people when I am talking to them about the dairying industry. How many of those five properties were run as dairies?
EE I think the whole lot was.
AW They all were. So there was actually a dairy on each of the properties?
EE No there wasn’t … Two of the boys never went into it … it was my father stayed with the old people until I was born, which was six years after and he sort of worked them, worked part of it and then they had the share farmers on and I think they worked … well, Stan Pattemore had one big area of it and I think that the rest was sort of worked by the family and they might have sold some of it. I am not so sure about that.
AW So which property was the dairy actually on. Do you know?
EE Yes I think the one that the … yes, Stan Pattemore’s was dairy … there was one on his and I think the other one was over where the share farmer is.
AW So which dairy … who was the share farmer?
EE Dixon.
AW Ok … related to the original Dixon who came from Maleny?
EE Yes I would say so.
AW Was there ever a dairy or milking bails at Fairview?
EE No, I don’t think so. I can’t ever remember them.
AW They didn’t have a house cow there?
EE No.
AW They just got it from Stan …
EE Or the sharefarmers. There could have been a house cow but I am not sure about that.
AW What I am trying to find out is if the property had a set of bails on it.
EE Well, if there was I never ever saw it.
AW You don’t remember.
EE I never ever saw it … and I spent a fair bit of time there off and on. They were a very close family.
AW When you said there was a big machine there, a big shed, was that a machinery shed?
EE One part of it, there was a big block beside the house where it was always corn and one of it held up the corn and another part of it …
AW So one of the sheds was just a barn to store the corn in. And was that for sharing consumption or for the cattle?
EE I think it was for the cattle … and the other side they had a beautiful buggy.
AW Right … that is a horse and buggy?
EE Yes.
AW How many people would it sit, in the buggy?
EE Oh, about 5 or 6.
AW Why do you say it was beautiful?
EE Because it was just beautiful. It was shiny and black and it had a beautiful hood on it and the seats were all padded with leather, black leather.
AW And did you ever go in that beautiful buggy?
EE Once (laughs).
AW What was the occasion?
EE We just went into town with some of them to do some shopping.
AW Did Pattemore’s have a car or they use the buggy?
EE No … well, back then there wasn’t hardly ever a car.
AW It wasn’t until early [19]20’s …
EE Yes that is right.
AW It would have been hard going for cars up here in the mud.
EE Yes.
AW How would you get from Nambour … from Highworth you said … how would you get from Highworth?
EE No Nambour.
AW From Nambour to Maleny then?
EE With difficulty, especially for the rain.
AW So how would you get here?
EE Oh we got a car in … let me think … 1926 and we used to go up by that but there was also a cousin who lived in Nambour and he had a sort of a bus run and in those times if they carted passengers it was like a truck and they just had wooden seats on the back of it and he used to take us for birthdays or Christmas. He used to take as many of the relatives as he could find around Nambour. But see we had to go up through Mapleton in those times.
AW And how would you get across from Mapleton, then you would go down Mill Hill Road into Baroon Pocket … because I don’t think that road …?
EE No it wasn’t.
AW Balmoral Road was there then.
EE No I don’t think it was.
AW So you must have gone down Mill Hill … did you go through Baroon Pocket?
EE I don’t remember … We didn’t go many times that way.
AW Do you remember going down a big hill?
EE Oh, there were so many hills (laugh).
AW Because I am quite, I’m pretty sure that Balmoral Road … you couldn’t get from Mapleton to Maleny directly … you had to go …
EE Carter Brothers built that road, through there.
AW Who did?
EE Carter Brothers … and one of them ended up shooting the other brother.
AW Oh, that’s an interesting … another story! This is the Balmoral Road?
EE Yes.
AW OK.
EE Two brothers.
AW Do you know that story do you?
EE Yes, I think they got into difficulties financially over the road. Yes I went to school with one of them … and I am not sure whether he was the one that did the shooting or he was the one …
AW And when did they build that road? If you went to school with them …
EE It was well after we left school. I left school in 1936. I say probably in the 40’s, late 40’s.
AW Because I always understood that that road was originally put through during the war in [19]39. Around then … I have never been able to find a real date. So you said it was the Carter Brothers of Nambour built that road.
EE Yes, most of it anyway through the Balmoral part of it.
AW Yes, that is the new section because the road … it never connected … to get from … for Maleny people to get to Nambour they would either go down the hill through Landsborough and catch the train to Nambour or they would ride their horses down Bridge Creek Road and then through Baroon Pocket and then up Mill Hill Road … that is a long way.
EE See those times when we used to go through the Range to get to Maleny we had to keep stopping and opening people’s gates. It was all private road … I can remember that having to open these gates all the time.
AW OK … so when you were saying that you got the house heritage listed I am interested to know why did you … why did you believe that the house was worth putting on the heritage listing?
EE Because I knew it was beech and my brother and another cousin they’ve told me that the big house will last for eternity … if it was left where it is … but don’t try to shift it. And there was talk of it being shifted over towards the main road for a golf house and also talk of it being shifted to Toowoomba. So I thought well this is no good, that house is not getting shifted. I applied for the heritage. It took me 5 years to get it.
AW And what did you have to … what information did you have to provide to have it listed when you say it took you 5 years. It took you 5 years of getting documents together?
EE No I wasn’t involved in it all that time but I sort of got all my statements and everything to them. But it took them 5 years to let me know that it had been heritage listed.
AW So, the main thing you were saying is that it was made of beech, that it was sourced, cut and milled and dressed on the property.
EE Yes, that is why they gave it the heritage listing. Mainly …
AW All by the Pattemore family.
EE Yes. All by the Pattemore family.
AW That is a very good achievement. So are you happy that it has been listed?
EE Oh yes. I couldn’t stand to think that it went.
AW It is a very valuable history … part of our history.
EE Umm.
AW So, I want to talk to you a little bit more about the house. I believe it may have 4 bedrooms … is that ?
EE No. Oh well yes you could probably say that … no I would say 3 …there was 2 rooms in front … little square rooms … one was a bedroom and one was what they call a sitting room … and at times I don’t know for what reason … the old people slept in one of them and at times they would shift them across … they would sleep in that side and at other times they would be sleeping in the other side. They would shift the two rooms across.
AW So your Grandma was still alive when you were a child?
EE Yes … then behind them there was another bedroom which was more or less a guest bedroom and there was a big dining room … and there are a lot of stories attached to that to.
AW What sort of stories?
EE Well, see Grandma was a cripple and she used to … there was a very big dining room table and meals were always set up absolutely spotless and perfect … they set tables and meals and everything were beautifully done and they used to have to half drag her, half walk her to the table. Anyway Grandfather always sat at the end of the table and they had a dog called “Bulla” a big fox terrier dog and he always sat beside Grandfather. Every now and again Grandfather would drop something on the floor and he would say “Not paid for Bulla. Cost??? [not certain what the word is].” And that dog would sit there with the saliva dropping onto the food and yet he wouldn’t touch it. And then in mid conversation Grandfather would say “Paid for now Bulla.” Gomph Gomph Gomph Gomph it’s all gone! (laughs)
AW A well trained dog!
EE Yes … well Grandfather always said grace he was at the head of the table, he always said the grace. Grandma sat beside him of course. It was a very big table.
AW That would have been a fond memory for you having been with your grandparents because it was a very grand dining room.
EE Oh, it was nothing grand about the room but it was just the way they always set tables up.
AW Very well presented.
EE See Grandma couldn’t get off her chair. She just sat always and they’d bring morning tea on the verandah … they’d bring morning and afternoon teas out to her and they were always set up absolutely beautifully … with beautifully baked stuff … you know, they sort of really did things …
AW So they had hired help …?
EE No no.
AW This was all the sisters in law.
EE The sisters, by the time … Oh for a start yes, there was Alma. She married George Guille. Alma Guille looked after her before she was married. She looked after her and I think there may have been one or two of the grandchildren that looked after her and then by that time the two or three daughters all had lost their husbands, so they looked after her until the day she died … and, she was buried from the house.
AW She was buried at the house?
EE No, she was buried from the house.
AW So the funeral was held there.
EE Yes.
AW Right, so where was she buried? Out at Witta?
EE Yes.
AW So it was a very big family home then because so many brothers and sisters and then children.
EE There was 41 grandchildren.
AW And did you all get together there for Christmas and celebrations?
EE There was always a lot but not everybody of course. No, with 41 grandchildren, I was the second youngest, so me and one down at Redcliffe were the only two alive. She knows nothing about it because …
AW She was too young?
EE No, her father shot himself in a shooting accident and when he was quite young and I assume that because, like the Pattemore part was gone, they spent more time with the mother’s parents … but apparently she knows absolutely nothing.
AW Oh that’s a pity … well she will after we do our interview! Back to the house. So I am seeing this picture of a beautifully presented table … was it dark in the dining room?
EE It was reasonably, yes.
AW What sort of lighting did they have… did they use Alladin lamps or Tilly lamps, do you know? Or did they have …
EE Just the ordinary old kerosene lights.
AW Kerosene lamps.
EE Yes.
AW Right. I was just wondering if they had gas, like some of the places in Maleny had gas lights.
EE No I don’t think so. Not that I remember anyway … Well that’s two bedrooms, well there was two on the front, one was a bedroom and one wasn’t. Behind one of them was a spare bedroom and then there was the dining room and then you go back through there, this back part is altered now and there was a kitchen on one end and it was sort of petitioned off and there was a breakfast room then and on the end of the breakfast room was a big pantry which was always filled with jams and everything you would like to ….
AW That would be made from fruit on the property?
EE Not really, it’s just that the daughters were sort of … made all of that. No they didn’t really … I don’t think they had any fruit on the property … oh there might have been mangoes and that sort of thing.
AW It was a big walk in pantry?
EE Yes. So then off the end of that though … Just before you go any further … just across … it’s only a narrow verandah on that side there was a partition across and there was a little bedroom in there where Jimmy Mercer, one of the grandsons spent a lot of time there and that was always Jimmy Mercer’s room.
AW It’s quite a Queensland tradition to have beds on verandahs … so when your memories as a child … were the verandahs built in or were they open?
EE Open. Oh yes.
AW So they had the balustrades and they had all the fancy, the curly bits at the top … I can’t remember what they are called.
EE I don’t know what they are called either.
AW At the top of the posts. Were there 4x4 or 6x6 posts? They look to me like they might have been 4x4.
EE I think they might have been.
AW And I was reading somewhere that the VJ’s … the internal lining was … had a little bead on it as well. I think they call them Empress VJ’s.
EE They could have done too … I mean as a child you sort of don’t notice all these things do you.
AW So when was the last time that you visited Fairview?
EE When was it Barbara? I took Barbara …
[Barbara : About 8-10 years ago I suppose.]
AW And was it fairly same as what you’d remembered it as a child?
EE Oh fairly much. As I say the back kitchen part … of course there was a wood stove … what do they call them … a stove recess on the back now so …
AW An alcove. In the kitchen, that was all wood floor?
EE Yes.
AW And the stove, the wood stove was it a slow combustion stove or was it …
EE No.
AW No No it was a wood stove with a water jacket on the side.
EE I think it would have had that on the side.
AW So they didn’t have a big hot water system?
EE No No.
AW And did it have an internal or an external bathroom?
EE Yes, that is just what I was going to say … the verandah of each side, one I said had the room they called Jimmy Mercer’s room and the other side which is all sort of glassed in now that was the bathroom … it was an old tin bath.
AW And you carried the water in buckets from the wood stove into the tin bath?
EE Right.
AW And then how would they, where would they empty the water? With their plumbing … for it to …
EE Probably just went on the ground and went …
AW You don’t remember?
EE No. I would say there wouldn’t be any plumbing for it I don’t think.
AW Right. So probably it just ran outside.
EE It would run outside.
AW So, the house … it was dark in the middle core … were there any skylights or you know the fan lights above the French doors.
EE No. Some of them I think might have had a little glass panel above the French doors. No real openings to let any light in.
AW I also understand there was a couple of cobblestone pathways. Do you know who built those?
EE I don’t know who built them but I have got a photo of them.
AW And they were always there when you were a child?
EE Oh yes.
AW So they were probably from the original, when they first built the house.
EE Oh yes it must have been, I can remember 80 years back anyway … and I would say that they were there then. The laundry was outside.
AW Ok so that is what I wanted to know. The laundry was always outside?
EE Yes, I think it had a little roof over it … but it was at the back near the cobblestones.
AW And it had a copper in it?
EE It would have done, yes.
AW And it would have been a wood fired copper?
EE Yes. Oh yes.
AW I can assume.
EE Yes. I will tell you something else that is a story. Grandma, as I say she didn’t walk for 40 years and she was a beautiful crotcheter and tatter and all this sort of thing but also she always had to make sure that all the clothes were patched. And I can remember going with the kids, with the aunties when they were pegging out the clothes, the big patches and some of the patches were patched. (Laughs) It really intruiged me as a kid it was so beautifully done. You know she stitched so beautifully. And anyway some of these patches had patches on them. Even handkerchiefs and yet when she died there was a huge chest full of all brand new stuff but that was too good to use. They had to patch all this … still couldn’t do anything with them.??
AW Waste not, want not.
EE That’s right.
AW They were brought up in the days when you didn’t waste anything. Did they have a big vegetable garden? With that many people living there they must have?
EE No, not a lot. I think they might have had a bit of a vegetable patch but the whole front part was all garden … like an old English garden. Things such as zinnias and cosmos and all those things that are hard to grow and yet they are easy to grow and yet they make a lovely show.
AW So I understand there was a pair of big bunyas near the front gate. Do you have any idea who might have planted those?
EE No.
AW Would it have been members of the family do you think?
EE I wouldn’t have a clue to be quite honest.
AW So you don’t remember any stories.
EE Oh well you see I wasn’t even born then.
AW No no but stories later on.
EE Never heard anything.
AW What about the big frangipani tree.
EE I think that is still there is it?
AW I don’t know.
EE It was a beautiful big frangipani.
AW Do you know who planted it?
EE No.
AW It used to be the tradition in the old days.
EE Quite likely could have been my father. Because he was the one that stayed there.
AW OK. Was your father a gardener?
EE Yes.
AW So he could have.
EE Yes. Another thing that I have heard and I don’t believe … you know the big forest across the road from it … I have heard it said that that’s not part of the real Maleny scrub … that it had been planted. But I don’t believe that because I can remember back 80 years and …
AW Was that how big it was when you were a child?
EE As big as it is now. Very close to it anyway.
AW Well it couldn’t have got that big …
EE Well that’s what I would say. But somebody has said that that is not the proper scrub because it was just replanted.
AW It could have just been regrowth. You know it would have been logged for sure.
EE No.
AW The whole area here … timber getters got in … they got them …
EE One little patch in its own.
AW Right.
EE No. As far back as I can remember that was, perhaps not quite as big, but it was a big ……..? I loved it. I thought it was lovely to get up there.
AW So did they have chooks? Most families …
EE Yes, I think they did.
AW Was there a substantial chook house? I am assuming that anything that was the Pattemores was pretty substantial because you have got two builders in the family.
EE Yes. I will tell you another thing while we are sort of talking about that. When Grandfather got older, in his 90’s, he used to wet the bed and he used to go crook and say “I reared four sons and now that the roof is leaking I can’t get any of them to do anything about it.” (Laughs) And Stan, just up on the hill above them, he used to go and visit him every day and he would let none of them come near him now. But the roof was leaking and no one was there to repair it. But he was over 90.
AW He sounded like a real character, your grandfather.
EE He was.
AW So he was a butcher?
EE Yes. He worked for Ewing Brothers in Tilba.
AW Butchers always seem to have a certain humour.
EE And then he had his own butcher shop.
AW So Pattemores … their contribution to the area … like as I said Pattemores are always mentioned … so, up near Pattemores. An old lady I interviewed, Minnie Lawley, said that her brother …
EE Lawley Hill, that’s what it used to be called.
AW Well she married Ted Lawley she was actually a clerk from out at Rockview near, out at Reesville and she told me that her brother went to a school, to the North Maleny School and he would go past Pattemores. So is that Pattemores, Stan’s house, up the top.
EE Well North Maleny would not be far away.
AW I think Pattemores is regarded as North Maleny now.
EE When you go up what we used to go up what we used to call Lawley’s Hill and it was a cross road and you turn to your right until you would come to another cross road and one road leads to North Maleny and the other one leads down the hill to Pattemore’s place.
AW So now, when you come to that T-intersection, that big house at the T-intersection that is Uncle Stan’s house?
EE Yes. Stan Pattemore.
AW Right.
EE Umm.
AW Right. Beautiful home.
EE Yes and when we were up there last they …
AW Bishop’s used to own it.
EE I don’t know who owned it but they asked us to come and have a look through it and it was beautiful.
AW It was Graham Bishop.
EE It was beautifully set up and inside was absolutely perfect and all the furniture was sort of the same date.
AW I knew that house and I always knew whoever built it was a good craftsman.
EE I think Stan would have built it himself. I have a photo of it before it was sort of built into a big place, it was only a little place.
AW Right. So Stan was only … he would only have been 10 mins, 15 mins walk away from your …
EE 10 minutes probably.
AW Across the paddock.
EE Yes. You more or less went down … there was a bit of a track down there. They used to go down there.
AW How do you feel these days with all the houses everywhere, all over that what used to be the family land?
EE Well I haven’t been there … probably a lot has gone up since I was there.
AW You don’t remember many stories of your father and his brothers talking about when they were building the house?
EE No I don’t.
AW They didn’t talk about it? Because it would have been a massive job.
EE They never talked about it … because from the time he built that house till I was born was nearly 20 years.
AW So it was a long time in his past so he didn’t talk about it that much.
EE It was built in 1907.
AW What sort of things did they talk about? Share farmers or?
EE Yes farming stuff. I suppose they talked about building but see I was born in 1923 and that house was built in 1907 ….
AW So your father continued to be a builder when he was in Nambour?
EE Oh yes.
AW So he’s built a lot of houses in the Sunshine Coast area?
EE Yes.
AW Particularly in Nambour?
EE Yes, quite a few in Maroochydore.
AW OK.
EE They ended up for the last few years of their life in Maroochydore.
[Barbara : Wasn’t there a hall somewhere that he put the floor …]
EE That was Kurilpa.
AW Kurilpa Hall.
EE Kurilpa Hall had the most beautiful dance floor.
AW Ah Crows Ash was it?
EE Yes, Crows Ash and my father put that floor down.
AW Right. So I read somewhere that there was a mill at some stage at Fairview as well. Do you remember anything … that they were milling … some of the information I read said that Stan, was it Stan and Thynne, that had the sawmill?
EE No Bill.
AW So Bill and Ted Thynne were sawmilling and they were somewhere near Fryers Creek so I assume that was on Thynne’s land and it also said that there was a mill for some time at Fairview. You don’t remember it?
EE I never saw it and I never heard about it.
AW So did you ever see, like you know the big sheds that were around Fairview … any of the old farming equipment like corn threshers.
EE Well there was a big old funny looking … well last time I was there it was … a big old funny looking machine there but I don’t know … some said they didn’t think that it was the original one. It might be still there it might not.
AW ………….were there any evidences of stores or, you know, the big stores. Nothing around? So they must have just. It was such a long time between when the house was built and when you, your memory time. Also I read somewhere that the Maleny Union Church was built with timber provided by Bill and Ted Thynne. Your Uncle Bill.
EE It could have been.
AW And it was the first church in Maleny. Now that was built in 1907. So that’s another reason probably why Fairview took a fair while to build because they were busy doing the timber for the church as well. So the family went to that church a lot?
EE No we are all Anglican. Grandfather was church warden for a number of years.
AW Here in Maleny?
EE Yes.
AW Of the Union Church?
EE No. Anglican.
AW Anglican Church.
[Barbara ……….. ???]
AW What else are we going to talk about? You were telling me that Gardeners were share farmers. Which property were they share farmers on?
EE One of the farms. Actually I think they were on the ones that the sons didn’t go into. And that was all brought into one and I think they were in charge of that.
AW That would have been Alberts, was it?
EE Yes and Bill’s.
AW OK. So what did Bill do if he didn’t dairy?
EE He spent many years, many years at Cooroy and he had a bus run from Cooroy to Tewantin.
AW So he moved away from the area, not long after he built the house.
EE I would say it would not have been that long after. He may have gone down to the northern rivers for a while because he married a woman from down there. But I am not sure of that story. I just presume that he spent many years in Cooroy with the bus run.
AW I was reading also that your memories of the front yard was big enough to play tennis, not tennis, cricket in.
EE It was a big yard.
AW A big yard. And it had what sort of fence. Was it a barbed wire fence or was it a picket fence, that you can remember.
EE No, it wasn’t a picket fence. I don’t think it was barbed wire either. I think it was just wire.
AW OK. And that was to keep the cattle out.
EE I suppose so. Yes. To keep the area around the house particularly for themselves too I suppose.
AW It says here that the house block was fenced and it’s talking about the big shed with the beautiful buggy and there was also a cow bails and a dairy. So there must have been …?
EE Well there could have been, but I don’t remember.
AW You don’t remember them milking?
EE No
AW So, how often would you come up to Maleny from Nambour?
EE Well, it was for Christmas and their birthdays and perhaps one time in between.
AW What time of the year … do you remember … would you be coming up here. Was it cold or hot?
EE When were their birthdays? I don’t remember it being deadly cold like it could be. I just can’t remember just when their birthdays … but I have got it all here.
AW So when you were saying deadly cold was there a fire place at all inside the house?
EE No.
AW No fireplace.
EE Only the kitchen fire.
AW So a little kitchen wood stove was all that kept that house warm?
EE Yes.
AW Very cold.
EE Of course they came from a cold spot down there. What was I going to look for.
AW You were going to try to find their birthdays but you don’t have to. It’s all right.
EE I will. Here we are.
AW So your grandma died in [19]37.
EE Yes and the old fella died 10 years later.
AW So he was in his nineties then.
EE Yep. He was 97 I think and she was 87.
AW So then later on when Edward sold, how long after that he’d died.
EE How long after he died was it sold? Pretty soon. I have got copies of the will here too.
AW So who lived at the house then?
EE There was … what was …
AW So you still had your aunties living with your grandparents?
EE Yes, they all shifted away. I think the Armstrongs might have gone straight into it then. That is another thing I wanted to say to you. That house was called Fairview. Now I know it is to be called Pattemore House which I think is great. But I would like to see the Fairview kept too.
AW Was there ever, you know, the old Queensland tradition, of the little mirror with the name of the house. Was there ever a name plate, do you remember?
EE There was a name plate on the front.
AW Do you remember at the front verandah on one of the sides as you went through the door.
EE Yes as you walked ….
AW Was there any leadlight or coloured glass in the house that you remember? You don’t remember any.
EE No but I don’t, but I don’t think so.
AW The name plaque … was it carved or was it just written?
EE Well I don’t know whether it was carved or if it was painted on. But I would like if you could …
AW I have no sway but if it was called Fairview and there was a name plaque …
EE It was there the last time we were there. It might still be there.
AW That would be interesting to have a look. The other thing I was thinking about is with regards to because it is a big dairy industry did you ever come up to the Maleny Shows.
EE Yes.
AW And did Pattemores ever have cattle in … did they ever exhibit do you know?
EE Not to my knowledge.
AW No.
EE Yes we used to come to Maleny sometimes. You know we did at odd times.
AW What about all these aunties? Did they have jams or cakes in the Show.
EE I doubt it.
AW No. They weren’t like that?
EE I doubt it.
AW What other interests in the community? You said that your Grandfather was a warden of the church for many years.
EE Well, not much because see Grandma was just sitting in a chair for 40 years.
AW So she was housebound so there was always somebody at home.
EE Yes.
AW Was he a Mason at all, your Grandfather?
EE I don’t think he was. My husband was. But I don’t think he was. I never heard of it. It would have had to have been before they came up because he never sort of left the house very much either because ….
AW his wife was …
EE she was …
AW fairly housebound. So what about tennis or cricket? Did any of your uncles play sports.
EE Heavens above.
AW You don’t remember.
EE No. I don’t remember. The feller that was the butcher he got away to Inglewood and then Bill Pattemore was away in …..
AW So which one was the butcher?
EE Albert.
AW Albert. So he left fairly early.
EE Yes, well his descendents have got butcher shops in Brisbane. Bill, Bill Pattemore butcher shops.
AW So who was the youngest of the boys?
EE Stan.
AW And who was the oldest?
EE Bill I think. I have got it here somewhere anyway.
AW No that’s OK. What else?
EE Grandma used to often say … she would call herself a “crippler” … and she used to often say “When I die and I’m with God I won’t be a crippler anymore.”
AW That’s lovely. She must have been an amazing woman to be able to live with that disability for so long.
EE Never complained. I think my mother loved her more than she loved her own mother.
AW She must have had a good heart. You said your Grandma was really good at tatting and stuff so I assume that the dining table always had beautiful linen.
EE Yes, they always had beautiful cloths. Yes, crochet mainly.
AW And serviettes and …
EE Yes, when I was little she tatted the lace around the neck and the sleeves and the bottom of a petticoat of mine. I have got a photo of that here somewhere too. [Looking at a photo] That was Harriet with the old …. And then there was Emily and William and Albert and that was all and then that was Stan.
AW Just looking, just reading a little before about some of the trees … there were some Moreton Bay Figs too. Do you know any of the stories about who planted trees in the yard?
EE No. It was long before my time and I would say it was rather unimportant as far as …
AW They would have probably … if you think of family ceremonies, you know, somebody’s birthday or when somebody was born or somebody died and they planted a tree.
EE I think perhaps … I always just sort of thought they were all just grew there. You know they were natural. Which they could have been.
AW But were they symmetrical in the way the house is?
EE No.
AW So they just could have been there.
EE Yes.
AW OK. So a little bit more about the house. You said to me before that the breakfast room. Is that what you called it?
EE Yes.
AW It was all glass.
EE The back wall of it was sliding glass.
AW Sliding glass. So that was facing east was it?
EE Yes, pretty much.
AW That room to get the morning sun.
EE East, south east. Something like that.
AW And did they have water tanks?
EE Yes.
AW Did they have much water supply?
EE Oh well … you know what Maleny was like for rain.
AW Pretty good! So did they have running water in the kitchen?
EE I think they might have had a tap in the kitchen over … I think they had sort of a old wooden sink type thing and I think they did have a little tap over that.
AW And when you were a child was the laundry always in a separate building?
EE Oh it was sort of attached to the house. But it was outside. If you know what I mean.
AW But, from your memories … I know I have memories of my grandfather’s place in Brisbane and things that really stand out for me was the garden and the dining room because it was Christmas. So what things stand out for you about your Grandfather’s house at Fairview? What are the things that are fondest in your memory?
EE One thing I would talk about was those two front rooms, one was the bedroom and one was the sitting room and in that, when I was a little girl, I used to sit there by the hour. They had the most beautiful albums full of greeting cards and those times, the front of them were done with silk and all flowers and they were absolutely beautiful. I spent hours sitting there just looking at all those.
AW So it was a very traditional sitting room.
EE Oh yes, it was only a little room.
AW And it had, what, wicker furniture?
EE Yes I would say so. I think there was a couple of chairs and a sort of a divan type seat. But I often think of these beautiful albums. I wished I had some of them. Most beautiful. You wouldn’t get cards like it today. They were absolutely beautiful.
AW Well I think what we might do is we will end here now. Thank you very much for talking to me today Emily and hopefully when we go to the house I might record some more if that’s OK because I am sure seeing the house you will get memories.
EE Yes, see this is the last time we were there. That was the fellow that was living in it then.
AW So in that photo there is no … verandah balustrading …
EE No they took away the …
AW And it does look like it is single skin so there’s two red doors. So now with the front door was it an ornate door at all … was it solid or did it have glass in it?
EE No I don’t think it did. I think it was just a solid wooden door.
AW Has there always been a flyscreen door on there? Do you remember?
EE Oh there wouldn’t have been in those times.
AW No.
EE Probably is now.
AW Yes it looks like it has there.
EE See that is only taken about 10 years ago.
AW Right.
EE You might like to take that home tonight too.
AW I would love to.
EE Seven generations of my mother’s family, my father’s family, my husband’s mother’s family and her father’s family. There are seven generations of all of them.
AW And you married an English?
EE Yes.
AW Now is that the English’s from down Obi Obi.
EE Neil English …
AW Where was he from?
EE He was … what is between Maleny and Obi … not Conondale, yes. Conondale.
AW Ah Conondale. Conondale English’s. Cause English is another old …
EE There was a lot of others. There was a family of English’s and they had 17 children. So my husband’s family were only a small family. They both lived around Mapleton at that time. My mother’s 90th birthday.
AW So your mother was a Cork?
EE Yes. See, that is my brother and I when we were 4.
AW They are great photos … tall and thin as the Cork family were.
EE Well, Grandfather Cork, Arthur Cork was a very tall thin man.
AW I wonder if, because one of the early Cork’s that came to Maleny was a pitsawer. And I am pretty sure that was Robert Cork.
EE I would say probably it was.
AW Umm.
EE But you see we are descended from James. That’s all my family. My children, my grandchildren, my greatchildren.
AW A great photo. So you are into doing your family research.
EE Oh I haven’t done much just recently. I have got a granddaughter in Bundaberg who has done a lot too. She spent a lot of time at the Lutheran place … what was it … not Seventh Day Adventist … what was it called then. I can’t think now. I can’t think what they call it. But they do a terrific amount of research.
[Barbara: She was going through the microfiche.]
AW In this photo here, is that Pattemores?
EE Yes.
AW So that is in front in one of the fig trees?
EE Probably. That is my father I think there.
AW That one.
EE Yes. I have got tons of …. Look I have a whole book full of photos there that I have got two of that you are welcome to if you would like them.
AW So did Pattemores breed dairy cattle? Were they into the breeding stock?
EE Not to my knowledge.
AW Purely into it for the dairy point of view?
EE Yes, I would say so.
AW That is great.
EE My husband was a tram driver between Nambour and Mapleton years ago.
AW The Mapleton tram.
EE He drove that for 9 years. ………….?
AW Lovely album.
Track 2:
EE At that time a cousin Alma, she was Alma Pattemore … Guille, was looking after the Grandma and she had that room … not the front two rooms across, the one behind it … yes, and when my father got married she had to shift out into that room and when she went Jimmy Mercer took it. I couldn’t give you the exact dates for that.
AW That’s OK … so Jimmy Mercer was using that side verandah room in the [19]30’s and before that … what was her name … Alma Guille.
EE Yes. Alma Pattemore, she was.
AW It was good that they had their daughters …
EE No, she wasn’t using that room, she was using the main room. See when my mother and father got married she had to get out of that main room and get over into …. and she reckoned she wasn’t too happy about that.
AW You were telling me yesterday that your father didn’t want a dairy and that he’d wanted to get out … he’d had a hard time in Maleny and so when they first went up there it was I think it was either you or Barbara mentioned that he had been living on bully beef and was living in a humpy. So …
EE Oh no.
AW So while they were building.
EE I don’t know where they lived.
AW They must have lived in a tent or something.
EE I haven’t got any idea.
AW He never told you stories about that.
EE No.
AW Somebody said that he was …
EE Well they wouldn’t know either would they.
[Barbara: I think it was Uncle Arthur who might have told them.]
AW He didn’t want a dairy and he was …
EE He was never a farmer. He was a carpenter through and through. But he did look after the farm from the time that it was built until I was born.
AW Right.
EE And that would be about 20, oh 7 from 20/30 ... 16 years. And then of course when they …
AW And when you say look after the farm that means your father was milking?
EE Well I don’t know whether he was milking or not but he was sort of …
AW He would have been chipping the weeds?
EE Yes I am not sure but I know that he was sort of the main worker there.
AW Whereabouts was the cream box. Can you remember?
EE No.
AW They would have had to have a cream box somewhere.
EE Yes they would have. No I wouldn’t have a clue … unless the cream I would say would have gone from Gardener’s place and it might have come out, sort of back in before it got out on the corner turning into Porter’s Lane.
AW Yes they might have … well I was wondering the other day whether they actually took it across the Obi and went that way which would probably be faster into town,
EE They could have been …
AW … because that was the main road, instead of going all the way around up through that red soil. All around Gardeners there on Porter’s Lane side that would have been terrible red mud in those days before there was any bitumen or gravel roads. So I was wondering whether the cream went from Gardeners across the Obi there somewhere because there are some good flat bits across the Obi there and up on to the main road which is a much faster route. You don’t know, you don’t remember?
EE No, I wouldn’t have a clue.
AW Yes, too far away.