VIN & EDNA BALDOCK
Written by Edna Baldock
The most important man in the camp was the night man. He was the only one we missed when he went on holidays. His name was Yacca Jack, and for most of the time, he wore one sandshoe and one rubber boot. He carried his goods on an old army blitz truck. Unfortunately, if he happened to open the back flap of the loo and discover that someone was in residence, instead of going on his way, he would stand outside with his hat on his chest and apologise as that person emerged. Visitors from the big smoke found this most embarrassing.
TED & PEG AHWAN
Written by Peg Ahwan.
In November 1954 we were given a chance of a lifetime by being chosen to work our way to become farmers. The Lands Department of the South Australian Government gave us a low interest loan to make a new life.
We arrived on Kangaroo Island by plane, as there was a strike at Port Adelaide so all our possessions were held up at the wharf. Geoff and Francis Low met us and took us to the camp at Parndana. Ted was moved into the single men’s quarters to start working for the Lands Department. I went to the hospital and enrolled as a night nurse to have somewhere to live and work.
VIN & MOLLY McARDLE
By David McArdle
In 1956 Mum and Dad bought two house cows and separator for the family to make butter, cream and milk to help the family budget. Mum milked these before we went to the farm where this operation became an important income for the family living and clothing. At its peak we milked about twenty cows, night and morning and separated the cream to be sold to the cream factory in Kingscote. Mum was definitely head of this operation. It was not fun on a cold, wet night to get home late and face up to milking because if you left them the cows would eventually dry up. We were even known to arrive home at nearly midnight and line up and do them.
KEN & DIANNA McWHINNIE
Written by Dianna McWhinnie
Lost child
In the early years we had problems with the regrowth of scrub in the paddocks. Ken had applied to the Lands Department to renovate the paddock nearest the house & had been refused permission. The following year when it was dense & way over my head in height, our very alert two-year-old daughter discovered that the closed gate hadn’t latched & set off on a journey of exploration. I have never forgotten the blind panic of searching – first the dam, then the river & lastly the scrub. We couldn’t see very far because of it’s density, or know whether she was there or not, and then the overwhelming relief when a tiny spot of her red jumper showed up, through the scrub and we found her.
HARRY & ADA SMART
Written by Ada Smart
Glencorrie progresses
Life on Kangaroo Island was great for young folk rearing a family. So much outdoor activity, even when at home on the farm. Harry, later prepared and set down a tennis court at home.
I used to take the children to church at the Stokes Bay Hall. As the sheep and cattle numbers grew, so did the labour needed; and we found we had to miss some of the church sessions to help with the jobs necessary; sheep feeding, culling, drafting, tailing or marking lambs; whilst there were extra hands, not available on school days.
JOHN & MELVA COOMBS
We loaded up our worldly belongings, covered them with tarpaulins we had and set off for Parndana. The water along the road from Murray’s corner to Augie Boettcher’s was six inches deep all the way. At the camp itself, the G.M. 6 wheel drive got over to Alec’s hut but my poor Chev 2 wheel drive sunk up to the axle. Still raining, mud up to the knees, and wet to the skin, we moved in. The furniture had to be dried off as best we could. We were there, just five months after we started from Karoonda.
RON & THELMA SUGARS
Written by Pat Brooksby
Ron was a city kid who left school at 14 to work in a bicycle factory but left to be a farm hand in the SA Mallee. He enlisted from Kunlara and served 100 days in the Army in Egypt, Palestine and New Guinnea. After the war he married and leased land at Kunlara until he was accepted into the WSLSS. At first he worked and lived in the South East but grew disgruntled at the allocation system there and moved to Parndana in 1949. The hours worked in the scheme counted towards allocation, no matter which particular area, and in 1951 he was assigned a block alongside what became Birchmore as the established farmers and new Soldier Settlers set up a hall built from materials from the sale of the Parndana East Camp buildings, and tennis / netball courts and an oval.
BOB & BETTY DUNSTAN
The Early Years;
Our introduction to KI in October 1948 was somewhat daunting. Myrtle Wright, John Wright (11months) , myself and Peter (10 months) travelled by “Karatta” over very rough seas – a very slow trip.
Our husbands, Campbell and Bob, were in Kingscote to meet us with an LDE truck. They had gone over a week earlier with our furniture, a dog and a car. The trip to the camp over dirt roads, and in the rain, seemed to take forever.
JACK & PEG MEAKINS
Written by Leonie Meakins
“Three years of eating dust and mud”
Jack had applied to join the Soldier Settlement Scheme in the South East, but missed out and was asked if he would consider going to Kangaroo Island. Leaving their Barossa Valley family and friends behind, Jack moved to the Parndana camp in January 1953 and Peg joined him with children Sue and John three months later, when married accommodation was available.
“If you're going, I'm going too!”
Jack Vigar was on his way to Kangaroo Island but his wife, Nell, was determined that he wasn't going without her and their five children. Jack had been accepted into the War Service Land Settlement Scheme and had received a chit to allow him to sail to KI on the MV ‘Karatta'. He was meant to live in the newly built single men’s quarters at the Parndana East Camp but Nell had other ideas. The Vigar family were the first family of the 174 families who would eventually settle on farms in the western half of KI.