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.
D7 Dozer
In 1961 the mass land development ceased & the Lands Department held a huge auction in the Rec. Hut, at the Parndana camp, all of their goods, machinery & buildings. We were fortunate in buying one of the D7s. It has been a boon on this farm & is still in working condition.
With the purchase of the D7, we have cleared a further six hundred acres and have twelve dams, besides the river, which runs diagonally through the farm.
Our children sometimes helped with stump picking, after the paddocks were ploughed and chained. Wendy would carefully clear every single little thing, Trina would zip along a row at full pace and Bill’s objective was always to have the biggest bonfire in the paddock, and he would haul huge logs long distances to achieve his goal. At lunchtime we’d grill chops & cook potatoes in the ashes.
Their story published in The Advertiser 2012
