Part 1 – Autobiography of Maynard O’Connor, my Dad.

In searching through my files in my computer I found my father’s diary written in the the middle 80’s. Dad typed it up on his typewriter and gave each of us kids a copy. I don’t think any of us valued it very much at the time, but now that I am some 78 years old myself, Dad’s story, and the truths it contains has become much more significant and of value to me now. In hindsight, I realise that my dad was a wonderful, brave and courageous man who lived with integrity in a way that I only now fully appreciate. I am posting it here on facebook so that all our family and extended family can read it, in fact anybody who knew my dad, will appreciate his words, I am sure. I suggest you copy and paste it into your own files and keep it for your own children to read. 2018.

Maynard OConnor’s Diary written in the 1980s some years before he died in 1995

This history was commenced on July 25 1981 and rewritten on 14.2.1982. I am Maynard O’Connor and I was born at Kadina SA on 14.2.1909. For some time I have been considering writing what may be termed an autobiography or history of my life which to this point is 73 years. I thought it may be of interest to my children and grand children. Others may be interested too.
1909 My father was born at Kadina on June 26 1873. My mother, at Wallaroo on 20.10.1876. They were married at Wallaroo on 31.3.1898. To them were born 10 children as follows: Dorothy Gertrude, Florence Louise, Constance Mary, Charles, Arthur, Maynard, Cecil Keith, John Douglas and twin girls that were still born. Only her sons survvived at this time, Maynard of West Beach (the writer), Cecil Keith of Camp Hill Brisbane and john Douglas of Gawler SA.
Dorothy became Mrs R. Hood. She is now widowed and lives at Elizabeth.
Florence was married twice. Her first husband was Henry Obst. He was a railway employee and was accidentally killed in a shunting mishap at Tailem Bend in the early 1930’s. She later married again and became Mrs J Gordon. She and her second husband are now both deceasedConstance married and became Mrs H Simons. She is also now widowed and lives at Naracoorte.
Charles and Arthur are both deceased. Charles died at the age of 33 years,

Arthur was accidentally killed at the age of 12 years in rather tragic circumstances. During the Christmas school holidays, he used to obtain work in one of the local blacksmith shops in the town of Pinnaroo where we lived at the time. That would have been about 1918. In those days petrol was available in the country only in 4 gallon tins. They were tins about 10″ square by about 14″ high. Mr Sharrad, one of the proprietors of the blacksmith shop kept the tins of petrol in a 200 gallon steel tank, which was buried in the ground with about 6″ of the tank above ground level. In those days Saturday was pay day. On one occasion Mr Sharrad said to Arthur, ‘When I come back from the bank we will clean out the petrol tank and take stock.’ Arthur, being young and keen, thought he would please his boss by starting the job straight away. The tank had a manhole in the top and he was able to get inside. Unfortunately, when he did, the tank was full of fumes from some of the tins that had leaked. Before he could get out again, he was overcome by the fumes and Mr. Sharrad found him dead from asphyxiation.

My other brothers are both still alive. Keith lives at Camp Hill in Queensland and Douglas lives at Gawler,SA

What follows from now on will not necessarily be in sequential or chronological order but I will have to note each incident as it comes to memory.
1910 I was born at Kadina as I have already said on 14.2.1909. In 1910 we left Kadina and moved to Pinnaroo in what is now known as the Murray Mallee. To this time my father was the owner of a soap factory in Kadina and besides making soap he also made candles which were used by the miners underground in the copper mines at Moonta and Wallaroo.

My mother’s father was Mr George Chatfield. He ws a butcher in Wallaroo and for a number of years was also Mayor of Wallroo. My father sold his business and moved to Pinnaroo to take up land in what was known then as the ‘Land of Promise.’ Pinnaroo country was first opened up for settlement in about 1905. Unfortunately the selection dad obtained was on the edge of what was known then as the 90 mile desert and it turned out to be anything but a profitable venture. The 90 mile desert is a stretch of country which lies between Pinnaroo and Bordertown and in those days it was indeed a desert. However, with the use of trace elements and modern farming methods, that area has been developed by the AMP Society and is now good productive farming and grazing land.
Due to the failure of Dad’s farming venture, we had to move into Pinnaroo town and those old enough to work had to find work where it was available. Fortunately, Dad was a very versatile man and could turn his hand to several trades. He could repair boots, do carpentry, even to building a house. Most houses in those days were of timber and iron. He was also an expert at repairing and making harness and in those days when there were no tractors and many horses, he was kept reasonably busy in that field of work.

At one stage he established an ice making plant for one of the hotels in the town. He could turn his hand to road making and he also knew how to handle explosives in the local quarries having had the experience of seeing explosives used in the mines before leaving the mines.

He also became an expert at repairing windmills and bores. The windmills are used for pumping water from the artesian bores. There is an abundance of good water in the area at depths ranging from 180 to 600 feet. About two years after my brother Arthur died the second great tragedy hit our family. I would have been 10 years of age at the time. Unfortunately, while working on a windmill in 1914 dad fell from the platform 30 feet from the ground. In the fall he sustained a compound fracture of his right thigh and as a result spent 11 months in the Adelaide Hospital. When it happened his leg was broken and the bone was embedded in the ground. At the time there was a man who had just returned from the war (world war I) he had some bandages he had brought home with him. With these they bandaged Dad’s leg. He was then taken into Pinnaroo and put on the train next morning to be taken to the Adelaide Hospital. It was a mixed train, that is, a train that carried freight as well as passengers. This meant that the train stopped at every siding on the way to pick up freight. The journey started at 8 am and sometimes the train arrived in Adelaide at 8 pm in the evening if it was on time. During the journey Dad lay on a camp stretcher in the guard’s van, and my mother, accompanying him, had to sit on a box.

On arrival it was found that his leg was badly infected and later gangrene set in..
1914 – After 11 months Charles O’Connor, my dad, returned home and was an invalid for a long time and he was a cripple for the rest of his life. His right leg was left 4″ shorter than his left and the knee would not bend. I can remember complaining that he had not written me a letter while he was in hospital. I was about 6 1/2 at this time. Dad had a good sense of humour, so he said, ‘Alright I will write you a letter.’ He did this and one of the humorous items in the letter was as follows, ‘It was very sad about your poor old uncle Dan dying, you knoe, if he had lived until tomorrow he would have been dead a fortnight.’

I said that Dad could turn his hand to a lot of things including road making, and when I was about 5 years old ( I had not yet started school) he got a contract to build a piece of road in front of the Pinnaroo school. The local limestone had to be carted from the quarry to the site by horse and dray. As I had not started school I was able to go with him and he used to let me sit on the dray and drive the horse while he walked alongside. The reins were made of rope which was the kind which was used quite a lot in those days as clothes line. It was a cotton rope about 1/4″ in diameter. Unfortunately for me there were bolts through the felloes (rings) of the wheels of the dray and being only 5 years at that time I would let the reins droop and they would get caught on the bolts and would thus be pulled through my hands as the wheel turned and of course burn my hands. I would scream with the pain. The experience is still as real and vivid in my mind that even after 68 years I can still hear myself scream. It is amazing how certain things remain so clearly in your memory after such a long lapse of time.

As I have said, my having to miss the first 6 weeks of the school year had an adverse effect on my education. I remember one year we had a new teacher who used to use a whistle to give his orders for each movement of drill which was conducted before we went into our classes. He used to give a certain number of blasts on the whistle for each movement we were to make. Not having been there for the first day when it was explained I was all at sea so that when he blew the whistle I wouldn’t know whether I had to halt, turn right or left, mark time or quick march. For a while I was in real trouble. It was either that or every body else was out of step but me. However, in spite of those handicaps I did like going to school and was very sorry when I had to leave to go to work before I had finished grade 7 and thus missed getting my Qualifying Certificate.
Fortunately it did not have any adverse effect on my being able to get work. There were other areas I found myself quite ignorant in. I remember asking Mum the personal questions a kid asked his mother and Mum said ‘little boys don’t talk about those things.’ So I grew up pretty ignorant even when I got married. Such a subject was taboo in that generation consequently it had some adverse effects on my marriage a thing of very deep regret.

In wet weather we used to sit in what was called the shed (an enclosed veranda on one side of the school) and play ‘heave Oh’. We would sit on the forms that lined the walls and all push one way so that the one sitting on the end would get squashed against the end wall and have to get out or get hurt. All the time this was going on we would all be yelling ‘Heave Ho’. The din was fantastic. One day when it was raining I stuck my head out the door with my mouth open catching the rain in my mouth. I got caught by the head master and that little escapade cost me 6 handers with the cane. Another game for when the weather was cold was what we called ‘Red Rover all Over.’ Half the school would line up each end of the playground. There would be a line drawn in the middle of the playground and a number of children would stand on the line and the others had to try and run from one end of the yard to the other without getting caught. If you got caught you had to join those on the centre line. It was a very healthy and warming exercise. For football I was nearly always the umpire. Naturally my decisions would be disputed by some. At times I would get frustrated and would pull out of the job and join the players. They always found it very hard to get someone else to take the job. there was a family of boys named Edwards. They always had beautiful lunches and were always willing to share their lunch with other kids. My lunch was usually bread and jam, theirs would be beautiful cakes and the like. Ken Edwards would bribe me to continue as umpire with some of his lunch. I think I must have been fairly honest about it because I can’t remember ever taking advantage of him. My grievance was always of genuine frustration. I cannot recall a great many incidents from my school days but it is sufficient to say that due to the circumstances brought about by my father’s accident, we were left very poor and one thing I do remember was that our bed clothes were comprised of one grey blanket and the rest were made up of wheat bags sewn together.

In those days the wheat was harvested into bags. Each bag held 3 bushels of wheat. A bushel was 60 lbs so that an average bag weighed 180 lbs. The wheat lumpers used to carry the baqs of wheat on their shoulders and make them into stacks. When they reached a certain height they would then use a plank to build up to a higher level. When they could not go any higher by means of the plank, they would then use what was known as ‘The Whip.’ The Whip comprised a long wooden pole, 30ft long and about 5″ square made of Oregon timber. This would be stood up beside the wheat stack. It had a pulley at the bottom then up and through the one at the top. On the end was a loop of chain which was then put around the top of the bag of wheat on the waggon. The other end was attached to the harness of the horse which was used to pull the bag of wheat up to the wheat lumpers on the top of the stack. It was my job to lead the horse. The farmer would put the bag on and then I would lead the horse forward and the bag would be taken up to the top. The lumper would take the chain off the bag and then I would have to back the horse so that the chain would come down again and another bag could be put on. This would go on all day as we unloaded one farmer’s waggon after another; and of course it would be in the heat of summer, amidst the dust and the flies. At first the distance would be about 45 ft that I would have to take the horse backwards and forwards but that would gradually increase as the stack grew higher until when the stack reached its full height of 30 ft the distance would be about 70 ft.

Panitya was 5 miles from Pinnaroo and we would drive out in the horse and cart six days a week. Work all day as described and then drive home again at the end of each day. Another job that fell to my lot was to have to drive the school inspector out to the various small schools in the area. Dad would tender for the job. The various schools were, Rosy Pine in the south, Chandos in the west and Yarraville in the north. On those days I would sit in my grade in whatever school we were visiting. Transport on these occasions was by horse and masher dray. A masher dray was a light vehicle iwth 2 high wheels. I left school at 14. My birthday was in February and I left school in May the same year, That was the year I reached grade 7 which was the last in primary school. If you passed you received what was then called the Qualifying certificate. The next step was High School. So I only had 3 months in grade 7 and then I had to leave school and go to work. Also as I have related, I missed the first 6 weeks of the school year for the previous 2 or 3 years, consequently my formal eduction was not very extensive.

Going back a few years to my school days again, one or two things do come to mind. I can remember the Spanish Influenza epidemic which swept Australia in 1919. The disease was probably brought into the country by the soldiers returning from World War 1. It was particularly bad in Melbourne and special trains were run to bring evacuees to SA via Pinnaroo. I can also remember the great mice plague in 1917. Pinnaroo and most of the rest of the State was overrun by millions of mice. I have vivid memories of the mice and the havoc that they caused, as well as the disease caused among humans, particularly at school. Children would break out in sores and would have to be quarantined until the infection had gone. One way of trying to destroy the mice was to bury kerosine tins in holes which were dug all around the wheat stacks. The tops of the tins were lever with the ground and then half filled with water. Next morning there would be hundreds of tins filled with drowned mice. Even then such destruction would only have a minimal effect on the mice population so great were their numbers. The wheat stacks which were 30 ft high and containing thousands of bags would eventually finish up just a vast heap of loose wheat and ruined bags. The mice would eat holes in the bags. The wheat would slowly run out and the whole stack would collapse. The stench was terrible.

I remember the visit of the Wirth’s Circus. The circus would come through from Victoria by special train. It would have to be changed to SA Railways at Pinnroo so they always put on a show here. This used to happen about every 2 years. On one occasion I remember they doubled the admission price from what it had been the previous time to 5/- for adults. There was a Mr Dick McKenzie who later became a member of parliament representing Labour for the Murray Mallee District. He got himself a box and stood up on it and addressed the crowd, urging them not to pay the higher price that was being asked for admission. After some time he eventually won the day and Wirth’s Circus reduced the price and so the show went on.

At one stage my father bought a winower and took up contract cleaning of wheat. The wheat was first harvested by a machine called a stripper. this was in the days before harvesters were invented. A stripper was a machine which just took the heads off the crop. When it was filled, the wheat was then emptied out in a big heap on the ground and was afterward put through the winnower which threshed the wheat heads separating the wheat from the chaff. Each day when we went out to start work if there had been a change in the wind overnight we would have to move the winnower to a different position so that the wind would blow the chaff away from the men working. The method of finding which way the wind was blowing was to throw a handfull of dirt up into the air and then the machine would be moved to the appropriate position. Sometimes there would not be a breath of wind blowing and so the dust would fall straight to the ground again. On these occasions someone would say, ‘The wind is straight up and down today sow we won’t have to move.’

The first winnower Dad bought was a horse treadle model. The power to drive the machine was supplied by a horse. On the side of the winnower there was a kind of elevator set at about 30 degrees to the ground. This was the treadle. It had heavy wooden steps made of Jarrah timber. It was like a cattle shute. The horse was lead into the shute and a gate was closed behind it. The treads were then released and the weight of the horse would set the treads in motion, thus driving the winowing machine. As the horse came back with the motion of the treads the motion would drive the winnowing machine. he would come up against the gate and would be forced to start walking up the steps. It would only take a short time for him to get used to it and he would work away there ans so the work of cleaning the wheat would go on. We later graduated to a winnower which was driven by a petrol engine.

The machine called a stripper was a machine with a comb ranging from 6 to 10 ft wide. The comb was the part that went through the crop lifting the heads of the wheat so that they were fed into the beaters. The beaters were somewhat like the cutter on a reel lawn mower. The beaters knocked the heads off the crop and threw them into the back of the stripper which was a bin which held the heads until it was filled. There was a lift up door at the rear which was opened and the wheat was raked out into a heap to be put through the winnower in due course. We were out cleaning wheat one day when there was a thunder storm with lightning and rain. We all got in a stripper out of the rain. There was a chap with us who we used to call German Charlie and that was the only name he was known by in Pinnaroo. He was one of the last of the bullock team drivers of the district. While the lightning was on he would not get in the stripper but went and lay on his stomach on the ground in the rain. He wouldn’t shelter in the stripper because of the possibility of being struck by lightning.

One of my school day memories which I must not leave out was in 1915 the year after World War I finished. Sir Ross and Sir Keith Smith made their epic flight from England to Australia. This was the first time such a flight had been attempted. It was believed that they would fly over Pinnaroo enroute from Melbourne to Adelaide. Adelaide was their home town. All the pupils of the school were taken out to the adjacent park lands to see them pass over. After spending most of the day waiting, word was received that they had safely landed in Adelaide and that they had passed over Bordertown, 80 miles to the south.
There was a family living in Pinnaroo named Madigan which comprised of the parents, three sons and a daughter. Two of the sons and the father were hard drinkers. One in particular, Bob by name. He never appeared to work but spent most of his time oscillating between the two hotels of the town. Being of Irish descent he loved a fight. He used to always wear a bowler hat or ‘hard hitter’ as that type of hat was known. Sometimes on his journey between the two hotels he would throw his hat out into the middle of the main street and then dance about and shadow box all round it. Occasionally there would be a clearing sale on a farm. At one of these sales Bob climbed up on to a 36 gallon cask of molasses. He wanted to get a better view of what was being sold. Unfortunately for Bob the cask was fairly old and the lid collapsed and of course poor Bob collapsed with it into the molasses. When he got out he went berserk and he belted the living daylights out of the cask with his bare hands.

Another incident I must record happened in church. Until I came into the truth I was a Roman Catholic. On one occasion a special priest came up from Adelaide for a week to conduct what was called a mission. The object of the visit was to raise funds for something or other. He was a great orator and on one night his subject was the devil and hell. His talk was such that at the end the congregation was almost too terrified to leave the church to go home so vivid was his description of the powers of the devil and the torments of hell.

Another night in the week’s activities was a special appeal that was made for funds. Coming after the night on the devil and hell etc it was more of a demand than an appeal. The collection was taken on a plate. There was no bag such as we have, which gives the donor any degree of anonymity. Mr Dick McKenzie, before mentioned in relation to the circus, knowing that the special collection was coming up had gone to the bank and got a brand new one pound note. When the collection was announced he took out his one pound note and while he was waiting for the plate to reach him, he kept on screwing up the note and of course being new, the crackle of the note could be heard all over the church. It is amazing what pride will make some people do. He wanted everyone to know how much he was contributing. Another method which was used to entice the congregation to give more than they may normally have done was by the envelope system. When a special appeal was announced each member ws given an envelope with their name on it. As they were handed in the amount subscribed was written beside their name on a list which was placed in the entrance to the Church so that everyone knew how much each member of the congregation had given. The effect can well be imagined and of course bring to mind the saying ‘keeping up with the Jones.’ There is no doubt all the tricks of the trade are well known to that system.

When I left school I got a job in one of the local blacksmith shops. There were two in the town. The one I went into was owned by Westphalin Brothers, Ern and Emmil. I worked there for 6 months at 15 shillings a week of 48 hours. It was hard work but it was work that I loved. At the end of 6 months my mother told me to ask for a rise in pay. I did, but my request was refused. I then went and applied for a job with a Mr Tom Gilbert who was a builder. I was successful and was put on at 30 shillings just double what I had been getting. I was put as mate to a man who was described as a plumber. In those days a plumber did roofing, gutters as well as plumbing. I was put as mate to Dan Fletcher, and he was a real wag. One day we were working on the roof of the Commercial Hotel which by the way my Dad helped to build before his accident. He carted all the local stone which was used in the building. He also helped with the building of the hotel which was of two stories. The same building is still used as an hotel today having been added to over the intervening years. The cook at the hotel was named Mrs McDonald. She was a rather stout woman and was not particularly noted for cleanliness. When we were up on the roof she walked out into the hotel yard and Dan said, ‘There she goes, she is so greasy that your eyes will slide off her.’

Another job we had was the building of the new Commercial Bank. It was a brick building and when finished I had the unenviable task of scrubbing all the outside walls with spirits of salts and water. The job with the builder lasted 6 months and then I applied for work at the other blacksmith shop. I wanted to become a blacksmith. I was successful again. This shop was owned by Messrs Koch and Sharrad. This job lasted for the next 3 1/2 years and I think the time I spent here was the happiest of my working life. The work was varied because there were so many different types of very skilled work done. It was a blacksmith and wheelwright shop. As well as doing all sorts of jobbing repair work to all types of farm machinery and vehicles, we made new drays, buggies, sulkies and waggons (with sides and tabletops). Also Mr sharrad was the local undertaker and when the occasion arose I helped in the wheelwright shop where th coffins were made.

It was during these years that wireless or radio was first introduced in Australia. A Mr Bakewell who had the local garage and was a general hardware merchant brought the first wireless to Pinnaroo. On Friday night (late shopping night) he would put the wireless set out on the footpath in front of his shop. The static was almost deafening but crows would gather round to hear this new fangled thing.
Part of the work we used to do was the retyring of all sorts of wheels, from buggy and sulky wheels up to the wheels for tabletop waggons. Some of the waggon wheels were up to 5 ft high and sometimes the tyres were 8″ wide and 1 1/4″ thick. When they came loose they would have to be taken off the wheel and either be upset or cut and shut, depending on how much smaller they had to be made in order that they would be tight enough to fit the wheel again. If they had to be upset, they would have to be heated in the forge and then put in the upsetting machine. That would then be operated so that it would squeeze the hot metal up and thus make the tyre smaller in diameter. When this was being done the hot metal would flow and the surplus would flow out to the sides. While it was still hot this would be cut off with chisel and sledge hammer. The tyre would then be worked on until the tyre was the right size for the wheel. When this was being done on the big tyres there would sometimes be three strikers with sledge hammers and between each blow of a sledge hammer the blacksmith would be pointing with his hand hammer to show the strikers where he wanted them to hit. For anyone listening it would sound like this. Woom-tap-Woomp-tap,
Woomp-tap-Woomp-tap-Woom-tap. I used to love these times, it seemed to be such exciting work and we would work until we were ready to drop.

If a wheel was so loose that it had to be cut and shut the method was that the tyre would have to be heated and a piece cut out of it and then it would have to be rewelded. After the piece was cut out again with chisel and sledge hammer, it would have to be brought to welding heat in the forge and then put into the upsetting machine and this would bring the two ends together an squeeze them together while the metal was at welding heat which was almost molten. After this was done the same process followed with the three strikers. Speed was the essence of success in these operations. The heating in the forge for these big tyres would take anything up to an hour and for that time the blacksmith’s striker would have to turn the handle of the forge blower for that time. Black coal was used in the fire in those days, it was later superceded by coke. Not Coco-cola, but coke which is made from coal.

With the advent of the wireless one of the strikers became very interested and in the early days the ships used to communicate with each other by Morse Code. This striker got himself a copy of the Morse Code and pinned it up to the post on which the forge blower was mounted and that way he learned the Morse Code while he was turning the handle of the blower. In the retyring process, the wheels would first go to the wheel wright and he would then do any necessary repairs to the wheels such as re-wedging the spokes or replacing any spokes that needed replacing. The same with the felloes (rims), they would then go to the blacksmith and he would measure the wheel and the tyre with an instrument we called a Trammel (which was a calibrated wheel) in order to find out how much the tyre had to be reduced. The wheel wright would tell him how much ‘Tight’ was needed. That is, how much smaller the tyre had to be so that it would be tight enough when the tyre was put on the wheel agan. If it was too tight, it would, what we called, ‘Dish’ the wheel. That is, it would make the wheel saucer shaped. If that was too pronounced, the wheel could be ruined. It was indeed a very skilled trade which made the work all the more interesting.

It was the usual practice to prepare all the wheels for tyreing once a week. When they were all ready, all th tyres were laid in a hollow in the ground. All the different sizes were laid one inside the other and then a fire would be prepared made up of paper, kinding and mallee roots. It would be lit first thing in the morning and as the lighter tyres became hot enough they would be removed and put on their respective wheels. The fire would be continually stoked up and by about 3 p.m. the big tyres would be hot enough to drop on to the wheels. They were then cooled as quickly as possible so that the wooden rims would not be burnt too much. They would then be OK to run on the roads for another year or so. It was very hard work but it was also full of interest and I never did tire of it. Blacksmithing is a wonderful trade. It is a wonderful occupation doing creative work with your hands.

This story is continued in Part 2 which follows.