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Cyrol
Gray
Born 2 February 1912
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1932
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My earliest farm days started at four
years old when Pop (my dad) took me up to a place called Gabbin. That’s where
a friend was that had land up there and Pop decided to go into farm. That was in
1918 and in 1919 we went up as a family to start our farming days.
Mum was a city girl from Maylands and it
must have been hard for her in the early days of farming. My two sisters went to
school in Perth and stayed there and worked, only coming home for Christmas
which was a pretty quiet time.
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| I worked hard on the farm never going to
school. Just getting up at 4.30 am to feed the horses and clean out
their stalls. Then Pop would get them ready for work, harnessing them up
for me as I was too small to reach them. Then off to the paddocks I
would go. I used the horse in summer to harvest the crop. In winter they
were used to plough and cultivate the land.
I was fourteen when I was doing this work, which was hard, but I
always enjoyed it. I also had to cart water in summer and the wheat. I didn’t
like hay-making season, as this was itchy and I was always getting scratched
from the hay. I had to keep my nails short as the hay would get into them.
I took over the farm in 1948 and the boom time in farming was 1955
onwards Wheat and wool prices were high until the 1970’s, which was good for
us. Farming was a hard life and I remember some terrible times, mainly with the
weather. We had a hailstorm that literally stripped the trees and put holes in
the tin sheds. The dust storms were so thick that I could hardly see the horses
in front of me. The vermin were another problem. The rabbits flattened the
crops so did kangaroos and emus. In the early days we ate vermin to survive on
the land.
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We made our own fun in the country towns by going to dances and
playing a lot of sport. When we were little we used to go to dances and stoke
the fires for the boilers used for making hot water for tea. Then as we got
older we would go and dance after mum taught us and then we would be inside
dancing.
Farming in thinking back was hard,
but that was the only life I knew. I live in Perth now, have done for twenty-five
years. I have not been back to the farm for about fifteen years and would not
have the faintest idea how to farm now.
I miss the country, but enjoy life in Perth with my wife Colleen and we are
happy to have each other.
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1930
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