Kemp Dudley
| Type of person | Individual |
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I am descended from James and Sarah Kemp who, after their arrival in SA made their first home in a dug-out adjacent to the Woolsheds Flat Road (now the Balaklava Road) on Section 507. His second home was erected circa 1871 in the north-west corner Section 508. In 1874 James finally built his homestead “Springwood” on Section 508 adjacent to the road. The remains of the dug-out can still be found today under several almond trees. James worked as a shepherd on a station property owned by Mr. Uphill before purchasing his first 80 acre section where he sowed the grain with a seedlet, cut hay with a scythe, stacking and culling it with a hay-knife before tying same into trusses (sheaves). When carting the hay to Burra he would back-load with copper ore taking it to either Port Wakefield or Port Adelaide. James Sarah had 8 children
On August 30th 1858 a gathering of the Wesleyan pioneers of Woolsheds Flat met at the home of Mr. Howard (now the home of Brian and Maureen Kemp) to discuss the possibility of erecting a chapel. James donated an acre of Section 127 on which to build the church. Donations amounting to fifty pounds were received at the inaugural meeting and the men of the faith then carted by bullock drays, 100 loads of stone quarried by hand from a nearby rocky outcrop. Tenders were duly called and let for the sum of sixty two pounds three shillings and sixpence.
When Sarah died James married Elizabeth and later they retired to Riverton and lived in a cottage on Washington Road.
James’ and Sarah’s eldest child William married Sarah Jane Ellery and their son Theodore married Althea Ruby Bowden. They had 4 children: Howard, who died at the age of 2, Althea, who died at one day old, Malcolm and Dudley.
My father was one of the fifth generation of Kemps. His name was Theodore and was brought up on the family farm, ‘Springwood’, at Rhynie. He was the second eldest boy of the family of nine children – six boys and three girls. He left the family partnership and came to live in Gawler in the early 1900s. Initially, he lived in Bishop Street which was the street behind the Hutchison Hospital in Gawler. He also bought a property at Yatta Creek in the Barossa Ranges about five miles out of Gawler. He never lived on it but travelled out to the property when necessary. In about 1910 he bought another property at 9 Lyndoch Road, Gawler, where he lived and the property included a little block between Daly Street and East Terrace on a little lane now known as Kemp Street. This was where he used to keep the ponies and our milking cow, whose name was Glen Ewen. She was a stud Jersey cow and it was my job to milk her before school each morning.
Dad was married when he came to Gawler. He had married Althea Ruby Bowden who had lived a couple of miles from where he was brought up at a property called ‘Gibralta’, named after the big rock on the property which was on the Wakefield River. They had had two children before they came to live in Gawler and lost them both - Howard died at two years old and Althea died soon after birth. They had my brother Malcolm when they moved to Lyndoch Road, Gawler. I arrived 7 years later on the 18th of September 1924. My mother went back to Riverton to have me. I was the youngest of 4 children.
My dad was a live-stock dealer. He used to travel as far away as the West Coast to buy sheep which had been walked to Cowell by the vendor. Then they would be shipped from Cowell to Wallaroo and when they arrived there would be a drover waiting to walk them to the new owner’s property. Dad would get a ring from one of the stock agents who would say to him, “Is that you Theo?” “Yes”, dad would reply. “Have you got some sheep?” “Yes”, dad would say. “Well you’d better come up. The drovers are on the piss and there’s sheep all over the country.” So I would get two days off from school to go and help dad sort out the sheep. I loved doing that. That was the way I learnt the live-stock trade. I also used to ride my ponies from the little block we had in Gawler out to Yatta Creek to help dad or if anybody else needed help with something to do with stock, I was there.
In 1937 dad sold Yatta Creek and went to Two Wells on the Middle Beach Road and bought a property there with Reg Bosisto. They were partners for about 35 years. They traded under the name of Bosisto & Kemp. He was in the dealing side of it. Dad was more the sheep man and Reg the cattleman. They were both pretty versatile. They employed fella’s to help them. As there were no trucks to cart stock the live-stock were agisted here and there on other properties. I’d ride a horse out to shift them where-ever I had to and I loved doing it. I could bring cattle home in a day. Sheep took two days. I loved it! Of course having these older blokes on the horses they’d always put me on a young colt, which was a challenge.
Dad was a live-stock dealer all his life and made a reasonable living from it. Mum stayed home and looked after things there. Things were tough as it was the Depression. During that time, dad used to go to the south east on the Melbourne Express to Wolseley, then change trains and go and spend a few days down around Naracoorte, Penola and Mount Gambier wheelin’ and dealin’ at the local stock markets. They even bought cattle at Hamilton and Warrnambool in Victoria in the 1930s. They would go by car, often with a De Garis stock agent, then, after the sale they would walk the cattle to Bordertown. Then, because it was all undeveloped country, rail them to Nairne and then walk them to Roseworthy. They were traders.
Dad was a regular at the cattle and sheep market in Pooraka on Wednesdays but he always had to get home in time to have a game of bowls. He was a very keen bowler. He was also a Trustee of the Tod Street Methodist Church where he used to sing in the choir. I’d be riding steers while he was singing in the choir! I was the ‘black sheep’ of the family. All my other cousins agreed that I was the ‘black sheep’ of the Kemp family, but I have had a lot of fun being it. My father had a couple of brothers that never lived very long but the four that did survive were all stock-dealers. Riverton was a big market day. His brothers all had properties around the Rhynie township. My dad’s brother married my mum’s sister. Two brothers married two sisters. They were pretty successful dealers too. Dad would have a drink occasionally but he was pretty steady. He was a pretty respected stock dealer/agent I think. He used to buy for several of the butchers and exporters. He would buy stock on a commission basis for whoever engaged him. He was the middle-man. The buying and selling process is very different today.
MY GROWING-UP YEARS
I went to Gawler Primary School. I hated school and thought I was dumb. At every opportunity I had to miss school and help dad move sheep. The highlight of my life was being able to go to the travelling buck-jump shows that were often happening around the district. Then one day dad took me to a Kidman Rodeo which was held on Jubilee Oval, which was where Frome Road in Adelaide is now. I was about 8-10 years old. It was a milestone in my life. It was an exhibition of horsemanship and wasn’t competitive. It aimed to demonstrate the stock-riding skills performed by Sir Sidney Kidman’s best stockmen. That was in 1932. I was enthralled. From then on after school I used to try doing what they were doing. I was determined to do what those blokes did so I practiced and practiced. The Lillicrap boys, who lived in the next street, encouraged me a bit. My own pony was called Nipper and I learnt to ride on him. All the kids in Gawler East learnt to ride on my ponies and I learnt to ride on their bike. We had great fun.
As Yatta Creek was only 5 miles out I would ride my pony out there after school to help dad with the sheep or anything else he was doing. As I had two ponies sometimes a friend would come with me. Soon there were travelling buck-jump shows around the place and I realized that people were making a living out of it. At the time there were some famous names like Tex Morton, the Gill brothers, Thorpe McConville and others whom I hero-worshipped. All these travelling shows were held at night time so of course I would be there. I won my first event when the show was held on a vacant block behind Dr Hyde’s surgery. I rode a buck jump pony called ‘Electric Spark’ full time and had every body there cheering me on. I got a medal for my effort!
Every show that came to Gawler I’d go. A bloke called Johnny Snell did a lot of work for my dad and his partner was a champion horse-man and, of course, he was a very competent horseman too. He said to me one day, “I’m going to Victor Harbour Sat’dy to ride in a rodeo there. Want to come?” I didn’t need to be asked twice I can tell you! So he took me, Alec Oliver and Jack Tierney. We caught the train to Adelaide and then went on the bus to Victor Harbour. We got met by one of the blokes who were putting the rodeo on. Snelly won the Bronc Ride and I ran third and then I won the Steer Ride. And, of course, we had a bit of ‘fun and games’ afterwards, just like the teenagers do today. We missed the bus home so we stayed at the Central Hotel in a couple of empty beds. In the morning I thought, ‘I’d better ring my mum on the Sunday morning to tell her where I am’. When I did she said, “It’s alright I know where you are, I read it in the Mail.” I said, “We’ll be home sometime today.” From then on I loved that sort of business – rodeos.
The year I left school, in 1939 aged 16, I cut my Archilles tendon through with a scythe that I’d been using to cut lucerne for the horses. I had just hosed them down and had cut some lucerne for them and given it to them. Then when I went to pick the scythe up I fell on the blade and cut my Achilles tendon through the side. When my mum came home from the Saturday afternoon pictures she saw that I couldn’t walk. The lad that was with me led the horse into the yard where all the blood tracks could be seen. Mum said, “Where’s all the blood coming from?” I said, “I cut my leg.” I didn’t realize how serious it was. Mum said, “Let me have a look.” I said, “It’s stopped bleeding, it’s all right.” So I let it go till next morning. By next morning it was a hell of a lot worse.
Mum got the doctor and he went and got the Gawler Light Horse camp doctor. The camp was based on the Gawler Race-course as WW2 had just begun. Dr West was a specialist and he hooked the tendon together for me and I spent six months in plaster and on crutches. That really grounded me! I was not at all happy. That really ended my competitive rodeo aspirations. As rodeo riding involved lots of dismounting and lots of other things that would risk damaging the tendon again, the risk was too great. So I never played anymore footy either for that reason. I had only played a couple of games for Willaston. That accident affected my life greatly.
As a child I went to Sunday school and became a Cub in Boy Scouts because my brother was a Scout. I liked Cubs but when I got to the Scout stage the war broke out and Scouts dispersed a bit so I joined the Air Training Corps. When I got injured I got down graded because I couldn’t do all the activities. I learnt to shear when I was a kid with hand shears. I was taught by a fella’ called Charley Clark. Shearers were all blade shearers in those days. I learnt to shear in Nolan’s stable in Willaston I reckon, it was not in a shearing shed. When dad had some sheep agisted old Charley Clark, who lived in the side street, came and shore them. That was when I learnt the skill. I did anything for a quid. We used to get two pound ten shillings a hundred. Now they get about $2.10 each! I loved anything to do with animals. When I left school I went to work for a fella’ called Frank Best and he taught me to shear with the machines. Then I also went down to Kingsford, where they made the TV program called ‘McLeod’s Daughters’ a few years ago. It’s a property on the eastern outskirts of Gawler on the North Para River with a large homestead on it. A fella’ called Jacky Mitchell owned it then and I did a bit of shearing with his son. I never shore big numbers because of my injured ankle. I’d do anything for a job though, like stooking or carting hay that was all done with horse and dray.
MY BROTHER MALCOLM My older brother, Malcolm, who was 7 years older than me, wasn’t interested in dealing for a living. The only job he ever had was working for Elders Stock Company in Currie Street Adelaide. He started with Elders in about 1935. He was also a keen scout and in 1937 went to an International Jamboree in Amsterdam, Holland. He went on a ship called the Orana and came back on the Oronsay. He was away for six months. My dad never had enough money to pay for him to go so my Gran Bowden gave him the money to go. She was in the ‘time on’ period of her life then and she said to him, “You’ll never get an opportunity like that again.” I think he also saw the Coronation of King George VI.
He no sooner got back from Holland when war looked inevitable. Before the war broke out he joined the 27th Battalion and had to wear a Scottish kilt. He trained at Woodside. Then when the war started he transferred to the Air Force. After 8 weeks he was sent to Rhodesia and trained at a place called Bullawayo with Ian Smith who was well known in Rhodesia because of his radical political views. He then moved on into the North African campaign and then moved on to Malta where he stayed for some time. He was then in the 451 Air Squadron. He won a DFC for his exploits in the Middle East and got mentions in dispatches. He was flying ‘Hurricanes’ in that area. When he went to England he fought in the Battle of Britain and was flying ‘Spitfires’. He got a French decoration, the Croix de Guerre, from that campaign. Unfortunately, because he was away so long I never had a lot to do with him in my growing up years. When he did come home he discovered that the girl he was engaged to had got some-one else. As a result he became a bit of a loner. People used to say ‘he’ll never get married.’ Then he met an officer (female) at the Willaston Air Force camp just before he was discharged and married her. He and Agnes had four children, Malcolm, Phillip, John and Althea.
They decided to marry in the Methodist Church at Woolsheds, even though Agnes was a Catholic, thinking that the wedding would be a small one. As there hadn’t been a wedding in the church since my Uncle Arthur Kemp and Auntie Rita Bowden were married there after the First World War, it ended up being a big one as everyone in the district came! My great grandparents gave the land for it to be built on and the building is now under the protection of the National Trust. Special events are occasionally held there, such as district re-unions and the annual carols night which we look forward to attending each year.
When Mal came back from the war he went back to work with Elders, then one day he came home and said to dad, “Bugger Elders, I am going to pull the pin, I am going to get a job in the Airways and fly a plane anywhere.” I think he must have said to my dad, “I’m not going to have a young bugger kicking me around anymore, I’m sick of it.” When he came back from the war he found that everyone else was above him and he had to start at the bottom again and work his way up. However, dad must have spoken to the right person saying, “If you want him you had better give him some responsibility and something he likes doing.” So he went to work in Elders Wool Store at Port Adelaide. He had a lot to do with a Union fellow who gave him a hard time but that didn’t matter, that was how it was. He later got promoted to being the State Wool Manager. That took him to a lot of places. Then when the merger between Elders and Goldsborough Mort came he had the job of representing Elders and had to work in partnership with the Goldsborough’s representative as they didn’t want two managers in all their branches. It wasn’t an easy job for him to demote an employee. However, he got by. Then he got a few promotions and he finished up Assistant Manager in Victoria.
We went over to see him one New Year’s Eve and he wasn’t real happy and he said, “I’m not going to let these Victorian bastards kick me around. It’s different over here.” Then one night I get a phone call and he said, “How are you? I’m coming back to Adelaide and I’m going to take a demotion. I’m coming back to Adelaide as Finance Manager.” That’s where he finished up. I admit we never had a lot to do with one another growing up because he was away so much and because of the big age difference but we made up for it in later years. When mum and dad both passed on within about six months of each other in 1968, we never had any arguments about dividing their assets. We had a get-to-gether and shared everything. We tossed a coin for everything we wanted and split the money that was left. Then he went his way and I went mine but we still kept in touch. Soon after he retired from Elders he died aged 67. Now I keep in touch with his youngest son more than his other three because he is more stock orientated. Lately, he’s been working for Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard (Prime Ministers) for about a year. He’s done everything – like me. He’s travelled a lot to visit all the other states in the course of his job to assess the rural situation, and been to the Middle East where he was involved in the live sheep trade there, so I find he’s very interesting to talk with.
MY DROVING DAYS
When I was still in my teens my dad and his partner and another guy called Bill Reid, bought 700 cows from Undoolya Station, which is up north out of Alice Springs and railed them to Maree. I was allowed to go with the droving team to walk them out to Mona Downs Station. I was so excited. My dad took me down to R. M. Williams’ shop/factory at 5 Percy Street Prospect and bought me a brand new saddle, neck-bag and water-bag. The water-bag is still over in my shed today. I had R.M. boots as well. My dad said to me that day, “This will teach you, going up there. It will be a wonderful experience for you.” And it was. It was my first time being part of a droving team. We went out and branded the cattle when we got there. I had to do the early watches as I was too much of a lad. Those on watch had to be on the horse for 2 hours straight at night and see that none of the cattle strayed.
That drove occurred at the start of the partnership between Jim and Claude Oldfield who were later to become very well known owning large tracts of land in the far north. Their property was called Mona Downs Station. Before they became partners they had been drovers for many years. They had gotten the opportunity to lease this land and it had magic feed on it. After six months we had to give them 20% of the cattle as payment for the drove. When we went back after six months the cattle were all in prime condition with calves at foot and the Oldfield brothers didn’t want to see us take them. So they offered to buy them. The partners, Bosisto & Kemp, agreed that if they could come up with the money they could have them. They got finance from their stock agents so we never ever brought them back down here. The Oldfield partnership has lasted for several generations. Sadly, one of their boys died several years ago in an aircraft accident on the property.
While the war was on those lads who weren’t eligible for service were assigned to the ‘Man Power’ service. You weren’t allowed to be idle. There was no dole then. I worked on farms mostly, droving sheep, carting hay or feeding stock in the abattoirs. I did a few trips train-droving stock down from the Alice Springs area to Gepps Cross. Then I’d catch the Broken Hill express on a Wednesday night to Terowie and get on the empty freight train next morning to Rumbalara and get up there Friday night or early Saturday morning, load Sunday morning, and then we’d train drove the cattle down to Adelaide and get home the following Saturday. We used to have to come to Maree, which was the stock depot where we’d have contractors help us feed and water the stock before sending them on to Dry Creek. Or, if the stock were coming down from the Alice Springs area we’d spell them for a few more hours and give them a drink before loading them onto the train to come down to Terowie. In those days the railway line was narrow guage to Terowie and then standard guage to Adelaide. This meant having to trans-ship or change cattle trucks and trains again. Our job was called train-droving which entailed travelling on the train, then, when the train stopped we’d have to walk along the cattle carriages and check the stock and stand fallen stock up etc. We used to take a tucker – box with us on the train with Camp-Pie and anything cold that we could eat. We’d boil a billy when we could. One of the hardest jobs I did was when I brought some sheep down from Crown Station and they were loaded at Abminga on the border of SA and NT. They’d been shepherded by Aborigines and there was an old fella’ called Ted Colson there and I found that he had been the first man to cross the Simpson Desert with camels from Flood’s Creek Station to Birdsville. He had coped with flooded creeks along the way. There were no mobile phones in those days to call for assistance. He did it on his own with sheer guts, ability, determination and bush knowledge.
We’d call into a lot of places along the way when we were going from Maree to Mona Downs droving. They’d have the old pedal wireless there and we’d give the next place an estimated time of arrival and if you weren’t there then they’d come and look for us. They’d be on the look-out for us for sure. Droving is a different ball game now. Today of course, droving is done with aircraft and helicopters. In the old days there was no vehicle to help with train droving. We had to walk stock in to the railway siding to be loaded and if the rail-head didn’t have water to refuel the engine then you didn’t have sheep did you? It was very different then.
Eric Oldfield used to run cattle droves for tourists that went from Birdsville to Maree so that others could experience what droving cattle is like. I went up there for that first cattle drive and took my grandson Ben with me. We didn’t ride in it, but it finished up being a very big trip camping out and ending with a huge party at Mungaranie Station. Then we went out to Birdsville and had a BIG session! I said to Ben the next day, “We’re going down to Innaminka.” So we did, but there was hardly anyone there that I knew so I took him out to see the ‘DIG’ tree from Burke and Wills’ expedition and all that. I did a silly thing though, I didn’t have a map with me and had only looked at the map in the pub but I had a rough idea where we were going. When we left Innaminka I thought we’d slip across to Tibooburra on the back tracks. Along the way we passed a couple of road trains and found that with all the oil and gas survey going on out there that there were vehicle tracks going everywhere. It was confusing. Then it got dark on us. I said to Ben, “We’ll have to get off the road and we aren’t going to go anywhere till day-light. I know where we are, we are on Epsilon Station, so light the fire and we’ll stay here till morning.” Next morning, we got to Tibooburra, met a few chaps and had a bit of a debate on rodeos and about famous buck jump horses such as Curio. We had a problem with the lights and couldn’t get them fixed there so we came on down through Pack-Saddle Station and into Broken Hill where we got them fixed and then set out to get Ben home. I had to get him home as he had something special on at school the next day. It took us many hours to make it, but we did. I did what I had to do.
RODEOS
I remember going to the Roseworthy Gymkhana and a lad got bucked off a horse. I was the secretary then. I said, “Give the ruddy thing to me. I had a pair of spurs on and I thought I’d give them a bit of a show. The spurs slipped up over where I had the bad leg and busted it again. I was in a bad way so they took me to the Gawler Hospital. They fiddled around with my wound and nothing they did worked. Dr Rice said, “This is beyond me.” So I was sent to Calvary Hospital where I was under Sir Ivan Jose. They shaved my leg and I had an anesthetic on the Thursday morning and the sister in charge of the ward gave me a big dose of ether. A couple of hours later I’m back in the ward and she said to me, “What’s your dad’s phone number Dudley?” I told her then she said, “Well, when Dr Jose saw what a mess they made of shaving your legs he wouldn’t attempt to do the graft.” So in other words I had a whiff for nothing!
I came home for a fortnight and then I went back again and they did it again but it wouldn’t heal. So they decided to graft the skin from one leg onto the other. I had one leg set over the wound on the other leg for three weeks so the skin would graft from one leg onto the other leg. Then they found that it still didn’t heal well enough so they took some seeds of skin off the good leg and put little spots of skin on the wound. I spent six months in and out of Calvary Hospital while it healed. When I came home I had to go to the Gawler Hospital to get it dressed daily. After a while, when it was going alright, Dr Rice said, “you can dress it yourself now can’t you?” Course I could so they gave me the necessary bandaging etc to do it. One night I took the dressing off and there was blood on the dressing. I thought, what has gone wrong with it now! Then I saw an open safety pin stuck in it and I didn’t even know. I still haven’t got much feeling in now you know. I had to wear a high heel for a long while as the ankle muscles had become stiff. Then gradually the muscles softened. It’s OK now.
In the war years I also spent a lot of time travelling to gymkhanas far and wide. There were no floats to cart the horses around. We’d ride them there, compete and ride home afterwards. We went as far afield as Kersbook, Mt. Pleasant and Hamley Bridge – where-ever they were on we were there. We had a lot of fun. One particular one I can recall was in 1944 when there was a gymkhana on the Gawler Racecourse in aid of the Red Cross or War Service Associations and trophies were donated for 1st Prize, 2nd Prize and 3rd Prize. The trophies were displayed in a shop window in Gawler. My wife, Ellen, did her homework and said, “Look at those lovely Pyrex dishes for 2nd prize and a riding whip for 1st prize in the ‘Walk, Trot and Gallop’ event.” In that event we’d walk a furlong, trot a furlong and gallop two furlongs. I was riding a pretty smart horse and I could have won the event but I had to run second because my wife wanted the Pyrex dishes. When they presented the trophies the guy that won the event got a riding whip and I got the other prize. He got so mad because he reckoned they had switched the prizes.
‘R.M.’ (Williams) was good to all us boys. We’d wear his gear even if we didn’t compete. I became very involved with R.M. as we called him. Back then if you were riding a buck jumper after 8 seconds you had to dismount the best way you could. He brought Jack Reilly, who was a big time rodeo man then, from Sydney and he introduced ‘pick-up’ work in to South Australian rodeos at the Kensington Oval in 1945. From then on when we went to rodeos I became a pick-up rider who lifted bronco riders off their horses when they had stayed on their horse for the required 8 seconds or who lifted riders on the ground away from a dangerous situation. I had a lot of fun doing that work. Reg was my team-mate.
In 1948 we went to Angaston at the time when they were holding their first Vintage Festival. R.M. and some of the cohorts up there put on the Australian Rodeo Championship on the Angaston Oval. I was one of the pick-up men there. The Henschke brothers from Mildura were the other pick-up riders because there were a lot of competitors. Today you only get a few competitors but in those days you needed several pick-up riders. In 1952-54 Allan Bennett from Naracoorte was the top Australian Rodeo Champion then. I have his book here. He had a sad life and ended up dying broken-hearted. He was buried at Longreach Stockman’s Hall of Fame Queensland. I attended his funeral.
One year R.M. said, “What about coming to Warwick (Qu) as it is the best Rodeo in Australia.” I didn’t have any money so he said, “I’ll pay your fare.” So he did and Mr. Harold Rowett, a foundation member of the Marrabel Rodeo paid my accommodation. About the week before we were due to go I get a card from someone at the Roseworthy Post Office. I picked it up and there was this packet with directions to take so many pills each hour for air sickness. When I opened it up I found it was a packet of 100s and 1,000s! It took me a couple of years to find out the bugger who sent it too! I thought it was R.M. but it wasn’t it was from an old chap called Cliff George, who had bought land for me. He used to like playing tricks on people. When RM and I got to Warwick we found that the rodeo was washed out so we didn’t get to see it. Instead, we spent a couple of days watching the cricket because we had to wait for another plane to get back home. But it was a wonderful life. ‘R.M’ was a great mate and he never lost touch with me.
R. M. Williams was born in 1908 and raised on a farm in the mid-north of SA. He left home at an early age. With a natural resourcefulness, he learnt basic bush survival skills while working in remote areas of the outback as a lime-burner, gold-digger and camel boy for the missionary William Wade. He explored much of Central Australia where life is as tough as it gets. So, in order to survive the harsh conditions, he learnt bush-lore from the Aborigines and stock-handling and horse skills from the bushmen on isolated cattle stations north of the Nullabor. In 1932 while camped in the remote Gammon Ranges in the northern region of SA, ‘R.M’ as he was known, fashioned his first pair of riding boots with the help of his mate Dollar Mick. Being a bushman he made his boots suitable for horse-riding and tough enough to outlast the harshest conditions, yet handsome enough to polish up and wear into town. In time, this skill developed and expanded into a multi- million dollar business. He also built ‘The Stockman’s Hall of Fame’ at Longreach Queensland. He died aged 95 in 2003. He was a special friend.
LEARNING MY TRADE
The Coles Bros sales yards were alongside of the blacksmith shop and both were opposite the Bushman’s Hotel in Cowan’s Street in Gawler. As I was pretty interested in the horses on the farm I used to attend the blacksmith shop to get my horses shod and while they were being shod having a couple of beers at the Bushman’s was the next best thing. Sometimes the farrier didn’t approve of me knocking around with some of those guys at the hotel and he used to hook me into gear smartly. I’ve never forgotten him for doing that. Tom Sandicock was his name. 1944 was the time when horses were going out and tractors were coming in which meant that there were horse sales there on a monthly basis and sometimes fortnightly if there was a surplus of horses around to be sold. People would come to buy these horses and say to me, ‘Come on get on and have a ride and turn it on.’ I was about 20 then and used to hang around the sale yards and when the blacksmith noticed me hanging around with a guy he didn’t approve of he would say, “Hey! Kempy, don’t you hang around with him. He’ll get you into trouble. Don’t you disgrace your parents.” I wasn’t the only one he said that to either. There were two or three of us lads of the same age that used to get hooked into gear by Old Tom.
When I first used to hang around the abattoirs my dad, who had had a life-time of being there selling sheep, also said to me, ‘You’ll see some funny things going on down there. If you think they’re shocking don’t get involved. Just remember one thing, boy, it’s easy to get a bad name and it’s hard to get a good one. He was spot on I reckon.
I got my driver’s licence a day or two after I was 16. I did the written test and paid the required amount of money and I got my licence. There was no practical test. As easy as that! My dad had a 1930 Pontiac and my mother had a 1938 silver Pontiac which I was keen to learn to drive. I took one to the dances occasionally but petrol was scarce so sometimes we’d use petrol to start the engine then switch it over to power kerosene. When there was no petrol we went back to using the horse and cart. We took the horse and cart to a few dances and my girl-friends came too. At that time I didn’t have many girlfriends as I spent nearly two months when I was 18, living on Thistle Island off Port Lincoln, doing cattle work for Christopher Wade.
The people who lived on Thistle Island prior to him bred ‘remount’ (horses to be sent out to India for their army) horses so that when Wade’s bought it they wanted to get the horses off the island. We were employed to go out there and round up the horses and teach them to lead and be tied up so we could load them on the boat. We had to lead them to the shore, hook them on behind the dingy, tow them out to the boat, where the crew on board the boat slung them on one by one so they could be taken to the mainland. We also did that with some cattle too. That was in 1942. The horses were then transported by boat to Port Adelaide then railed to Coles Bros Gawler sale-yards and sold.
I remember that we went out on a boat called the ‘Florence’ and Ray Welfare was the skipper. As my mother used to tell me off for smoking we took plenty of cigarettes but smoked them all the first month we were there. No boats would come out there because the weather was too rough and shark fishing was a sport in those days. As we couldn’t get off the island we did fencing and crutching and anything else to keep out of mischief. I have not smoked since!
When I came back home I went back to the same old job of doing a bit of stock-work and then in 1944 my father gave me an opportunity to join the ‘Bosisto and Kemp’ partnership. My mother wouldn’t hear of me going into the partnership as she knew that if dad took me on the other guy would want to take his son into the partnership too. As his son had had a few starts at things and buggered them up she felt the proposal would not work. Instead dad bought me 346 acres at Hamley Bridge and I used to go up there and camp and drove cattle out there. It was a good start but it had a problem. We only owned the land on one side of the river. It was the River Light. The people on the other side were cropping people and my stock used to get across the river at ‘Murphy’s Crossing’ into their crops. I handled that alright until 1946 when my dad bought me 135 acres at Roseworthy. It was close to the railway line where the silos now stand. I worked there for 2-3 years and the first year I was there I had 70 cattle on it. My dad said, “Have you got those cattle insured for fire, because if the train dropped a spark you’d never have time to get them out.” So I insured them against fire. Guess what? We had four and half inches of rain and the railway dam overflowed and drowned seventeen of them! I could ill afford to lose the money. As Ellen and I were thinking about getting married I sold the place at Hamley Bridge and battled on at Roseworthy.
FOOTBALL
While I was still going to high school I had a couple of games with the Willaston Football B Grade team to fill their team. I loved it. Unfortunately, in the summer time I cut my Achilles tendon through with a scythe which took a long while to get better. That was in 1939. That ended my football days. Until 1948 when I went to live in Roseworthy I tried to have a few kicks with the boys because I was told not to play. The team was always short of players so I said, “I’ll have a go. I mightn’t get many kicks but I’ll make it awkward for the others.” However, despite my old injury, I played in 1948 and we were lucky enough to go top in the B Grade. Being Premiers in 1948 was a great thrill. And then in 1949 again they were always short so I’d fill in for them. I used to wrap my bad leg up in bandages so that I looked like a broken down racehorse and played. My right arm was also bandaged, as I had had a broken wrist. It used to give me a bit of trouble as it was a bit stiff, but I had a lot of fun trying. We were lucky enough to go top again in 1949.
Then we went into the doldrums for a couple of years and then in 1955 I was lucky enough to play in another final on the Roseworthy College Oval. At that time there was only one thing that beat us - it was old age - as we led for three quarters. We had one teenager, but the average age of the side was 29. We just ran out of puff! From then on I only played when they were very short. About that time Salisbury and Elizabeth were forming clubs so that there were 18 teams in the Gawler Association. There were 8 A Grade and 10 B Grade teams. Then, as soon as Elizabeth got strong enough they formed their own association and broke away from Gawler in about 1960. That caused quite a problem for the Gawler Association because some of the teams that thought they were pretty good went to the Adelaide Plains Association while others went to the Elizabeth Association and that left only 3 A Grade teams in Gawler - Willaston, Centrals and Lyndoch.
1961 we got belted week after week by 25 or 30 goals. We didn’t have any good players! Then we heard that Elders were going to put another man at Gawler. As my brother, who had a fair bit to do with Elders, and as I had bought a fair few sheep through Elders, I said to Elders, “For God’s sake send some-one who can play football will you! So they sent us a guy called Tony Sorrell as second-in-charge at Elders. We found board for him at the Roseworthy Pub. He had a bit of a look at our team and he said, “Would you mind if I brought a couple of me mates up?” I said, “Well, who’s going to pay them to come and play?” He said, “They will only want travelling expenses.” So we had a committee meeting and he brought up Frank Howard and Colin Rowett from Glenelg, Brian Hanks from Sturt and Peter Koerner from Norwood.
The problem was that we had to pay them. The committee decided that we had to fund-raise. So I bought 300 sheep and gave every farmer in the district 20-30 to feed. As time went by and they got their crops in Kempy soon found he had all the sheep back again at his place. So we did our best with a bit of agistment and then sent them all back to Gepps Cross to the sale and made enough money to pay the imports. And guess what? We went top in 1962! It was the greatest thrill of my life! It was bottom to top in one year! We even went on a football trip by bus to Port Lincoln. I said, “Bugger going in the bus, you never know when you are going to get there and when you are going to get home.” I had a Statesman motor car at the time so I selected a few of my drinking pals and we drove to Port Lincoln on a long weekend in October. Guess what? The bus got home Monday night and Kempy got home Thursday night. It was a BIG weekend! It was one of the greatest thrills of my life winning that premiership.
One Tuesday we had this turn-out, and I knew I had to go to the abattoirs the next morning so I got home about 11 o’clock and I got up next morning at 6 o’clock to get ready to go to the market and I could hear one bloke still talking! He had the school teacher up against the wall and I could hear him without even going over to the footy shed because it was right opposite our house. I went over to see who he had baled up and found it was the school teacher. I was talking to the school teacher later in the afternoon down at the pub and I said, “Gee you were very quiet this morning Des.” He said, “Never have I wanted to say so much and never got a chance to say it!”
The next year we got to the preliminary final again but disappointingly we got beaten with about 8 seconds to go. Then in 1964 we went top again! - Another great thrill. From then on it got harder to have a club because we lost our Roseworthy Oval due to the government compulsorily acquiring some of the land. Some of the players went Wasleys way and some went Freeling way to play footy. Most of the footy team were children from the railways with no transport. I used to take them to the matches on the back of my truck. There was no insurance or anything then. I took my turn at being secretary and treasurer of the Roseworthy Football Club. I even knocked back the job of being President. I was also made a Life Member of the Club.
It was a great social club. When some-one got married we’d have some ‘fun and games’ and if we had a blackboard lecture or a meeting or something we’d always have a few grogs afterwards. Then in 2008 we had a 60 years re-union of the Roseworthy premiership side at the Roseworthy Pub and seven players turned up along with the time-keeper who was 90! There were two apologies and it was a wonderful day.
1965 I joined Central Districts Football Club and we had a lot of fun there too. We had 15 picnics at my place to fund-raise and the ‘poms’ used to love it. We had steer riding and bull-dogging and the mobs were calling out, “Get them in again Kempy! Get them in
again!” The trouble was that when they were watching the steer rides they weren’t drinking any beer, and that’s what we were there for! However, we raised a lot of money for Centrals.
At one of the picnics I said, “Tell everyone I’ll shear a sheep blindfold with the blades.” So I got the mob together and everyone rushed over to see Kempy shear the sheep blindfolded. I pulled the sheep in and got the shears all ready then I blind-folded the sheep! And I stole the show! The bloke that used to be MC at the picnics was a radio announcer called ‘Pilko’. He loved to come to the picnics. He finished up working for the radio only this week (December 2010). I have a photo of him.
I’m still a Central District Football Club member and supporter. In the past I have been a member of the Vice Presidents Club. As a matter of fact I go to the cattle market every Monday and wear my red, white and blue Central District cap and people rubbish me a bit and I say, ‘if you can’t beat them you had better bloody well join them!’
When Glenelg Football Club went top about 1973 Bob Wilson from Wertaloona Station who was a great Bay supporter, thought he’d put on a picnic race meeting to wind up the season out at Wertaloona. John H. Ellers was the chairman of the Bays at the time and Graham Ferrett was on the organising committee. The rules were ‘no ring-in horses’ - they had to be neighbouring horses off either Frome or Wertaloona. So Bob and his stockmen selected the best team they could find and so did the others. I went up two or three days before and helped him number and name the horses ready for the day. I was the starter on the day too. The meeting was on a straight course down the air-strip. The jockeys were the station-hands, black and white. They were great. They had a Lady’s Race too. There were 8-10 in a race and it was fun. You could have an illegal bet if you wanted to.
The Glenelg Club sent up an advance party to set up a marquee for the dance, a barbecue and ‘fun and games’ at night. A lot of people came from Adelaide. There was a band and every thing in the shearing shed. ‘Cornsey’ (Graham Cornes) was a team member and Neil Kerley was the coach of Glenelg at the time. The day before Bob and I had taken some horses down to the horse paddock and were just coming back as the advance party were setting things up and noticed John H. Ellis was shifting a drum. Bob said, “What’s that bugger think he’s doin’!” So he put his heels into his horse and went straight up to him and said, “Put that back!” John said, “I want it over here.” Bob said, “I want it where it was and I’m the bloody boss.” John said, “I’m John H. Ellers.” Bob said, “I’m Bob bloody Wilson and I’m the boss while you’re up here. Put it back!” So he did. I don’t think the Bays have been top since. However, that weekend we had lots of ‘fun and games’ - especially after the dance! Bob loves the grog but he wouldn’t have any grog until the show was finished. Next morning they were kicking on a bit, Neil Curley was there, and I thought well, if I get caught up in this I won’t get away today. So I went back and got my gear together and jumped in my car and went past them and called out, “See you next year, boys!” They said, “Come back here Kempy!” I said, “No way. I’m getting home.” I gave Ellen a real surprise getting home early. It took me seven hours.
GETTING MARRIED
Our first night out was on the 20th October 1942 to the local dance in the Roseworthy Soldiers Memorial Hall, which was an important part of the community in those days. At that time there was a dance each weekend at places like Wasleys, Freeling, Hamley Bridge and Roseworthy. I had already told Ellen’s father that we were getting married and they were happy about it. We bought an engagement ring at Budgen’s in Adelaide after having to get a bit more money from Elders to pay for it. I was married on the 25th of October 1947 in the Tod Street Methodist Church after five years of courting. Ellen’s attendants were her sister Joan, who is still alive today, and Valma Hansen. They were matrons of honour. Valma was one of Ellen’s school mates. My best man was my brother Malcolm and my groomsman was Ashley Day, who was a great mate of mine. We did a lot of things together over the years which were mainly associated with horses. Ashley is still alive today at 85 and we see him occasionally. The last time I rode a horse I was 81 years of age and I rode it to the Roseworthy Pub. Ashley came out from Willaston and Doug Bennett also came and had a counter lunch there with me. Our wedding reception was held in the Tod Street Church Hall. After we were married we spent our first night at the Sir John Franklin Hotel in Kapunda. Then we went in a Hilman ute to Renmark for a couple of days, then drove down the river to Mannum, Murray Bridge and finished up at Victor Harbour. Money restricted us doing any more as it was tough in those days. We’ve always tried not to get in debt.
We lived the first three years with Ellen’s parents. As Ellen’s parents were getting on a bit Ellen cared for her mother which was good. They lived at Waterside, opposite where Ahren’s Engineering Company is now, on the Kapunda road in the old house there. We moved to Roseworthy in September 1950. The contract price for building the house was two thousand five hundred and fourteen pounds. We wanted to have our own home. Ellen’s parents were very good to us. They even gave us a couple of cows and some chooks. One night I came home from work and everyone was unhappy as the bloody crows had taken the eggs. “That’s alright,” I said, “We’ve got wet sheep tomorrow, I’ll get him.” So Ellen says to me, “Its still there down the yard.” So I got my gun and stuck it through the window, aimed and pulled the trigger - ‘Bang!’ The crow flew away and I got a white leghorn fowl instead! I picked the chook up, put it in the corn crusher and put a bag over it. The next thing Ellen says out the window is, “Did you get him?” I had to tell her the truth as there were white feathers blowing all around the yard. She straightaway said, “Don’t throw it away it’s only a young one. We’ll eat it!” So we did. We plucked it and ate it. At the time we still got around in horse and cart. I shore at most of the farms around there then. I stacked and stooked hay and sewed bags of grain - anything for a dollar. Even so, as we were building the house we only could afford the bare necessities so we furnished only what we could afford to furnish first.
Peter arrived on the 28th of November 1948. We went to church on the Sunday afternoon and I was down milking the cow when Ellen’s mother came over and said, “I think you’d better take Ellen to hospital.” I said, “Just wait till I’ve finished milking the cow.” She said, “You haven’t got time to wait!” We christened him Peter Malcolm because he was born in the afternoon or the ‘PM’ part of the day. Ellen was a very good left-handed tennis player. She even won the Gawler Singles Tennis Championship when she was three months pregnant. She was always good at sport – much better than I was
References
Memories of Kemp Dudley
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