Sepia Saturday: Mallee

Bring back the hats, I say. Aren't they fabulous? So for this week's Sepia Saturday theme photo I had to go searching through my albums for photos of men in hats. It turns out I have quite a few but somehow one stood out, and it's taking me off on a tangent.

Uncle Jack Larkin has lived most of his 90 years in the north-west of Victoria, Australia. He farmed wheat in an area that we call the mallee. Mallee is dry sandy country that supports mallee eucalypt trees that are short and multi-stemmed. Uncle Jack developed a strong conservation ethic at a time when it was unusual and loved every aspect of his natural and social environment.

Here he is (with folded arms) in the middle of some mallee with a mate and I'm on theme because they're both wearing the obligatory hats. Hats were also essential because the summers in the north of Victoria are extremely long and hot.  They are standing next to a malleefowl nest.

Jack Larkin and a mate admiring a malleefowl nest in Victoria's mallee.

And this is where I go off on a tangent because I'm going to talk about malleefowls. They are astonishing birds.

Malleefowls live in the mallee and are about the size of a large domestic chicken. In winter the male starts to build a nest on the ground. He scrapes out a hole about a metre across and deep and then starts to fill it with organic material - leaves, bark and sticks - gleaned from the surrounding area. He mounds the organic material then covers the whole lot with a layer of sand. After it rains he turns and mixes the material and the female lays two or three eggs which are covered with the material. The birds don't sit on the eggs at all. The male continues to add sand to the top layer as the temperature increases in summer and the rotting vegetation creates its own heat. The remarkable thing is that the temperature of the nest is regulated every day by the removal or addition of sand and organic matter The male tests the temperature with his tongue and he maintains it at a temperature of 33 degrees centigrade. After about 100 days the newly-hatched chicks dig their way out - not an easy job and it takes from 2 to 15 hours! And, after all the effort by the male during the incubation, the adults have nothing to do with them after they've emerged. They're on their own. You can read more about these fascinating birds here.

All of this for two or three eggs.

So there you are. Nothing to do with hats at all, but you can see what others have written about hats over on the Sepia Saturday page.

Sepia Saturday: Naomi and Mabel

The theme photo for this week's Sepia Saturday

A lady standing in a doorway to have her photo taken. That should be easy. I should have plenty of photos to match that theme. Huh, famous last words. I found people standing on steps, on verandahs and in front gardens. But doorways? Only two!

Naomi Wyllie nee Milgate

My Grandfather's aunt, Naomi, was born in Jacobs Creek in South Australia. Her family moved to the Wimmera district of Victoria and it's there that she met William Thomas Wyllie, a farmer at Dunmunkle. They married in 1885 and had four daughters.

They moved to Melbourne and for a number of years lived in a house called 'Lilydare' in Burwood. There's a nameplate in the photo but it isn't quite clear enough for me to read it so I'm not sure if it's that house.

It looks like Naomi has been called out to have her photo taken and she hasn't even removed her apron, just like the lady in our theme photo.

Naomi died in 1945 at the age of 83.

Mabel Lydia Larkin nee Quick

Mabel Lydia Quick was an English girl who met an Australian soldier during World War 1. She travelled out to Victoria after the war and married him in Melbourne. He took her up to the hot and dry mallee country in northern Victoria where he had a farm. She is the mother of my husband's uncle, Jack Larkin.

This photo is of Mabel Lydia standing in the door of their home. There was almost no water so gardens and lawns were almost impossible. Heat, drought, mice plagues, very cold winter nights, dust storms, lack of water, unreliable crop harvests - what a shock for an English lass!

Sepia Saturday: A brace of photos

The theme photo for Sepia Saturday this week includes three men, braces, newspaper, jazz musician and striped trousers. I've chosen some family photos of people wearing braces (suspenders).

Uncle Jack, standing left in the photo below, was a crack shot. But in Australia there really wasn't much to shoot at in the 1930s apart from kangaroos and rabbits. Rabbits were in absolutely plague proportions and a complete menace to the environment and the farming community but in the depression years they were an important source of food. But somehow I think this photo is just for fun. The caption reads 'The Big Game Hunters' and Jack and his mates, Malcolm and Mick, appear to have shot only two or three rabbits. All lived and farmed in Kooloonong in Victoria's Mallee. I saw Malcolm several months ago at Jack's wife, Lena's, 90th birthday and he had quite a few yarns to tell. He probably left out the best ones.

The Big Game Hunters (with two rabbits), Jack Larkin (left), Malcolm Macfarlane & Mick Murphy
 at Kooloonong, Victoria

And this is Jack's father-in-law Ralph Alford. Everyone loved Ralph. He was a farmer at Mologa and in this photo he's wearing his work clothes. Maybe he was just home for a cuppa and one of his daughters said 'Stand there for a minute dad.'

Ralph Alford, Mologa

Another of Ralph's daughters, Shirley, married the kid in the centre of the photo below. Neil Phelan turned 90 a month ago so we had another party! And there's Neil's uncle Gib with him, wearing braces and a tie so I think they've probably been to church.

Gibson Phelan, Neil Phelan (b. 1923) and Ina Phelan at Mitiamo, Victoria

And here are Neil's brothers, Doug and Keith. This time Doug gets to wear the braces but he probably didn't have a choice. Mum would have told him what to wear.

Doug Phelan and Keith Phelan, Mitiamo

And lastly, this is me about 1950. My mum used to draft the patterns and sew most of our clothes, and there are a few photos of us kids wearing shoulder straps of various kinds. These straps would have been buttoned on to the skirt. It looks grubby and so do my knees so I hope I hadn't just got back from church!

Yours truly

You can read more jazzy blogs on the theme over at Sepia Saturday's webpage.