Notes From Raymond Gordon Williams 1896-1968

Archie's Mum

Archie's Mum

Always digging up clues
The following notes were written by Raymond in 1967, 6 months before he passed away.
Raymond Gordon Williams was the uncle of my husband, the grandfather of @cuz'n Kezz and the great uncle of @Postiematt.
'I Raymond Gordon Williams, now 71 years old was born in Cargo (NSW) 23 miles from Orange on the 29th April 1896. I was the fourth living son of Frederick and Ada Williams, nee Grounds. We were poor at the time but somehow had enough to eat but many times I can remember going to bed wishing we had a little more but our parents done the best they could. As we go, time went and we grew into a larger family. I think there were about 16 of us but by the time I left school which was about 12 years of age or later, 11 of us, 8 boys and three girls. 5 died during the time I was born. Percy, he was one year older than me and was 9 when he died. After that there was Charlotte, Clive and two others died in infancy.
Well Cargo was an early gold mining place and farming which it is today. Children of today might think they don't know how lucky they are at least up to the time I am writing this story.
We lived in two or three houses along side one another. Our beds were generally made up from clean straw which was very good to sleep on and blankets into wagga rugs. This rug was made up by sewing wheat bags together which I might say were very warm when we snuggled up together. The houses or huts were roofed in stringy bark or other bark stripped from trees and quite waterproof and cool too in summer.
Our grandparents Williams lived just down from us in houses grouped like a square much the same as you would find them in England outside the city and so my life begun'
Episode two later, if I may.....
It was such a joy to read this when it was sent to me that I just have to share and it was such a wakeup for me to realise how very poor some of my relatives were. How lucky we are that Raymond thought to put this on paper for his family.
I'll be back with more tomorrow.
 
Here we go, episode two......
'We did not find it lonely as we made our fun hunting rabbits, hares, foxes and looking for birds nests. Going over to the batteries that were stamping the gold quartz. There were three batteries at Cargo during the early days all crushing quartz which contained rich veins of gold. Old Granny Williams had a lot of turkeys, geese, and fowls and a few pigs and cows. Old Uncle Will had about 50 or 70 sheep. As young children we used to bring them in of a night in small yards then they would wander the town common for grass during the day. Dad used to work at anything. Sometimes he was down the gold mines other times doing seasonal work around farms clearing out trees off the land to get it ready for planting wheat. Then he drove the small mail coach from Orange to Cargo for about twelve months or so for one pound a week. The same kind of coaches you see in the pictures, wild west of America.
Well I went to school at Cargo till I entered 5th class then to Bathurst. Jont (brother David Jonathon) went till he got his leaving certificate. He was 13 then.
I went to about 12 1/2. It was just about the time the first American Fleet visited Sydney-1908.
When we boys got out of school in the afternoon we would wander over to Byrnes slaughter house and watch Dad kill a bullock. I think he would do about two a week as well as sheep in the little hamlet of Cargo, which boasted to the day's I am talking about. Three hotels, the Royal, Commercial, HM Collins Hotel. It also had a bank which was robbed about 1901 and four hundred pounds was taken. Dad knew who done the job, he heard chaps talking about it but he never let on. An informer would get short shrift in those days from the many hardened miners and other rough characters.....'
More later....
 
'1900 was a big drought and it lasted for about eighteen months. After that came the rains and the grass and undergrowth was very high about 1901. Then came the red sheet of bush fires and it took toll of hundreds of square miles of country. We used to go up on top of New Chum Hill and look as far as the eye could see and watch fires at night. In about 1904 more heavy rains fell and that year there were many floods around the Orange district and the Central Plains and the South West Slopes Lachlan Valley. All these seasons I can remember, then they were good. Then came the swarms of grasshoppers. I have seen fields standing lovely and green on my way to school and when we came back home everywhere would be eaten out by the pests. People would walk a line of fire then beat it down to create a pall of smoke for miles around to try and shift them. But it was a hopeless job. When I saw them I thought of the plague of locust in Egypt.. Of course those days Australia did not have as much stock as it does today. I think the population of Australia in 1904 was about 3 1/4 million people. Could have been less.. Now to skip a few years. Life was very hum drum existence. Of course being young we would only be looking forward to the yearly town sports or picnics. Bike races were very popular at those times. Cricket, football. People used to go to church on Sunday and we as kids went to Sunday School. We left Cargo about 1909 but I went to Canowindra before that and went to work at Marshalls butchers as order boy'
 
Been scrolling through Trove and seems there were gold leases granted on New Chum Hill at Cargo. So apart from Kiandra and Cargo there is also one near Ballarat. Most confusing. :confused:
 
Archie's Mum said:
I did check that out but New Chum Hill is at Kiandra, a long way from Cargo in the Central West. There must have been a local hill given the same name but I can't find it anywhere. Maybe just a local name for something else. Thanks.
Click to expand...
Sorry, I don't know NSW at all really.:)
 
'They extended the railway from Cowra to Canowindra about that time and we used to serve a lot of navvies (railway construction workers). They used to live in bagged huts and tents.Their boarding houses were run by wives of some of them and it was keen competition amongst the four butchers to get their custom and don't forget these people wanted nothing but the best cuts. Many times these workers would give me some of the meat to take back home. I'd have come back again with another lot. Boy! What would people give now for that prime meat those old bags would turn their noses up at. The railway was opened about 1911 or 1912, I am not sure. I had left the butchers then and went out doing seasonal work such as suckering which consisted of knocking off side shoots around trees, corn pulling, looking after and changing the horse teams for the harvesting then following the chaff cutting season, sleeping out under the stars. Boy what a life but it was good fresh air, just waiting for the 12 o'clock whistle from the tractor engine and into the sulkies or on our bikes to ride home about 8 or 10 miles, have a bath, which was generally a weeks dirt. Down the street to meet our mates, having a hop beer and finishing up at Con the Greeks, ham and eggs and so forth for 1/6d and then getting together lads and lasses and singing our way homeward. Sunday, having a game of rounders with the girls and every Sunday morning a game of cricket in the season. Going down sometimes at 4 or 5 in the evening having a swim in the river, then home for tea. Probably a game of cards at night. At least those days everything was clean. Nothing like things that go on today. I often wonder whether progress is worth giving a lot of those things up for'.
 
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This is as far as I will go because now we get to when Raymond joined the army in 1916 and some other previous paragraphs are not particularly politically correct. So best I try not to use other words as it just isn't Raymond. Words and descriptions that were fine back then but not so much now.:rolleyes:
Later today, some notes made by his 'little' brother Ronnie.
 
Ronald Hubert Williams 1913-2006-
Moving on from his older brother, some bits and bobs that Ronnie has penned.......
'We shifted back down to Canowindra in 1920, in time for me and Dorrie (his niece who was orphaned when her Dad was killed in WW1) and myself to go to school, both being 7 years old and of school age. We shared accommodation in Grannal's old shop but left there in a hurry when Mum caught our co-tenant washing her kid's dirty.......in Mum's good mixing bowl that she used for cooking...panic all round. We had to shift in a hurry. We then shifted to Dan Ryan's house in Rodd Street. Corrugated iron roof, hot as hell in summer and cold as a bullfrogs nose in winter. But did we thrive? You bet. No electricity, no inside tap from the tank which was our only water supply. All together bath night (Saturday), one after the other of course. The tub wouldn't take the mob all at once anyway. Always a dash of castor oil and sugar to keep us well and truly oiled for the dash to the dunny.'
'Harking back to Cargo, it was a busy place. 4 pubs and a big mine called Coldan Copper Mine. There was plenty of uncovered mine shafts. Hazel (sister) had the misfortune to fall down one once. Luckily she escaped any injury. It was believed it was her crinoline petticoats that saved her when they opened up like a parachute and let her down safely :D. Uncle Dave went down to get her and brought her back, safe and sound. With all the mine shafts around I'll bet all the old drunks kept well away whilst staggering home'
 
And the best part about this wonderful family is as many of them as there were, none of them ever were in serious trouble. No one belted their wives nor did they drink heavily. They were the best parents and grandparents any family could have. Raymond mentions that his grandparents were Welsh free settlers. His grandfather was only free when the Governor let him go free and I'm not about to spoil the illusion.;)
 
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