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The Adamthwaite Family at Quambatook
1878 - 1978
page 3 of 12
The first generation of the
Adamthwaite family could well remember seeing a Corroboree at a spot along
the river where the Quambatook Weir now stands. It is recorded that daughter
May (Mrs Davis), then only three years old, remembered all her life the
crying, howling and yelling of the aborigines as they participated in the
corroboree, with all its ancient ceremonial ritual. Around the river, the
trees stripped of bark may still be seen; the bark having been used as
lean-to shelters by the aborigines.
The first Quambatook Post
Office was set up in 1879 in the home of Joseph and Emma, and Emma was the
first Post Mistress. At the early age of nine or ten, the eldest son,
Edmund, used to ride on horseback to Glenloth to collect the first mail to
the district. In later years, the mail was brought by coach, which came
through from Glenloth (the rail head) to Quambatook and on to Kerang, three
days each week. A change of horses was made at Budgerum. It would have
been in the year 1893 or 1894 that the Post Office was moved into the town
area. In 1929, the present Post Office was built, and son Edmund was one of
the citizens who pressured the "powers that be" to obtain such a fine
building for the town (see below).
Dry seasons and droughts made
it imperative for the early farmers along the river to investigate the
possibility of constructing weirs at certain spots to provide water for
irrigation. Joseph was a member of the committee which researched these
possibilities, and due to that committee's recommendations, the first weir
was constructed in 1883 opposite the old home and Joseph was the first
farmer to use the water for irrigation purposes. These early settlers
dreamed of a day when irrigation would be possible on a large scale, but
because of the uncertain flow in the river, this dream was never realised.
In the very earliest days of
settlement, St. Arnaud was the nearest rail head, from which goods were
brought by bullock dray or waggon, and to which wheat was carted. Sometimes
the trip would be made with a small load of wheat which would be taken to
the flour mills to be ground, and then brought back as flour, pollard, bran,
etc.
Most settlers kept a few pigs,
a cow or two, and some poultry, so that the family was fed on porridge made
from ground wheat, from bread made of flour, eggs from the poultry, milk and
butter from the cow and bacon and pork from the pigs. As Fred, son of
Joseph, has written: "What if the porridge contained a few husks to scratch
your throat as it slid down; its roughness was the hallmark of quality."
Luxuries such as sugar and treacle had to be bought from stores at the rail
head. Bread was all homemade, and of course, the settlers slaughtered
their own meat. What a busy time Emma and her daughters must have had in
preparing and cooking family meals under these conditions. |
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