Life in a small town along the Murray River in South Australia ended on completion of secondary school studies. With plans to become a secondary school teacher, my life as a student of agricultural science began in the early seventies at the Roseworthy campus near Adelaide. College Farm A broad range of enterprises were managed on the college farm, each having distinctive sounds and odours. Poultry sheds were always accompanied by the strong smell of ammonia, the piggery had an all-pervading smell of waste that never left one’s clothes throughout the day, the shearing shed had a strong smell of lint and sheep dung while the dairy smelt of lactating cows mingled with fresh cow pads. There was also a vineyard, orchard, vegetable garden and a winery for students who were to become winemakers. Students were rostered to work in all of the many college enterprises between days for...
My Rural Experiences
The Murray
Our family moved to South Australia in the early nineteen sixties and to a very different world. No more carefree days – everyone had works to do. Golden Harvest My teenage years were spent in the arid horticultural districts that rely on irrigation water obtained from the Murray River. We cultivated apricots, grapes and citrus crops and as we got older our responsibilities increased. School holidays meant cutting and drying apricots. This was done by hand using a small curved knife, and for about a month during the summer holidays we sliced and slopped our way through buckets of sometimes over ripe fruit to be placed on drying trays. Plenty of band aids were kept at hand as everyone would cut a finger sooner or later. Quick reflexes and steady hands were needed in order to achieve a satisfactory quota of at least 40 trays each day. Stacks of...
Far North Queensland
Much time is spent doing simple repetitive tasks while maintaining the hobby farm. Menial tasks such as weeding or watering allow the mind to relax, wandering to past and distant places. Images, sounds and smells come freely when in a peaceful and reflective mood. Hunters And Gatherers Reminders of my life journey from the late nineteen fifties to the early seventies are signposted by the many wild and cultivated plants found within the agricultural and horticultural districts throughout Australia. On arrival to Australia our family first moved to the sugarcane fields of North Queensland. My earliest memories include images of mango trees laden with large aromatic yellow-orange fruit, succulent guavas and the acidic tang of star apple fruits. As a treat we cut sugar cane stems, chewing the sweet fibrous flesh. We hunted and foraged as a group of mostly immigrant kids, raiding watermelon and sweet corn patches, digging...