A Tale of Two Brothers

Warwick Douglas Thomas was born at Shellharbour 9 September 1912. His brother Noel Francis Thomas was born 16 November 1915.

After enlisting in the Army in 1939 and 1940 respectively the Thomas brothers served their country in the Middle East and both arrived home to Australia safely, however both met with accidents and were tragically killed shortly after their return home.

The Thomas brothers were raised at ‘St Ives’ dairy farm at Dunmore. Warwick, the third brother of ten children was keenly interested in farming and land management. He was also a Sunday School teacher, good at tennis, and loved swimming, horses and his motor bike. Warwick was engaged to Grace Campbell from Mascot in 1943 when a terrible accident occurred. It seems Warwick left a train while it was moving near Goulburn Station, and stunned himself. He crawled onto the railway line and was hit by an oncoming train. He died instantly.

Noel Thomas was a Surveyor and was away from home a great deal of the time. He had been promoted to Lieutenant in 1942 and served with the first Australian Railway Company. An         article appearing in the Australian Surveyor booklet stated ‘Lieutenant NF Thomas who died of injuries accidentally received in Northern Territory 17 April 1944 was born at Shellharbour, NSW...In 1940 he enlisted in the AIF and went to the Middle East where he won his commission in the field. He returned to Australia early in 1943 and was transferred to railway construction work’.

Noel Thomas was one of the original members of the railway unit during the construction of the Beirut to Tripoli line. The tragedy of his death was a severe blow to the whole unit for there was no one in the unit more popular than Lieutenant Thomas. He had been driving his platoon in a dust storm in the Northern Territory at the time and came into a collision with another army vehicle. Sadly, he too died from his injuries.

‘They Served Their Country and Then’ by Joyce Bailey (Joyce Whatman)

 

Warwick Thomas
Joyce Whatman collection.

Noel Thomas
Joyce Thomas collection.

 

 

Gabrielle Timbs

Gabrielle Timbs was the victim of polio at the young age of two or three and was confined to a wheelchair all of her life.

Gabrielle attended St Joseph’s Convent School (now St Paul’s) at Albion Park with one of her brothers pushing her to and from school. In later years her cousins from Rosetta Hill farm at Mount Terry would take her to and from school before making the journey home again.

From very early on Gabrielle was encouraged to sew and on leaving school she took classes at Wollongong Technical College, travelling there by train.

Gabrielle became a qualified dressmaker and worked from the family home Moculbo, Tongarra Road, Albion Park (now demolished). Initially Gabrielle did all of her sewing by hand before acquiring a hand operated machine.

Every year the Timbs family would spend six weeks in a cottage at Manly for the holidays and Gabrielle loved it. The family rode ferry’s and saw the latest shows and musicals.

Gabrielle moved to Manly permanently with her family in 1937 and set up a dressmaking school under the name Mena Brielle. She had up to 100 pupils at a time and conducted evening classes at home as well.

Gabrielle was an expert pattern drafter and could create patterns from simple photographs or drawings. Her skills were widely known and holiday makers would go to her for measurements and to have patterns drafted. These patterns were then posted to the clients home to be made and were always an excellent fit.

 Gabrielle retired from dressmaking when she was in her 70s. She died 17 October 1988 aged 86 years.

‘Journey Through Timbs’, Timbs Family Tree Incorporated, 1997.

 

Gabrielle Timbs 1902-1988.
Shellharbour Images, Shellharbour City Libraries.

 

Charles Daubeny Bateman

Charles Daubeny Bateman was born in 1892, the 8^th child of 11 known children born to Dr. Arthur Wigley Bateman and Anna Louisa Kennedy.

Dr Arthur Bateman built the family home ‘Ravensthorpe’ at Albion Park in 1893 and had a small surgery in a detached building next to the house. He lived there with his family until his death on 1899 when he was just 54 years old.

 

Charles’ eldest sister Mary Louisa Daubeny Bateman married John Raftery and they lived at the Commercial Hotel at the crossroads at Albion Park which was operated by the Raftery family for 74 years. About 1921, John Raftery purchased ‘Ravensthorpe’ from his wife’s parents for 1900 pounds and the Raftery family lived there until 1974.

Charles followed in his father’s footsteps, also becoming a doctor. He studied at the University of Sydney Alumni; graduating Bachelor of Medicine in 1915 and Master of Surgery in 1916. On enlistment with the AIF in 1916, his address was Royal Prince Alfred Hospital Camperdown.

In 1922 Charles married Dorothea Loveday in Sydney and lived in Windsor and Newport for many years. He died in 1979 aged 86 years and is buried at the Albion Park Anglican Cemetery.

 

Charles Daubeny Bateman
Tongarra Museum collection.

Grey's Milk Run

This story gratefully contributed to Tongarra Museum by Bob Grey.

In the years immediately after World War Two the Milk Board decided to extend regular home delivery of milk into Oak Flats.  Regular consumption of milk was considered essential for public health and the Board had an obligation to ensure it was readily available to as many people as possible.

Keith Grey farmed jersey cows which produced lots of cream and after a good deal of persuading he started deliveries in July 1947.  The first day he sold a total of 23 litres.  It was all unpasteurised, direct from the farm.  When the run grew a bit, Keith’s son Bob started helping him before school and at weekends. When Bob left school he started working full time for the milkman.

Oak Flats in the late forties was the original Struggletown.  No one had much money.  There were a couple of small shops and not much else.  No school, no other facilities at all.  A lot of the ‘houses’ were just fibro garages which people would build and live in until they could get enough money together to start on the main building.  Despite (or because of) all this, the town had a great sense of community.  Everyone knew everyone else and everyone was prepared to help their neighbour.

Apart from Central Avenue, the roads were either just lines on a map or at best, a narrow strip of blue metal meandering through the trees.  Delivering milk the Grey’s would mostly just head along one of the many tracks which left the gazetted road and dodge through the trees until they met up with another road.

During one long spell of wet weather they could not get the truck into most of the area west of what is now Moore Street.  They would drive in as far as they could, then Bob would put about 25 litres of milk into two small cans and deliver it to homes in the inaccessible areas while his father would drive back out and meet him at the next accessible spot.

Over time Oak Flats gradually grew. The majority of the new arrivals were migrants from Britain and Europe. The ones who came from cold climates must have thought they were in hell; living in a fibro shed with unlined corrugated iron roof in the midst of a scorching summer. But they mostly stuck it out, raised families and generally prospered. In the main, they were great people who worked incredibly hard to build a future.

When they celebrated a wedding or other major event, some of them could also celebrate with gusto. When delivering milk in the early hours of the morning the last thing you needed was to be pulled into a party for a drink or two. For this reason the Greys were always very very quiet when they were  delivering anywhere near a celebration. It wasn't that they didn’t appreciate their hospitality, it was just that they were very hospitable and they Grey’s had a job to do and they did it better while sober.

It is easy to remember the hard things about those days. Working seven days a week in all weathers. The rain that saturated you for days on end, the westerly winds, the heat, the flies. Carrying heavy cans of milk for a nasty customer.

The memories that linger for Bob the longest are of the friendliness of people their open hearted acceptance of life and their toughness and tenacity in building a place for themselves and their family.

As the town grew the business grew with it. They Grey’s were able to take on an employee. This meant that after years of working seven days a week they could have a day off.  Deliveries were still seven days a week, 365 days a year, but they were each able to sleep in one day a week.

Gradually the town changed. New shops, better roads, a school and lots more people. The business grew it until one day Bob realized that he no longer knew every customer. That was when he realized that Oak Flats had grown up.

Bob spent more than thirty years delivering milk around Oak Flats. He made a lot of friends, some of them are still his friends today. But in his opinion the toughest and the best years were when the town and he were both young.

‘Grey’s Milk Run’ story and image of Keith Grey, contributed to Tongarra Museum, by Bob Grey 2007.

 

Keith Grey on the milk run in Central Avenue Oak Flats.
Shellharbour Images Shellharbour City Libraries.