In 1912, Herbert Spencer Westcott (who had been in the Merchant Navy, & was Acting Captain on some of Queensland’s coastal vessels)... was retrenched when there was a strike amongst sailors, & all shipping was tied up.
My recallable memories of Catumnal date from around the time I was 2 years old in 1920. I remember there was always a telephone line available for local calls or links to Brisbane or other places interstate.
Isaac Westcott was born in Taunton, Somerset in 1818. He sailed for Australia, at the age of twenty-two years, from Plymouth in 1840 on the Barque Orient at a cost of 19 pounds!
Document prepared for the Centerary of Catumnal celebrations in 2012. Contains mostly duplicate information from 'Westcott Family History' but contains additional information.
The story of Isaac Westcott & his wife Mary Ann, has been copied by, and is preserved for Posterity – Latrobe Library, Melbourne; Geelong Historical Society; Barrabool Hills Historical Society; Methodist Church Historical Society.
When I was nearly 5 years old it was decided that my mother and baby Dick, Nell and I should spend the three hot months of the year at Yeppoon, and that it would be good for me to go to school there and have the company of other children.
One day when riding a little chestnut night-horse along beside a claypan on Cattle Creek I found myself in rather a dreamy mood. I had a short flat shovel in a saddle pack round her neck and was looking for young Bathurst burr needing to be dug out.
We’d had a good year and the grass was abundant and high. This summer of course had been scorching hot so after early rains grass was dry and wheat coloured but full of nutriment and goodness.
When I was nearly 5 years old it was decided that my mother and baby Dick, Nell and I should spend the three hot months of the year at Yeppoon, and that it would be good for me to go to school there and have the company of other children.
Our gymkhanas were tremendously popular with all the youngsters within 100 miles of each other. They were held at ‘Beryl’, the Jim Crombie’s place and all families were accommodated in the large shearers quarters with its cold showers and pit toilets and wooden mattressed beds.
Information for the Centenary Celebrations at Catumnal Station in 2012. Contributed in December 2001 by Mrs Enid Jean Fulton (nee Westcott), eldest child of Mr & Mrs Herbert Spencer Westcott
When I was young, Tower Hill race meeting was held at ‘Beryl’, the home of the Crombie’s, once a year. We always looked forward to it. It was patronised by people from near and far who brought their own grass fed horses and rode their entries themselves.
Often when riding around the countryside I congratulate myself on the lack of dangerous predators in Australia, in stark contrast to Africa with its lions, tigers and other bloodthirsty mammals to threaten the peace.
My Jackerooing days spread from 1918 to 1920. When Bert Westcott visited my family in Sydney early in 1918, he suggested to my father that he would give me a job as a Jackeroo.
Mum (Enid) was always very proud of her ancestors, their connections with this locality, and this Church. She collected all the information she could about her family’s history and was very keen to preserve it for the younger generations.
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