Please December 2019 VALE Peg Wolfe Take & Share · please contact us. Raymond was allocated lock 675. How did Raymond and his wife Valentine find out about a new settlement for servicemen

December 2019

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Printed as a community service by

Thanks to those who have hunted out some old Red Cliffs film footage for copying. We are still happy to accept any more you can loan us.

Produced by Red Cliffs & District Historical Society Editors: Chris Cook, Matt Cook, Helen Petschel PO Box 574 Red Cliffs 3496 [email protected] redcliffshistory.wordpress.com

[email protected]

Red Cliffs Centenary 2021

‘Once sand and Mallee scrub, in a few years returned soldiers converted it into a thriving dried-fruits district. Each year Christmas Eve is celebrated in the true Christmas spirit. The beautiful tree-lined streets are bedecked with flags, bunting and coloured electric bulbs. Settlers from the outlying wheat districts forget work, droughts and poor wheat prices, and converge on Red Cliffs from all points by car, buggy and jinker; fruit-blockers forget downy mildew and black spot, and all come to town… Sponsored by the local Chamber of Commerce, the celebrations start at 10 a.m. with a fancy dress procession; vehicles gaily decorated, floats representing tradespeople and sporting bodies, combine with hundreds of children, dressed as cowboys, Indians, fairy queens, etc. to make a colourful march, headed by the Caledonian bagpipe band…Traffic is banned from the main street this day. A large decorated truck with piano aboard is placed at a central point and provides a stage for local and visiting artists… The local picture theatre provides free entertainment for the kiddies, whilst busy parents do their shopping. Street stalls, raffles for geese, turkeys, etc. balloons and squeakers all have their fun in this happy, jostling throng. Truly a place where cares and worries are discarded.’ Western Mail (Perth). 28 Dec1939

This Christmas Red Cliffs celebrates with a special tree in the centre of town.

There is a long tradition of celebration in our town.

Read the report on Christmas in Red Cliffs 80 years ago...

Please Take & Share

Historical Society members met for a Christmas lunch in November as the final meeting for the year. Our next meeting will be 25th February at 7.30pm at the Court House. There will be a January/February Newsletter to be available for Australia Day.

School Christmas picnics are very special. East school history relates the memories of Beatrice Guinane [Toomer] at school 1939 - 44: ‘...when we gathered below the pumps to board the Paddlesteamer Avoca. We were bound for Horseshoe Bend for a picnic, races and special treats.’

Beatrice also writes in her school memories: ‘I didn’t remember it raining…the rainwater tanks… were often empty and drinking water became a problem. A couple of grade 8 boys would fill two waterbags...and hang them in the wattle trees. The children drank from a common cup tied to each bag, one for the boys and one for the girls...

We literally lived with the red sand for our entire school days… where we assembled to go into our rooms, the sand dune was slowly creeping up to the steps and the verandah. We dusted it from our desks and books, and we ate it in our sandwiches, but it was also our construction material. At playtime we would pile the sand up between our hands to make the walls of our play houses.’ 75 Years of Getting it Right, Christine Cook 1999

VALE Peg Wolfe 12 March 1920 -21 November 2019

Peg was one of Red Cliffs’ original citizens. As one of the early babies she had

witnessed all the development of Red Cliffs. Her parents were Sandie and Catherine Duncan and she was raised on Block 224. She married Ern Wolfe and remained

supportive and active with her family and community. She has been a founding

member of the Historical Society supporting her husband Ernie in establishing the interest and preservation of history in Red Cliffs. A life member of the Historical

Society and active until recently, she will be fondly remembered.

Christmas in the Red Cliffs Community We wish you a happy celebration

time and take care to make it a safe holiday season. We encourage you to join in some of the local planned activities: The Christmas Mini Fete at the Kinder is Sun 8th Dec from 11 am - 2 pm. Red Cliffs Carols by Candlelight - Barclay Sq. is on Friday 20th Dec 8.00pm.

Honouring Our Pioneer Servicemen Settlers

Until October 2021 this Newsletter will

inform you of the progressive stages in

creating Red Cliffs one hundred years ago.

Our pioneers selected their ‘beginning’ as the

day the water first ran in the channels.

That is why rather than celebrating 19th

December as our settlement centenary, we

are recognising October 2021 as 100 years of

Soldier Settlement. We recognise, as they

did, that water is our life blood.

A Wall of Honour comprising photographs of the first blockies in the Red Cliffs Soldier Settlement - this is one of our Centenary projects and we still need your help to complete it.

Friday January 31st 2020 is our deadline for photos.

We have 444 photos already but we still seek 281 settler’s photos. Some settlers were unable to manage to take up their allocation and these blocks were reallocated. An updated list can be found on our website. If you send your photo by email please scan at the highest dpi you can as this will produce the best image.

This month we recognise the conception of our settlement, 100 years ago.

After the Armistice of November 1918 Australia’s thoughts were focused on bringing those who served home and rewarding them with the prospects of a livelihood. Soldier settlements at Birdwoodton, Merbein West, and all over Australia were planned for this purpose. On New Years Eve, 1918 Alfred S Kenyon reported to the State Rivers & Water Supply Commission of the practicality of Red Cliffs as a Soldier Settlement and discussions got underway. It took until September 1919 for tangible action though!

In that month Kenyon recommended land be purchased from the liquidator of Chaffey Bros Ltd and a Mildura conference of RS SILA [now RSL] passed 13 resolutions supporting settlement at Red Cliffs.

On 19th December 1919 the Mildura RSSILA received the telegram announcing:

‘Red Cliffs will be secured for Soldier Settlement’.

Celebrating Red Cliffs’ 100th Birthday - Cup Weekend 2021

Bob Clavering viewing his grandfather’s block. One of the highlights of the trip to bring life to the stories of Red Cliffs passed down in his family.

Early this year Chris Cook had correspondence from Christine

Clavering from the UK asking about early Red Cliffs as her

grandfather Frank Thompson was an original settler. Chris

began a series of emails which not only gave Christine

information about the settlement but gave us an insight into

another of our settlers and a photo for our Wall of Honour.

The interest created within the Clavering family led to a

holiday in Australia and a few days in Red Cliffs by Christine's

brother Bob and his wife Anne earlier this month.

Frank and Veva Thompson were a couple of the many

overseas settlers who came to Red Cliffs to take up a Soldier

Settlement block. Frank’s service was as 2nd Lieutenant in

Frank Thompson

Block 705/706

the Royal Electrical Engineers. They were allocated Block 705 at

Cardross. This proved to be a difficult site and was reorganised to

include some of 706. Their two children were born here. Christine

and Bob’s mother began her schooling at Cardross. Unfortunately

Veva found the life too hard. She and the children went back to

England for her brother’s wedding. Frank followed shortly

afterward but couldn’t persuade her to come back to Red Cliffs.

Frank had been given 6 months leave to take the trip to England

and 4 years later he was still hoping to return. He never did, but he

kept fond memories of his time here. He died in 1975. Block

705/706 no longer has the vines, citrus and fruit trees the family

stories related but Bob and Anne found it planted to lucerne hay.

It is not generally realised but Red Cliffs settlement was not restricted to those serving in the AIF. Here are two of many of our Soldier Settlers who came from Europe.

Raymond Carlier served in a French infantry regiment. Before enlistment he worked as a small goods chef. As yet we don’t have a photo of Raymond for our Wall so if you can help please contact us. Raymond was allocated Block 675.

How did Raymond and his wife Valentine find out about a new settlement for servicemen in Australia?

His sister Paule was the wife of Leo Westhead and they were already pioneering on Block 36. Paule came from the village of Vignacourt. You may have heard of the glass-plate negatives found in a barn in Vignacourt in 2011 featuring 4000 photos of servicemen. We were contacted then, to help with identification, and this is the photo we sent to assist. It is their wedding photo. They met after the battle of Pozieres 1916 and were married in France.

Maybe the success of the Carlier’s settlement in Red Cliffs was family support. Paule and Raymond’s mother, Blanche also came here and ownership of block 27 was transferred to her in 1925. There were Westhead relatives on blocks 296, 310, 343, 461. Quite a family network.

Paule & Leo Westhead

Block 36