Bolderrow Family

Being a Bolderrow July 2011.
by Elsie Osborn

Our Grandfather, John Bolderrow 1868-1950, was born in Runcorn, Cheshire, England. He emigrated from Norfolk England to Brisbane on the Ship”Jumna” at the age of 20. John married Ellen Louisa Edmunds (1869-1924) at Maryborough. Ellen was born in Tarlo Gap Goulburn NSW. They raised four children in the Tiaro district; they were Fredrick John b. 1892, Leila Ruby May b. 1894, Barbara b. 1897, Elma b. 1900 and Albert James b. 1905.
Our father Fredrick John married Ethel Marion Johnstone in 1919, and they were blessed with four children: Ethel (Jean), William (Bill), Robert (Mel), and Elsie.

Employment. John Bolderrow and his son Fredrick were blacksmiths and wheel rights at Tiaro and Gundiah in the 1920’s or there about. They used to commute between Tiaro and Gundiah, by horse and Cart and pony, respectively. They sold the business and purchased a 640 acre block at Gootchie that was run down and mostly in a virgin state, no timber was allowed to be cut less than 54” inch center girth. They had some beautiful timber and the saw millers drove them mad trying to purchase the timber.
Enjoyment. Granddad used to work on the bushes 6 days a week from daylight to dusk and every month would get the train to Tiaro to go to his lodge and play Knap at the local watering hole which he like too much. They either owned or leased the Royal Hotel for a number of years.

War Time. During the war every soldier that went away was given a send-off and a gift from the area and a lot of dances were held midweek, the boys would get the train at Gundiah at about 11 o’clock at night and we would give them a rowdy sendoff. During the war the Japanese dropped a bomb on Townsville and the army went past our place for days nonstop and when the submarines came to Sydney Harbour some went back. We picked up everything from a screw to a 44 gal drum of petrol. We kids stopped the yanks and told them but they said tell your Dad he can have it its too heavy for us. The army on several occasions commandeered Dad’s ute. The Yanks blew a tyre and so did the Aussies. The Yanks sent 5 tyres and the Aussies one.

Lifestyle. They milked up to a 100 cows–all of them grass-fed, and farmed with no tractor–just horse power. Water was a big problem during the droughts. We had a 5000 gallon tank and we never wasted a drop (4 kids all bathed in the same water).
Meat and vegies were delivered from Bauple and Gundiah; Bob Hale would do a run from Paterson Siding to Gunalda and back to Gundiah three times a week in the horse and cart. Those days meat would only keep a few days as we had no refrigeration during the war. We purchased a fridge from Nahrungs at Miva. Bert Baker had a Post Office Store at Bauple and they delivered any thing you were short of. We lived pretty well I suppose, we had plenty of poultry, wild ducks and fish. Jean and Bill went to Gundiah and Gootchie schools and then Bill, Mel and Elsie went to Kanighan about a 5 mile’s on the roughest road you can imagine.
After the war various members of the family ran the farm and Jean and her husband Dinny ran it for several years and when they sold the farm, the Millers took all the trees for sleepers and the farm was broken up into smaller farms, now held by several owners.

Community. Dad was a member of the Tiaro Council for 22 years and was disappointed that Mel would not take it on; Mum was a foundation member of the Gootchie CWA. We all worked very hard and long hours, but they were the good days.
We thank Elsie Osborn for sharing her family history with us.