Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

STORIES AS TOLD BY GEOFFREY FRANCIS DANVERS (Son of Henry Danvers)

The stories below were told by Geoffrey at the age of 90 to his daughter Joyleen Packer nee Danvers.
Geoffrey's Grandmother Elizabeth McBride along with his mother Winnifred Vondy McBride ran a boarding house at Lake Bonney (near where the Bluebird café is today).
During this time there were a lot of men who came to stay. They were employed to row across Lake Bonney to build Nappers Bridge and they lived in tents and shacks at the boarding house.
During this time Winnifred met Henry Danvers. Due to being injured in the war Henry was officially discharged from the Australian Imperial Forces on 7th February 1918.
Henry and Winnifred married in the Barmera St Francis Xavier Catholic Church on 18 January 1921.

In the early 1920’s the Barmera area was identified as an area of primary production and to assist the resettlement of thousands of returned soldiers the State Governments Soldier Settler Scheme was put into place.
The returned soldiers who were entitled were allocated blocks to farm.
A returning soldier (unnamed) was allocated a 15 acre block on Germein Road. The soldier started putting in trellising for vines and found it was all too hard and walked off the block. This is when Henry offered him 5 pounds for his block which the solder accepted. Henry was also allocated 3 acres between Pike Road and the old Railway Station.
Henry and Winnifred worked this land along with their children (Magdalene Theresa, Joan Winnifred, Sheila Elizabeth, Kevin Charles, Geoffrey Francis and Irene May) until they retired.
All of the Danvers children were born in the Lady Weigall Hospital in Barmera.
As Barmera did not have a Catholic School we went to Our Lady of the River School in Berri. We would leave home at about 8:30 every morning and walk to the train station (even if it was hot or raining). It took about an hour to travel to Berri. Then we had a 3/4 hour walk from the Berri train station to the school. As we were always the last to arrive, we had to stay back at the end of the day and catch up on the work we missed in the morning. After school finished, we had to walk back to the Berri train station. Sometimes the local Sergeant would give us a lift in his car. We would arrive home at about 6 o'clock. We were given a government train pass to help with the cost of going on the train every day. I remember the Fulton and McBride families doing the same.

Some of the early settlers I remember in the Germein & Pike Road area were Wally Germein, Mick Pike, Jack Middleton, Horrie Short, Jimmy Williams, Charlie Weinman, Jack Erwin, Ern Pullen and Burt Johns.
The block owned by Raymond Neindorf today was once owned by Jack Irwin. Jack was an accountant and did a lot of bookwork and banking in the town, His son Graham ran the block, and another son Burnie was a policeman.
I remember a Mrs. Fraser along with her daughter owned one of these blocks. Instead of planting vines like everyone else she decided to plant Lucerne and buy some cows and turn her block into a Dairy. She sold milk and butter to locals in Barmera.
The “experts” in the town said the ground around Barmera was perfect for growing Lucerne. So, they decided to build a “Butter Factory” on McDonald Road. Some owners who planted Lucerne realized it was not viable so pulled it all out and grew grapes. The “Butter Factory” was never actually used to make butter.
I remember when I was about 14 (1934) my dad (Henry) purchased a cow from Mick Hunt who owned the Loveday store. I went with Dad in our Buick buckboard to pick up the cow.
The cow was extremely stubborn and refused to get up into the buckboard. So Dad tied the cow to the back with a piece of rope and told me I had to walk behind it and give it a whack with a stick when it refused to walk. As we were passing the Internment camp in Loveday I looked over and hundreds of prisoners were lining the fence yahooing, laughing and clapping at me. It took us ages to get the cow home.
At about the same time (1934) I recall the prisoners arriving by train to the Barmera Train Station which was situated near our block. The prisoners were then loaded onto Military Trucks to be taken out to the Internment camps. When they passed us, we threw bunches of Sultanas up to them.
A very large Military shed was built near the Railway Station which included a large cool room to store fresh produce. This shed was built on stilts to make it level with the trains to make loading and unloading easier. I remember Sandy Wright who owned the slaughter yards in Cobdogla delivering fresh meat to the station. Some prisoners were trucked into Barmera from the Internment camps to help unload and load the trains.
I recall dozens of Army girls being sent to Barmera to help pick the crops. Soldiers from the Internment camps would also come and help pick the grapes to make some extra money.

Our family and many others always looked forward to the picnic held every Easter Monday at Lake Bonney. The train would come from down in the Mallee picking up hundreds of passengers on the way. When they arrived at the station they would walk across the paddock (Bruce Oval today) down the main street to the lake. Some of these people were excited because they had never seen so much fresh water.
Some of the local blockies who owned a horse and cart would empty sweat boxes (these were used to store dried grapes) and put in the cart to make seats. They would travel from out of town and pick up other families on the way to bring to the picnic at Lake Bonney. Some of the locals who owned boats would tie them all together with rope and take children for rides on the Lake. As most of the boats had holes in them a man would sit in the boat with the children and swish the water out, so the boats didn't sink.
It was always a very long day but great fun.
I recall the pump house being where the Barmera Yacht Club. Is now. Water was pumped from the lake to irrigate the blocks. The water flowed through open channels.
The area where the Barmera Council yards, and the Primary School are today used to be paddocks. This area was used during winter for the horses that were not needed on the properties.
The large gum trees lining Appleton Terrace and Rumbold Drive were planted in memory of soldiers killed in the war.