Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Married Life in the Dawson Valley -
Maud Agnes Symes or "Queenie" as she was called all her life - met George Powell Newton at one of the many dances she loved to attend during the Christmas period of 1935.

"Queenie" had been working as a domestic for over two years by now and considered herself to be one of the many fine young ladies around town - with some savings in the bank and new clothes with matching shoes to wear thin on the wooden floors of the dances she loved to attend.

With the abilities of a skilled domestic in her back pocket "Queenie" had been living independently at the residence of her employers when she met her future husband and began the next chapter of her life.

George Newton swept "Queenie" his only love off her feet in a whirlwind romance that must have went above and beyond the normal - as anyone who knows my grandmother and her way of life would have trouble believing that she made a decision very young in life at age sixteen to run away with her lover George Newton after discovering that she was pregnant with her first child Thelma Newton in January of 1936.

The pair of young lovers headed toward the Dawson Valley and eventually took up a few acres of land in the Rannes / Kokotunga district beside the river.

The town is located in the Banana shire Council between Wowan and Banana on the Leichardt Highway and the Don River. Although small, Rannes used to be a major Railway town which once had twenty-seven pubs.

Rannes is primarily a farming town which specializes in the Beef, Cotton and Grain industry.

Wowan Central Queensland-
Independence - Showing their determination to become independent of their families and begin life as a couple - Maud and George pitched a tent and made the best of what they had and called it home

The Dawson River supplied water for the young couples necessities such as fruit and vegetables as well as the few acres of cotton they grew for a buck. George was employed as a contract fencer when the work was available and took up the milk and cream run to the nearby town of Wowan twice a week to supplement his other earnings.


The Beginnings of a Family - A Daughter - Mount Morgan
This how George and Maud survived during the months before their first child Thelma Florence Newton was born on the 22nd of September 1936 their beautiful little girl was bought into the world at the Mount Morgan Hospital, the closest place to where they lived that had medical services.

For the next two years "Queenie" Symes and George Newton lived in their tent and raised their baby daughter Thelma by the riverside.

Wedded In Wowan Central Queensland
In the year 1938 on the 14th of July George Newton took "Queenie" Symes to be his lawfully wedded wife in the tiny outback town of Wowan.
In the year 1939 "Queenie" fell pregnant with her second child.
The young couple had made their way to the Barcaldine district where George Newton secured work on a Station named "Item".

They lived in the workers quarters attached to the homestead where George applied himself to the station-hand position and contracted himself out to do ring-barking for extra income.


First Born Son - Barcaldine -
Their first son George Arthur Edward Newton was born in the same year on the 16th of February 1939.

Second Born Son - Barcaldine -
One year later on the 11th of August 1940 Maud and George Newton were blessed with child number three Peter Brian Newton was born at the same Hospital as his older brother George - Barcaldine.

Second Born Daughter - Barcaldine -
Three days before Christmas the following year on the 22nd of December 1941 the couple bought their fourth child into the world who was to be their second girl Judith Lucy Newton.
When their baby Judith was nine months old George Powell Newton was called up for National Service. Before the young couple could even organise an arrangement for Maud and the children to be taken care of in his absence.

The current accommodation arrangement that went along with the station-hand position would no longer be available for the family to live in since George was enlisted and would no longer be employed by the owners of Item Station.

Then came the troop train to Barcaldine -George Powell Newton waited beside his young family to be taken in the National Call Up.

Third Born Daughter - Barcaldine - Nicknamed AWOL -
Beverly Joyce Newton was born on the 9th of April 1944. George Newton her father had been sent back to enlisted services in New Guinea and would not get to meet his new daughter until she was six months old - a punishment in itself - for time spent AWOL - hence the nickname that stuck to the child born during this time - Akwilly.

When Times Are Tough - The Tough Get Going -
Maud Newton in her happy disposition inside the “little shack” - proud of her efforts to help "Grandad Newton" (Peter Newton) - build a home while her husband George Newton was away at war.

This must have given her the strength and capacity to take life as it came which provided her children with a sense of security even when times were tough. Maud was able in her very unique way to make a little go a long way.


The Invention of the Barcaldine Wheel -
The invention of the wheel was important for technology in general including the water wheel, the cogwheel and the spinning wheel as an example - However nowhere in the records of history has there ever been mention of the invention of the Barcaldine Wheel.

The question of which culture or person originally invented the wheel is still unsolved and that could possibly be answered by - The Newton Family of Boree Street whom have retained the evidence of this mystery within their family vault of Barcaldine Ancestral files.

Early wheels were simple wooden disks with a hole for the axle - Precursors of wheels, known as "tournettes" or "slow wheels", were known to first exist in the Middle East and these were made of stone or clay - Not the "Barcaldine Wheel" it was made from something not even early man had thought to use.


The Barcaldine Wheel Recipe - Just Add Emu Eggs -
While cooking was not "Queenie's" strongest ability, her children never went hungry however her talent with sewing, crochet, knitting and long stitch tapestries was of exceptional quality.

("Queenie") aka Maud Agnes Newton's second youngest daughter Beverly has revealed that her mother "Queenie" is the person behind the Central Queensland invention "The Barcaldine Wheel"

This discovery was made while "Queenie" in an attempt to bake a cake using one very large Emu Egg as a replacement for Two Chicken Eggs according to the the original recipe was flabbergasted by what she soon found out would be no ordinary cake.

Finally the cake had completed baking so all the Newton kid's gathered around for the grand opening of the oven and a treat they had been looking forward to now since the cakes conception.

Their mother "Queenie" raised the knife to slice the cake - well as it came into contact with the "sweet treat" the blade bent just like a wobble board - no matter how hard "Queenie" pushed down on that knife it continued to resist - the cake could not be cut into portions and the children began to whinge.

Disappointment is an understatement when I say the children had to miss out on their treat and were not at all pleased by this outcome - not to mention their mother "Queenie" who in anger picked the cake up and launched it out the back door of the house in Boree Street.

The "Barcy Tyre gave a couple of bounces and rolled the length of the entire yard before coming to an abrupt halt against the chook pen fence.

The chickens all gathered around the cake - expecting their daily feed of household scraps - only to find that their beaks could not even penetrate the "Barcy Tyre" that had rolled its way to their coop.

All the kids laughed and laughed for hours about their mothers cooking results and Beverly who bought the revelation to light to this day has often been heard joking about how her mother invented the wheel -
In fact I can still hear her laughing about it now as I type these words recording her memories of that day.

A Father Returns - After The War Service

Upon George Powell Newtons return from the war he purchased an old house from a local and demolished it to use the building material to add to the small shack that had already been built by his wife and father in Boree Street Barcaldine - making it a more comfortable place to reside with his fast growing family of nine children - the extra room would definitely not have gone astray.

Fourth Born Daughter - Barcaldine -
The year 1945 bought the family of five children up a level when the arrival of number six came on the 13th of September 1945 they would name her Gwendoline Jane Newton.

Third Born Son - Barcaldine -
Only a short twelve months would pass before in 1946, Maud and George were blessed with their third son Allan Powell Newton who would carry on the name of George Powell Newtons mother Lucy Powell’s maiden name - as his father had done - the bouncing baby boy arrived on the 25th of August of that year becoming child number seven.

Fourth Born Son - Barcaldine -
The family of seven grew again two years later when son number four arrived on the 28th of January 1948 Ian Raymond Newton as he was named became the eighth child born to George and Maud Newton at the Barcaldine Hospital where seven of their nine children were born.

Fifth Born Son - Blackall -
Barry James Newton was the last child born, the fifth son for the family on the 8th of February 1949.
Barry was one of the two children not born in Barcaldine as there was no Doctor available for the birth so Maud was taken to Blackall Hospital where he was born before returning home a week later to their home in Barcaldine with the final addition to their family.