A History of Australia in 33 Places = Carnamah + 32 others!

Earlier this year the National Museum of Australia produced a new book entitled Landmarks: A History of Australia in 33 Places. We're very pleased to reveal that Carnamah is counted among them. The book is a companion to the museum's permanent exhibition Landmarks: People and Places across Australia, which opened in 2011.

Both the exhibition and the book include a section on Carnamah and its soldier settlement after the First World War. More on the exhibition can be found in our 2011 blog post Carnamah's Place at the National Museum of Australia in Canberra.

To quote the ABC's Radio National:

How do a set of opera glasses, Phar Lap’s heart, a pair of 'punishment shoes' and a brick making machine tie us, as a nation, together? 

These pieces are among the many objects displayed as part of the Landmarks exhibition at the National Museum of Australia. Together they weave a rich tapestry of Australian history; each is a marker for a place and time in our past—where we’ve come from, how we’ve lived, created and adapted to this land.

The book is available for $29.95 at all good bookshops or online through the shop on the National Museum's website. If ordering online the postage within Australia is about $8.

Reflections from Harvest in Winchester in the 1920s

Stephen Frost grew up on a farm at Marchagee in the Coorow district. His father is former local farmer Arnold D. Frost and his mother Dorothy née McSwan. The McSwain family had farmed in Carnamah and later Marcahgee. Stephen now lives in Hong Kong and recently wrote the following in response to our blog post Harvest in Winchester in the 1920s.


Harvest in Winchester in the 1920s on Ivan Johnson's Avalaon Farm

"In The Secret, Rhonda Byrne writes that being grateful is a powerful way to turn your life around. Reading this post on farming in Carnamah during the 1920s resulted in numerous thoughts about my parents and how grateful I am for all they've done. 

My mother was raised on a farm in Carnamah, and she was born at around the time these pictures were taken. She has hardly any photographs of her childhood, and the only one I can recall is of her and her four elder sisters in threadbare clothes and no shoes. I suppose it was taken on her father's block; he had served in the 10th Light Horse Regiment in the Boer War and then again in the First World War and bought the land under the soldier settlement program when he returned to Australia in 1919.

My father was born in South Australia. His family farmed as well. He was pulled out of school after completing Year 7 (at 12-years-old) and went to work picking rocks to clear land for cropping. With two older brothers, he knew the farm was too small to be divided into three, so in his late teens or early 20s he relocated to Marchagee (not far from Carnamah). He found work on a farm, then started share-farming with the man for whom he worked, and eventually bought his own farm (on which I grew up). 

The pictures in the post below compare farming in the 1920s with today. There are similarities of course, but in many ways the two eras are worlds apart. My parents were raised in houses without electricity; they were the last generation who recall a life with kerosene lamps and meat safes (a Coolgardie safe in Western Australia) instead of refrigerators. Dad told me when I was a boy that his father would cool his bottles of beer during summer by lowering them into the well. He has photos on the wall at home of ploughing with a team of horses. By the time he and mum had married in the 1950s, electricity, tractors, phones and fridges were commonplace. 

By the age of 55, my father had been working hard for more than 40 years. Growing sheep and wheat is not an easy life. It's not a bad life, but it's hard work, and he sold the farm. 

Now in their 80s, my parents surf the Internet, have email accounts, watch YouTube, talk to me in Hong Kong via Skype, have a mobile phone, and download and print off photos of their granddaughter. Has any other generation seen as much change (and adapted to it) as those born in the 1920s or earlier? 

My parents provided me with everything I needed for the shift from a family farm at Marchagee (where even in the 1970s we still generated our own electricity, survived off rain water, and had a three-digit telephone number - 207) to starting up my second business in Hong Kong. They taught me independence, hard work, persistence, patience, kindness, respect and to have a vision for the long term. 

I'm grateful for everything my parents have provided for me. They did a wonderful job raising me. As academics are fond of saying at the start of their books, thanks for all the help in getting me this far; any errors made are entirely in my own hands!

And I’m grateful to the Carnamah Historical Society & Museum for putting these pictures, and many more, online. Thank you."

[Thanks to Stephen for sharing his reflections and for allowing us to share them here]

Blog Post - Harvest in Winchester in the 1920s

Carnamah’s Place at the National Museum of Australia

Soldier Settlement in Carnamah after the First World War is now showcased at the National Museum of Australia (NMA) in Canberra. It is one of many stories told in the museum’s Landmarks: People and Places across Australia gallery, which opened on 2 June 2011.

Landmarks is split into ten themes that explore the very different stories of Australia, its places and its peoples. Carnamah, with two other places, make up the theme Extending the Farmlands. Carnamah had a relatively small population, but soldier settlement transformed the district into a thriving agricultural community.

The section on Carnamah centres around the stories of five soldier settlers and their families, and tells stories of both advancement but also of defeat (on account of small acreage, the Great Depression and salinity). The five soldier settlers detailed are Tom White, Jack Spork, Tom Garth, Anster Tucker and Roger Clark.

The centrepieces for Carnamah are a garden gate with a section of fence and a pile of York Gum stumps. These came from Tom White’s Rosedale Farm in Winchester and were donated to the museum by Bruce White. The supports of the gate include original pieces of the Midland Railway line.

In a large display cabinet there are a host of items relating to the five families which chronicle their wartime service, personal lives, farming, domestic tasks and recreational activities.

So how did Carnamah find its way into the National Museum?

Several years ago we received a phone call from NMA curator George Main. From a Google search he had come across our website and in particular its Carnamah-Winchester Database. He was impressed with our content and wanted to make the story of post-WW1 solider settlement in Carnamah part of the museum’s then forthcoming gallery.

In conversation with George Main at the opening he remarked in reference to our database that “there’s nothing else like it in Australia.”

Carnamah was represented at the opening of Landmarks by Christopher White (great grandson of solider settler Tom White) and Andrew S. Bowman.

If you’re ever in Canberra check out Carnamah and the rest of the brilliant Landmarks gallery at the National Museum. Admission is free and the museum is open from 9am to 5pm every day of the year except Christmas Day.

Want to know more about Carnamah's history?

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