Welcome to my podcast, Therese Makes History,
The Dairy Lane Project, Season 2. My primary
sponsor for Season 2 is Ian Zanstra, a very experienced
dairyman on the other side of the river from
Pirie. Season 2 would not be happening without
Ian's support. I'm very grateful he stepped up.
Thank you, Ian. We're launching episode 9 today.
We're going to be in Schofield's Lane. I've got
a bit of territory to cover in the introduction,
so bear with me. John Schofield was deported
from England as a convict in 1821. He was an
Anglican Englishman, but he used to get orphans
to steal for him. He himself stole a whole roll
of silk. He was allotted to a farming family
on arrival, squatters named Harley. Now, eight
years later, John married the squatter's daughter,
Bridget Harley, in April 1829. Actually, from
there, Schofields, the suburb in northwest Sydney,
is named after the Schofield family. They are
the founders of that suburb. Now, this information
has come from... Pam Schofield, who grew up in
Schofield's Lane. Pam has actually written a
book on the family, and a bit of this information
comes from Pam. I'm going to log her book as
part of the archive with the library at Nowra.
Now, together John and Bridget had six sons and
six daughters, so yes, 12 children. One of his
sons was named Samuel. Now Samuel and another
brother went with John to the gold rush in California.
Apparently they made a fortune, but the ship
on the return ran aground at Law Hill Island
and they lost all their gold. John must have
done all right on his return to have the suburb
named after the family. Now Samuel James... Samuel
James... established some market gardens around
Rockdale and they went into butchering. Samuel
James was born in 1831. He married Grace Redilak
who was born in 1838. Now they're the parents
of Albert. Now Albert was the butcher in Bury.
Albert was born in 1863. Albert James Schofield,
who married Elizabeth Jane Dowling, who was born
in 1867. Part of the purchase of the butcher
shop in Bury was also slaughter yards located
in the land now known as Schofield's Lane, 188
acres. The slaughter yards came with the butcher
shop. Now Elizabeth's father was Robert George
Dowling. Just a bit of information here. He was
a stonemason and a builder who was part of the
building team for the University of Sydney and
David Jones to name a few key sites. Albert and
his wife had six children. Philip, Ken, Bill,
Doris, Edna and Grace. Their eldest son Philip
Dairy farmed in Schofield's Lane. He had 20 to
30 cows. His daughter, Pam, remembers standing
on the slide to go to the milk truck with the
cans. They bred jerseys for butter and cheese
and their milk went to the berry co -op. Across
the road, George Williams farmed. Now, Phil had
three children, Pam and Bill, and then Colin
after World War II. was born in 1909 and he married
Kathleen Annie Bennett Caton. She was born in
1914. Philip returned from army training in Townsville
but he never went to World War II and then he
worked for the railways up until his death in
1947 where he died of appendicitis. Pam was 10,
Bill was 8 and Colin was 2. So Kathleen was a
widow with a young family. Philip's siblings
sold the property fairly much under Kathleen.
Philip's siblings sold the property for £6 ,000
and it was split six ways. Kathleen received
£1 ,000. She moved to Huskerson with their children
and ran a haberdashery shop and she raised her
three children. Pam ended up going to teacher's
training at Wagga and then she taught at Dapdo
Primary. She's 88 years of age today. Bill is
86. Bill dairied for Grace, his auntie, who'd
married Bob Giles, who dairy farmed on 100 acres
at Pirie. And he remembers earning six pounds
a week and bored. Then he share farmed with Lenny
King at Far Meadow for two years. He was about
21 years old then. Bill married Iris Jarrett
from Roseland's Kangaroo Valley, now known as
Jarrett's Lane. It was their second marriage
for both and they married in 1953. Iris was one
of eight children. Her father, John William Jarrett,
known as Jack, was one of 12 children. Her mum
was Winifred Jane Good. Now I'm going to do a
recording with Bill and Iris down the track.
so they can be archived. I've only just found
them. Now, Bill settled on Maroo Road, Bomaderry,
and established initially a milk run, and then
he set up W .J. Schofield's Fertiliser Company
at 26 years of age. He ran that company for 44
years, and he retired at age 70. Now I'm getting
closer to... what today's recording is going
to be about. And of course, I'll give you a hint.
The Department of Agriculture purchased the 186
acres between Anderson Lane and Hitchcock's Lane
in the 1950s, what we know as Schofield's Lane
today, to establish Graham Park. It was established
here off the highway on the northern side. It
cost the Department of Agriculture £200 ,000,
moving it from Wharf Road, Bury. where it was
established and purchased for £10 ,000, but had
become too small. Now I'm going to read directly
from the book written by Bailey that places us
in this period of time in history. Page 206 in
the chapter The Milky Way, paragraph 4. Another
agency for farm progress was the Berry Experiment
Farm, open near the river beside the road to
Coolangatta in October. 1899, being the first
of its kind on the coast. It continued under
the Department of Agriculture until in April
1934 it was taken over by the Child Welfare Department.
It was remodelled with the provision of dining
room dormitories and other facilities, with cottages
to house 40 boys to take farm training. It was
opened by the Minister for Education, Honourable
D. H. Drummond, On October 11, 1935, it became
the venue for the third annual field day of the
South Coast and Tablelands Junior Farmers Clubs.
Additional buildings were added, together with
more modern farming facilities, in 1939. The
area was beautified under the management of P.
Waller, who retired from the superintendency
in 1944 after 17 years outstanding success. He
was followed by F. Sims. The next paragraph.
An innovation of an unusual kind was the establishment
on November 17, 1944 of the Berry Better Farming
League to encourage greater milk production sponsored
by A .N. Binks, MLC. It began with N .K. Stewart
as president, its first activity being a pasture
improvement competition. It urged the establishment
of an artificial stock breeding centre from its
earliest times and included in its aims the promotion
of social, cultural and economic conditions,
education, roads, water, electricity and price
stabilisation. It conducted field days, tools
of inspection, lectures and demonstrations by
eminent men. F .A. McIntosh became president
and L .P. Higgins, Secretary, each serving many
years. The League flourished and gave a lead
in New South Wales. A notable leader in the work
was A .N. Binks. of Linwood, Broughton Village,
who was presented with a testimonial in 1952
to mark his work as patron. He also served as
chairman of the Dairy Farmers Milk Company for
over 20 years and chairman of the Berry Rural
Cooperative Society. He died in 1953 after success
in the milk industry, having lived all his life
at Broughton Village. One of the outstanding
results of the representations of the Berry Better
Farming League was that establishment of the
artificial stock breeding station at Berry, serving
the whole of the Shoalhaven district. First proposed
in 1947, it cost £10 ,000 to establish, including
erection of buildings, yards and purchase of
stock. It was opened by the Minister for Agriculture.
Honourable E .H. Graham, MLA, on October 17,
1952. Rapid advances made construction of a larger
station necessary and after construction at a
cost of £200 ,000, it was opened as Graham Park.
beside the Princess Highway south of Bury by
the Premier of New South Wales, J .J. Carhill,
on February 10, 1958. It has resulted in the
breeding of a better class of stock with consequent
increase in milk production and quality. Now
I'm going to go a bit more into A .N. Binks and
Mr. McIntosh, just so you get to know a little
bit more about them. Alfred Noble Binks. was
born in 1873 at Broughton Creek. He died, as
the book says, in July 1953 at David Berry Hospital.
His father, Thomas Binks, migrated from England
in 1860. He was born in Norfolk in 1834. Thomas
married Mary Hetherington at Boat Harbour, Geringong,
in 1865. Mary was born Methodist in 1836, Ireland.
Alfred was one of 11 children. Alfred's influence
to the local dairying industry cannot be ignored,
especially in the first part of the 20th century.
I've looked at a few press articles. I'm referring
to an article in 1933 when they ran a field day
at the Berry Experimental Farm, ran by P. Waller.
It was all about pasture improvement and analysing
revenue. Mr Binks spoke there on the importance
of pasture improvement. as related to the dairy
industry in the coastal areas. While much was
done at places like Berry Experimental Farm,
much still remained for the research worker to
discover, he says. It was of the greatest importance
that the work of testing and breeding of strains
of various grasses be pursued until it was felt
that the most suitable type was discovered for
each district. Mr Binks praised the work being
done. by the Plant Foods Advisory Committee in
assisting generally to spread the gospel of pasture
improvement among private farmers. He was a strong
believer in ploughing up the old matted Paspalum
and sowing down the permanent pasture of rye
and clovers. and top dressing these liberally
with lime and fertilisers to supply the essential
soil elements removed by years of grazing. So
that was just part of a two -page article on
the experimental farm that the Shoalhaven News
and South Coast District Advisor printed. There's
also an article in 1935 on the Berry Junior Farmers
League, which was started up. The newly formed
Club of Berry has made an excellent start. with
a membership of 38. So projects have been taken
up as follows. Calf rearing, gardening, poultry
raising, maize and potato growing. In addition,
all members are interested in cattle judging.
Who was present at their first meeting? The following
junior office bearers were elected. President
Max Bowden, Vice Presidents Ed Foreman and Clyde
Parrish, Secretary and Treasurer Gwen Chegwiden,
In addition to several members of the advisory
committee, Mr A. Rickson of the Jersey Herd Society
was present and by courtesy of Mr E. Chidwiggan
gave a demonstration on judging a Jersey cow.
Members were deeply interested and raised quite
a number of points at question time. So a tour
of inspection of projects revealed that the juniors
had already made a start in their club work.
At Broughton Vale, Max Bowden has his plot of
potatoes planted. Ken Bowden is laying out a
neat vegetable garden. Ron Bowden has a splendid
clutch of white leghorn chicks. and Flory Bowden
is rearing her jersey calf on good lines. Chas
Abbott, Don Whiffen and Jack Devitt are all laying
out good gardens. Fern Garrity has an attractive
air shear calf, whilst Betty Julef has a clutch
of Hawkesbury College Australorps, some type
of poultry I imagine. At Bury, Gwen Chidwiggan
is skillfully treating her jersey calf during
a bout of sickness. Gwen also gives promise of
developing into a capable club secretary. Evelyn
Biffin has been fortunate in getting a clutch
of Rhode Island Reds from some of the best breed
stock in New South Wales. Les Stevenson, Stan
Tetley and Keith Gall have made a start in their
gardens. Keith in particular has a good garden.
Bob Lidbetter is a keen poultry raiser and has
a clutch of high quality Australorps. Each have
young calves for good stock. There are some very
keen members in the far meadow section of the
club. Nita Keyes, Dom Bishop and Ed Foreman are
showing good results in calf rearing and have
attractive calves with much to work. At Jasper's
Brush, Owen Williams, Mervyn and Clyde Parrish,
Jolt Harvey and Jack Barron have all made a start
with their gardens but have been handicapped
by the dry weather. Millie Harvey and John Alexander
are rearing calves. Don, having obtained the
AIS calf of high quality from the famous herd
of Mr. J. Knapp, his grandfather. The Knapps
are a bow long. As an instance of the interest
in club affairs displayed by local men, mention
is made of a generous gesture by Mr. A. N. Binks,
who was offered to supply any town boy with a
good AIS calf. together with the sum of half
a guinea as a contribution towards the cost of
food so that boys living in Bury will be able
to take up the calf rearing project if they so
desire. That just gives you a little insight
into the junior farmers in 1935. In 1947, Binks
was honoured with an award for Better Farming
League for making the greatest contribution to
the dairying industry through the Illawarra and
South Coast. The award was presented to him by
the Honourable E .H. Graham, who was the Minister
for Agriculture. So Graham was observing and
had quite a lot of engagement down on the South
Coast whilst he was Minister. There are a number
of press articles in the 30s quoting Alfred Binx
and in the 40s, which goes to show you the type
of person he was with that honour of an award
for the Better Farming League in 1947. Binx's
work was influential towards what was to come.
Now we move to Fred McIntosh. Now Fred came from
Cobbity. He was born there, Frederick Andrew
McIntosh, in 1903. His parents were Andrew McIntosh,
who was born at Catherine Fields, and he was
born in 1854, and he married Ada Fryer, who was
born in 1868. They married at Parramatta in 1888.
Andrew is listed as a grazier. And both Andrew
and Ada lived their lives and passed at Cobbity.
Now, Fred McIntosh in his early years played
polo. He was quite a number one polo jersey.
out at Cobbity. And the McIntosh brothers at
Cobbity were also involved in breeding and exhibiting
air shears, jerseys and short horns. They were
connecting with the Camden Park Estate Company.
I'll read you. At the Camden show in 1917, the
competition was keen amongst exhibitions of air
shears, jerseys and short horns with Camden Park
Estate Company and McIntosh brothers Cobbity.
and a minto farmer, Jay Clark. So the McIntoshes
are mixing with Camden Park Estate, these big
landowners. And Camden Park, of course, was Camden.
John MacArthur, Elizabeth MacArthur were the
founders of Camden Park Estate. And Camden itself
had 10 dairies in the 20th century, including
the famous Rodelactor, which opened in the early
50s. You'd remember the Rotolacta if you're a
bit older. Now, I know Camden Park well because
I was engaged by the Trust to undertake the 20th
century history recreation for them. Ran for
a number of years. It's all archived. And in
19... 28 at the Hawkesbury show there was a man
that stood out a Mr C .D. Shadlow from Fairfield
and he did well with the best cow which was named
May 3rd of Fairfield. Mr Shadlow also won both
milking competitions. One cow Primrose of Denby
was purchased from the McIntosh brothers of Cobbity.
And it was a government test cow with a record
of 13 ,800 pounds of milk in 270 days. Now in
1931, the Camden Polo season started and it opened
at Cobbity and Fred McIntosh was on the team.
And he was mixing then with the MacArthur Onslows.
So they were an established family with strong
connections. in the dairying industry and also
through sport, an elite sport, polo. In 1934,
Fred's team won the Cup, obviously an established
horseman as well. But his father passed in 1941
and there's an article that he writes in 1946
where his address is Woodside Park, Bury. Now
in 1946, where he forms part of a delegation
with the New South Wales... Agricultural Minister,
Mr Graham, they're going on an international
mission selecting cattle to improve the breeding
on the south coast. They were selecting Ayrshire
cattle in North Scotland. He was most impressed
there. The tour was a five -week tour to the
UK and Canada. He observed artificial insemination
demonstrations. and he was very impressed with
the quality of the pastures in Scotland. In 1947,
there was a welcome home party by the Berry Farming
League. Minister Graham was present also. Eighty
people were present. Fred said he was impressed
by the Frisians, and he purchased an 11 -month
bull for the government, which was AI bred. The
standard of ashes were better in England and
Scotland compared to Australia, he said. He observed
superior farm management overseas, from hay storage,
hay stacking to machinery. and the harnessing
of horses and the leather work. They could teach
us a lot in conserving fodder, he states. In
1950, Fred became president of the Better Farming
League and he announced two... the farming community
in the Shoalhaven that the minister was intending
to open up an AI centre on the south coast. Now,
before that was announced, Fred required all
farmers to fill in a questionnaire to establish
what sort of cattle numbers they needed at the
centre, which was going to be established in
Berry. So this was a major shift in cattle reproduction,
introducing science to the farmer, sterility.
charts, measuring output, and every cow was to
be examined by a vet. Fred had developed first
-hand knowledge observing latest methods overseas,
key influences to establish the AI centre in
Berry. Today, Fred's son, Bob, runs the dairy
farm Woodside in Berry, and he's currently milking
approximately 295 cows. It gets us to who am
I interviewing today? I'm introducing David Armstrong,
who was the manager of the AI Centre. What's
your full name, David, and where were you born?
My full name is David Erskine Armstrong. I was
born at Wollongong and reared on a dairy farm
out the back of Dapto. That's where I went to
primary school and then I went away to... boarding
school at Hurlston Agricultural High School and
from there I went on to do agriculture at Hawkesbury
Ag College. That was quite a popular course,
wasn't it? Yes. So you had to be a bit bright
to do that, didn't you? Well, probably. Without
a doubt. What year were you born and where? I
was born 6th of April 1936 at Wollongong. What
were your plans with your studies? More my father's
plans. My elder brother did exactly the same
as I did. Primary school, Halston, high school,
Hawkesbury Ag College. And I just followed suit
through those. Having been born on a dairy farm,
we were agriculturally... Motivated. So you were
born on a dairy farm? The Bacadapto, Avondale.
Avondale. How many cows were you milking at Avondale?
My father would have been milking probably about,
vary between 70 and 90 in those days. No doubt.
Were they the Illawarra Shorthorns he was milking?
Yes, they were Illawarra Shorthorn. Did you have
much to do with that early breeding yourself
as a young man? No, none at all. What about your
dad? Well, they were always buying new bulls
and so forth, usually from a stud at Jamboree.
That was the pattern. They didn't use artificial
breeding until... Until after the war. Long after.
What was your journey to Berry? Why did you come
here? I came here to work at Graham Park Artificial
Stock Breeding Centre. I started there in 1965,
October long weekend, 1965 as a matter of fact.
My title back then was Special Officer and my
duties mainly were breeding and buying and bringing
bulls in and out and so forth. I never inseminated
a cow. What cows were you dealing with then?
We mainly were concentrating on the... Frisians,
Illawarras and Jerseys and to a lesser extent
Guernseys and Ayrshires and the odd beefball,
mainly Pole Hereford and Angus. How long had
the centre been established before you arrived?
It basically started in 1958, so it had been
going a little bit short of 10 years. And who
was running it when you arrived? When I arrived,
it was being run by the New South Wales Milk
Board. The original centre was down Wharf Road
and that was operated by the Department of Agriculture.
The Minister, Eddie Graham, decided that the
Department of Agriculture weren't quite the body
to run an artificial stock breeding centre, so
he switched it over to the New South Wales Milk
Board. Main reason being that the Department
of Agriculture had to rely on funds from the
government funds, whereas the New South Wales
Milk Board developed their own funds from milk
that they paid the dairy farmers for and charged
the users for. So the Milk Board, was that a
private entity? No, it was a government body.
with a chairman and he was a previously a Labor
Member of Parliament and a very, very capable
man. And do you remember the Labor Minister's
name? The Labor Minister was Eddie Graham and
the Premier at the time was Carl. When they started
the New South Wales Milk Board, they put Jack
Ferguson in as chairman. And he had been a union
rep and et cetera, et cetera, but a very, very
tuned -in man. And so they set themselves up
as a board, two representing the dairy farmers
and one representing the consumers. So it was
a board of four or five. and the secretary, of
course, who was the head charangue, and that
was in Sydney. Did we have a representative here
in Bury on that board, do you know, or in the
region? No, we didn't have a representative here.
Later on, when the producers rips back then,
one was from up Campbelltown Way and the other
one was from up the north coast a bit. But a
dairy farmer here, Fred McIntosh, he was basically
the instigator of the artificial stock breeding
being developed in Bury. He had travelled widely
overseas and purchased air shears for his stud
purposes. So he was instrumental with Eddie Graham,
the minister, in getting the government to agree
to... when the New South Wales Milk Board took
it over to acquire the 186 acres out of Berry
and closed the artificial one down at Wharf Road
which was not sufficiently large to expand. So
in 1958 basically the one down there closed and
the new modern one which had been designed on
tours from overseas centres and so forth. Most
of the publications you see, they all say it
was the most modern artificial stock breeding
centre in the world, which we couldn't disagree
with. Were vets involved here? Is it Dr George
Boris? Boris. They called him Boris, did they?
Yeah, yeah. Did you meet him? Oh, yeah. He and
Artie Dennis, Artie McDennis. were two very good
vets. He was an immigrant, was the other one?
Yeah. What was his last name? Madenis. Madenis.
Where was he from? He was Gerongong. I don't
know. Something makes me think they might have
been from Hungary. Okay, yes. After the war came
over, probably. Yeah, because we didn't have
vets here. No. Not in any number. No. So their
contribution was what? Well, they were basically
brought in to work with their dairy factory.
So Artie worked with the berry factory. Dennis
worked with the gerongong factory. And there
was another one who worked with the narrow factory
whose name escapes me now. As the use of artificial
breeding progressed, they started to do some
inseminations. The bulk of the inseminations
were done by staff from Graham Park. Artificial
breeding really started in Russia. I give credit
of about 1934, and then places like Denmark and
then England, a bit after that Canada and America,
and about the same time as Australia and New
Zealand. Advent of the AI was... involve veterinary
surgeons. First, New South Wales was up at the
Glenfield Veterinary Search Station. That's where
the first AI bred calf was born in Australia.
And so vets from there had considerable involvement
in the early days of getting the... practical
applications of artificial breeding going up
at Glenfield, and also we had the centre up at
Aberdeen in the Hunter Valley, which was run
by the Hunter Valley Dairy Co -op. When the New
South Wales Milk Board started out here at Graham
Park, they also took over the Hunter Valley AI
Centre. Who were you dealing with in your job?
Most of my dealing was with inseminators to a
degree to give them information on the background
of our bulls and the quality of the bulls. I'll
slow it down there. So the background of the
bulls and the quality of the bulls, so you're
buying the bulls, you're selecting them. Yeah.
So how are you doing that? Well, we had, for
example, Fred McIntosh, the local dairyman here.
Back then, a chap named Bob Ald from the Department
of Agriculture. Myself, we were basically the
bull selectors, so I'd go off with either Bob
Ald or Fred McIntosh. A photograph there is of
the three of us at a sale in Victoria. So most
of my time was giving bull information to the
inseminators so they could give it to the farmers.
Also... liaising with stud breeders to have special
cows bred to special bulls, hoping we'd get a
bull result. Are you selecting bulls at sale
yards? No, we bought, I think over the time,
about two or three from stud sales. The balance
of them we bought from the actual breeder of
them on his farm. Would that have been locally
or you're travelling for this? So Queensland,
New South Wales, Victoria, a few from South Australia
and a couple from New Zealand. And back there
in the late 1950s, about 1956, the Department
of Agriculture imported some bulls from both
Canada and from England or Jersey Island. Some
of them became notable. particularly in the Friesian
line. There was a bull, Snyder's Fond Hope King.
Could you say that name again? Snyder's Fond
Hope King. And there was Frasier Lord Jewel,
Trail and Royal Bow, three notable bulls in the
Friesian breed. A couple from England didn't
do as well here in Australia as the Canadian
bulls did. The Canadian bulls seem to be able
to improve the type, size and etc. of our cattle.
But we also imported Jersey from Jersey Island,
the Mounts Orange boy was his name, and a bit
later a Jersey from New Zealand, Maryland, Gold
Spot. Then we bought a Jersey bull at a sale
in Sydney, New Zealand bull, Branston Royal Democrat.
Then more later years, we bought a number of
Friesian bulls from New Zealand. I went over
there with a breeder that was then on our bull
selection committee, Jack Ward. He was also president
of the Friesian Association. And we went over
to New Zealand twice and bought bulls. And I'll
just slow you down. When you say you bought bulls,
tell us what that is. You go and look, go to
a... You go to a stud, we look... What are you
looking for? We're looking for, in the bull,
we'll say sound structure, but we're more interested
in the parentage. So we're looking at the cows,
could be half -sisters, there could be a number
in the female line to look at to make sure they
were... A, good producers, B, soundly structured,
particularly as far as feet and legs utter, B,
of good breed type. That was the thing to watch
for was the quality of the stock. And that's
why we had a breed represented on the bull selection
committee. We also had a Illawarra breeder, Ron
Dodge, from up in the Hunter Valley. Usually
took him if we had some Illawarras to look at.
But the Illawarras being Australian, there was
no importation involved. But we had some very
good bulls. There was Tabagong Beauty's Design,
Sunnyview Princess Hope. We brought him down
from Queensland. River Oaks Democrat was another
bull in the Illawarra breeds that left a mark.
There's quite a selection of breeds there, aren't
there? Yeah. So it's not just, is it all about
milk production? What else are you looking for?
Is this what it's about or is it about multiple
things? Well, we're looking at milk production.
Quite some time ago, there were areas such as
the far north coast were fairly dominated by
jerseys because of their higher milk quality.
The butterfat. Yeah, the butterfat. So in this
area here, there were some Jersey studs. There
was one out here at Jasper's Brush, one out at
Tula Jewel that I remember vividly. Can you remember
the names of the people that had the studs? The
one out at Jasper's Brush was Lindsay Cochran
and the one out at Tula Jewel was John Webb.
Neither of those studs are operating now. When
I came to Berry, the factory had about 100 plus
supplies of milk. Now they have got none. So
the dairy industry has changed dramatically.
And that, of course, has had an effect on artificial
breeding. It's a very different landscape to
what you're seeing today because you would have
seen many silos in the fields. Well, probably
the thing back then was that there was... dairy
farms with probably 70 to 90 odd milking cows,
initially using a bull breeding them, and then
progressively we had to convert them over, some
very successfully, some not so successfully,
to use artificial breeding. Can I ask when that
started to happen here, like when AI started
to be implemented? You'd say about 1958, early,
mid -50s, 58, artificial breeding started to
progressively get used. Of course, we had the
inseminators here, and the dairy farmers would
ring up in the morning and they'd duly go out
on their run and do their inseminations, and
then we progressed. to up onto the Tablelands,
Moss Vale. The Hunter Valley was already going
due to the Aberdeen Centre. Then progressively
we moved inseminators into other spots such as
Grafton, Wollongbar. Most of the modern major
dairies would have one or two inseminators who
would take their calls, go out and... So they
were on the road, some of these guys. The semen
is sitting in, how do you keep it alive? Well,
back then, initially, it was liquid semen and
it was only good for about three days, held with
dry ice. A bit later, we introduced glass ampoules,
which were fairly effective in that they could
be carried in liquid nitrogen. and stored for
weeks, months, years, provided you kept the nitrogen
up. To use the glass sample, you had to break
the top off it, then extract the semen out of
the glass sample into a glass pipette and seminate
the cow. More lately, they introduced, or we
introduced the straw, which was, I think, basically
a French development. but it was an ideal thing
that could be stored in liquid nitrogen and the
inseminator would just take the straw out of
the liquid nitrogen, thaw it, put it in his pet
inseminate, the cow, so there was a lot less
handling of the semen. Did that increase success
rate? I think probably it improved the conception
rate. Semen wasn't being handled as much. In
liquid nitrogen, you had a constant temperature,
whereas back with the old dry ice, somebody only
had to be a little bit tardy and there wasn't
enough dry ice to maintain it at the required
or preferred temperature. How expensive were
the balls to purchase? They varied. Back originally,
we would probably somewhere around about $1 ,000.
In more recent years, around about 1970s, when
we were selecting cows to breed to certain bulls,
we'd go out and see the farmer, inspect the cow
and its relative relations, and then sign a contract
with him to breed that cow to bull A. We would
basically set a price. And then we altered that
a bit later on by taking, again, a contract.
But when the bull was proved successful and used
more extensively, the owner or the breeder of
the bull got paid a royalty. So if the bull was
very good, he got a lot more money than just
the value of the bull. What about how much were
farmers paying? for their cows to be inseminated?
It wasn't very expensive, but I can't give you
an exact figure, not being an inseminator, but
it wouldn't have been much more than a few dollars.
Was there a big local demand? The demand, you
mean the demand for AI? Yes. Well, it just progressed
as they had, we'll say, more selection of bulls.
Initially, they were bulls that looked good.
had fairly good parentage, not necessarily outstanding
themselves. So around about the 1970s, 80s, they
started doing the Australian breeding value,
which was calculated on the milk production of
the daughters of a bull. So we set up a sire
evaluation plan, and we were bringing in young
bulls. As soon as they were able to produce usable
semen, we had herds that were cooperating and
breeding their cows to these young bulls. So
eventually we had the daughters of these young
bulls assessed on milk production. It was decided
which were the better ones and the not so good,
so some got culled on their performance. Others
got put into more broader use because of their
performance. How did you keep your records? Well,
the Department of Agriculture... provided a herd
recording service. They had herd recording personnel
situated in various districts and they would,
for instance, go to herd A today, get all the
milk records out of those cows that were milked
that day and then tomorrow they'd be at herd
B. So around about every month they would register
their milk production figures. They were calculated
to determine which bulls were superior to another
bull. Science was getting more refined to production.
Yeah, production and, of course, confirmation.
Yes. You've got to keep the confirmation. Like
any prized animal, isn't it? Yeah. If they haven't
got good udder and good teat placement for modern
milking machines, they're a problem. So anything
that is not breeding... Good quality confirmation
is out too. Graeme Park moved to a new facility
and there's quite a few bull yards there. Where
was the new facility? You probably mentioned
it, but what road was it on? Well, it was actually
on the Princess Highway, about a mile south of
Bury. A mile south. So what's it near there?
What side of the road? Well, it's on the... The
high road. The western side, the mountain side.
Yes. 186 acres and it's subdivided or there's
a road up, goes up the centre of it, Schofields
Lane. It was quite a big operation by the look
of things. Oh, yes, it was a new innovation because
artificial stock breeding centres up till then
had been the Hunter Valley one. Glenfield fiddled
around for a while, and the one here at the Department
of Ag at Bury was taken over by the Milk Board,
and this was developed. It amazes me. I think
that was built in about two years, quick building.
At the same time, Victoria started a centre down
there, but theirs was a different structure to
here. This was a, we'll call it a semi -government
-owned. The Victorian was set up. as a cooperative.
More later years, two members of our staff out
here left, and one set up a centre at Bundanoon,
at that stage specialising more in beef cattle,
and another one set up a centre down at Tongala
in Victoria, and that was predominantly dairy
bulls down there. The Department of Agriculture
started one at Wacol in Brisbane, and about the
same time that Graham Park closed down. The Wacol
one closed down. You were training farmers to
AI as well. You ran training courses? Yes. That
would have been around about the 1970s, the first
training of farmers. And that was started by
a chap that went down to the Tongala Centre.
And he very successfully got farmers to be trained.
and then carry out their own inseminations, which,
of course, gave them a leg in with their semen
versus our semen. So then we had to start training.
I think probably we trained people from the Victorian
border to the Queensland border, and I'd say
probably by about the late 1980s, there would
have been 3 ,000 or more. we would have trained.
And most of them turned out fairly successful
with breeding their own cattle. But then that
started to have an effect on artificial centres
because they could then, rather than relying
on an inseminator to bring the semen, they could
go to any centre and buy whatever semen they
wanted. Semen started to become available from
Canada and America, which previously it hadn't
been. Canadian bulls that I mentioned earlier
made a demand for Canadian and American semen.
So then that started to delete the amount of
semen that was used in Australian centres. Artificial
breeding bulls were mainly from Canada. Canadian
ones were the more successful. You mentioned
Hugh Haveler, agronomist working on pastures.
He was a person employed by... The AI Centre?
No, he was employed by the Department of Agriculture.
That's right. There was he and another agronomist
and they had a couple of field assistants and
they would go out and set up trials with certain
types of grass and so forth just to improve the
forage that was available to the milking cow.
How important was their work? Well, really it
was fairly important because back in the earlier
days, pasture in this area was predominantly
paspalum. Palum dilatatum is the correct word
for it. More seasonal grass. A certain period
of the year it would go to seed and get ergot
on the seed, which made the cows sticky. So then
they were trying to get more... ryegrass and
kaiquia. The ryegrass was probably the better
milking grass, but the kaiquia just went 12 months
of the year. It didn't take tally off. That's
what Hugh and his staff were doing, was getting
the better quality pastures with clovers and
so forth mixed in with them. Because that would
have surely linked in with the breeding as well.
Would feed play a big role? Well, I think you
could say yes, because I can think of one dairy
farm which I won't name, but it was basically
old Tuskegee Parramatta grass. Poor old cows
were flat out surviving on it. So it was that
sort of pasture that he was endeavouring to get
farmers to switch over to the better quality,
more nutrient -rich pastures, and then they would
produce more milk off it. That was all the agronomy
side. Was that part of your facility? They started
off down where the original AI centre was and
eventually moved over to Graham Park. It's still
there. It's still being used as a Department
of Agriculture section. What was your section?
Where did you work? Well, basically the office.
In the admin block? Yeah. Where were you living?
Here. So here is Victoria Street. And this house.
In this house. So Barry's changed a bit, hasn't
it? Oh, drastically. What was it like when you
arrived here? What did you think of the place?
Well, Barry back then was, in 1965 and up for
some years later, was very community -minded.
He was somebody, a successful football coach.
and had a thing at the School of Arts, you know,
the place would be packed. If Kevin Robinson,
who knows those, was very successful with trotters,
if he had big success, there'd be a thing at
the School of Arts. That sort of happening has
disappeared. Yeah, well, originally there's a...
On the other side of the railway line, opposite
the old dairy factory, that's where the original
racecourse was. and Bury has got a longer railway
station than such Gerongong and so forth because
they used to bring trains in from Sydney to the
races and they had to have long stations to accommodate
the carriages. I don't know when that stopped
being used, to be honest. After that, the only
thing that happened was trotting races at the
Bury shows. Thinking about transporting bulls
from New Zealand and Canada. The ones from Canada,
I think, were shipped over. More recent ones
from New Zealand were flown over. How were they
collected in a truck? The Nelson family in Kangaroo
Valley, Dick and his son Ron, used to do all
our bull carting for us and they were amazing
stock transporters. I'd send Ron off. down in
Victoria picking up bulls. And I remember on
one occasion he rang me from Bairnsdale to say
he would be here at such and such an hour. And
he was here within about 10 minutes of it. And
in the hundreds of bulls that they carted over
the years, I don't remember one being injured.
They were very, very... Careful drivers, we used
to move bulls from here up to the Aberdeen Centre
and bulls from the Aberdeen Centre down here
for a period, and they used to do that too. They'd
take a load up and bring a load back. We cut
that out after a few years and then closed Aberdeen
down and concentrated on here. The only other
thing would be hay supplies, hay and... concentrate
feed suppliers. We put in a silo thing to hold
the concentrates. Hold, I suppose, about 20 tonne,
I would say. And then we had the two hay sheds.
They were used initially for local hay, which
was old Paspalum hay. So I got more involved
in the feeding of the bulls, got a contractor
to supply our concentrate food. And they got
a carrier from down near Wagga to buy good quality
pasture hay and lucerne hay. His surname was
Meyer. That's John Meyer, I think it was. Big
problem was that the two hay sheds were put in
to cater for a tabletop truck. And he used to
come with a semi -trailer. But he could back
in from Schofields Lane down the lane to the
hay sheds in. He was brilliant. designer Graham
Park, all the bulls were led from the yard down
to the collecting yard at the main building.
That was a time -consuming and to a degree dangerous
occupation and I did a trip to New Zealand but
I went to both the centres over there and found
they had this beautiful trailer that tip it down
the back, walk the bull up onto it, flatten it
off when they got to the collecting area, they'd
tip the front down and walk the bull off. So
I got one made and we used that out here and
that got the time factor cut in big portions
and the safety for the farm staff leading the
bulls. Any bad accidents happen there with the
bulls? No, fortunately there wasn't. There was
one of the old inseminators who was a character
in his own right there was escape hatches but
being designed by a architect they were metal
and he was one day had to take evasive actions
and the ball basically hit his knee into this
escape thing and peel the skin back off his knee
and i said to him well come on i'll run you over
to the hospital oh no take me up to the workshop
Take him up to the workshop. What did he do?
Poured some kerosene over it. Then some Stockholm
tar. Within a couple of weeks, it was as good
as gold. Do you remember his name? Yeah, Ernie
Staples. Ernie, when he was an inseminator, the
inseminators drove the BW Bug, and he had come
back with a dent in it, and he'd panel beat it
out. The original dent was better than his panel
beating. When he retired, he lived out at Geroa.
He used to go along the frontage there and get
seaweed for his garden. On one occasion, somebody
rang and said that he'd been found dead on the
beach. So Bernie Doyle, who was then the director
out there and myself, went out. It wasn't Ernie.
He was a character and a half. Took on riding
the mower to mow our front lawn and you couldn't
look out your window. You did not know whether
he had a dark shirt on or whether he had no shirt
on. His skin was like very black. He came to
work one morning and if he got into the... lunch
room first and made the tea. It was a strong,
a strong. He came in one morning and he was a
collector of, had quite an aviary of birds and
a bird he had got from somewhere at some fairly
big price. He said, I went up there this morning
and here was this bird dead. It was four feet
in the air. Did you do much socialising together?
Yeah, we used to always have a fairly good Christmas.
So your Christmas parties would be at the AI
Centre? Yeah, there was a big car park area and
we used to have a barbecue in there and a few
beers and so forth. Was it mainly men working
there? Was it a pretty masculine place? We had,
usually there were two or three women, one the
exchange, one doing some clerical work and one...
doing some laboratory work. One that we had on
the exchange, it was the old plug -in type. She
had a name all over the country of being the
best telephonist they had ever dealt with. She
was brilliant. And what was her name? Norma Wolford.
Was she a local person? I don't know what stage
she and her husband moved here, but her son lives
down here in Princess Street. So Glenfield was
Department of Agriculture, was it? Yeah, that
was the Veterinary Research Station. That's right.
It eventually moved out to Camden. Again, I think
a very silly departmental move because the one
at Glenfield, you had Hurlston Agricultural High
School there on the other side of the road. veterinary
research station. It was a fairly good combination.
But then they moved out to the Elizabeth MacArthur
Research Camden, Monangle probably, not that
far from the Rotolactor actually, now being sort
of encroached on with development and so forth.
I can't remember what year it was, but it was
offered the job of moving up there to be livestock
coordinator was the title up there. I was there
for about two years. I eventually decided it
didn't suit because we had lost a son here. I
don't think wife Colleen was going to handle
things if I was up there during the week and
only here at weekends, so I gave that away. How
long were you with Berry for? I started there
in October 1965. took over managing in, I think
it was 1980, the director, Bernie Doyle, he was
a veterinary surgeon. He got moved to Sydney
and looked after quarantine and such like. We
used government vets who were stationed at Kiama
to do our veterinary work. And then when we went
under the Department of Agriculture, we couldn't
use... So we were using the private vets down
here, Geoff Manning and Geoff Scarlett, who were
both very good vets. So that was the only time
we used private vets. What were some of the biggest
changes you saw in the AI industry, just broadly?
It's a big question. Well, the biggest changes
were the processing of semen from liquid to frozen.
With the liquid, you'd collect it today, dilute
it, and then ship it out in thermoses, really,
to the inseminators, but you couldn't store any.
And then when we eventually switched over to
using the glass ampoules, we got big liquid nitrogen
storage tanks, and as soon as it was processed
and frozen, it would go into the storage. But
the ampoules, as I mentioned before, were not
as easy to inseminate with. And then we switched
over to the straws. And one of the advantages
of the straws was you had a different coloured
straw for each breed. Whereas with the ampoules,
they were all glass. And you had to get the exact
ampoule and read what was printed on it. Whereas
with the straws, you could... Lift the lid and
look, and there was the, we'll say, the red straws.
Right, that's the semen I want of a Frisian bull.
Providing you weren't colourblind. Yes, it's
a good point. That would have, might have happened.
Oh, yes. I'm just trying to think how we did
have one fellow who was colourblind. But somehow
or other, he seemed to be able to overcome it
fairly easily. The chap that handled the storage
of semen, Stuart Brandon, he now lives over at
Farm Meadow Bomadery. He was very, very efficient
in handling semen, putting it into liquid nitrogen,
out of liquid nitrogen, into containers to ship
off and so forth. His hands, I think, must have
ended up like loaves of bread. Does that mean
big? Well, big but also hard from burning with
the liquid nitrogen. Oh, yes. Because, as you
know, liquid nitrogen is a fairly low temperature.
I think it's about 197, I think, from memory.
But he was very brilliant at his job. How big
was the reach? How far did your AI get distributed?
Well, basically, Australia -wide, in the end,
they had an artificial... breeding board in Western
Australia but all they did was acquire semen
from the likes of us take it over there and inseminate
it out so they had no bulls etc so semen was
Australia wide I don't actually recall any going
to Northern Territory but I could be wrong there
we sent some to Indonesia on one occasion some
to Norfolk Island and Lord Howe Island, a small
bit of the, particularly the Illawarras, to New
Zealand. Barry was helped by Graham Park. We
had one, two, three, four inseminators working.
We had three farm staff. They all lived locally.
And then... Office -wise, well, we had one, two,
three ladies, one fellow, two in the office,
two in the lab, all lived locally. And, of course,
over the years, the number of visitors we used
to get out there, Bill Gill used to have the
coach company, and he used to bring people from
America. He'd bring coach loads out there and
they would all leave a dollar or two in berries
they went by. Farmer groups used to use a berry
for farmer meetings, local. Groups used to come
from other parts and individuals and it helped
bury a lot financially. What for you working
there? What did you get out of it? What did you
enjoy the most? I probably enjoyed the fact that
I was... both office and outside. You must have
had a bit of fun on those trips. Have you got
any funny bull stories or anything that was unusual?
Not really. They were all very sane and sober.
Yeah. The only funny one I can think of was when
we were in Queensland with Fred McIntosh. We
called in and saw our Ayrshire breeder. We weren't
really looking at bulls at his place, but he
was a long -time friend of... Fred McIntosh.
And when we were leaving there, it was on dusk.
And I said, right, and you know where to go from
here, Mr McIntosh, do you? Ah, yes. Turn left,
turn left, turn left, and we're back where we
started. And we stopped in a motel at Wagga one
night, and he cursed the pillow all night. Next
morning, I don't know what made me, but I tried
a door, and we opened into another one. Much
better pillow. That's what I liked was the mixture
of clerical and outside. In the field. Met a
lot of very nice people. Met some strange people,
some with different lifestyles. What did you
wear? Wear a hat? Oh, yeah. Always wore a hat
and always wore a tie. And a kuba or something?
Yeah. Tell me a bit about meeting your wife.
Right, well, I met my wife at DAPTO. at a Masonic
dance. I was working in Sydney at that stage
and I'd come down weekends, spend some time with
mum and dad on the farm and go to the Masonic
dance and that's where I met her. And then when
I, I don't know how long that went on for, but
then I got moved to Melbourne. There were a number
of us they selected for undergoing training and
I spent time in Melbourne. Shepparton, Wangaratta,
Sydney, Brisbane, Rockhampton, Springshore, Barcaldon,
Longreach and then back to Sydney. All that time
basically we were just kept in contact by writing
letters and when I'd have a holiday I'd head
there. So really our courting days were on paper.
What year did you marry and where? We married
in 1960. At Coggera, the Church of England there.
Yeah. The minister there had been Minister Adapto,
and we knew him well, so we made use of him at
Coggera. And what was your wife's full name?
Colleen Margaret Tully. What year was she born?
1937. And she's recently passed, unfortunately.
Yes, last June. So June 24. Strange thing is
I met her. At a Masonic dance. She passed away
at a Masonic village. She was down there in Bury,
was she? Yeah, she had 15 months down there.
I cared for her here from 2016. And then about,
I can't remember the exact year, but about 2018,
I got aged care. Used Anglicare on the recommendation
of a friend. Ladies come in and care for her
between 8 o 'clock and 4 o 'clock of an afternoon
and then I'd take over from then through the
night to morning. Got to the stage of I just
couldn't handle it. It's a big role. Oh, a massive
role. But I used to take her out for a walk every
day and we were down at Camp Quality and I don't
know what caused it but anyway she fell and broke
her left hip. She basically didn't walk. Since
then, when she was in hospital in Nowra, I couldn't
get the doctor to get her more care. I couldn't
get her moved over to the Berry Hospital where
I could have got more walking care. So she really
never got walking again. So I used to take her
around in a wheelchair and then I got a motorised
wheelchair. Took her around and that, but it
just got to the stage in March. I had to put
her in the Masonic Village and they were brilliant.
Outstanding thing down there is the carers they've
got from Fiji, India, various places. They are
brilliant. Apparently about 30 ,000 in Australia.
It's amazing, isn't it? Yeah. And they're always
so happy singing. Yeah. And when I go down there,
which I go down about every couple of weeks,
two of the ones that did the day part of Collins,
Monday to Thursday, they were brilliant. And
I go down and see them and I catch up with any
of the Islander girls that are on. They're always
so happy to see you, give you the greatest cuddle
possible. I've just about educated most of them
now because... I'd say to them, how are you?
And they'd say, good. And I'd say, no, you're
well. You're not good. So now I go down and I
say, how are you? Well. You have children? Yeah,
we had three sons. Our third son we lost with
a cerebral hemorrhage about 1990, I think. What's
his name? Brian. And what about your other two
sons? What are their names? Rodney's a greenkeeper.
head greenkeeper of Bomaderry and Berry bowling
clubs and lives at Gerongong. And Graham, our
second son, lives up in Ford Street off Kangaroo
Valley Road there. Everybody must have their
Ford name now because Sam's pinched one for ages.
They used to take the Ford off. And now he's
retired up there now. And he and his... Lovely
wife, Debbie, turned us into great -grandparents
on the 1st of January. Well, that's something
to live for, isn't it? Yes, yes. And they have
called him Cooper Tully, Colleen's surname as
his second name. And you were a member of the
Berry Bowling Club, were you? Yes, up until I
had to give more service to Colleen. How long
was your membership there? Oh, I joined there
in, I think, about 2000 or thereabouts. What
sort of bowler were you? I was president for
about five or six years. I was a mediocre bowler.
That brings us to the end of the episode. Thanks,
David. I really enjoyed engaging David. It was
a very hot day when we did the recording and
I had to get him to turn the air conditioning
off. You cannot believe how hot it was for us,
but we got there. Next episode, episode 10, is
the final episode for this season. I'll bring
it to you in a few weeks. I'll have my website
hosting this episode with a couple of photos
in a few days. Okay, until then, theresesweeney
.com .au is my website. If you've got an inquiry
or anything to add, there's a form there. You
can fill that in and get it to me. Yeah. Okay.
Ciao.