I was born on 12 September 1914 in Taree. My father Jack Humfrey Sleeman, at that time was a contractor who had employees falling and hauling logs for local sawmills.
My mother was Pansy Alice Rutherford nee Bond. She was an ex-school teacher from Burwood Girls School. I had one sister, Beryl Alice, who was twelve months older than me.
My father kept one horse in stables at the rear of our house in Manning Street. The horse’s name was Bob; he was an eight year old gelding and a champion trotter. Beside the stable was the coach-house in which was stored a sulky for the family’s general transport and a trotting gig for competition racing.
Life before Schooling Starts
Dad would sometimes take me in the sulky when he was travelling out of town to attend to his business interests. I recall him stopping in the middle of a creek that crossed the main road (the Pacific Highway) to allow the horse to drink. The cool, clear, fast running water was about half a metre deep and would swirl around the sulky wheels. It was during the days before culverts and bridges were constructed over minor watercourses on main roads.
My brother John David was born in 1916 and another sister Merle Ann soon after.
All six members of my family were simultaneously ill with the ‘flu during the epidemic that broke out after the First World War. We were nursed by one of my mother’s cousins; she was a returned Army nurse who had served in France. She had one eye, the other having been destroyed by a chip of enamel from a hospital fitting. We were all nursed back to good health despite the fact that she would occasionally take time out to smoke a surreptitious cigarette! In those days it was absolutely unheard of for ladies to smoke.
Dad was keen on horse racing and right is a photo of him winning a trotting race with Bob at Taree showground in 1920. His major opposition came from the local Catholic priest who always kept very good trotters in his stable.
A well for supplying fresh water was sunk at the back of our house, the sides had been bricked up and the top boarded over. On the first night after the well covering was completed, my brother John got out of his cot and walking in his sleep, found his way onto the well cover where mother found him. Had this happened one night earlier it could have been fatal!
Family Moves to Lansdowne
Our family later moved to Lansdowne where Dad had two bullock teams hauling logs from the scrub to Lansdowne railway station.
Mother entrusted Beryl to take me for a walk each afternoon and on our first excursion we came to a steeply sloping grass covered bank that appeared to sweep down to a level area of bright green grass. I ran full tilt down the bank, intending to race Beryl out onto the level area. Under the bright green vegetation there was no solid ground covering the level area, only deep river water. I disappeared and my hat floated to the surface. Beryl said “Oh, mother will be so cross with me for allowing him to drown by himself”. Luckily a stranger who had been standing nearby, pulled me out, but I lost my hat.
I attended school at Upper Lansdowne; the building consisted of two small rooms, one for kindergarten and one for the primary classes. A male teacher taught the bigger children and his wife taught the little ones.
I had my first fight at this school with a boy who had the same initials as me. When he was naughty the teacher, the headmaster’s wife, would write his initials on the side of the blackboard and when the headmaster came into our room, I was the one who received the punishment. The situation led to altercations in the playground and a brawl started. I pushed him backwards and he stepped in a stump hole and fell with me on top of him, he bellowed when a bone in his forearm fractured.
One day on the way home from school, some of the boys from the school were against me as I was a new kid. They ganged up with the intention of bashing me, however the girls were on my side and they formed a protective band around me as we marched homewards. The boys were not game enough to take on the girls. Even today it gives me a wonderful warm feeling to recall the episode; some of the girls were really grown up, maybe eleven years old.
In those days some of the household provisions included plain flour, which would come in 25 lb calico bags. After the flour had been used in cooking, some mothers would use the calico bags to make underclothes for their children. I remember at school when my class underwent physical training in the playground, we were ordered to touch our toes and I could look at the girl in front of me and “BRUNTONS FLOUR MILLS” printed across her bottom..
Life at Mosman with my Grandparents
I recall being put on the train and consigned to Sydney to stay with my father’s parents at Mosman, so that I could undergo surgery for the removal of my adenoids and tonsils.
The operation was carried out by my cousin Dr Hattie Biffin at her private hospital in Lindfield.
Hattie had several peacocks wandering around the garden, this was the first time I had seen one of these regal creatures.
When it came holiday time Hattie took me with her to her weekender at Middle Harbour. On a number of occasions she hired a launch, from which we would fish. One day while fishing she hauled in a small shark that flapped about on the floor of the launch; it was about 18 inches long. This was my first encounter with a shark. As usual I was barefooted. Hattie shouted to me to climb up on the seat in case of my toes being bitten off.
My paternal grandparents, Annie and Oliver Sleeman, lived in The Avenue, Mosman, where grandfather had a fuel business supplying wood, coal and coke to the district. They had a two storey house with an attic bedroom at the top. This was my room and just outside my window were the branches of a large Moreton Bay Fig tree, through which I could see the adjoining fuel yard, where the men were busy, some splitting firewood, some filling bags with coal or coke and others loading carts and wagons.
Sometimes a dove would alight in the tree and begin its “coo, coo”. Today, over 80 years later, the cooing of a dove takes me back to that little bedroom.
A vivid memory I have of those times is when the maid would come into the billiard room at nightfall and light the gas lamps; the pretty colours of the lampshades would slowly appear. Those were the days before electricity.
On one occasion grandmother took me to Sydney shopping. We took a cab to Mosman wharf and then a ferry to Circular Quay. We then entered a Hansom cab; the two little doors closed in front of us and we looked out on the horse’s back on which the harness lay and then a most amazing thing happened; a voice from heaven enquired directions from grandma. Later I discovered that there was a small trapdoor in the roof through which the driver could speak to his passengers.
Return to Lansdowne
After my convalescence, I was put on a train and returned to Lansdowne. On arrival at Lansdowne I was told that calamity had befallen dad.
In the bullock team business of timber hauling, it was the usual practice of teamsters to load their wagons to the limit of their team’s pulling ability for level ground; therefore they could not traverse any steep climbs without assistance. When confronted by a steep pinch the drivers would co-operate by leaving one wagon at the foot of the hill and applying both teams to getting one wagon up the pinch and after which both teams would return and haul the second wagon up the pinch. On the occasion of the disaster that beset dad, while hauling his wagon up a steep pinch, the main chain connecting the assisting team broke, thereby allowing dad’s wagon and team to be drawn backwards over a cliff; nothing was left except dead bullocks and smashed wagon parts lying in the creek bed below. Fortunately dad was able to jump clear and was uninjured. There was another accident that occurred on the opposite side of this hill while a team was descending a steep pinch, the driver called to his off-sider to apply the wagon brakes. The principle of operating wagon brakes was by winding a screw that applied pressure to clamp the brake shoes onto the wheel tyres. On this occasion the off-sider was used to a wagon with a brake screw that applied the brakes when rotated in a clockwise direction, this wagon’s brakes operated in an anti-clockwise direction and consequentially he wound the brake off instead of on. The wagon overran the team, resulting in the loss of the bullocks.
Port Macquarie
Following the loss of dad’s equipment, the family moved to Port Macquarie where we lived in a cottage opposite the old convict jail site. There were still some of the old stone foundations scattered about through which we children would walk to get to the beach.
There was a rock-enclosed natural pool in which Beryl and I swam. In this pool one day an octopus fastened onto Beryl’s arm, she screamed and between us we were able to dislodge it, luckily it was not of the blue ringed variety.
I don’t know where dad worked at this time, but when he came home at weekends he loved to go fishing.
Extract taken from “A Biography of Oliver Charles Sleeman” written August 2005.