Norm & Edith White
By Brendan Taylor
I met Norm and Edith White about two years ago. While in my office, I asked a few questions about their history. After about an hour I said “you should write a book”. Norm said ‘no one is interested in our story’. There is something special about the humble nature of our pioneers that inspires me. So last week, I went to their house in Albany with Kelly to learn more. Here is a very brief version of their story.
Edith
Was born in Eindhoven, Holland in 1939 just before the breakout of World War 2, a town 50kms north of Belgium. Her earliest memory is playing out in the street and suddenly hearing the war sirens sounding and a neighbour shouting out “it’s ok, we’ll take her” and then being carried to the safety of their bunker. Those war days included billeting English soldiers in their home.
After the war finished in 1945 life was good in Holland. Edith’s father was a truck driver who carted potatoes and her mum worked for the company Philips Electrical until she married. They had lots of family connections but wanted more and looked for a better life. Edith remembers her family looking over maps discussing whether to come to Australia or Canada. For some reason or another Canada didn’t work out and in 1952 when Edith was 12 they headed for Australia spending four weeks on a boat and arrived in Fremantle on Edith's 13th birthday. The boat trip was fun sharing a dormitory with 300 people.
They went out to the Holden Immigration Camp in Northam. Edith’s father started work, originally building houses, but then went onto Brookton and found work as a farmhand for Henry Pech. Henry Pech also had farmland at Gnowangerup and after about a year he helped Edith’s parents acquire CP (Conditional Purchase) uncleared farmland. They moved to Gnowangerup, but continued to work for Henry Pech, while also working their own farm.
Edith stayed in Northam even though she was only 15, and started work for the Northam Shire which also serviced nearby towns of Wundowie and Bakers Hill. She rode her bike to work, while also double dinking her niece to school on the way. She had two weeks of training and her tasks included vehicle registration, number plates, rates and the more colourful task of receiving, counting and storing fox tails. The whole shire office staff totalled two, Edith and one other person. Edith attended night classes at Northam High School to learn to type.
Edith made a couple of weekend visits to her parents in Gnowangerup making the long trip by train.
When in Northam she had to promise to become an Australian Citizen and she moved to Gnowangerup in 1955 at the ripe old age of 16, she was naturalised in September 1956.
Edith quickly found work in Gnowangerup at Davis & Son a Grocery Store and Newsagency. This is where she met Norm, when he suddenly had an interest in frequenting the Grocery Store to buy ice-creams for his nieces and nephews.
Edith was boarding in Gnowangerup while her parents were out at the farm. Gnowangerup had a small Dutch community with about five families there.
Norm
Is the youngest of five children and was the last child born at the old Gnowangerup Hospital in 1935. When Norm was seven, his father passed away due to ill health and he and his siblings helped his mother work the farm.
He attended Little Pallinup School but left at the age of 14.
The farm was not big enough and did not support his family, at 14 Norm moved to Pithara near Dalwallinu to work on his brother in law's farm. His brother in law was mostly absent as he was ill so Norm worked long hours and did the seeding on his own at 14 and a half. The conditions were very tough and the living was basic with Norm sometimes living in a tent. A lot of canned food was eaten. Norm put in 2 crops at Pithara before moving back to Gnowangerup when his brother in law died and the farm was sold.
In 1954 Norm was called up for National Service (Nasho’s) for three months. Norm met Edith at Christmas time in 1955. She was working – he was buying ice-cream.
Norm looked for other farming opportunities. In 1958 he heard of a CP block coming up for selection north of the Stirling Ranges, about 40km from Gnowangerup. He applied, up against about 20 others, and was surprised that he was successful. He chose it as it was the only farmland he could afford. It was completely uncleared and not the best land. He left the family farm with no assets of his own. He borrowed the farm truck, with a borrowed Fordson steel track tractor on the back, and drove on very rough tracks through neighbouring farms to get to his new farm.
Norm arrived at the corner of the farm, decided this was as good a spot as any, dug a large hole with a shovel, and then backed the truck into the hole so he could drive the tractor off the truck. Then he used the tractor to tow the truck out of that large hole.
At that point Norm started on the massive clearing task. He initially cleared 350 acres of scrubland and small trees with the Fordson Tractor towing a 20 foot log that he had cut down. He put a firebreak around it and built a shed.
Edith and Norm were married on 17 January 1959 and within 10 days; Norm took his new wife to live in a caravan in the shed. Life in Gnowangerup for a young couple included sport, dancing and Junior Farmers events, along with plenty of hard work.
The Early Years Together
It was tough during those first years clearing the land and establishing the pasture. Their land was boggy so to use the gate Edith would have to slow down the ute, Norm would have to jump out, and run ahead to open the gate, and wait for Edith to do a loop around to came back and get him. If they stopped they got bogged.
It was quite isolated and their visitors consisted mostly of tiger snakes.
They bought their first mob of sheep for 10 pounds per head. Norm manufactured a shearing shed and their neighbour did the shearing whilst Norm was the rouseabout.
The next year Norm cleared another 250 acres. It was very slow going.
By 1963 Norm and Edith had two children and the caravan was getting quite cramped so they built a small home on a higher part of the farm. They borrowed a brick making machine and with the help of Bob Tallents who did the shovelling, Tom Brade who did the mixing and Norm carried the bricks (which he thought was the easy part until he found out they were very big and very heavy when still wet). Some of the hardest days were carrying several hundred bricks in a day.
They discovered underground fresh water near the house using a divining rod. They dug down 20 feet then found the water and put a bore down 40 foot. They put in an electrical pump to pump the water.
Most of their early income was made from running sheep and harvesting and selling clover seed which grew extremely well. The clover was delivered throughout the area and also through the Gnowangerup Co-op.
Farm equipment consisted of an FJ Holden, International Crawler, Ajax Woolpress, and Kerosene Fordson Tractor. The AL Sunshine Harvester with 10 foot wide comb and a bin that holds two thirds of a tonne of wheat is a far cry from the enormous machines of today.
They were still clearing land until 1980. Ironically, while they cleared trees for many years they also planted about 100,000 trees to prevent salinity and erosion.
There were some very hard times with drought, floods and poor years. The only time they thought they wouldn’t make it was the drought in 1969. Then in 1978 Cyclone Alby devastated many farms in WA. Their farm suffered severe erosion that took years to recover.
Norm and Edith successfully raised and educated five children from that farm.
They left the farm in 2002 and retired to Albany. Michael took over and still runs the family farm today with his wife Marie and children. They wanted Michael to be his own boss, do things his own way but they were always happy to help or give an opinion if required. Norm and Edith always wanted to leave something worth having.
They have enjoyed retirement in Albany with many new friends.
What advice would you give to someone starting out in farming today?
You need to be very brave. There is no way you can start farming today like we did. There is not enough land around. You need machinery and you need finance.
You will make mistakes and you learn from them – those who don’t make mistakes don’t progress.
