WA Edgar Family: 1864-1986

WESTERN AUSTRALIAN EDGAR FAMILY

The story of the first and second generations of the Western Australian Branch of the Edgar family, 1864 to 1986, written by Ian Murray Edgar

John Edgar was the first member of the family of Walter and Grace Edgar of "Woodacres", Victoria, to come to Western Australia, when in 1864 at the age of 19 he joined The Portland Squatting Company Limited.

(from Marilyn Fordred:) Walter and Grace Edgar are buried at Tarrayoukyan Private cemetery with son Walter and daughters Mary Georgina, Agnes Christina (died 1954), son Robert Halbert Edgar (died November 1947), Robert's wife May Edgar (born Wando Vale 20.5.1877, died 14.9.1946), Robert and May's son, Keith William Edgar (married to Ann), died 1980. Keith and Ann had 2 children Alan and Bruce. David Edgar, son John Thomas, his 6th son (Ian Swan) married Effie Rutherford Gibb, she died 1969 aged 71 and buried at Portland.

This Company was registered in Portland in 1864, and consisted of the following:

• A E Anderson (Manager)
• J E Richardson
• McKenzie Grant (Sub Manager)
• John Edgar
• T E Richardson
• A R Richardson
• David Edgar
• J B Fitzgerald

Applications were sent through the Hon. S G Henty to the Hon. L Samson of Perth for permission for the Company to proceed to Nichol Bay, or other parties of North Western Australia to secure land for pastoral purposes. David Edgar and J B Fitzgerald were sleeping partners, and did not come to Western Australia.

The sailing ship "Maria Ross" was chartered for 1,200 pounds and 100 pounds for fitting out the vessel to carry sheep. The exact number of sheep were not stated, but it seems certain that 1600 sheep, 8 horses and one wagon was loaded on 3 March 1865, and in the month long trip to Cossack only 8 sheep were lost. It also states that the 1600 sheep came from David Edgar's property "Pine Hills" near Harrow. I am indebted to a copy of a diary kept by A R Richardson for these particulars.

The stock were unloaded at Cossack on 3 April 1865 and by 2 May a block on the George River was selected by A E Anderson and was called "Pyramid Station" and was 25 miles from Roebourne.

After four years at "Pyramid", A E Anderson and McKenzie Grant decided to leave the North, and started to drive their share of the stock down South to Toodyay, but they found that the lower Fortescue area was in the grip of a severe drought, and they had to turn back. As Walter Padbury's leases on the de Grey River had been abandoned the previous year when his Manager, Charles Nairn, had with 45 others been lost when the "Emma" was wrecked in a cyclone, Anderson and Grant decided to take up these abandoned leases on the de Grey River. Shortly after Charles Harper had bought a one third interest in the venture for 1200 pounds. In 1879 John Edgar and his brother Alexander Williamson Edgar bought out Charles Harper's interest, and so began the Edgar family's long and productive association with the DeGrey station in the name of Grant Anderson and Edgar. Ten years later the station was running 27,000 sheep, and by 1890 the number had increased to 74,000, but two years of drought reduced this number to 44,000 in 1892.

My father Alexander Williamson Edgar, came to the DeGrey in 1877 as a jackeroo. His sister Jane Hunter Edgar had married McKenzie Grant at "Woodacres" in 1875, and came to live in the DeGrey. The enclosed copies are of letters my father sent home, and tell of the various jobs he had to do including breaking in horses, driving bullocks, and poisoning dingoes in the outback parts of the Station. McKenzie Grant was both his brother-in-law and boss, and was a tough hand dour Scot, and very little is known of his family. I can recall my father telling me that his sister told him that though they were married for 20 years, he never mentioned any of his family. My father started work on the station at the princely wage of 5 pounds per month, which was the going rate at that time.

After my father had been at the station for 4 or 5 years, one day he had a row with Old Man Grant, as he used to call him, and he decided to leave the Station, and go up to the Kimberleys that were just being settled at that time. As he then owned a horse that was out with the station horses he had a good deal of difficulty in catching it, so it was almost dark by the time he was ready to go. So his sister said to him "it is a bit late to start now, why not leave it until the morning". Next morning as he was about to leave Old Man Grant came to him and said "Janie and I are going down South to live at Geraldton and I am putting you in charge of the Station". This was a happy break for my father, as had he set off for the Kimberleys in those days there was every chance that he would have been killed by the natives on the way there.

For the next 30 years he managed the DeGrey, first for Grant, Anderson and Edgar, and later for Grant, Edgar and Company. In 1885 he took up on his own account "Oscar Range" cattle station near Fitzroy Crossing, and in partnership with Jack Collins they ran the station until 1904 when Collins died and was buried on the station. The following entries from my father's old journal are of interest:

1885 rent on 322,000 acres, 77 pound, 8s 1d pa

1836 paid cash for 300 head of cattle 900 pounds

1892 purchased 10 bulls, 100 pounds

1892 Collins salary 175 pounds

1892 sale of 71 bullocks 355 pounds

1898 driving 114 cattle Oscar to Condon 57 pounds (this would involve a trip of 400 miles)

My father held the "Oscar Range" until 1912 when it was sold to the neighbouring station, then owned by C C Blythe.

As the DeGrey included a coastal strip which gave them the pearling rights, and so in the early years until the sheep numbers had been built up, a lucrative business came from both dry-shelling and from the pearling boats based on Condon. The dry-shelling was carried out by the native women at low tide. On this falt coast where the rise and fall of the tide is almost 30 feet, a two mile wide strip is left dry when the tide is out, so the native women had a wide area to collect the shells from. The native men could be trained to make very good divers and used to dive in up to seven fathoms of water without any diving gear at all. They had no fear of sharks, but were very frightened of the giant clam shells. Condon was just east of the mouth of the DeGrey River, and it was here that the wool was loaded on ships for sale in England. The ship "Arabella" would sail in to within one mile of the beach at high tide, and when the tide went out it left the ship sitting up on the sand, and the bullock teams could come alongside the ship.

Sometimes the bullock teams would be caught up by the incoming tide when returning to the beach, in which case the bullocks were unyoked and would swim ashore, and the wagon be recovered at next low tide.

Condon was 12 or 15 miles from the shearing shed, and in later years when gold was discovered at Marble Bar it became quite a busy port where supplies were unloaded. It is now defuct, and it's only inhabitants are the ghosts of the early pioneers.

In 1886 my father's youngest brother avid James (Jim) came to Western Australia to work on the deGrey, but the "Aerial" on which he was travelling up the coast, was wrecked in a cyclone with all hands.

By 1897 all the original owners of the station had died, and I can recall my father telling me that he could have quite easily then become the sole owner of the station. But, instead he went to Victoria and persuaded his brothers and sisters to form a syndacate with himself and the Grant family to buy out the Anderson family interest in the Station, and so in 1901 it became Grant, Edgar and Company, and remained so until it was sold to Mark Rubins in 1913 for 96,000 pounds.

My mother was Myra Bateman of Fremantle, and her father John Bateman arrived from England in 1830 on the "Medina". She and my father were married in 1890 and lived on the Station for seven years where my eldest brother Douglas Waldene Edgar was born. At that time John Edgar had a one third interest with Charles Harper and J E Wedge in Caheriton Estate at Gin Gin, and when his brother died in 1897 my father bought his share. To arrive at a one thirs share, it was decided to divide the property into three parts which were considered of equal value, and my father chose the smallest part which contained the most good land, the remaining portions were retained by J E Wedge and Charles Harper and divided at a later date. In 1899 my father started to build a home on his portion which was named "Strathalbyn" and it was finished in 1900. The house was made of stone which was quarried on the property, and had nine large rooms with a fireplace in seven of them. There was a 22 yard long passage down the middle of the house, and an eight feet verandah all round. The quarry from whicha the stone for the house came was about one and a half miles away, and though the paddock is still called the Quarry Paddock, no sign of the quarry now remains. I can remember my father telling me that the house and the stone stables, 150 yards behind, cost 1200 pounds to build.

My eldest sister Grace Williamson Edgar, was born at Roebourne while our parents were still living on the station, and my other brother, Alexander Bateman Edgar was born just after they retired to live in the South, and I, Ian Murray Edgar, was born just after "Strathalbyn" was finished. So at this time there were four of us children. As Dad was a very gregarious man there always seemed to be someone staying with us. As I grew up I can remember many of those North-West friends of my father's and the stories they used to tell of the early days in the North, and my greatest regret has always been that tape-recorders were not then invented. My younger sister Mary Alison was born in 1905 and "Strathalbyn" was not too large.

I was very fortunate to be the second youngest in the family and so was at home with my father longer than were my two brothers, and I went to school in Adelaide for three years, and spent most of my holidays at "Woodacres" and so knew all my father's family. This included the very dear old lady who was my Grandmother, who in spite of spending the last ten years of her long life of 92 years, bedridden with a broken hip, she never complained. I can remember being told how one day the Minister called to see her, and the first thing she asked him was "who won the fight?" It seems there was a championship fight going on at the time.

As my father began to develop "Strathalbyn" and stock it with stud sheep and cattle it became evident that there was a lack of something in the soil that affected the wool on the sheep and the growth of, particularly the young cattle. So in 1914 he bought a 3,600 acre property 20 miles North East of Gin Gin which was called "West Point". It was found that by changing the stock between the two places the difficulty was overcome. Years later the scientists found that there was a shortage of copper in the Gin Gin soil.

A couple of years before (1911-12) my Dad had taken up 8,500 acres of virgin bush country 10 miles west of Gin Gin and had named it "Glencoe" and started at once to have it fenced and cleared. I must mention here that developing bush land in those days was vastly different to waht is is today. The only way to cut down trees then was with an axe, and only horses were available to pull ploughs. There were no bulldozers or big tractors to do this work at 5mph. As "Glencoe" was surrounded by a large area of unoccupied country, a dingo proof fence had to be first put round it. The four years of WWI held up the development to a considerable extent, but in 1923 my brother Alex married Kathleen Piper of Sydney, and a stone house was built and they came to live at "Glencoe", and remained there for 30 years.

My father always had very strong views on the foolishment of leaving too much money to young people, so when he received quite a large sum of money for his share of the sale of deGrey in 1913 he put the money into a mortgage on two large farming properties. One was at Toodyay, and the other at Yandanooks. However with the outbreak of WWI the money was tied up by a moritorium until 1924. By this time my brother Doug had returned from three years service with the armed forces in France, and was about to Marry Marchjorie Tickle of Fremantle. At this time the historic property "Glentromie" of almost 15,000 acres came on the Market, and my father bought it, and my brother and his wife lived there for the next 29 years. I well remember my Dad'd reMark when the deal was completed. He said "Glentromie" is a fine property, but there is a good sized monkey on it."

In 1915 my elder sister Grace Williamson Edgar married Prescott Harper, son of Charles Harper, who in the early days of the deGrey was a partner with Grant and Anderson, and in later years a partner with J E Wedge and John Edgar in Cheriton Estate. When my sister was married they went to live on his father's portion of Cheriton which they called "Koorian". My sister died in 1928 after a long illness, and left two children Alison Harper and Jean Harper. In 1932 my younger sister Mary Alison married Prescott and they had a family of two girls, Judith Harper and Jill Harper and one boy, John Harper. John Harper now lives on part of "Koorian" at Gin Gin.

The next 25 years were hard ones, as in 1927 my father died. Then came the probate, the depression, the rabbit plague and WWII. In 1917 my father had made the three properties "Strathalbyn", "Glencoe" and "West Point" into a family company in which we all had an interest. By 1950 our families were growing up, and the company was becoming unwieldy, so it was decided to split it up between ourselves. My sister Mary took "West Point" as her share, and we three brothers took the properties on which we were living as our share. We had in the meantime sold 9,000 odd acres of "Glentromie" to the Soldiers Settlement Scheme, and so kissed the "Monkey" goodbye without any regrets. We now owned three properties of which we each owned one third, so it was an easy matter to adjust the value between ourselves. In 1917 when the family company was first formed, I can remember getting a dividend of 600 pounds, the exact details of which I have forgotten. But I do remember thinking that I would save it up, and it would be handy when some day I hope to buy "Strathalbyn", I had no idea how I expected to do this as I only had one fifth of the whole, so the chance of buying the most valuable of the three propertoes seem very remote. However, when my father bought "Glentromie" it left him very short of cahs, and I remember saying to him "You can have a lend of my 600 pounds". He took the 600 pounds and gave me an IOU for it. It is with great regret I have to say that I lost this document. After Dad died this money remained as a credit to me in the "Glentromie" books, and as I drew no interest on it by 1950 it had grown to 2,400 pounds, and so after 30 years it did help me to acquire "Strathalbyn". However as my brother's share in "Strathalbyn" was worth so much more than my share, and my one third share in their two properties, I had to give Alex almost 500 acres of "Strathalbyn" as well as several thousand pounds to make things square. I also had to pay Doug a much lesser amount for the same reason.

In the latter part of his life, my brother Doug suffered a great deal from asthma which being gassed in WWI did not help very much, and with three daughters in his family and no son to carry on the farm, he sold it in mid 1950 and retired to live in Perth where he died in 1966.

My brother Alex passed "Glencoe" over to his two sons, Ronald and Murray, who later divided it between themselves, and Alex built a house on what had been part of "Strathalbyn" and lived there. Murray sold his part when his wife died and was left with three small boys to bring up. After an accident which left him with a damaged leg and hip, Ronald also sold his part of "Glencoe".

This almost ends the story I started to record, the activities of the first and second generations of the Edgar family in Western Australia, and leaves only my part. I am just one year younger than the house at "Strathalbyn" as I was born in 1901, and spent the greater part of my childhood there, with the exception of my school days in Perth and Adelaide. When I left school in 1919, I started keeping the books under the guidance of my father. One of the transactions I remember so well, was the purchase of a Merino Ram by my father from Mr A J Murray of South Australia for 7 pounds. When the ram arrived in Perth just about Royal Show time, my father put it up for sale at the show, and it was sold for 70 pounds. So my father told me to send Mr Murray a cheque for 63 pounds, which was the profit on the ram, because he knew very well that Mr Murray knew it was worth more than the 7 pounds he had charged for it. Needless to say Mr Murray never cashed the cheque, and I recall crossing it off the books years after. Such men were A W Edgar and A J Murray.

I must have inherited my love for the land and livestock from my Edgar ancestors as I never ever wanted to do anything else but work on the land.

When my father died in 1927 my mother came to live in Perth, and Thelma and I were married in 1928 and lived at "Strathalbyn" for the next 34 years. Our three children, Robin, Joan and Alex spent their childhood there, and in 1962 Thelma and I retired to live in Perth and left Alex to run the farm. In 1967 he married Robin Meares and we made "Strathalbyn" over to him, and their children, David, Christopher and Merrilee have grown up there.

It is of some interest that when Alex married Robin Meares on 30 March 1967, he married a girl whose parents then owned "Pyramid Station", and who had spent her childhook there. This was the same piece of land the Portland Squatting Company 101 years and 11 months previously owned on 2 May 1865.

Sadly, "Strathalbyn" is now the last piece of land acquired by A W Edgar in Western Australia, that still remains in the Edgar name.