Born: October 6, 1940 at St Luke’s Private Hospital, Griffith, NSW.
Married: Lorraine Dawn Steadman March 14, 1964 at Sacred Heart Church, Cabramatta, Sydney.
Children:
Stephen James Watts: Born February 6, 1965, in Bourke, NSW
Timothy John Watts: Born May 6, 1966 in Bourke, NSW
Ian Craig Watts: Born April 12, 1967 in Sydney, NSW
Liza Maree Watts: Born April 22, 1970 in Bourke, NSW
Mary’s Memories:
Jimmy weighed in at four pounds. He lived with his Mum at Nanna Mahy’s in Canal Street, Yenda during the war years. With the aid of uncles, aunts and cousins, he was walking at eleven months. He climbed a ladder while still toddling and I found him sitting on a branch of a peach tree. Another day he was not so lucky climbing a tree and got his head in a noose, but someone got to him in time.
When he was three he went next door (Aunty Ag’s) with Jim Mahy to look at a horse. The horse suddenly moved back and so did Jimmy who got a fright. He caught his eye on a piece of loose wire hanging from the fence and tore halfway round the bottom lid up through the tear duct and almost took the top lid off. Looking back it was funny to see the procession across the paddock . Jim carrying Jimmy, followed by Aunty Ag and her four daughters all crying madly. As soon as Mum (Nanna Mahy) saw him she started crying, then Aunty Chrissie (who lived with us), and her friend got into the act too! Fortunately, Reg kept his cool and went and got his boss’s car to take us to Griffith. I bandaged the eye as best I could and shall never forget how Reg, who was only 15 or 16, got his little roll of savings and said “take this to get whatever he needs”. I didn’t have to use it though.
On the way to Griffith the car broke down and I hitched a lift to Dr Dalton’s surgery. Of course it was Sunday and the doctor sent me up to the hospital and later came also and stitched everything back in place. I found out later that, although he was a GP, he was one of the best eye doctor’s in the state. It took a while for Jimmy to recover, but he did, even though he still carries the scar.
Jimmy started school at St Therese Catholic School in Yenda. He loved to play the drums for the kids to march into school. I remember his first concert. He was a bumblebee – I couldn’t imagine him remembering the words, but he did, and prompted the other kids as well, and at the same time he was hanging onto a stocking that wouldn’t stay up!
When we went to Gunbar, he stayed with Nanna Mahy to attend school. When we moved to “Rostella”, he stayed at a hostel in Bourke, which wasn’t very satisfactory. Father Carmine met him in Bourke and brought Brother Patricius out to see us and made arrangements for Jimmy and Peter to go to Marist Brothers College in Johnson Street, Forbes. In 1956, the school moved to Red Bend.
Jimmy was very reluctant to leave home, even to go to college. The rivers were up and a taxi driver had offered to drop them off at Forbes on his way to Sydney. He came to the Irrarra Creek to meet them and Jimmy could not be found. We searched high and low – eventually he came to light and after some persuasion he went off and I don’t think college was as bad as he first thought.
When he finished Intermediate he stayed home to help and at the age of 18 took over the running of “Rostella” with a short break of about two and a half years working for the Edols at “Kurboo” near Forbes. There he tried to learn a bit more about property management. He had worked long and hard to give an education to his brothers and sisters and also to his own children and I am deeply grateful to him and Lorraine. They battled the elements for twenty years before “Rostella” was sold in 1985.
Jimmy’s Story
Four hundred miles from Nanna Mahy’s to “Rostella”.Hilston to Mt Hope, Cobar, still a few hundred to Bourke, then a hundred to “Rostella”. Long, dusty, straight stretches of road. I remember the Mallee trees between Hilston and Mt Hope, and being able to see the long, straight stretch of road (red roads) from the top of the hills. The tar road ended about ten miles out of Griffith, so we would have driven about 380 miles of dirt, except for main streets in towns. I went on this trip from Yenda to “Rostella” and back with Dad for one reason or another many times. Dad rolled the ute once making the trip on his own, but he was not hurt. The windscreen popped out intact, and remained in the woodshed until we left “Rostella”. After that came the Vanguard ute, then the Vanguard car.
While living at Barringun in the police house, there was a flood in the Warrego. So Dad and I had to ride to “Rostella” if we had or wanted to do anything. Mostly we we were building the huts to live in. This is when I most likely learnt to ride.
There seemed to be heaps of floods then. When we did finally get to live on “Rostella” there was no telephone and the mail had to be picked up at “Wirrawarra” until proper tracks were made. It was not until the 1960’s that the mail was delivered to “Rostella”, and then only for a couple of years and back to the road side at “Wirrawarra”. These trips to collect mail and bread took all day on horseback. If we took the tractor (Fergy) it would most likely get bogged and end up being a two or three day trip. If you got bogged you walked to “Wirrawarra” or back to “Sharoon”. You stayed the night, then most likely walked back to the tractor again.
There was a time when the Rooney’s had a sulky which we used a bit. We had a couple of good sulky horses and Rooney’s owned the sulky. Ted Rooney wanted to buy the horses. Dad wanted to buy the sulky. During wet weather, it seemed whoever needed to use it, used it. We kept the horses, they kept the sulky.
The woolshed was built the first year Peter and I went to Marist Brothers College in 1955. Can’t tell you much about that, I just know I started digging holes for some of the foundation posts. The woolshed was built first because we had to shear at “Sharoon” until we had our own shed and Dad reasoned a wool factory was most important on a wool farm. I recall it was not easy mustering sheep from the back paddock to “Sharoon” during the wet, with still NO fence between Rostella paddock and Chinaman’s paddock, and no motor bikes to get about on!
Peter and myself were off to school again when the shearing quarters were built. In those days they had trains. We would leave Forbes at 4am, take the bus to Dubbo, then catch a 7.30am train and arrive in Bourke at about 5.30pm.. If it had not been raining, Dad and Mum would be there to meet us.
I can remember once when I went to Sydney to see an eye specialist. I went down on the train with Rooneys. It was an all day and all night trip then. I met Sarah at Central, then went on to Wollongong until I had to see the specialist. After I saw the specialist I sent a telegram that I was on my way home.
There was no-one to meet me in Bourke, so I hitched a ride to North Bourke, slept on a stool in front of the pub, and caught the mail truck at about daylight to Barringun. I had dinner with the Lack’s at Barringun, and walked from Barringun to home and beat the bloody telegram home! (Chismans were out when I went past there and we still did not have a phone on at that time). The telegram came in the mailbag.
The phone was connected after the quarters were built. You had to build your own line then. We erected our line to the Barringun exchange.
There were never any fires on “Rostella” or any fires that were a threat. I only had to go to two fires, and dad went to one on “Wirrawarra”. We had some dry times while Dad was alive, but I think the only really bad drought time was in the mid 60’s and again in the middle or late 70’s.
After Lorraine and I were married, she came to “Rostella” with me. It was a big transition for her, a ‘city slicker’ with train soot in her veins, to such isolation. The house was built after we were married. Two people on 20,000 acres with one off mustering for weeks added up to a very lonely time for Lorraine.
Stephen was born the following year, so at least Lorraine had something to do then. 
Tim arrived in May ’66, then Ian in April ’67. He was born in Sydney, and Lorraine certainly had plenty to do then. Liza was born in April, 1970.
A lot of things happened that year. Enngonia was celebrating it’s centenary. There were various goings-on from Picnic Races to Street Parades. Then in August, Steve started Correspondence School. I don’t know who won the tears contest- Steve or Lorraine! Luckily by May the following year , Tim was able to start school. That’s when our school days in Enngonia started.
Lorraine used to meet Enid Mallon at a pick-up point twice a day, which meant about 44 miles per day for her. Ian and Liza joined Steve and Tim when they were old enough. This situation went on for years during the dry weather or when the river wasn’t running. Other times Lorraine would take the kids to school, a round trip up to 75 miles per day.
Enid’s youngest child was Steve’s age, so once boarding school started for Steve in 1977, Enid’s school days were finished. Lorraine started taking Tim, Ian and Liza into school at Enngonia as well as picking up other kids along the way. Finally our school days in Enngonia came to an end. Liza went to Red Bend College in 1982. The boys had been there for some years. It was Steve’s final year too.
1979 saw the advent of electricity. Real electricity! No more diesel motor. Lorraine thought this was Christmas! She really hated the wood stove so we bought an electric one. It was good that she could have some simple luxuries like an iron that didn’t weigh a ton, and not having to have a motor running to use the washing machine.
Over the years we went to most of the small towns around for our entertainment. Tibooburra, Yantabulla, Hungerford, Fords Bridge, Barringun and Enngonia. A lot of miles were traveled just to see a movie, dance, or just to play cricket. Sometimes hundreds of miles, but miles didn’t mean anything in the bush. Lorraine used to score for the Enngonia Cricket Club and was also the Treasurer for a few years. I was President of the tennis club for a couple of years.
I played the drums in a band, The Boiled Lollies, so named because we never knew who would turn up. Usually four players – me and Mal and two aborigines. The kids were only small then. Occasionally I played with another band in Bourke at the bowling club. The local dentist played the saxophone , and boy could he play. The Boiled Lollies disbanded after a few years. We never did make a record or become famous.
Our days at “Rostella” came to an end in January 1985. “Rostella” had been sold and we went to Forbes to stay with Mum until we moved to Port Macquarie, where we bought a milk run in October of that same year. Tim was living in Sydney by then, but Steve, Ian and Liza were with us in Port.
The boys have all scattered now and have been for a couple of years. Tim is marrying Carol in New Zealand in October, 1994. They have bought a house in St James, Perth. Liza met Tony and they have three kids. They moved back to Port Macquarie after spending a few years in Wollongong. It’s great having the little ones around.
I was a milko for nearly eight years. I enjoyed the work, but after all those years it was time to get out. Hopefully a job will come along which will see us through to our retirement, which really is not too many years away.
Funny Stories
(These are only hearsay or what I have been told)
Skinned
A long time after dad died, someone told me he had gone to town in the ute with some sheep skins and a bale of wool to sell to the local buyer. Before he got to the buyer, he met a couple of friends and they had a few drinks in the Central Hotel. Came dad’s turn to shout, but he had no money. So he went out to the ute and got a sheep skin, and slapped it on the bar.
“What’s that worth?”, he says.
“About five pounds,” say all his mates.
“Ok, my shout!” says he.
Don’t know if the publican got much choice or say in the matter.
A Ram’s Tale
Dad, Jimmy and Uncle Kevin went down to the paddock to get a ‘roo for dog meat. They saw a nice, big, healthy red sitting quietly under a tree. To make sure they got him, Jimmy and Uncle Kevin decided to both shoot at the same time. Just as they pulled the triggers the ‘roo took off and a prize stud ram popped his head up from behind where the ‘roo was and copped both barrels, and dropped dead to the ground.
“You’ve sho’ me bluddy ram!”, Dad yelled in his Yorkshire accent.
(to be continued….)
Pistol-Whipped! How Jimmy’s tooth was knocked out by a police revolver! This story, and more, still to come!
1963 Grand Final Winners – Bourke.
1963 Grand Final Bourke v Brewarrina
Excerpt from Western Herald 23 August, 1963 Grand Final Bourke v Brewarrina at Nyngan.
“Play resumed (after half time) with both sides throwing everything into their task.
48 min: The Brewarrina right winger found the gap. The Bourke line was wide open, but Jim Watts, travelling like a jet came across field from the opposite wing to save a certain score and we would have knighted him if we’d had the tools.”
Final Score 7-2 for Bourke to win their first Premiership.
The Watts Family 