ELFIE Patterson, now in her mid-eighties, has long been associated with farming, having been brought up on a farm, married a farmer and now her sons run the family property.
Born in Narrogin in March 1922, the family lived on a farm in Wickepin until Elfie Edwards was seven years old.
“My parents, Alex and Ruby Edwards, were farmers.
“They leased a farm in Wickepin until they bought around 3000 acres at Piesseville in 1929, the farm Narridy is now run by my brother John’s son.
“In the early days farming was hard.
“When we came to Piesseville it was the big depression and there was no money.
“We milked 10 cows, my youngest sister learnt to milk at three years old, and Mum made 100lbs of butter by hand, an item which could be sold,” Elfie said.
“We all took turns at turning the churn and had to milk the cows before school.”
Elfie had three sisters and a brother and the children had to either drive to the one-teacher Piesseville school by horse and sulky or walk the four miles.
Elfie remembers the school having about 30 students in its hey-day.
“Dad used to grow crops and run sheep and we had some good and some bad years,” she said.
“When we lived at Narridy we used to do chaff cutting every Saturday morning.
“The sun would beat down on your back but the job had to be done to feed the 10 milkers.”
Elfie, like many country children at the time, did high school by correspondence and left school aged 16.
“We used to go to tennis at Piesseville and there were big crowds on a Sunday in the 1930s and I have many happy memories,” she said.
Elfie was employed on a neighbouring farm to work in the kitchen during shearing.
“I earned 17 shillings a week and I thought I’d made it when I got my first pay.”
In July 1943 she went to work for Angus Patterson and his mother on their farm, Adaledale, at Woodanilling.
By Christmas that year Elfie and Angus were engaged and they married in February 1944 at the Anglican Church in Wagin.
During World War II soldiers would occasionally get leave and come home to Wagin.
“It was a sad time, it was awful to have to say goodbye to them as you never knew if they would come home again,” she said.
After Elfie and Angus had been married two years they purchased Corbley, 1500 acres east of the Wagin townsite, for about £3,000.
Over the years the family added another two farms to the property.
Angus set up the Corbley Merino Stud.
“He loved his sheep and did well.
“We had field days and I’d cook for days before.”
The couple were married nine years before the birth of their daughter.
“She lived 11 hours and it broke our hearts and we then adopted Derek at three weeks old.”
When Derek was 16 months old, a miracle occurred on Christmas eve 1957 with the birth of twin boys, Brian and Trevor, at Narrogin Hospital.
“I have been ever so grateful for those twins, their birth was blessed.
They were two and a half months premature and Angus had to get a humidicrib from Katanning.
“Suddenly I had three babies and life revolved around bottles and nappies.”
Life remained hard without today’s modern conveniences.
“We never had fridges or washing machines.
“We had to boil the copper and it took all day to do the washing.
“To iron we heated the iron on the wood stove, everything was wood.
“When we killed meat we then had to salt a lot of it,” Elfie said.
As the family grew they helped Angus with the sheep and stooking hay.
A vivid memory for Elfie was the 1955 floods.
“We had floods in Wagin and Angus lost quite a few sheep.”
Elfie and Angus played tennis at Colanilling and Ballaying and both were keen bowlers.
A member of the Country Women’s Association for 50 years, Elfie said she travelled extensively with the organisation and enjoyed the outlet.
She has been involved with the Anglican Ladies Guild in Wagin for many years and has enjoyed travelling.
In 1978, when all the boys were married, Elfie and Angus moved to Strickland Street in Wagin.
Angus died in 1988 and tragically Derek passed away five years ago.
Today Elfie has 10 grandchildren and 10 great grandchildren.
Brian married Ann Jenkins of Wagin and Trevor is married to Denise Elwin of New Zealand.
“I’ve had a good life,” Elfie said.
“I had a good mother and father, a good husband and good boys and I am still very close to my sisters and brother.”
Email a friend