GOLDEN WEDDING ANNIVERSARY

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BACKGROUND

Speech presented to Jim and Doreen Horsburgh on the occasion of their golden wedding anniversary celebration, held at the Loch Memorial Hall, Loch, Victoria, Australia, on Sunday the 19^th of April, 1998, by Malcolm G. Horsburgh.

THE SPEECH

We are here today to celebrate the golden wedding anniversary of James Alfred Robert Horsburgh and Doreen Edith Gane, who were married fifty years ago last Friday at St Paul's Church of England, Loch. Of the bridal party, only Dawn Fuller (nee Stanlake) and Phyllis Wynne (nee Gane) could be present today. Howard Heylen, another of the party, sadly passed away some years ago.

Jim was born at Lang Lang and spent his early years at Caldermeade where his father had obtained a soldier settlement block. He spent his later years at Nyora after the family moved there in 1928. Jim's father, also named Jim, had been born at Poowong North and was the son of Scottish migrants. Jim's mother, Mirrie, was a WW1 bride from Cardiff in Wales.

Doreen, on the other hand, was born at Loch and grew up at Krowera. Both of Doreen's parents, Jack and Janie Gane, were of "old" Australian stock, with the last migration to Australia occurring in 1856. Through her mother, Doreen is descended from two of the early pioneering families of this region, the Stanlakes and the Bindings.

Jim started school at Caldermeade but went to Nyora State School when the family moved to Nyora. Doreen, although she lived with her family at Krowera, went to school at Jeetho West and for a short time at Loch. Doreen did well both at school and with the piano. Jim may have had some academic aptitude but, much to the annoyance of his classmates and head teacher, he was perhaps more on target with his slingshot.

Like many other families during the Great Depression, the Horsburghs fell on bad times. It was young Jim, a lad of 8 or 9, who came to his family's rescue. Jim was a keen rabbiter and the money he earnt from the sale of rabbit skins went towards the payment of bills. Mirrie, Jim's mother, had probably never seen a rabbit in her life, but she soon learnt how to boil rabbit for breakfast, roast rabbit for dinner and serve leftover rabbit for tea. Understandably, Jim is not all that keen on rabbit meat to this day!

I might also mention that Jim was a very eager churchgoer in his younger days. Come Sundays Jim was agog with keenness. So it was a great frustration to him that one or other of his ferrets would go missing each time he went rabbiting on Sunday mornings. I don't think Mirrie ever worked out why!

The Ganes at Krowera weathered the Great Depression in fairer condition than the Horsburghs, but, even so, their home burnt down in the October of 1933. Nothing could be retrieved from the flames, so the family had to start again with both house and furnishings.

At one time Doreen was literally the voice of Krowera. I have never known Doreen to be any more of a gossip than the next person. Rather, she was a young lady with a limited vocabulary, with the phrases "Hold on please" and "Putting you through" figuring prominently. Doreen was, of course, the switchboard operator at the local exchange during the late 1930s.

Jim's service as a secret agent during the Second World War was perhaps one of the nation's most guarded secrets. Jim's father was the second in command and the intelligence officer of the 23rd Battalion, the local Dad's Army unit. Jim senior was not much of a socialite and from time to time called upon his son, who went out dancing, to gather background information on particular matters.

In one instance, the authorities had received a report of coded signals being used in the district after dusk - three closings and openings of the blinds of a certain house. After the next dance, our intrepid agent was able to report that the husband of the house often went off to the pub of an evening. Suspicion therefore fell upon the wife. A surveillance team reported that the signal was not for an enemy agent but the wife's lover. Such were the intrigues of war on the homefront.

Determined to do her bit, Doreen volunteered for duty with the Voluntary Aid Detachment. Much sacrifice had to be made during the war in order to secure victory but one milker less on the Gane farm was one too many, according to Janie Gane. A petition for Doreen's release saw her safely back at Krowera after 108 days service. Never mind, a lot of money was raised by the Ganes through the dances held in their barn, for the Red Cross and other charities.

After their wedding, in 1948, Jim and Doreen sharefarmed at Krowera on the dairy farm of Doreen's parents. In 1951, Jim and Doreen purchased "Glamorgan" from Jim's parents. I might mention that Jim senior had also purchased the property from his father. This practice was not some obscure Scottish custom but was the invention of the Horsburghs, a tradition that is yet to be passed on to the next generation.

Just about all of the other old properties in the Nyora district had been fully cleared by this time, the pioneering work having been done last century or early this century. At "Glamorgan" only a small portion had been cleared by 1951. So it was Jim and Doreen who undertook the pioneering work on the property, commencing in 1952 and finishing in the late 1960s.

In 1950 a son, Barry, was born. Within a few years Barry proved to be of great assistance in the pioneering work, following his father's work with the digging of drains. However, Barry apparently had not discovered gravity in those days as his drains were constructed with the idea of making the water flow up hill! Some things never change, do they Bazz?

Things must have been going fairly well for Jim and Doreen in 1952. In a few months a tractor was bought, then a car was bought, then a daughter, Elaine, was born. There is still some debate as to which proved to be the better investment.

The soil at "Glamorgan" is very poor and one would think not very well suited to dairying. Without any scientific training, Jim set out plots containing the various soil types of the property. This was done with a view to experimenting with different sorts of crops, grasses and fertilisers.

Jim received a lot of criticism from some of the owners of the more established farms over what he was doing at "Glamorgan" - "Pack it in, you're wasting you're time" they would say. To look at the property today you would not know that the soil was any different to the considerably better land in the hill country.

A new milking shed was built along what is now McDonald's Track in 1956 and a new house was erected nearby in 1960. The move to the new house was an advancement for the Horsburghs, for they now had electricity and there was no longer a two chain dash to the toilet!

The time savings of these advancements must have provided opportunities for a lot of horizontal celebration by Jim and Doreen. I have often said that l was an accident as there is nine years between my sister Elaine and myself. However, being born fourteen months after the new house was completed, l could perhaps say that l was a celebration instead.

In 1964, a son, Ashley, was born. No-one can appreciate what Jim has achieved more than Ashley, who now runs the dairy at "Glamorgan". Most of Jim's farm management practices, which he adopted in the 1950s, were not included in farming courses until the 1980s and 1990s. Science is able to show why such practices should be used, Jim did it by instinct.

During the 1950s and 1960s, the Poowong Butter Factory had to organise its pickups around the late milking times of the Horsburghs. This was the cause of much needling by those who collected the milk. Little did these men know that 16 to 18 hour days were the norm at "Glamorgan" when the bush was being pioneered, nor did they realise that milkings were organised around the clearing and the cropping. It is no surprise that it was not until 1969 that Jim and Doreen were able to have their first holiday since their honeymoon.

Farmers are blessed with the unique privilege of being able to choose names for their paddocks. Jim and Doreen had no trouble in naming one paddock the "Front" paddock and another the "Back" paddock. Then there is the "Hoeing" paddock and the "Across the Hoeing" paddock, to show another variation, but they obviously got carried away with themselves when they dreamt up the name "McGrath's Gap" - they went and named a gate!

Some 230 acres of land owned by Henry Sanders came on the market in 1966. This land had been sold by Jim's father in the 1930s. The opportunity was taken by Jim and Doreen to acquire the Sanders property. Since its acquisition, the land has been used primarily for the keeping of a beef herd. One of their secrets to success has been to spread their risks between beef and dairying.

Everybody cringes about some of the things their parents do. With Jim it was the language that he used, such as "Pass me the dead horse", "Saw a Joe Blake today", "Watch out for John Hops", "I'm feeling a bit butcher's hook", etc. Little did we know that he was using old rhyming slang. Doreen had her sayings also, but she displayed more originality. Amongst others, there was "You can jolly well go without" and the immortal gem "Get the Hong Kong out of here!".

In 1982 came partial retirement, but there was no slowing down for Jim and Doreen. They began going out old time dancing at least three or four times a week. As trainers for Debutante Balls, they have taught at Nyora, Loch, Korumburra, Drouin and Warragul. Being the talent scout that he is, l suppose this was the only way for Jim to "keep his eye in" with the girls!

Jim and Doreen have been lucky to have another common interest, gardening. During the 1970s, they began laying out the camellia and azalea beds that are today a feature of the garden. Their garden was the first to be opened under the auspices of the Victorian Open Garden Scheme.

The money that was earnt from the openings all went to charity - one open day raised $3000 for the Warragul Cancer Support Group. The honour of opening the new wing at Greenhills at Loch was given to Jim and Doreen on account of the money that had been raised on other open days.

I am unable to recall Jim and Doreen ever having an argument. It is perhaps just as well, Jim was definitely of the school "There's only two ways of doing things - my way or the wrong bloody way!" But perhaps a truer indication of the decision-making process in the union was evidenced when l was asked to do the honours today. With Jim safely out of the house, Doreen rang me to tell me that SHE WANTED me to do the speech!

Such has been the lives of the two people who stand before us today. Although they have been blessed with good health, life has been difficult and has involved much toil. It will be the younger generations, though, who will be the beneficiaries of Jim's and Doreen's endeavours, their children Barry, Elaine, myself and Ashley, and their grandchildren Chris, Maria, Sam, Jacki and Andrew. Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls, l give you the bride and groom fifty years on.

There remains one final task for me to perform today, but first an explanation. In Scotland, the larger landholders were called lairds. The Scottish Laird was the equivalent of the English Lord of the Manor. The remains of the two castles of the Horsburgh Lairds can still be seen today, while the destination of the chiefship of the family has been dormant since 1911.

Now, it occurs to me that Jim and Doreen's attire is not in keeping with that proud heritage. On the farm, l can tell you, Jim prefers to wear a French peasant's beret. Tch! Tch! It therefore behoves me to present them with something more suitable to their station in life.

{Presentation of a Glengarry and Chief’s feather to Jim Horsburgh and a tartan scarf and bonnet to Doreen Horsburgh.}

I now call upon the “Laird and Lady Glamorgan” to come forward and to cut the anniversary cake.

Page last updated on 2/03/2003

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