Local Stories and Interviews

Fred Durham talks to Ferston Bruce in 2003 at Plenty Valley FM about the Plenty postal and food service in the 1920s

Fred is a long-time resident of Plenty.

Post deliveries

Mail came addressed c/o Plenty Post Office via Diamond Creek. Mr Lawry who brought the mail up from Diamond Creek had an old T Model Ford. Arrived about 9:45 – 10:00 One day a horseman came along and said, ’It is going to be late mate.’ Mr Lawry had a puncture down near Sutherland Homes. He also carried passengers for a charge of 5 shillings

From Plenty he went up to Tank’s corner which is what Yarrambat used to be called. Mrs Morris in the Post Office always allowed the kids to blow out the candle in the store. The wax from the candle was used to seal the mail bag with wax.

Milk deliveries

There were no deliveries to Plenty when Fred was a child. The first dairy was opened by the Bedfords – two sisters and a brother who lived west of the school – they lived on the corner of Government Rd (Memorial Drive) and Heywood Rd.  They put up a sign but there were not many customers. It was 4-5 weeks before they had a customer. Miss Bedford was very excited. Fred used to take an empty billy every morning and hang it on the gate on a nail and then pick up the full billy on the way home. He had a friend Twilley (lived on the next hill) and the Bedfords always gave them a free glass of milk when they picked up the billy. They also did butter and occasionally cream; they had a few acres and a bunch of cows. It was only a small concern that went for 10-12 years.

Bread

The bread was delivered from Diamond Creek from Burke’s bakery. They had a cart and Mr Burke junior used to drive the cart. He got up early and worked in the bakery then did the deliveries. He would get to Plenty around lunchtime but was usually asleep. His horse would automatically stop at the Durham’s gate, mum would come out and he would wake up and ask if she wanted her high tin. Mum always wondered if he had a little something in a bottle. There were only two varieties of bread, the high tin brown or the white. There were hot and crossed buns at Easter.

Meat

There was no meat delivery in Plenty for a long time. Fred’s father used to walk across to South Morang – there was Smith’s butchery opposite the hotel in Whittlesea Rd. There was only the hotel, the railway station and the butcher in South Morang at the time.

Everything was kept into a Coolgardie safe – the safe was raised up where it would catch the breeze.

Later Mr Edmonds (1927/28) had a butcher shop in Diamond Creek. When the butcher arrived at the Durham’s Fred had to grab a branch with leaves on it and wave it around to keep the flies off the meat.

The meat was hanging on hooks in the panel van, there was no refrigeration. Mr Edmonds came about once a fortnight and took orders. Fred’s mum liked a bowler beef, she was good with that. They also bought dog bones – boil them up and do wonders with them.

They had meat from the butcher once or twice a week, but they had lots of rabbit. Rabbit stew – mum had a stove IXL stove a couple of holes at the top to put the plates on.

Basically, beef and lamb from the van also a little bit of the pork. Lamb was the cheapest, then beef, pork was expensive (luxury)

Fish – Mrs Slater down the hill used to catch black fish, perch, plenty of eels in the Plenty River – it wasn’t dammed like it is now, it was a good fast flowing stream. There were only 2 places you could cross on stepping stones, one near Lierse’s gardens and one in the Gorge.

People who caught fish shared them around, people who had orchards shared their produce, a lot of bartering went on – those were the good old days when people looked out for each other.

The fish tasted good.

Groceries

Fred would pick up some groceries after school. After the Morriss family there was Mr Kemp, he had an old T Model Ford van, but he had a lot of trouble with it. He always needed a push off when he went to the Durhams. He would make sure he turned around and was facing down the hill before he stopped the engine.

Cars

Mr Barnes  and Mr Child were orchardists opposite Durhams had a Chev. Also, people had Buicks.

What were groceries?

Groceries were very basic things like flour, sugar and salt. There were no baked beans in tine, you grew your own. The soil around the Plenty area was not good, it needed a lot of attention. You could not waste your tank water on it.

Most houses had a garden and people grew veggies, everyone had a dam and tank water. Angelina sweet plums, diamond plums, granny smith and Jonathan apples and strawberries were grown on the Durham property.  Fred’s father carried the strawberries up to Whittlesea Rd to sell. Sometimes he would only sell two punnets. He usually did this on Fridays and Saturdays. The Durhams had poultry, Fred’s dad used to wheel his eggs about a mile and a half down to the plenty store and from there they were sent to be classified by the Egg Board.

Preserving food

There was no ice or iceboxes only a Coolgardie safe had to be put it in the coolest, best ventilated room in the house. This was usually the south side of the house. You had to watch the weather and manage your food. The people then had a great sense of planning about their food you sometimes ate the same thing three or four days in a row.