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"We sailed back to Sydney on the ORARA from Byron Bay Jetty. Earlier memories had come to me from my mother, born Christina Cameron at Palmer's Channel, Clarence River, who first met my father at school. Grandfather had been teacher in charge from January 1890 to April 1891.  He taught the pupils well and truly and often had breaks for music lessons, singing from Tonic-Sol-Fa and tuning in with the tuning fork on the edge of the blackboard. He had lots of cricket for the boys. The family lived in the school-house and one of the younger children, Aunt Vi then small, would wander in unannounced. Grandfather had a hobby of making violins. They were very good, marked Stradivarius Copy Imlay McLaren fecit anno-- There was one in my family but when my sister's house was flooded (in Croydon, Sydney, no less) the violin was dampened and fell to pieces, most regrettably. Some of the other nephews and nieces may still possess one."

"Grandfather had a band organised whilst in the Maclean area and all the family and friends took part. My Dad could play the euphonium and also a little silvery-toned flute called the piccolo. Stanley played the fiddle and later used it when he was a country schoolmaster.  It must have been difficult to raise a family of twelve. They said that Grandmother Mary-Jane planted fruit trees everywhere she went and the family always had a good vegetable garden; the sons kept up this practice even in Sydney suburbs like Stanmore where we lived. At Palmer's Channel school and at many other schools, Grandmother came over once a week to teach the girls sewing. My mother said Mrs. McLaren would hurry over, often looking hot in her black dress fastened to the neck. Anyway the lessons must have been good as my mother continued to sew all her life. My dad Fred and Sid his brother were free to roam the scrub after school, trapping birds, rabbits and fishing. Dad always loved the wild things and the staghorns, ferns and birds-nest ferns. When working on the railway fixing signalling up Dorrigo-Glenreagh way, he would bring us home a few finds for our little fernery at Stanmore. Later whilst working at Broken Hill, he posted me home a box of Sturt's Desert Pea - packed in damp moss. It was a sensation when I took it to my botany teacher at Petersham Inter. High School. Grandmother visited us several times in Stanmore. She used to ask my young brother Freddy "what shall I bake for you?" He would say "Bunloaf and wedges (oranges). Grandmother came to Sydney for good some time after Grandfather died in 1917. They always went to camp at Byron Bay around Christmas time. One morning Grandpa got up early, went and sat in a deck-chair outside the tent, gave a groan and dropped dead of a heart attack. He was buried in Tucki cemetery. 1919 was the year of the influenza epidemic. The soldiers returned from the war and Gladys Marion McLaren was married to Arthur Slater of AIF Light Horse. Gran was very happy when a son was born, Alan Imlay Francis Slatyer. One day in winter 1920 I think, Gran was sitting by the fire at Gladys's home in Croydon, I think baby Alan was in his pram and that Gladys had gone shopping. Granny dozed, fell asleep and slumped forward into the fire. She was burned, perhaps not terribly seriously but she was taken to Western Suburbs Hospital where she died from shock.  When my parents visited her, she said "I've come through the droughts and the floods - only to meet the fire" So that was a sad end to a very fine person."

© Jean Bryson

" ... trapping birds, rabbits and fishing ..."