Leaving Dunoon before dawn, Emmie would go into Lismore (16 kms) in a spring cart, taking honey, eggs, butter, etc to help supplement the income of the farm. In those days butter was not weighed and wrapped in a factory but was sold over the counter in pats in weights to suit the customer. William always kept 80 acres of standing timber and from this he supplied, by his own axemanship, palings by the thousands to enclose his cultivation, calf pens, etc. from the ravages of bush animals. Dingoes would come right inside - one time they got away with a batch of dough that had been left by the fire to rise.

A new home was built at the rear of the selection in 1908. In 1911 William held a sub-division sale of 20 allotments at an average price of £50 each. William and Emmie had 11 children, most of whom had quite distinctive nicknames - Jessie, Claude (Barney"), Amy ("Blackie"), William, Austin ("Natius"), Catherine (Kit" or "Nell") Donald ("spanker"), Vida ("Dick"), Allan ("Brassy"), Norman, and Raymond ("The Kid"). Three sons served in World War 1, one son, Norman being killed.

William was born in 1847 and died in 1934

Editor's Note: There is no mention of the reason for the family leaving Scotland but this was the time of the Clearances and nowhere was this worse than in Sutherland. For the year 1836, the book “The Highland Clearances” tells us that there was a famine (not the great famine of ten years later) but bad enough for thousands to die throughout the north of Scotland. It was also the height of the clearances and by 1839, the Sutherland clearances were particularly bad

© Donald Munro Mount Nasura Western Australia adapted from Mary Lidbetter NSW

The Shoalhaven Munros