Alf and Ada Hobbs

ALF AND ADA HOBBS

 

Alf Hobb’s grandfather, William and his first wife Sussanah, arrived at Port Adelaide in about 1837. His first wife died the same year as their sixth child was born. William married again to Mary and there were three more children.

 

The family came to Victoria in 1885.  The eldest of the children was Charles Samuel.

Charles Samuel married Ann Hobbs, having 13 children. They stayed about 9 years at Lillimur, later moving to Jeparit in 1894.

 

Their son Alfred Hobbs married Ada Walker at Terang in Victoria in 1915, so some time before or after, he (they) moved to the Narraburra district near Temora in NSW.

 

The following information is a snippet taken from an account written by Alf Hobbs (11 pages) and typed by George Murphy on 25^th January 1973. This gives a good indication of the conditions endured at the time of “The Trip” which probably took place in the early autumn of 1912. If this date is right Alf must have returned to Victoria to get married.

The trip from Hexham to Temora consisted of 490 miles taking 22 days an average of 22¼ each day. We found our way by aid of bike maps and enquiring of about 5 persons then taking the majority (opinion) as each one had a different way of watering places and distances but we found the road map right to half a mile. We travelled many towns getting water every night having three dry camps for dinner.    .........

After leaving Sebastopol .......Now it was for our last days trip I went on as soon as I started in the morning to Temora to hear the verdic of our long travelled journey. I got into Temora at 9 o’clock I found Watts office but it was not open. As soon as I got into Temora I was held up by an agent who wanted to sell me all necessary machinery at half past 9 o’clock the office door was opened I walked in Watt was writing at his desk good morning.. g.m. I told him who I was he greeted me with a smile & said you have been a long time coming Yes & it is a long way Your not used to travelling No Well I have done plenty of it Yes well I got bad news to tell you I don’t want to hear bad news after coming so far Well the bad news is there is no water on your place that not to good for a start. We have had it very dry here you now Yes and it don’t look it either so after a chat the waggon came along up the street so we got a ton of chaff from Wills Bros. I told fred to go out to the dam and wait till we came as I was afraid Bloss (the horse) would lie down and not be able to get up. So after a good while in the town we made out about a mile and fed for dinner it was about 3 o’clock and we started in the afternoon. Watt said he would send Tom Coalstock out to catch us and drive me out to our place. He caught us up about 5 miles out and we went on about ½ an hours travel we came to the place we did not go in the paddock as it was late the ground looked very good & I was better satisfied we drove back to meet the waggon. They had travelled out ten miles it was 6 o’clock & the sun was just setting. I said we will push out and will save packing up in the morning we came to a dam on the side of the road & gave the horses a drink out of the buckets and it was getting dark and F wanted to camp and got very bad tempered he’d said we’ll never get to the rotten place I started throwing off at him he was terrible wild the horses had to be very cevil as he would get to them for revenge they were very tired it was 8 o’clock when we landed we pitched the tent outside near the waggon as the house had about a dozen dead rabbits in it. This was our last night out in the tent as we had reached the end of our long looked for journey next morning the chain was taken off Nim the fowls let out of prison they took wing like a plain turkey & enjoyed a good roal in the dust they had grown into big fowls we had a look round the place cleaned the house out and riged our beds for a comfortable sleep at night.

The End

 

Alf and Ada battled on through droughts, depressions and the difficult times in establishing themselves on the land. A keen musical family she and her husband and their only child, Freda, frequently assisted in social functions in the district with their musical ability.

 

Alf  (Baldwin) was a self-taught musician and enjoyed playing the violin. When neighbours, Mr. and Mrs. Hobbs learned of this they invited Alf to join their little band which played at many of the small “dooes,” mainly small dances, kitchen teas and 21^st birthday parties. Alf would swing on his violin; Alf Hobbs squeezed his piano accordion in and out whilst Mrs. Hobbs vamped away on the piano. (Joyce Ingram nee Baldwin from the reminiscences of Wally Baldwin))

 

Alf Hobbs always had a problem with water as the country didn’t hold water. He often had to go to Springdale to get water for the stock. Alf had a water diviner tell him where there should be water but the department dictated the spot to put it, about 100 metres away. This was unsuccessful so later he got enough money to put his own down in the original spot and got good water.

 

Alf Hobbs and his wife Ada lived on a farm in front of “Sunnywell” at Narraburra. They had one daughter Freda (Alfreda) who married Tom Hillier (1940), who had a mail run. Freda and Tom had a daughter Fay who married a Pumpa. Ada passed away in September 1957 and Alf in the Junee district in 1970.

 

Brian & Betty Durham, Temora 2009; www.bdm.nsw.gov.au; The Trip written by Alf Hobbs, typed by George Murphy cited in The Wirrimbirra, Oct 1977- July 1978; Temora Independent March 13, 1920, Obituary of Ada Hobbs, TI October 4, 1957; Joyce Ingram, Temora 2010.