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Golby’s at Nimmitabel - Bill and Pat Golby I
have been asked to write about my Golby family as part of the features being
printed in “Nimitybelle News” so here goes. To begin with I must tell you
of how we came to live in the Nimmitabel district, so it starts with my story.
I
was born in 1916, being so old I have seen the greatest period of development
in history, from the beginnings of telephones, motor cars, electricity,
aeroplanes, radios, TV, indoor toilets, water supplies, computers, mobile
phones, etc etc. I have lived through two world wars and the Great Depression.
I was in my teens when the depression was at its worst, and I was out of work
for three years, and there was no dole. When
I was 18 I heard about subsidised teaching at very small schools, which were
dotted all over the country. They were controlled by the Education Department,
which paid a very small subsidy according to the number of pupils. The parents
could not afford to add the extra cash, but they provided board and lodging.
My first school was near Rylstone, I had 5 pupils for which I received 12
shillings and 6 pence per week. I taught for 4 years, at schools near Walgett
and at Ingebyra, 23 miles (36kms) south of Jindabyne. There I met Bill and in
1938 we were married. We
lived at Ingebyra for 12 more years. Dorothy was born in 1939, just before
World War 2 broke out, and Tony came along in 1941. By this time Bill was a
farmer in a reserved occupation, so was not accepted for enlistment. For the
last 7 years there I had an unofficial post office, with a switchboard of 12
subscribers, and a mailman coming 3 times a week. We were tied down with the
telephone, but at least it gave us some contact with other people. We had good
neighbours and lots of relations of Bill’s, but the homesteads were far
apart and the village of Jindabyne was 23 miles away. There were 17 gates on
13 miles of gravel roads, which were sometimes very boggy. The nearest doctor
and chemist were Cooma, 56 miles away. I felt very isolated. Dorothy and Tony
started at the little bush school where I had taught, but it closed down
within a couple of years, so they had to do correspondence lessons under my
supervision. In
1950 Bill was offered the job of managing a property at Steeple Flat
“Clermont” belonging to a Mr Wilson of the Commercial Bank in Cooma. The
property we had at Ingebyra was very small, so Bill was augmenting our income
trapping rabbits and dingoes. He accepted the offer and we were off to
Nimmitabel. What a change in our lives! The
house at “Clermont” was just across the road and paddock from that of Jack
and Jean Williams, and they took us under their wings. Jack and Bill found
that they were related through the Crawford’s, third cousins once removed!
We were soon part of the Williams family, our children growing up with the 5
Williams boys. They went to St Joseph’s convent on the school bus. Two weeks
after we arrived Tony turned 9, so we had a birthday party for him, the first
ever. What a joy it was to see him and Dorothy so happy with the Williams and
the Buckley’s. I could not drive, but for 7 years the children and I were
taken by Jack and/or Jean to everything that was going, including Mass. Bill
was too busy to do much socialising, but he was very happy to have the
Williams men for support in managing the property. The
year after we settled in Nimmitabel district we had an addition to our family,
with the birth of another daughter Julianne, and 17 months later another
daughter, Peta. Bill used to say this happened because of the change of grass. Jean
introduced me to the CWA and the Red Cross, and towards the end of the first
year I found myself on the committee for the annual Convent Deb Ball. Thus
began 27 years of involvement in just about every community affair that was
going. Jack was president of the BNA (Bush Nursing Association) and he talked me into being the secretary, which I was for 12 years. The BNA and the Hall meetings were held on the same nights, so we belonged to both, along with the Ingram’s. It took a good amount of money to pay the bush nurse and keep the branch going, so there were many functions held. The Hall also took some maintenance, and eventually it was decided to renovate it. The years, when a great variety of activities raised the money to turn the old School of Arts into the fine building it is today, were among Nimmitabel’s brightest. There was such wonderful support from every section of the community. I
wrote the “Nimmitabel News” for the Cooma Monaro Express every week for 20
years. At the same time I reported news to the ABC radio in Bega. I even wrote
accounts of the football matches played by the Bibbenluke team, made up mostly
of Nimmitabel boys, including Tony, and Peter Crowley. Peter
had come to live with us after Dorothy had married his brother John. He came
on holidays and like the place so much that he gave up his position in Sydney
and came to stay. In 1957 “Clermont” was sold, and we moved to “Myola” on the Kybeyan road where Bill managed for Mr Geoff Munro, an engineer on the SMA. I had to learn to drive now that we lived away from the Williams. We were there for 3 years until this place was sold. We moved to “Boonderoo” which Bill leased from Mr and Mrs Ernest Weston. We were only there a few weeks when Mr George Taylor came and asked Bill to work for him at “Shirley”. Bill was very happy to do this. He admired George very much and enjoyed 14 months working for him. But sadly this fine man passed away in 1962. We stayed there for 17 years, surrounded by the most beautiful garden found anywhere. Tony worked with Bill while we lived there. All
our children went to St Joseph’s until High School, when they went on to
boarding school, and later to further training for the girls. Dorothy became a
trained nurse and Julianne and Peta teachers. They all married and had
children, but sadly Peta died in 1995, the greatest tragedy of our lives. Among
my happiest memories are of the years when I had a group of young adults who
performed in a number of variety concerts, raising money at first for the BNA
and then later the Hall fund. Also among my memories is the 7 years that I
taught classes 3 and 4 at the Convent school. Bill
and Tony played their parts in helping the community by being very active in
the Lions Club and also in helping create the golf course. Bill
and I left Nimmitabel in 1977 and retired to the coast at Tuross Head, Bill
had agreed to give me our declining years near the sea that I loved. I had
spent the first 18 years of my life by the sea and 43 years in the country. I
look back on the years spent in Nimmitabel with fond memories of the warmth
and friendliness of a small country town. Bill died in 1998, a week before he
would have turned 87, and 5 months before our 60 years of marriage. With
thanks to
Pat Golby.
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