After living for 19 years at Alphadale, Beat married Eric Bown in St Paul's Church at Wollongbar on July 4th 1923. This church is at the crossroads on the Ballina road today but is no longer operating as a church- it is a craft centre.
Eric was born on October 27, 1900, the fifth child in a family of 12 children of Margaret and Henry Bown of Turlinjah, on the shores of Tuross Lakes on the far south coast of New South Wales. Queen Victoria was on her deathbed at that time and died the next month. Yet at that time Margaret and Henry's house was little more than a slab hut with compressed antbed for a floor.
In 1908 the family moved to nearby Bergalia, to a farm which had its own school. Here Eric did well at arithmetic but, according to him, not much else. He left school in 1914 to work on the farm, stripping wattle bark, ploughing the fields and, to do the most important job of all, drive the cheese wagon from the Bergalia Cheese Factory to the Moruya Wharf. He was not paid wages but earnt pocket money by trapping rabbits and breaking in horses for local farmers.
His main hobby was dancing and at least one night a week he would ride off to a dance, returning often only in time to start the milking by the dawn light.
The farm could not support the growing family and Eric wanted to "spread his wings". So on January 2nd, 1921 Eric set off to go north, taking a bus and the a train to Sydney, where he caught a boat called the Maranoa to Byron Bay and finally a train to Lismore. He was greeted by his brother Frank on January 9th.
Eric did various casual jobs until he could save 12 Pounds (about $2.00) to buy his very own horse which he called Nell. This enabled him to travel far and near to work. He was working at Lindendale when he meat Beat in 1923.
The house they first lived in is still standing today. It is known as "Cawley's Cottage" and is part of the "House with No Steps" complex near Alstonville. Arthur was born there. They worked as a married couple on farms in the area until this they began working for a local farmer, Sam Gibson, also at Alstonville, and Eunice and Erica were born here.
Sam became a great teacher and friend to Eric and Beat. Eric said that it was Sam who set them on the road to become successful dairy farmers for the rest of their working lives. While here they saved enough money and with the support of Sam Gibson they purchased a going concern of a farm at Tregeagle in 1928. Joy and Jack (properly named Florence Joy and Russell John) were born here.
In the depression years of the early thirties Eric and Beat farmed at Dunoon where Marie was born. These were very hard times. Eric and Beat worked desperately to survive, milking 50 cows morning and night by hand, as well as growing crops and vegetables, for sale and for their own family's consumption. Their hard work paid off because by 1935 they were able to put the horse and sulky out to pasture as they became the proud owners of a red Ford utility.
After a brief time dairying at Corndale, they puchased a going concern in 1940 at Woodlawn, where the property actually belonged to the Catholic Church and the St Johns College which was adjacent to the farm. After paying off a huge debt of three hundred pond they went on to farm very profitably for 15 years. Royala was born here and most of the older children were married from here.
With the profits from this concern Eric and Beat purchased a property at Lynch's Creek near Kyogle which kept Eric very busy for many years, with the help of share farmers who he employed to do the daily work of farming. In latter years , however, Eric, aged about 70 or more, was riding his horse down the side of a mountain on the farm when the horse slipped and rolled on him, causing broken ribs. There was a good side to this story though because the broken ribs caused Eric great pain when he coughed so finally he gave a smoking his pipe which made many people happy!
In 1950 Eric was very proud to become a Justice of the Peace, a duty which he took very seriously. Eric was for many years an active member of the Masonic Lodge.
In 1956 Eric and Beat bought a farm at Wyrallah, where they dairied for only two years before semi-retiring to live at 187 Casino Street, South Lismore. From here Eric remained very active. He was a member of numerous clubs, including the Lismore Turf Club, the Greyhound Racing Club, the Workers Club and the South Lismore Bowling Club. He was on the board of the Pastures Protection Board, an organization which endeavoured to care for the natural and introduced pastures of the region. One of Eric's great pleasures was to judge the horse and harness races at the Lismore Turf Club and for the Show Society. The Show Society honoured him with Life membership in recognition of his diligent and active work as Chairman of the Grounds Committee also.
Eric remained in reasonably good health until he reached his 80s when he became restricted in movement. His greatest pleasure in the final decade of his life was to enjoy, along with Beat, the company of his family, especially his grandchildren and great grandchildren. His reminiscences of his own youth, on the South Coast of NSW with his extended family in the early part of this century, were treasured as he recounted them at family gatherings.
While Beat was a quieter person than Eric she was a very talented and perpetually busy person. She was involved in the local community and especially during the war years in charity work. She was a clever dress maker, as was evidenced by the five wedding frocks she mad for her daughters, not to mention bridesmaids dresses and accessories. In the 1950s she decided she would retire from the daily drudge of milking cows to concentrate on house duties. However she acquired a greyhound dog, called Trixie, and Trixie became the mother of some champion racers which Beat trained, with much advice from Eric of course.
Eric and Beat both loved ballroom dancing, and together they won many waltzing competitions at country dances. They also became judges of competitions themselves. Later interests included lawn bowls. Beat originally joined the East Lismore Bowling Club where she played for many years, before moving to South Lismore where Eric had become a member, where she enjoyed the company of her eldest daughter Eunice for a few brief years until Eunice's untimely death in childbirth in 1967.
Beat kept herself busy with her large garden, and her chooks until her late eighties. Eric and Beat lived at South Lismore until early in 1990 when Beat became incapacitated and could no longer look after Eric as she had done for the past 66 years. They moved together to the Lismore Caroona Nursing Home where they celebrated 67 years of marriage on July 4th 1990. In early 1991 Beat had a fatal stroke which resulted in her passing on February 1st and Eric, too lonely to be without his beloved mummy died six weeks later. They are both greatly missed by all and everyone of the family until this day.
hume/bown|saul/bown|saul/roberts|arthur|eunice|erica|joy|jack|marie|royala
