Frederick Edward WOOD

   Cause of death was Ischaemic heart disease [minutes].

   General Notes:

my life by Fred wood i, Frederick Edward wood, was born on the 7th may 1900 with in the sound of the Bo-bells ringing in london
I started school at Wood St and left as soon as i turned Fourteen, 7the std.

then getting a job on the Great Northern Central Railway at Bishopsgate. Working in the goods yards. changing again to driving a laundry van in the Field Road, Forrest gate. at Sixteen i met the girl for me. She was Elsie Brewster, of James Street, Forrest Gate. She was the youngest girl in a family of nineteen children. Her parents were like a second Mother and Father to me. During the air raids of the 1914-1918 war , I spent my spare time with them. Coming of age, I had to enlist. I was drafted to Aldershot, for training for the 52nd battalion, royal Sussex regiment. After training I was made a Lieutenant/corporal and we left for France, destined for the occupation of West Germany. Mostly around the Rhine, Bonn, and Duren. We remained there until peace was signed in 1920.

Once back in England, we were discharged with no job. Everywhere was bad, jobs were hard to get. Through friends of my girlfriend, I was able to get a start as top and bottom inker at Lamson and Paragon for 460 printing machines. Things started looking up, so popped the question to my girl Elsie. We were married at St Johns church,Leytonstone, where we lived with my mother and father until my job ran out.
We made a big decision to apply for a permit to come to Australia. It was hard to leave all our families behind.
We now had a son Fred 2 years old, and a daughter, Vera,4 months old. We went to Australia House for check ups, and made all the final arrangements for our departure. We sailed from Tilbury on the T.S.S. Balrandel, a 11000 ton ship, on the 3rd October 1923. Departing for the English shores, not knowing that we were never to return. WE were told lot about Australia s huge Kangaroo farms, also the emu and wheat farms. We soon learnt different. On arrival in Fremantle, all you could see from the sea was tin shacks. This didn't improve as we got off the docks at Fremantle. We were greeted with such terms of endearments:-"GO HOME YOU POMMY BASTARDS 'GO HOME WE DON'T WANT YOU.'
We where taken along the Fremantle High school, to what they called the Immigration Home. It ws built by the convicts form England and Ireland, who in the old days might only have been convicted for stealing a loaf of bread. Or possibly doing something that offended the Lords of England. We were never to forget the day we landed, 11th November 1923. The day peace was supposed to be made for ever. We were to find out later on, how true that was going to be. I admit Australia was suffering because there had been a war, but in no way, what England had gone through We had been living at the home one day, when Vera ws rushed to Fremantle with a chest complaint, later being taken to a Children s Hospital. There was a scheme called Jimmy Mitchell s settlers, farms' consisting of English Migrant families going to the South west, from Busselton, Margaret River to Augusta. This land was heavily timbered with jarrah, Black Butt, Banksia and Blackboys for cattle. Twenty families were in what they called Groupies, on land which was called a Group. Each group had a Forman, it was his job to teach the migrants how to build a shack. Grab trees and clear the land. Thank god we all had extra clothes, not one of the families had Such things as beds. We soon learnt how to improvise though. The beds were 2 forked pieces of bush timber, 2 poles 6 ft long, 4 Uprights they made what was called bearers and 2 wheat bags. The forks were buried in the ground, the bearers were placed in the forks so they crossed and the poles rested on the bearers, the sacks were then put on the poles so as to form a bed. The tables and stools were made out of Kerosine or gelagnite boxes. A Coolgardie safe for storing food in was made form sacks of Hessian, with a container on top filled with water and strips of flannel hung over the sides, to let the water drip down the sacking. The floor of the shack was made out of Ant Hills, which when mixed with water made a fairly hard surface. I was one of the lucky ones, while going through the land, I came across an old bush railway track. Which had been long discarded. I carted the sleepers and laid them as a flooring. Filling the cracks with ant hills fillings. The shacks were like two rooms, as bedroom and a kitchen, divided with opened sacks covered with a lime solution which turned out like a white wash paint. The main thing was it looked clean. The fences around the blocks were split out of timber that ws felled. The water wasn't a problem as there were streams of clear running water on each block, so as long as you looked after it, there wasn't a problem. Being virgin land, it wasn't hard to grow all the vegies for your own needs. The Banksia tree has a nut and also soft piece of stick, like soft down, which we stripped and made the bed and pillow fillings .
Each block was about 165cres. The Group I was on ws names Rosa Glen, Group 86, my location no 2837.
A horse and cart ws provided so as to go into Margaret river for groceries or to see a Doctor who at the time ws Dr Rigby. It was 14 miles each way into town. So it ws a case of start early and trust to luck what time you go back. This journey was made once a week, twice sometimes for sickness. You had to make a list out of everything you wanted or go with out,as you couldn't just nip down to the store.
We had to buy flour to make our own bread or damper. The meat wasn't the Best. The South West is noted for its Blow Flies in the summer, in the winter it seemed to rain five days a week.
The empty flour bags came in handy as pillow slips or tea towels. If we could get enough of them we would sew then together to make a single sheet. So now we had a rough idea what us settlers were up against.
It was a hard life after leaving good homes in England. It kept food in our bellies, so we carried on, growing what we could, sometimes working 18 hours out of 24 to make a clearance on the block. Burning what we had felled seven days a week. After three and a half year, with the wife due to have another child, we couldn't see any future in staying. I brought and old bike and set of to Busselton 37 miles away in search of a job and somewhere for the wife and children to live. We got two rooms in cave road, with a couple named Nockles. We worked on the deviation of the Vasse River to the sea, By making a channel so the water could flow through. This meant blasting with Gel ignite to remove cap rock to make the channel. I was used to blasting by this time so was made the Powder Monkey.
WE thought all our worries were over, standing on our own two feet, we moved into one of Four of Powells houses on the Cave Road, but all good things come to an end. Our little girl Gwen passed away at thirteen months of age, she was buried at Busselton next to a young girl named Bell.
Now to look for another job. I started as a night watchman at Jarrah wood near Nannup, then went as a tailer on the saw bench. We had a 4 room cottage now, so again we started to make a home. One night I was awakened by a loud noise in the back room. It was Wimpy except for my old bike. On opening the door............I saw two green eyes, it was a cat but not the one we were used to it was grey with spots on it. I had found an old cage which i picked up from the rubbish heap, so i put the cat into it. In the morning a chap named bill Donovan who had a large family, said i ws lucky not to have scars....it was a Native Cat. I kept the skip for a long time after that.
On day the Forman came over and asked if anyone knew anything about Lancashire Boilers. They wanted someone to go to Perth to repair two of them. The wife and I thought this would be great as they were supplying a house in brown street, east Perth not far from the works in Lord street.
The year 1928 has gone, and forgotten. There is a strange feeling something bad is in the air, the works were sacking the men, and the prices of food were rising, and hard to get, and then it came. Years of poverty and starvation. WE had no dole in those days, just a few handouts in food. Also a few days of Government work such as at Water catchments, Dams, Sewage and road making depending on the size of the family. Often Mum and I would go without our breakfast, so the children could eat. Today the water, sewage and roads are more than paying for the work the pioneers did. But what a price....they paid. You only have to Take the Harvey weir, the hardship the grime, the fleas, the misery and deprivation of the people. Also the Myalup tent settlement to realize that we owe more than money to pioneers. We went from place to place, trying to save a few bob, ending up in a tent on Herdman Lake, making a road for that area. I had the good luck to buy two and a half acres from the Lands Department, of paper bark land. I cleared this putting up a Hessian Humphy, until we could build a house. I grew vegies and eventually saved enough money to buy a milking cow, which we called Jesse. After all the years of misery, we get another shock. Germany has declared war. I had been working on the Stirling H'way from the University to Fremantle Bridge, doing road and drainage work. The work had just come to and end, it seamed a blessing to thousands that the war had come. With other men I was called up and sent to Northam Camp to be grouped for home or overseas duty. I was picked to serve in a medical Unit and put in charge of the C>D>S camp hospital, in Northan camp. As i had some knowledge of medical requirements in the 1914-1918 war. I was then promoted to the rank of Sargent and came under the Medical Stores in Perth. I had to keep records of all medical items that were issued. Another 5 years passed. I was discharged at the end of 1945. Again looking for work. Starting at Fauldings in Perth in the wets Dept. I was there for two years. Elsie was putting away a few shillings for timber towards building a house. Now i was working again, we could do this. So i brought 3x2's and made a frame, for a 4 roomed cottage, built on 4 x 4 stumps. The bearings and floorings and galvanized roof and guttering all began to take shape. When the outside was covered, then i started on the inside and also added on the back a bathroom and toilet, also a wash house. This took nearly 7 and a hal; years of Hard work, all done in the so called spare time. It goes to prove what a wonderful wife or mate I had and the children she bore me. I'll always remember her words.......Wherever you go I'll go with you, and she did, God bless he. I had moved on to work at Lazarus & co as a packer in their stores. I stayed there for nearly 20s. I was there until they closed down for good. By now my wife had bore me eight children, only four now surviving. We had made an offer for a property which i took. Buying a brick home in seventh avenue Ingle wood. Joining a small Church of Christ congregation where our daughter Beryl was married. My wife wanted to move to be nearer her children. So once again we moved to east victoria park, were we were near to the eldest daughter Vera. It was here that we joined the Pensioners League of Carlisle and held meetings in an old building with holes in the floor. Later was pulled down and a Memorial Hall built in its place. Mr & Mrs Grantham ran the meetings for many years. We were made life members, we had a lot of good times together there. I joined a church with only 20 members which grew to 3000 members. It was the Rhemma Family Church. I made and still have some lovely friends there. The years have gone by and its now 1978 but what was sin store this time, if only we could have known. It struck so suddenly as most things do when one is off guard so to speak and not expecting anything to happen. I had been painting the kitchen ceiling, my wife said she was going across the street to get some bread and milk. To do this she had to cross Shepperton Road which is a very busy street, or better still a busy highway. she was knocked down by a hit and run driver, she was picked up by the front of the Car and then dumped on to the roadside. She was black and blue, taken to Royal Perth Hospital where she was cleaned up, later she was allowed to go home. I looked after her until one day she had a stroke, she had been saving for a trip, which was never to be..She was taken to a private hospital in Shepperton road where on the 20 th January 1981 she passed away, but not before we shared our 60th wedding Anniversary together. I needed a wheel chair to take her out, my prayers were answered, one morning a wheel chair was on my from verandah. I lived by myself until i was found out cold on the bathroom floor one day. The doctor said I should no longer live in a house all alone, I went to a home. I am still in that home putting my story together.......I have just had another birthday on the 7 may 1991 I am now 91 years young.... They say you never grow old, only fade away. Well so be it. Its nearly 10 years 4 months since my dear wife was taken to, I hope a better place. They say we only have one life, its up to you, be it a short or a long one. At time of writing this there is still three surviving children, twelve grandchildren and nineteen Great grandchildren
SO THE PIONEERS WILL ALWAY LIVE ON

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   Marriage Information:

Frederick married Elsie BREWSTER, daughter of James Joseph BREWSTER and Elizabeth LUTKINS, on 20 December 1920 in ST John Baptist Church Leytonstone London. (Elsie BREWSTER was born on 15 October 1900 in essex England, christened in March 1918 in st Savior, Forrest Gate England, died on 20 January 1981 in Victoria Park, Perth, Western Australia and was buried in Garden of remembrance Karrakatta, Perth, West Australia.)