U3A Benalla and District Inc.
  • Home
  • Benalla
    • Benalla
    • Benalla District
    • Who, What and Where? - Benalla Rural City
  • About
    • Our U3A
    • President's Page
    • Executive Committee
    • Convenors >
      • Convenors
      • Convenors A - Z 2022
    • Program Suggestions
    • Newsletter
    • Website
  • Groups
    • Groups A - Z
    • Recent Groups >
      • A Different View Of German History
      • Bushwalking - Mid-week Walks
      • Demystifying Psychology
      • On Target - Learning to Shop Online
      • Zoom Short Course
    • Archived Groups >
      • A - M >
        • Booker Reading Group
        • Comparative Religion
        • Facebook for Mentors
        • Google Apps/TS Plus
        • History - An Introduction to Western Civilization
        • History - Moments in Australian History
        • Investment I (1996 -2015)
        • Legal Matters (Short Course)
        • Making the Most of the Internet >
          • + Ian's Blog
          • + Links and references
      • O - Z >
        • Opera
        • 'Over There'
        • Rail and Tourism
        • Tech Savvy Apple Devices - Intermediate
        • Tech Savvy Community Projects
        • Tech Savvy Drop In
        • Travel Group
  • A-Col
    • 'A Taste of Art'
    • Armchair History
    • Armchair Traveller
    • Art Appreciation
    • 'As Time Goes By' >
      • Home
      • 'Causes'
      • 'Rebellion'
      • 'On Friendship'
      • 'Community'
      • 'Anzac Day'
    • 'Be Connected'
    • Birdwatching
    • Brain Games
    • Bushwalking - Easy Walks
    • Chat n' Chew
    • Coin Collectors
    • Collectors
  • Com-G
    • Community Singing
    • Creative Writing
    • Exercises for Fun
    • Exploring the Universe
    • Family Research >
      • Glossary and Tips
    • Family Research - Beginners
    • Film Discussion Group
    • Garden Appreciation
    • Garden Team
    • German - Advanced >
      • Home
      • Lessons
      • German - Beginners
  • I-P
    • Investment
    • Let's Talk Books
    • Lifeball
    • Meditation
    • Meet and Mingle
    • Music Appreciation
    • Page Turners
    • Patchwork >
      • Patchwork Home
      • Patchwork Exhibition 2020
      • Patchwork - Beginners 2019
    • Play Reading
    • Politics & Current Affairs
  • R -Z
    • Recorder Group
    • Russian Literature
    • Saturday Cards - '500'
    • Singing for Fun
    • Stock and Land
    • Sustainability
    • Tech Savvy Beginners - Android
    • Tech Savvy Beginners - Apple
    • Tech Talks
    • The News - Fact or Fiction?
    • Wine Appreciation
  • Join
    • Join Us
    • Program Guide 2022
    • Membership Application 2022
    • Month Overview Semester 1 2022
    • Full Timetable with Dates Semester 1 2022
    • Venues and Maps
  • News
    • News - General
    • June Newsletter
    • Calendar 2022
    • Monthly Calendar
    • Website & Facebook
  • FB
  • Gallery
    • Gallery 2022
    • Gallery 2021
    • Gallery 2020
    • Gallery 2019
    • Gallery 2018
    • Gallery 2017
    • Gallery 2016 >
      • + Christmas Lunch 2016
    • Gallery 2015 >
      • Christmas Lunch 2015
    • Gallery 2014
    • Lifeball Video
  • Links
    • Resources and References
    • U3A Network Victoria
    • Seniors Online Victoria
    • U3A Albury Wodonga
    • U3A Beechworth (Indigo U3A)
    • U3A Bright
    • U3A Wangaratta
    • U3A Goulburn Valley
  • Contact

'A friendship tested'

6/5/2015

0 Comments

 
 In 1966 a friend of my father's suggested to him that he should branch out to another farm nearly 500 km from the existing family farm at Mortlake in the Western District to Rose River between Mount Buller and Mount Buffalo. 

As the eldest son it was proposed that I run the farm, but in partnership with a lover of my sister's from Monash, Geoff.  Nothing came of the romantic interest because the love was not reciprocated.

Recently graduated with an economics degree, Geoff was working as a teller in the North Melbourne branch of the NAB.  Although he knew practically nothing about farming he was anxious to go on the land.

So we met with the Rose River proposition before us and in a couple of months we were milking cows brought from the previous owner of the farm.

Although I don't think I recognised it then, Geoff was thrown in at the deep end having to deal with 5 am starts, recalcitrant cows, providing our own water and electricity and living in a fairly remote area.

However Geoff said nothing, which was unlike him because he was and is articulate, opinionated and an extroverted social animal.

I was and to quite an extent still aim shy, not particularly opinionated and do not communicate particularly easily.

So it was that mainly because of a poor dairy and muddy surrounds - it was July August and the rainfall was well over a metre a year - that we sold the dairy cows and decided to grow potatoes on the fertile river flats instead. 

That required a tractor, a moldboard plough, a potato planter and later a harvester and grander.  We had also acquired a horse or two and a hundred or so surplus stud Hereford cattle from the Mortlake herd.

When I think back now, for the first time really, I can appreciate the enormous learning load we just lumped on Geoff's shoulders.

He had been appointed coach of the King Valley football team in Whitfield and in that way associated with other farmers who were probably more informative about what we should have been doing than I was. 

I don't think I was a know all but I had spent my whole life on the family farm and had been to England to attend agricultural college and study Hereford cattle on their home soil.

Anyway, different as we were we were forced by circumstances to do things together like socialising and almost sharing girlfriends; at one stage our opposite numbers were two friends who were both kindergarten teachers and like us lived together.

So Geoff and I became friends, which must have been a relief to our parents who visited from time to time.  And I don't think they thought it strange that we slept in the same bedroom - in separate beds - although today there would be the distinct impression that we were gay.

Anyway the development of that friendship probably stopped Geoff on a number of occasions from confronting me when I had failed to explain how something or other should be done on the farm.  However I was doing lots of things new too like learning to operate a bulldozer; we both faced off that monster after previously operating nothing more than a very average farm tractor.

So from partial memory it must have been nearly three years before Geoff lost his temper one day and threw the book at me about my lack of communication.

I can't remember what prompted it, but it might have been a little better after that.  In any event after six years, because of financial problems within my family, the Rose River and Mortlake farms had to be sold and Geoff and I parted without having much more than experience to our credit.

In February 2014 Geoff celebrated his 70th birthday.  When I asked him if he regretted the years he had spent in the Victorian high country becoming a farmer, he said they were among the best years of his life.  Today he is a successful accountant at Dromana.  He reckons he is the only accountant on the Mornington Peninsula with a bovine artificial inseminator's certificate. 

0 Comments
    'Our Stories'

    David's page

    One of our original members who has written many stories over the past five years or so, these days David is writing the column for the 'Stock and Land' group he convenes each month.  He still sends in the occasional story  and pop up in class from time to time if he isn't helping someone out on a farm somewhere. 

    Picture

    '500 words'

    All
    'Advice'
    'A Farm Forged Friendship'
    'A Fortight's Walk In Spain'
    'A Friendship Tested'
    'A Girl In One Port Was Enough'
    'A Love Letter To Travel'
    'A Snake Story'
    'A Story For Children'
    'A Test Of Courage'
    'Backpacks And Blisters Matter'
    'Car Stories'
    'Cringe'
    Don't Wing It'
    'Faking It'
    'Fish Out Of Water'
    'For Better For Worse'
    Gliding
    'Good Vibrations'
    Grandparents
    'Heartbreak'
    'Here And Now'
    'How We Met'
    ''I Grew Up ... '
    "I Quit!"
    'I Was There'
    'I Was There''
    'Joanie Delighted In Rural History'
    Joan Palmer
    'Lost And Found'
    'My Mother The Writer'
    'My Other Life'
    'New Boy In Town'
    'Rebellion'
    'Right Here
    Right Now'
    'Shaped By Childhood'
    'Stand Up Comedy Set'
    'Sydney Writers' Festival 2018'
    'The Moral Is
    'The Sky's The Limit'
    'The Year That Changed Me - 1974'
    'This Beat Up Has No Reference To Journalism'
    'Ticket? Don't Take It!
    'Vibrational Big City Move'
    'Walking The Camino'

    Other writing by David 

    As David convenor of the Stock and Land group, David writes the monthly newsletter reports also posted in our 'Stock and Land' news blog.

    A new member of the Family Research group, David's family stories are now starting to appear under 'David Palmer' on the Family Research page.

    Archives

    March 2021
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    September 2018
    June 2018
    December 2017
    October 2017
    August 2017
    June 2017
    February 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015

    RSS Feed

We acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we meet and pay our respects to their elders - past, present and emerging.
Picture
News
​Newsletter
Facebook Page
​
Program Suggestions
COVIDSafe Plan
U3A Benalla & District Flier 2022
​Membership Application/Renewal Form 
​
Program Guide 2022
Semester 1 Timetable with Dates 2022
Semester 1 Timetable Month Overview 2022
Developed and maintained by members, this website showcases U3A Benalla & District. 
​Photographs - U3A members; Benalla Art Gallery website; ​Weebly 'Free' images;Travel Victoria and State Library of Victoria