1971 Farm at Denmark, Western Australia

I had gone south in WA to find a property to begin life as a vigneron. I looked at several properties around Mt Barker but none fitted my requirements and then the real estate agent took me to Denmark and showed me a property I had promised myself six years before that I would buy it if given the option.

Read the story here of the William Bay property

These photos are of the view from the farm.

I am a considerably different to my current appearance. What a difference half a century makes.

The car was an XA Falcon. You will not see these on the road because Ford made a huge mistake when it constructed them. The bog they put at the joints in the body promoted rust. When the car was three years old I took it to a Ford dealer and the mechanic picked up a huge screwdriver and poked at half a dozen places in the body. Places he knew what to expect. And unfortunately each time the screwdriver went through the metal. EACH TIME. The body was a rust bucket. This was in the days of letters and Ford managed to ignore them all. These days a class action would have all owners compensated for the junk.

The flowers were in the 40 acres that were still bush. Obviously a delight walking through it to discover all of them.

The cows were mine and the calves but their daddy was from John Smith, Alice’s husband; the woman I bought the property from. The one in the yard was found to have brucellosis which resulted in the farm being put in quarantine.

When I returned to WA for the Jaycees conference in 1979 mum and I went down to the farm. You can see her there. The trees I had planted had grown a lot but I found so had the value of the farm so I put it on the market.