John Durack: Thank you, Ellis. And I think, Ida, you're going to try and upstage Ellis.
Ida Smith:
No, no, I gave the idea away. Well I'd just like to say that I believe in threads that carry through people's lives. And I've had a few threads through mine, but one in particular was in 1949, with my late husband Raoul Joyce We did a trip over to the west and up into the Kimberley, and we were given a Letter of Introduction to stay on Argyle, the old Argyle, by the General Manager of Peel River Land and Mineral Company, a fellow called Don Smith.
So off we went, and from Perth we took the Mickey Mouse Airlines, which was the local name for McRobertson Miller Airlines. Mary Durack's husband was Horrie Miller. So off we went, and we went up to Broome where we were looked after by Vern and Eve Farrell. Vern was the Manager of the Broome Meatworks. From there we went to Wyndham, and it was arranged that Peter Ogden, the then Manager of Argyle, would come and collect us in Wyndham.
So he came in, not in a limousine, but in a two-ton truck. He collected us at about five o'clock one evening, and we bounced out over a very corrugated road to Ivanhoe, where we had our evening meal, and I'll never forget, the bread was grey, because the Aboriginal women used to make it in the camp oven outside, and there was a fair bit of ash mixed in it.
And then we went on to Argyle. And on the way, Raoul kept asking Peter questions about the running of Argyle. I mean we were cattle breeders, but we had nothing to do with Peel River, except that we bred Santa Gertrudis like they did. And Raoul said to me, 'Would you write that down, please?' So I got out the notebook and I started writing. By the time we got to Argyle, I sensed that there was something a bit funny about Peter, and I wondered what it was.
When we got to Argyle, at about midnight, we were shown to our room; we weren't offered a drink of water, a cup of tea, or a nip of rum, which would have been more in keeping with our state at the time! Off we went to bed, except that Peter said to Raoul, 'You be ready to come out in the stock camp with me at daylight, in the morning.' So off we went.
Raoul went out in the stock camp with Peter, and he said, 'The reception was a bit cold for a long time.' Until one evening they got yarning, and Peter divulged that he thought that we were stooges for the General Manager, and we were checking up on his operations because I was taking these notes in the book.
Well, we spent three wonderful weeks on Argyle, with Peter and Pammy, during which time we went to Ivanhoe, we went over to Newry and Auvergne. It was a wonderful experience for both of us, and we'll never forget it.
While we were in Broome, this youngish woman came walking up the street with a trail of children behind her; there were about five white ones, then about five black ones, and Eve Farrell said to me, 'Oh, that's Mary Durack. That's Mary Miller. Come and we'll meet her.' So we met Mary, and Mary and I became firm friends.
But then, to come to Toowoomba, later on and suddenly meet Noni at tennis and Noni and Bill at chamber music, it was just wonderful, and it was just a continuation of that wonderful thread, and I'm very pleased that it came my way. Thanks, Noni and Bill.
APPLAUSE
Unfortunately I don’t have any Photo of Ida
