Project Description
Kip talks about his parents’ families, Seymour Cottage at the foot of Dunn Bay Road, and recalls the farm with cows and an orchard. His father schooled at Quindalup and helped build the first Caves House. He became a member of the Sussex Road Board until it was incorporated into the Busselton Shire Council. Kip talks about the area at the time, the roads, travelling by horse and cart and transferring stock to the railway at Quindalup siding. Market day was a social occasion.
He was one of ten children. One sister died at birth. The others were Violet, Olive, Edna, Cora, Vernon, Michael, Norman and Eric. Kip contracted poliomyelitis as a child and had trouble walking. He was about seven before he could go to school, which he enjoyed. He left school at 16 and worked on the farm. Kip tried to get into the banking or printing industries but was hampered by his physical disability and lack of education.
On the farm they grew potatoes, and oats and wheat to make hay for chaff. He enjoyed fishing and took out a license when they started the Seymour Camps for holiday-makers. Kip met Phyllis Iris (nee Trigwell, known as Phyl) from Donnybrook whose family were farmers and came to the ‘Seymour Camps’ for holidays. They married in 1938 and built a house on the Dunsborough property.
Kip talks about the house, Phyl’s garden and chooks, and how she helped him with the camps and their shops. They had three daughters, Daphne in November 1941, Jennifer in January 1947 and Deidre in September 1951. From 1952 they supplied wholemilk to Dunsborough at the request of the Milk Board, then to the Margaret River cheese factory until 1966. They sold most of the farm in 1967.
Kip was a member of the Primary Producers’ Association, the local Progress Association and the Dunsborough Country Club.