House, Edward (Ted)

Edward Kenneth HOUSE (Ted) was born in 1916. His family came from England and Ireland and Ted talks of various family members, their relationships, marriages and children. The families lived variously in the Swan River Colony, Cape Naturaliste, and the Margaret River area where his father took up farming at Glenmore from 1912.

Ted had two sisters and one brother and their education was at Yallingup School. He talks about Yallingup and the surrounding coast and countryside. In the Group Settlement days, Ted’s father butchered meat for themselves and neighbours. Ted recalls their living conditions, bathing, lighting and their first car.

Ted’s father managed Abbey Farm and other properties and, when he died in 1937 of septicemia, Ted was left to run the family farm because his brother was eight years younger (Jim, born in 1924). He ran the dairy and drove sheep and cattle to the Busselton markets, sometimes loading them at Quindalup. They were the first family to have a wireless, so neighbours used to come over and listen to test matches at night.

He tells stories of childhood accidents; the local indigenous families they bartered with; how they dealt with the dingoes; visitors who came into the area by plane with Norman Brierley, ate at Caves House, toured the caves and then flew back to Perth on De Havillands. Ted played sport from an early age, particularly cricket, then hockey and badminton.

A golf course and club was set up on the family farm and one of his sisters became a State Champion golfer. Dancing took place on Saturday nights at halls all around the district.

Ted met his future wife, Molly, at a dance. Molly worked in the dairy and in the home after they married. They had five children, Aubrey, Irene, Ray, Terry and Barry. He recalls the start of vineyards grown by the Pannells, Cullitys and Cullens.

Ted and Molly talk about changes to life and the community, and Ted talks about his greatest satisfactions, his wife and his family.