Eumundi Voice - Issue 97, 11 July 2024

MEET A LOCAL

Thanks for the Memories

Bullock teams, kangaroo skins, koalas, swagmen, snakes and Saturday pictures are found in history books, but for 94yo Wally Lait they are alive in his vivid memories of life in Eumundi.

His grandparents, Richard and Mary settled here after arriving from England in 1908. An Indigenous family group, abundant koalas and kangaroos were in the area when they arrived.

The Lait sons, Fred, Arthur and Ray were soldiers in WWI. Another son Bill, served in the navy while brother Bert stayed to run the property. Fred married Mabel Gridley. Ray and Bert married her sisters.

Born in Sunny Brae Hospital – now located at the showgrounds – Wally has spent his whole life in the town.

Fred and Arthur share-farmed the Wilson’s Lane property, with cattle, pigs and bananas. Growing up, the 11 combined Lait offspring found themselves with heavy chores before, after school and on weekends.

Wally’s earliest memory is being 3yo and visiting Eumundi for the first time. “I was spellbound by all the sawmill’s equipment, huge pulleys and chains. Suddenly I realised Dad wasn’t there and I screamed and screamed. He’d returned to the horse and cart without me,” Wally said.

They rode horses to Eumundi School keeping them in the paddock, now the market carpark. The schoolmaster’s cottage was where the multi-storey building now stands.

Excitement came when bullock teams arrived. Children lined the fence watching them pass laden with huge logs for Etheridge’s sawmill. After the drivers had refreshed in the pub, they returned. “Misery Hill” at Doonan involved applying brakes to the wagons halfway up to help the poor bullocks restore energy before climbing the rest.

During the Great Depression, homeless swagmen with their matildas were regulars. The railway ran through the town, so children watched as Jock Lyons, the local ‘cop’, checked for hidden "bodies" getting a free ride. He’d arrest them, lock them up, feed them and then send them on their way. “Many were professional men who had lost everything,” Wally said.

As Fred was a horse and cart man who couldn’t drive, 14yo Wally took the milk and cream to the Butter Factory in the Chevy Ute. He also drove everyone to the pictures or dances in the School of Arts. Although underage, his skill was needed so this fact was ignored by local police.

During one extreme drought Wally remembers droving their 80 Illawarra cows and others from Eumundi to 1100 lush acres near Lake Weyba which newsagent Harold Wilkinson had bought.

Dingoes and snakes were a major problem on Mount Eerwah but the Laits survived until selling the farm in 1951.

A pretty young 16yo playing the piano with Wag’s Band at Pomona dances took Wally’s eye. They married when Cynthia was 21 and moved into Eumundi where they raised two boys and two girls. Cynthia died in 1986 but Wally’s memories make him a living Eumundi legend.