Frederick John Chaplin

Ship name / Flight number: SS Moreton Bay

Arrival Date: 3/10/1930

It was late August in the heart of the 1930 World Depression.

I was 17 and had just left the Colston School, Bristol, Summerset, England with five credits in the Leaving Certificate.

My parents who were in business in Calcutta, India had intended to put me through university, but they were in financial trouble owing to the difficulties in British INDIA, where British businesspeople were getting out, often bankrupt.

What were they to do with me, jobs were as scarce as hen’s teeth in Great Britain.

My Uncle, a Bristol Industrialist, said to me, “go out to Australia ‘John’, you will not go wrong, there is gold in the hills.” I was always a lover of the outdoor life, and I decided I wanted to be a farmer. I said to my dad I will go out to Australia under ‘The BIG BROTHER’ Movement - they guaranteed a fit lad employment at 15p per week and keep and the chance to learn about ‘farming and grazing’. I decided that would do me.

In September 1930 my dad farewelled me on the SS Moreton Bay one of the famous Australia Bay boats at Southampton. I took a photograph of my dad on the SS Moreton Bay in the background was one of the famous Cunard steamships. I was very sad, but I managed to keep a stiff upper lip and no tears were shed.

There was only one other British lad on board going out under the ‘Big Brother Movement’, as immigration was just about terminated until nine years later in 1939. However, there were about 20 ‘Dreadnought’ lads on the ship who I became friendly with. The SS Moreton Bay was a one class ship most of the passengers were friendly. The Bishop of Armidale, Dr Moyes was a passenger, a very kind and helpful and a good sport and kept an avuncular eye on the lads.

Colston School, Bristol, Summerset, England | Dad on the SS Moreton Bay | R Coleman SS Morton Bay | Two of the lads in Fremantle

In 1930 the ship journey from the UK to Sydney was all of six weeks duration. The trip was very interesting, much time was spent with the deck games and the canvas swimming pool. At Colombo the English lads were guests of the British Imperial Serbia Club and they looked after us very well and treated us with a strap up luncheon and drinks.

Our first touch of Australia was Freemantle when we had a disturbing but humorous experience.

Six of the lads went down to the main ocean beach for a swim, we left our clothes under the pier and went in for a swim. The beach was deserted but the water was fine and clear as gin; when we came out to our amazement half of our clothes were gone, stolen, we were just in time to see two boys disappearing in the distance with our trousers; luckily my camera had not been stolen and I managed to get a few good photographs of the lads, we returned to our ship in Fremantle Harbour through the streets of the city, some of us in our swimming costumes; ship passengers greeted our predicament with great mirth, however kindly passengers fixed us up with other adequate clothing to compensate our lost clothing.

Port Adelaide gave us a fairly quiet welcome in keeping with the City of Churches.

A Melbourne Ladies Club gave the English lads a great welcome, a tour of the city sites and a scrumptious luncheon. Hospitality was triple A; however, all the lads were looking forward to their final destination SYDNEY, New South Wales.

A British Migrant Lands in Sydney

At 5am on Oct 3rd 1930 on a lovely spring morning, the SS Moreton Bay came through the ‘Heads” into Sydney Harbour, here was I, a British lad of 17½ years, just about the last ‘Little Brother’ to come out under the ‘BIG BROTHER’ immigration movement before the suspension of immigration, due to seriousness of the great depression (immigration was resumed again in 1939).

From Pier 13 – October 3rd 1930

At the Circular Quay Overseas Terminal, I was met by a welcoming official of the Big Brother Movement and introduced to my ‘Big Brother’ who was expected to take a brotherly interest in me whilst I settled down in a new country. My Big Brother, I will call him STEVE WILSON, shouted me morning tea and took me for a tour of the city, Hyde Park, St Marys Cathedral, David Jones, etc, etc, and then lunch at the Australia Hotel – then he astounded me by telling me I would be put on the 8pm train at Central Railway, with my considerable luggage (a huge cabin trunk and one suitcase) to my first position with a ‘wheat growing’ share farmer at West Wyalong.

STEVE explained the policy was to get new arrivals out of Sydney as soon possible on arrival, to their first position in the county, he asked me to write to him as soon as I settled down; and he expected me to spend Xmas and New Year with his family at Chatswood.

In those days the journey from Sydney to West Wyalong was an 18-hour journey, arriving at West Wyalong at 2pm on 4th Oct. I was met by JEFF BLAKE. My prospective employer brother and my luggage was bundled into a horse drawn sulky and ‘off’ we went some 20 miles into the bush through wheat growing country, along the way I was amazed at the site of huge goanna’s basking in the sun along the roadside; as the sulky approached they would race up the nearest tree, some of these reptiles would be all of five feet in length; JEFF assured me they were harmless, so long as they did not ‘bite you’.

Eventually, we came to the gate, into BILL BLAKE’S property; my next shock was when we pulled up at a small weatherboard cottage, this was the ‘homestead’. I had never seen a weatherboard cottage before, a ‘culture shock’ this was to be my home for the next eleven weeks, I had come from a land of mainly brick and slate roof homes. JEFF explained, Bill Blake and his wife MAY would not be home for a couple of weeks and he, JEFF, would look after me and show me the ropes until my employer returned from holiday. Why did I leave England to come to this ‘GOD forsaken hole’? I will tell you, because I wanted to be a farmer, I loved the outdoor life and was prepared to rough it, to learn all I could of farms and farming.

The wage of 15/- per week and keep was promised before I left England, on arrival I was informed the going rate for a raw learner was 10/- per week and keep? OK who was I to argue, I was prepared to learn, and learn I did, and quickly.

Firstly, I was useless, I had never milked a cow, killed or butchered a sheep, harnessed horses. I had a few lessons on riding a horse in England but had a lot to learn; but I had the advantage of a good British education. Anyway, JEFF introduced me to the horses, it was not a tractor farm, all cultivation work was done with horses, horsepower consisted of 20 draught horses mainly Clydesdales and Suffolk Punches and two saddle horses.

Next morning JEFF said put the bridle on ‘BALLY’ a quiet saddle horse, and bring in the cows to milk. I said, ‘Where is the saddle’, he said never mind the saddle, just ride him bare back; if you ‘fall off’ you will not get your feet caught in the stirrups!!

I vaulted onto BALLY’s back, and straight away rolled off his back onto the dirt in the horse yard; BALLY was very quiet, just stood there. So I had another go, and hung on for dear life; away went BALLY at a merry canter, he knew where the cows were, all I had to do was hang on to the reins and his mane, and he brought the cows to the milking yard in quick time, once he got the cows moving, I managed to pull him up to a walk. I soon conquered my fear of riding; by the end of a month I could hop on BALLY’s back and let him have his head, and bring the cows in, fortunately only two milking cows.

Milking cows is a task more difficult than any ‘city slicker’ could imagine, however it took a couple of weeks to become reasonable proficient at the task; then the draught horses had to be fed their morning ration of chaff and oats; after breakfast the monsters had to be harnessed, this did not become a very difficult task; the working draught horse, is an amicable creature and amenable to human discipline.

It was coming on wheat harvesting time, firstly horses had to be used to motivate the hay binder, a couple of strips were harvested for hay, around each paddock (crop) of wheat, also one crop of oats was harvested exclusively for hay.

Hay was harvested and used to manufacture chaff, which was used to feed the working horses and milking cows; this was the source of energy.

Wheaten and oaten chaff was the fuel to provide the working energy for the working horses, in the early 1930’s, the machinery of the wheat farm was mainly run by pure animal, HORSEPOWER. By the 1950’s the horse as a source of power on farms had gradually been taken over by petrol and diesel driven tractors, trucks and the motorcycles for stock mustering, horses had been reduced to a relatively minor role in the working of wheat, sheep and cattle properties.

Anyway, I stayed with Bill Blake for eleven weeks, in that period, the wheat harvest was completed for 1930. I was useful sewing full wheat bags, feeding and harnessing the horses; and occasionally driving the Sunshine Harvester; Bill Blake advised me he had no more work for me, and he had no money to pay my wages – €5_10s for eleven weeks work!! I was fed and learned a lot. However, he did drive me to his father-in-laws farm at Temora, his father-in-law had arranged with the neighbouring farmer to employ me for an indefinite period.

Eventually my back wages were paid by a ‘Government Farmers Relief’ cheque. Bill Blake was ‘broke’; just like so many New South Wales farmers are broke today, in the 1992’s_lack of wages did not worry me, I arrived in Australia with a Savings Bank Book with a balance of £60 sterling and a cabin trunk full of good clothing, my father had paid my fare to Australia, I was not an assisted migrant.

I stayed with my new employer George WERNER for eleven weeks, my main job was to help his son JOSHUA to ‘ring bark’ a bush paddock, this taught me to use an axe, and certainly helped to develop my physique, I as getting stronger and more useful all the time, and well worth my huge wage of 10p per week and keep.

I wrote to the Big Brother Movement and asked for employment in the grazing country as I was tired of listening to George WERNER whingeing.

The Big Brother Movement arranged a position for me as a jackaroo with a grazier at Cassilis near Merriwa. It was a long and tiring train journey from Temora in those days, my new employer met the train at Merriwa to pick me up; he could not find me as I had fallen asleep in the carriage after an 18 hour journey; upon waking (which terminated at Merriwa) I realized my new employer had been and gone, however I arranged to get out to the station property near Cassilis with the mailman, this was a bad start.

My new employer BOB PALMER had a beautiful new brick homestead, very modern with modern conveniences and good quarters for myself. Bob Palmer however proved to be a slave driver, but I did learn a lot about sheep farming as I worked in the shearing shed, and did all the minor chores about the placed for eleven weeks; I did note that the shearers received the then princely sum of 27s/6d per 100 to shear the sheep, at an average of 140 odd sheep a day, that worked out a good wage for those times, I decided, that was the next job for me.

I decided to leave PALMER and obtained another job through the BBM at a grazing property at Warren, near the famous Haddon Rig Stud farm . My new employer JOE JOHNSON was not a bad sort of chap. I was happy enough to stay with him for eleven weeks, however it was to be my last position I was to ever obtain through the BBM. I may have been unlucky, but I had found the employers with whom I had been placed by the BBM had one thing in common; they seemed to regard the young English migrant as a cheap source of labour and had little concern for their welfare. The type of employer who could not get reliable local labour.

On leaving JOE JOHNSON’S employ I decided to ‘paddle my own canoe’, I found I could mix and hold my own with the average Aussie rural worker and found better and more profitable employment outside the BBM.

However, I will always be grateful for the start that the BBM gave me, they were always there to fall back on in an emergency and still are to this day.

After breaking away on my own, I engaged in a multiplicity of rural jobs, gaining experience of the Australian scene, rabbit trapping, droving, fruit picking, harvesting, working in shearing sheds, cooking, gold prospecting. I even had a stint in the city of Sydney, selling Electrolux vacuum cleaners. I was not a great salesman, and soon found the country life was the life I loved and excelled at.

1937 was a big year for me, I discovered the beautiful town of Orange (now a City). The climate suited me. I started my own business, as a fuel and produce merchant; got married to a farmer’s daughter and seldom looked back from that day to this day.

After 19 years in Orange things went ‘dead’ in my line of business. I sold my home and business and brought my family, a wife and four children to Sydney. Sydney offered my two girls good employment opportunities, and good education for my two young sons; for myself I found opportunity in the taxi industry, and a reasonable standard of living.

After 63 years in Australia, I have few regrets, however I never achieved my ambition to own a ‘beautiful farming property’. My wife had no wish to live on a farm. She had a hard time as a child, being brought up on a small farm in the heart of the 30’s Depression, she was denied the advantages of the refinements of city life, a good education and sport facilities.

In conclusion I believe the BIG BROTHER MOVEMENT has done a good job over the years and deserve the full support and encouragement of the COMMONWEALTH GOVERNMENT in the work they have done and continue to do.

I landed in Sydney in 1930 as one individual, my family has grown to four children, 11 grandchildren, 12 great grandchildren, my wife deceased, which leaves a population increase of one to 27 in 73 years. I am now over 90 all my decedents are healthy and gainfully employed. Population of Australia in 1930 was 5 million, in 1993 it is over 17 million. It is up to us to produce goods and services to uphold and improve the standard and quality of life for all Australians, we need to build ships, motor vehicles and most of the goods and services that make us self-sufficient or nearly so; to rectify our shocking Balance of Payment record, to rectify our unemployment problem; if we are to IMPORT we must competitively be capable of EXPORTERS there must be a balance of payment to support a long term good standard of life.