Rowney Family Tree

Percy was born at Rupanyup (Vic) in 1888. His parents had a farm, for a time, on the outskirts of the township. When he was a young boy, around 1891, the family moved north to take up a selection at Boigbeat (Vic), in the new areas opening up around Lake Tyrrell (Vic). They were amongst the earliest pioneers of this district.

Percy was raised on the McLEAN's farm at Boigbeat. He was also among the very first pupils at the school which was established in the hall at nearby Berriwillock (Vic) in 1895, although he was often called away from school to help his father with his work. This was a common problem in those times. In 1896 there were 52 children on the roll at the Berriwillock State School, but the average daily attendance was just 35. Percy's future wife, Ethel KILCULLEN, was also attending the Berriwillock school at that time. The hall was of primative construction and was hot in summer and cold in winter. Playground space was also limited to a small area beside the hall, and one of the boys' most popular games, cricket, often bought angry rebukes from Mr Ben OULTEN, who owned the corrugated iron workshop beside the hall. The frequent crashing of cricket balls into the walls of his shed led to many tense moments.

After leaving school Percy helped his father with contracting work on the channels. They were busy making the channel through the back of Watchem (Vic) during the drought of 1902. The sand and duststorms were so bad that year, Percy later recalled, that the channel behind them often seemed to fill as fast as their horses could scoop it out. As a young man, Percy also played football for Berriwillock where he won a number of medallions.

Around 1906, Percy is believed to have left his father's farm, which was going quite well by that time, and headed up into the mallee country around Tempy (Vic), where new land was again becoming available for selection. It is understood that his sister Queenie accompanied him in the beginning, although she was married around this time, so it is possible that Mick KELLY, her husband, was also part of the expedition. Percy selected, and in 1907 was granted, Crown allotment #44 (629 acres), an uncleared, sandy, block in the Parish of Tyenna (Vic), located 2ư miles east of the Tempy township. Percy and the KELLY's were believed to have been the first of their family to move to the Tempy district, although it seems that all of the others eventually followed. Percy began living on his block in August 1907.

Percy worked hard clearing his land, and supported himself by helping some of the other farmers around the area in clearing their allotments. Starting out with no capital of his own, apart from his five horses, he also needed to puchase equipment and stock for his farm. Working with teams of horses and a roller, the scrub was cleared, and burnt in large bonfires, before the crops could be sown. Percy also had to put down a small dam to supply water on his property. Mick KELLY, who was a dam contractor by trade, may have helped him in this task. Percy remembered that on the day the dam was finished there was rain, and he immediately had water for his horses. Percy was also assisted in those early days by some of the other pioneers of the area who had established themselves before his arrival. He particularly remembered the HARRISON family, who were among the very first settlers in the region, from whom he was able to borrow horses or obtain work when in need. But rather than lean too heavily on his neighbours, and probably unable to afford to purchase seed outright, Percy carted a waggon load of grain all the way through the scrub from his father's farm at Boigbeat to sow his first crop - which ended up full of weeds.

Percy's residency lease on his block was dated 1 Jul 1910, indicating that he finalised his fees and conditions around that time.

Percy married Ethel KILCULLEN on 7 Sep 1910. He was aged 21 at that time, and Ethel was 23 years old. They were married at Berriwillock, and it is believed that their wedding photo was taken at the KILCULLEN home. Percy sported a moustache at that time, but this was apparently not a fashion he continued with in later years. At the time of their marriage Percy was still recording his usual place of residence as Boigbeat, and it is possible that it was some time later before Ethel actually joined him on their farm at Tempy.

Percy and Ethel made their first home together on the farm beneath the native pines which grew at the back of the house block. They lived in a small 2-room house made of tin and bags with a dirt floor. Their first children, the twins, Jack and Arthur, were born at Tempy in 1911.

The 1912 electoral roll for Victoria records Percy as a farmer at Tempy, while Ethel is recorded as residing at Tyenna. It is unclear why they have provided different names for their place of residence, since they were unlikely to have been living apart at that time. It was probably an inadvertant administrative discrepancy rather than a deliberate difference.

Their next child, Mick, had his birth registered at Turriff (Vic) in 1913, and all subsequent children except Mary were registered at Ouyen (Vic). It is not clear exactly how many of these births may have actually occurred at their Tempy home and simply been registered elsewhere. It is understood that the midwife attending the births often registered the children, and her place of residence usually determined where the registration took place.

In 1916, Ethel gave birth to their first daughter, Jean, and it was also around this time that the family shifted into another small house which they had built closer to the dam and the road. It seems that the road past their block was diverted and improved around that time. This second house was hardly an improvement on their first in terms of its primative structure. It was located beneath two peppercorn trees near the site of the present house. Having completed their six-year period of occupancy, Percy and Ethel also became eligible for a 34 year agricultural lease on their land at that time, and Percy's application for the lease was successful.

The long term security offered by their new lease probably encouraged Percy and Ethel to substantially improve their home environment. Soon after moving into their second small house, they began building a new larger 4-room home, with a veranda all around. The new house cost £600, and was constructed by Coleman's, a firm from Ballarat (Vic), which also built the Tempy Town Hall and the house next to it, around the same time. The McLEAN's older house was connected by a verandah to the back of their new home, and the open space between was where they hung their meat, and bathed. Ethel planted a nice garden around the house, and by 1926 they had also adjusted their finances and were thus able to convert their lease into a freehold title.

Unfortunately Ethel did not live long to enjoy their more comfortable circumstances. She died suddenly of pneumonia, just 18 months after they had moved into their new home. She was only 41 years old when she passed away. Percy was left to raise their eight children alone, they ranged in age from the 17 year old twins, Jack and Arthur, down to baby Mary who was just 10 months old. Ethel was buried in the cemetery at Ouyen (Vic), near where she died.

For Percy, Ethel's passing was clearly a terrible blow, and it seems that he was never able to replace her in his life. For years afterwards, whenever he visited Ouyen, he would park his buggy by the railway tracks and walk across the paddock to the cemetery to visit her grave. Their youngest daughter Mary, who was just a baby when Ethel died, remembered him continuing this ritual throughout her life in his home. She often accompanied him. He always kept a copy of their wedding photo hanging above his bed, and a larger version of the same photo also hung prominently in their dining room.

A partially blind "home-help" lady named Gran ARNOLD helped the family out for a time after Ethel's death. Some of Percy's daughters, many years later, also recalled that a local widow had shown some interest in Percy some time after Ethel's death, but they had not encouraged the relationship, and it never progressed. This was something they later regretted, with their better understanding of the many lonely years that he must have endured after they had all left home. The older children also took on many of the household responsibilities at that time. Jean in particular, who was only about 12 years old when Ethel died, had to leave school, and found herself mothering her baby sister Mary. Jack was also often required to cook and take care of the household chores while Arthur helped their father working outdoors. Although they were twins, Arthur was always regarded as the stronger of the two. Their Grandmother KILCULLEN suggested that Jack may have been raised on porridge, while Arthur had eaten properly when they were babies. In any case, the younger children enjoyed having Jack in charge of the house.

The children attended school at Tempy, and boy or girl, they were all expected to work like men helping around the farm; collecting stumps, ploughing or digging channels with the horses, loading bags of grain on the wagon for the trip to the silo, and everything else that had to be done. Percy could not afford to pay for hired labour. The boys also worked for other farmers in the district, and some of the girls helped Percy's mother at her boarding house in Tempy. Percy also worked an adjacent 638 acre property known as WHITECROSS's (allotment #54), on shares, as well as some of his brother-in-law Gordon SPEED's land at Speed (Vic), also on shares. He moved his whole family onto the property at Speed during the cropping and harvest periods. The children attended school at Speed during these times.

In their rare spare moments, the children enjoyed swimming in their dam, which had a levelled off side which served well as a beach. Percy would carry the kids into the dam and they would learn to swim back to shore. The neighbouring McCLEARY children also enjoyed swimming in the McLEAN's dam. Even on hot days, however, they were not allowed to swim in the dam until the horses had been watered. The McLEAN and McCLEARY kids also played together on the hot sandhills around their homes. The children all learned to ride horses at a young age, as it was their only means of transport, and the younger girls remember that their temperamental pony, Scewy, frequently threw them as they went to and from school. Sometimes the dust storms blew up so severely they couldn't see the road home. On one occasion they recall seeing a large water tank rolling along in the wind. It jumped over their dam, rolled past the front of their house, and ended up in the sand dunes down the road. When thunderstorms threatened, all the mirrors in the house had to be covered - so as not to attract the lightning. The large puddles left by the rain always provided much fun afterwards, however. Mary also remembers the girls riding their ponies into the dances in town. They would carry their dresses on the way, and change into them on arrival. She also remembers seeing a "Jack O'Lantern" glowing in the distant darkness on the way home. She never did find out what that really was.

Percy was a hard worker and a hard taskmaster, and he also loved his horses dearly. They were always very well kept and looked after. He had apparently felt that his father did not looked after his own horses very well, and was determined not to be the same. His children often joked that their horses were watered and fed before they were. Percy never bought a tractor, and continued working his ground with his horses for all his working life. Farming was a tough lifestyle around Tempy, where four bags per acre was considered to be a good yield. During bad drought years he supplemented his income by working the channels around the area. His daughter Mary remembers him doing this for a time around 1942, when she was around 13 or 14 years old. The first time Percy could remember ever having any money to spare was while he was working the channels around that time.

It was a hard and lonely existence for Percy on the farm after all his children had departed. He enjoyed following the horse races and liked to have a punt, although he rarely won. He retired into Tempy when he was around 70 years old, and lived with his daughter Jean and her husband Bill. He sold the farm to his son Jack, who later sold it to the McCLEARY family, their longtime neighbours, who still own it today.

In his earlier days Percy got around with a push-bike, then later, he progressed to a two-horse buggy, until he finally bought himself a car. For many years he owned a Chrysler 'Tourer', with wooden spoked wheels, and in later years he drove a grey Mini Minor.

He was an unassuming, retiring man of few words, who believed firmly in the work ethic, and his work was always done correctly and neatly. These values were passed down to his children. Percy also had a glass-eye, the result of a splinter he received while cutting pine wood for the fire. His daughter Glad remembers that Percy had a distinctive way of cutting firewood - bent down on one knee.

When he became sick towards the end of his life, Percy moved into the hospital at Ouyen. He died from stomach cancer in 1971 at the age of 83. He shares the same grave as Ethel in the "Old Anglican" Section of the Ouyen Cemetery.