Rowney Family Tree

Ethel was born in 1887 around Blackall (Qld) where here parents were working on the Alice Downs sheep station in the Queensland outback. When Ethel was around 4 years of age, in 1891, their family moved down to Victoria where Ethel's mother had family connections. They eventually settled around the farming district of Berriwillock (Vic). Ethel's father, John KILCULLEN, was a prominent local identity and served as a Shire councillor around the turn of the century.

Ethel was among the first pupils at Berriwillock State School (No. 3250) when it opened in Novemeber 1895. The school was housed in the local Mechanics' Institute Hall, which was 20 ft x 50 ft, with two rooms at the back, 8 ft x 10 ft. It was constructed of weatherboard and softwood, with 11 ft walls. The interior was neither lined nor ceiled, but was floored throughout. There were six windows, and a porch with one window, but no chimney. A stove and outside toilets were installed by request of the Education Department, but the building was reportedly very hot in summer and cold in winter, despite the small stove. The roads in the locality were cleared, but were sandy and dusty in summer, and heavy with mud after rain. The rent paid by the Department was £5 per year. The head teacher at the opening was Mr Timothy RYAN. He was replaced at the beginning of the following year by Mr Charles SYMES. In February 1896 there were 52 children on the roll, and the average attendance was 35. There was consternation in the district, when the school teacher disappeared without warning in November 1896. Many feared that the school was about to be closed down. They were soon advised by the Education Department, however, that their teacher had simply been away attending his matriculation examinations and would soon be returning. He was replaced in 1897 by Mr J.W. SINDEN, who quickly gained a reputation as a stern disciplinarian, with a well-worn strap. Some of the older students reportedly plotted a rebellion against his harsh rule, at one time, which failed at the last minute. However his dreaded strap was captured by the students and buried in small pieces near a neighbour's dam.

Ethel was living with her family near Berriwillock at the time of her marriage to Percy McLEAN in 1910. She was then aged 23. Ethel was the only girl from her family to have children. She and Percy had a total of 8 children in all.

Her children remember Ethel as a hard working woman who helped with all the work around the farm. When she and Percy first moved to Tempy (Vic) after their marriage, they worked hard to get a start. For a time they even resorted to cutting shoots on neighbouring farms for six-pence an acre, to help make ends meet. This was work usually delegated to the desperate poor or Indians. Ethel baked her own bread, and they kept a few cows for milk, which she also made into butter. It is also recalled that while the family was living in their primative house of tin and bags, with a dirt floor, Ethel had to deal with a large snake which had entered their kitchen. She apparently scooped up the baby twins onto the kitchen table, and then set about hunting down the snake and killing it herself.

Ethel loved gardening, and she grew beautiful chrysanthemums, however the scope of her garden was limited by the scarcity of water. Their water had to be carted from their dam, or in dry years, from Tempy, and paid for. It was transported to Tempy by rail down from Mildura (Vic), and was far too expensive for them to waste. The first drum of water collected from Tempy was bought back for the horses, then the wagon returned for another drum for the household. There was always trouble if water was wasted. Ethel never had the luxury of running tap water in her home, and the family bathed one-after-the-other in a small tub, without changing the water. The water was stored near the house in a tank and was accessed by pulling out one of the wooden stoppers with rags which were pushed into the many holes in the tank, and letting the water flow. Ethel and Percy's grand-daughter Sally BURNS remembers having a fun time with some of her cousins one day, pulling all the wooden stoppers out of the tank, and watching the water flow. Percy, understandably, was not greatly impressed by their game when he found out.

Over the years, Ethel occasionally visited her family at their farm at Berriwillock, driving a two-horse buggy, and bringing along all the children who could fit in!

In 1928, around 18 months after she and Percy had finally managed to find their feet and establish a comfortable house for their family on the farm, Ethel died. She was only 41 years old. She contracted pneumonia while caring for her ill children, and after a turn for the worst, she died tragically in the back of a car, borrowed from a neigbouring bush nurse, as her family tried desperately to get her to Ouyen (Vic) for treatment. She died just a few miles short of their destination. They often wondered later whether she might have survived if the family had only had their own car at that time. Something which they could not afford. Her two eldest children, the twins, were 17 years of age, and her youngest was only 10 months old, when she died. There was an inquest into her death (ref: 1311/1928), held on 25 Oct 1928, which found that Ethel had died of "influenza pneumonia".

Ethel is buried in the same grave as Percy in the "Old Anglican" Section of the Ouyen Cemetery.