BURDEKIN HISTORY CAN BE AMUSING AT TIMES

Back in July 1904, Harry E P MacDonald was editor of the Delta Advocate for a very short time. Upon leaving the district he had the following words to say of living conditions in Ayr.  This was printed in various newspapers- Queensland, New South Wales and the Sun from Kalgoorlie Western Australia.

“Also, we desire to bid a long farewell to Lynch’s Bull, and Irving’s Cow and Edwards’ Heifer.  (Lynch, Irving and Edwards were V.I.P’s of the district).  Furthermore, the insanitary system has provided us with material for paragraphs when more unsavoury subjects were unavailable .  Then Mr Burke and the bailiff, and other sundries have rendered valuable assistance in the production of this journal to all of whom we are grateful, and a peace that passeth all understanding is upon us, together with 8s10pence, which is reserved to bear us hence. Good-bye again, dear friend of ours, and may your prosperity continue through all the years to come. Fight the same fearless battle you have fought so long.  Success will finally crown your efforts, and fortune will smile upon you with kindly eyes, for your heritage is great. Farewell then A word that must be, and has been -sound which make us linger – yet farewell.”  

Then he tore himself away. Sewage -in 1904 was a horse with cart and toilet pans were delivered and taken away from the outside the toilet shed by the night man and his cart. This service was performed in the early hours of the morning before people were up and about going to work etc. This was not a pleasant smelling aroma throughout the town. Just imagine this being written up today in our society. I wonder did the citizens of Ayr know their fame had spread far and wide in our country.

Come forward to October 1931 in the Home Hill notes of the Townsville Bulletin. The town was in the middle of the sugar-cane harvest and nothing much was happening as this was also the Depression years. So, the previous Saturday afternoon, an Italian Man came into town from up river (Osborne) pulling a four wheel buggy to stop beside one of the local hotels, where the excited chattering of a number of Italians proclaimed that something must be happening that they had no knowledge of. Enquiries elicited the fact that the human horse had made a bet with one of his countrymen, and this was the wager- the terms being the man had to pull the four-wheeler into town, a distance of seven miles, load a case of lager into the buggy and pull it home again, all within six hours. The seven miles into town took 2 hours 20 minutes an average of three miles per hour which was very good moving. After loading the case of lager (four dozen large Bottles) and incidentally using a little lubrication taking internally, the return journey was commenced. Word was later received in town that the human horse puller had reached home with just over half -an-hour to spare. Would any of us do this for entertainment today?

Finally fast forward to early 1950’s in Queen Street Ayr. The Shire Council decided to upgrade the footpaths in front of the shops in Queen Street by cementing them and making easy walking for pedestrians. The cementing finished and the footpaths looked great. Then along came the Post Master General’s (PMG) within the space of a couple of weeks and they decided to dig up a section of this newly laid cement footpath to work on laying telephone cables in Queen Street. The lines were duly laid and layers of soil covered up the telephone cables. So much for cement pavements in the main street of Ayr.  Come Saturday morning and local shoppers came to town to find that some wags had planted lettuce, carrots and beetroots in the dirt to make a vegetable garden. There was much laughter. Would this happen today!?

Contributed by Glenis Cislowski

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Vegetables were grown in the dirt in the middle of the footpath