Retired farmer Archie McInnes talks to Robyn Ballinger about his family's history on the Patho Plains.

Like other Victorian rural areas, the rural population of the Patho Plains is decreasing. When landowners move out of the district, they take a wealth of historical knowledge and experience with them.

The Patho Plains Oral History Project was developed to capture the historical knowledge of farmers and landowners to better understand the changing landscape. These interviews and photographs form part of that project.

Further Information

Patho Plains Oral History interview excerpt 11: Archie McInnes

AUDIO TRANSCRIPT

ARCHIE MCINNES: Well, my great-grandfather come here in 1869...

ROBYN BALLINGER: Mm-hm.

ARCHIE: Moved here by horse-and-wagon to the newly selected land in the Terricks Plains near Gunbower. Everything they needed to survive had to be in that wagon - tent, shovels, axes, things for wheat-grinding and flour. It was necessary. One of the staple diets of our pioneers was cracked wheat which was boiled to make a porridge called bulgur.

ROBYN: Ah.

ARCHIE: While on the journey north, the older boys may have ridden horses so that they could scout ahead to check the water courses and locate night camping. Soon after arriving on their 320-acre block, a timber-slab house was constructed and a baby daughter called Mariah was born. Sheep grazing was the most suitable farming venture on the sides of the timber open country where the only shade come from a few bull-oak trees and scrub ash. The size of the sheep flock grew each year and there was a cow to milk, supplied house milk, hens and chicken kept the supply of eggs and provided a change of diet from the usual rabbits or mutton. The family was overcome with grief when Anne, 11, died suddenly. She was buried at the Echuca Cemetery in March, 1878. Despite drought and conditional scarcities of water, the family endured through many life, left the plains when their sheep died. Angus and Charlie worked the shearers, and they were the two that stayed on the farm there. They had the Terricks as home base until 1940 when they retired because of ill health. So from then on, we sort of took over. Dad bought the farm off them and we took over from there.