Contents
Contents 1
Front cover 2
Imprint page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Preface 5
Stories in the dark 7
Adelong . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
West Wyalong . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
The King family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
The Puntons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
My father’s death . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Pictures 48
Family trees 67
Sykes tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Cochrane tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Parker tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Stories
in the
dark
Letters from
Esther Perry nee Cochrane
to her grandchildren
Stories in the dark
Letters from
Esther Perry nee Cochrane
to her grandchildren
First printing 2002-08-12
Second printing 2005-03-17
Third printing, revised 2012-02-20
Improved screen viewing 2018-11-17
Preface
These stories were typed by my mother while she was living at Parkside when she
was in her seventies. She took up the typewriter, partly as occupational therapy to
regain the use of her hand after a wrist fracture, but mostly because she enjoyed
telling a good yarn. She liked being called Hett, a name bestowed on her by an
appreciated son-in-law, but her favourite name was Grandma. As a typist, she
would have described herself as a good pianist. During transcription of the text
to computer I have eliminated typos and introduced section headings, paragraphs,
footnotes and marginal notes, but otherwise the stories are as she wrote them.
They were typed on sheets of paper 145x187 mm using almost the whole page,
without margins and without paragraphs. The manual typewriter was tempera-
mental, and about half way through she typed
i wont try to use capitals from now on as they are not
working well.
In transcribing I have substituted upper case letters for lower case when that
seemed appropriate. Birth names only are given in the footnotes, the captions
to photographs, and the family trees.
Pam
August 2002
5
A sample page of the typescript
Stories in the dark
Dear Adam,
Do you remember when you were a little boy and I sometimes tucked you into
bed, you would so often say ‘Read me a story in the dark, Granma’, and it was
a while before I realised that you wanted me to tell you about the funny people I
knew when I was a little girl ‘in the olden days’. Andrew likes to hear about them
too, so I will use a carbon for the remainder of this letter and post him one too.
Adam
John and Margaret Fisher collection.
7
Adelong
Before I tell you of the people in that little town I must describe the town itself asAdelong
it was in about 1902 when I was a little girl,
1
but it was known even then that it
was past its heyday of prosperity, and one by one the mines were closing down.
There were three at the top of the hill above our houses, all silent but one. The
Great Victoria had produced more gold than any other mine in the State. The
Gibralter, known always as the Gib and four miles downstream, was still working
three shifts a day.
I never think of the town as dry and sunburnt, but always as green and lush. There
was scarcely one home that was not surrounded by its own orchard, and there was
a little creek that ran through the town along behind the gardens of the shops, and
half a mile downstream on the opposite bank were our homes, firstly where I lived
with my parents,
2
then my aunt’s,
3
then my grandmother’s family.
4
It is odd, but
the one person I see so clearly is my grandmother. She was born in Yass about
1850 of German parents,
5
and I remember her mother only as a dour old womanMa’s mother
eternally rocking in a chair on the verandah. She had a walnut tree that was like
‘the biggest aspidistra in the world’, and she went to bed in the snowiest, frilliest
bed I have ever seen—starched frills and flounces in all directions. But she did
not inspire love, not as my grandmother did. All the family, including myself,
called my grandmother ‘Ma’. Her house was a timber one, pink, and all over oneMa’s house
wall was a banksia rose with great clusters of pale yellow roses, and I can see that
lovely wall even though the roses and the house are long since gone.
Beside that pink wall was another wall, and two long square-cut logs, and al-
ways in mild weather the whole family gathered and discussed everything—world
events, politics—while I played. In the whole town nothing was more beloved
than the creek. It was crystal clear and just deep enough for paddling, and its bed
was white sand with stones as smooth as glass.
Ma’s garden ended in a high bank with three whopping big willows with the creekMa’s garden
below, and can you think of anything nicer on a hot evening than swinging out
holding a handful of willow branch and dropping kerplonk into the water. I did
not know then what that lovely warm feeling was, but I know now that it was
happiness and contentment from living where it was so beautiful and, to be honest,
1
These letters were written by Esther Evelyn Maude Cochrane (19 June 1898–1969, known
as Ett or Hett). She was born in Adelong and lived there until December 1905 when her family
moved to West Wyalong. Birth names only are given in the footnotes.
2
Joseph Cochrane (1867–1915) and Catherine Jane Parker (1874–1940, known as Marnie).
3
Her mother’s sister, Esther Mary Parker (1882–1970, known as Ett)
4
The family of her maternal grandmother Catherine Jane Walters (1854–1933, known as Ma)
and grandfather John James Parker (1850–1924, known as Gargie).
5
Robert Walters and Mary A . . .
8
My grandmothers, my parents, and me
L to r: Mary Jane McGuire aged 63, Catherine Jane Parker aged 29, Esther Evelyn Maude
Cochrane aged 5, Joseph Cochrane aged 36, Catherine Jane Walters aged 49. On back in
Esther Cochrane’s hand: Taken in Adelong when I was 5 (1903). Photographer: R Pum-
frey, Adelong, NSW. Print 147x201 mm mounted on grey cardboard. Pam Macdonald
collection.
9