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Life in the Pine Rivers region - Bullocky Life
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TitleLife in the Pine Rivers region - Bullocky LifeDescriptionRhylle Winn shares family memories of what it was like to be a bullocky in the Pine Rivers region.
This is an extract from a longer oral history. The video has been edited to include photos of bullock teams belonging to the Winn family from the late 1800s and the 1930s.
Transcript
Good bullockies you were always seeing them with their big, long whips with great, big, long handles for the reach. A good bullocky never, ever touched his bullocks with those whips. Never touched them. He would flick it near them, about their ear or somewhere, and alert them that they were being observed lazing, bludging. Some of the bullocks were amazingly cunning and would as soon as the bullocky had his back turned or went forward of them, they would stop pulling, and he had to constantly be on them.
But the trip down to the rafting ground took a couple of days – I think I mentioned that, but on the way back, Dad said no bullocky was ever – if anybody ever spotted a bullocky sitting on the pole to get a lift, you were regarded as a lazy man. You had to walk. And, I said Dad, “Did you ever get on the pole?” He said, “Oh, now and again.” I said, “Well, how’d the bullocks know where to go?” and he said, “They always knew where to go, you know, to go home.” He said, “ it was a different story going out.”
The names of the team that Dad was working in 1946. He’s told me them, and I wrote them down somewhere and, in fact, I’ll just refer to a note for a minute, and I’ll read them to you, because I think they’re good. The leaders were Captain and Pilot. Pilot was renamed after the one that had gone over the bridge in Great Grandfather’s day, that dad had been with Great Grandfather on the day he went over. Pilot and Captain, Major and Bright, Tiger and Punch, Sunny and Charmer, Cherry and Knob, Rover and Speck, Tops and Trooper, and the polers were Sailor and Rattler. I was pretty proud of them.
Personal intervieweeWinn, RhylleDate30 November 2000LanguageEnglishProduction creditsPine Rivers Shire CouncilRecord typeOral HistoryFormat typemp4Format descriptionDigitalDuration00:01:54File size10MB
This is an extract from a longer oral history. The video has been edited to include photos of bullock teams belonging to the Winn family from the late 1800s and the 1930s.
Transcript
Good bullockies you were always seeing them with their big, long whips with great, big, long handles for the reach. A good bullocky never, ever touched his bullocks with those whips. Never touched them. He would flick it near them, about their ear or somewhere, and alert them that they were being observed lazing, bludging. Some of the bullocks were amazingly cunning and would as soon as the bullocky had his back turned or went forward of them, they would stop pulling, and he had to constantly be on them.
But the trip down to the rafting ground took a couple of days – I think I mentioned that, but on the way back, Dad said no bullocky was ever – if anybody ever spotted a bullocky sitting on the pole to get a lift, you were regarded as a lazy man. You had to walk. And, I said Dad, “Did you ever get on the pole?” He said, “Oh, now and again.” I said, “Well, how’d the bullocks know where to go?” and he said, “They always knew where to go, you know, to go home.” He said, “ it was a different story going out.”
The names of the team that Dad was working in 1946. He’s told me them, and I wrote them down somewhere and, in fact, I’ll just refer to a note for a minute, and I’ll read them to you, because I think they’re good. The leaders were Captain and Pilot. Pilot was renamed after the one that had gone over the bridge in Great Grandfather’s day, that dad had been with Great Grandfather on the day he went over. Pilot and Captain, Major and Bright, Tiger and Punch, Sunny and Charmer, Cherry and Knob, Rover and Speck, Tops and Trooper, and the polers were Sailor and Rattler. I was pretty proud of them.
Personal intervieweeWinn, RhylleDate30 November 2000LanguageEnglishProduction creditsPine Rivers Shire CouncilRecord typeOral HistoryFormat typemp4Format descriptionDigitalDuration00:01:54File size10MB
REFERENCE
Reference numberMBOH-0003-017-03
PART OF
Oral historyRhylle WINN - Interviewed on 30 November 2000
CONNECTIONS
PlaceSamsonvale (Qld.)PersonWinn, RhylleSubject (keywords)forest & timber workersTranscriptLife in the Pine Rivers region - Bullocky Life - TranscriptExhibitionLife in the Pine Rivers region
ACCESS
Access restrictionsUnrestrictedRestrictions on useCopyright appliesConditions of useYou may copy or download content for private research. This video may be reproduced for non-commercial purposes with acknowledgement. [e.g. Recording courtesy of City of Moreton Bay, reference number MBOH-0008-001]. For permission to use this content for commercial purposes contact local.history@moretonbay.qld.gov.au.
Life in the Pine Rivers region - Bullocky Life (30 November 2000). Moreton Bay Our Story, accessed 16/02/2025, https://ourstory.moretonbay.qld.gov.au/nodes/view/50891