My gr-gr-gr-grandfather Bob Higgins, has a creek named after him; it runs into Warragamba Dam. He was one of the convicts building the first road over the Blue Mountains. There should be a poem about that creek:

Oh, mighty Bob Higgins Creek,
By whose banks I love to linger,
And plumb the very bottom,
With my little finger.

An ex-soldier, he married a convict woman from Shropshire, perhaps Welsh and possibly a Gypsy; their daughter married another convict, a sheep-thief from the Scottish borderlands.

The apple doesn't roll far from the tree.

Joe

Hi Joe,

What a wonderful family history you have.

I've nothing as exciting to link us to our
confict past.

The only thing that comes to
mind, which was rather exciting at the time
was that - my brother's wife's family were stud-farmers
in Quirindi, NSW, and they named a prize bull after my
eldest son. Which was lovely. He was so proud. Even had
a photo of the bull that he framed.

Hi Foxy,

Wow, I'd love to have had a stud bull named after me. My wife would have had a good laugh :)

Joe

Dear Joe,

Yes it was a lovely thing for my brother's
wife's dad to have done for our young son.
When the old man passed away we gave a
donation to "feed for farmers" in that area
who were doing it tough because they were hit by
the drought. It was instead of flowers.

Aussie farmers are a special breed. I'm so
proud to have them in our family.

Foxy,

You're right about farmers. As a Bankstownie, I didn't have much time for those whom I stereotyped as 'hayseeds' and 'hicks', but when I went fruit-picking over a few seasons (which should be compulsory labour for all young able-bodied people, a sort of gap year), I realised how hard they worked, on the one hand, and how intelligently and imaginatively they managed their properties, on the other.

Joe

Joe,

Did you ever do bean or pea picking?

The first day's bean picking that I ever did I earned 10 shillings the norm was around 40 shillings!!