Ask Grandma Kylie

20/10/2025

Watch, follow, and discover more trending content.

19/10/2025

It's not that different from how we do it today.

Carding and spinning. Co Antrim. early 1900s.
(National Museums Northern Ireland)
https://www.facebook.com/share/1Am98taLhx/?mibextid=wwXIfr

19/10/2025

PINNAROO, circa 1914

When I was a child, my brother and I would spend hours exploring a small, weathered cottage on our fruit block in Waikerie. The interior walls were lined with hessian, rough, woven fabric stretched between timber battens. It always carried that faint, dry scent of dust and summer air. We would climb up the old chimney to reach the roof, crawl across the corrugated iron, and slide down the broken veranda as though it were our own makeshift slippery dip. It wasn’t safe, and it wasn’t kind to the little cottage, but when you’re young, curiosity and adventure usually win out over caution.

That memory returned when I found this photograph. It isn’t from Waikerie, but from Pinnaroo, showing the home of Mr and Mrs R. L. McKenzie, another example of a simple hessian-lined farmhouse. According to the State Library of South Australia, this was said to be the first farmhouse built in Pinnaroo.

On the left stands Richard Lawrence McKenzie (born 8 January 1883), the father, steady and confident. By this time, he was already well known in the district as a pioneer of the Pinnaroo mallee, and he would later serve as Member for Murray in the South Australian Parliament. In his arms is his daughter Monica Margarey (born 1912).

The lady seated on the far right is Josephine Winifred McKenzie (née Fitzpatrick), whom Richard married at St Francis Xavier’s Cathedral in Adelaide on 6 November 1907. She is holding Lawrence James (born 1913).

The baby in the blanket, held by the woman in the blue blouse, is Francis Mary (born 1914). The small boy standing to the right of that same lady is John Hugh (born 1909). The woman wearing the burgundy hat remains unidentified, but the young girl standing on a barrel is Kathleen Mary (born 1910).

The McKenzie family continued to grow after this photograph was taken. Richard and Josephine later welcomed more children, Mia Patricia (born 21 March 1918), Una Patricia (born 21 March 1918), and Pauline Harrison McKenzie (born 1927).

To shed more light on Richard’s early years, a 1930 article in The Weekly Times titled “The History of Pinnaroo and The Border” paints a vivid picture:

“Richard Lawrence McKenzie selected land within a mile of Pinnaroo in September 1904, bringing with him a horse, spring dray, and a tent. He set to work cutting down scrub, returning home to Riverton after six weeks, and came back for good in January 1905. He first took up 328 acres — today he has 1,483. It was dense scrub all the way from Tailem Bend, 90 miles, to the border, and there was no settlement between Pinnaroo and Ouyen. The Pinnaroo Station had been abandoned for 25 years. All goods were carted from Tailem Bend, through heavy winter tracks and deep summer sand. His nearest neighbours were at Lameroo, 25 miles away. The first year, he cleared 50 acres by hand with an axe, burned it off, and sowed seed he’d hauled from Tailem Bend. There was no store, no doctor — only a single well at the old station.”

Sources: State Library of South Australia (B 17176), (B 36271), Find my Past, Ancestry, Parliament of South Australia, and Trove.

Edited and colourised by Kelly Bonato of A Colourful History using Photoshop, Lightroom, and Topaz.

Copyright © Kelly Bonato 2025. Image editing and colourisation are copyrighted. Share this post, but don't copy or share the image alone without permission.

18/10/2025

I remember having no seatbelts in the back seat of Dad's car. I would often lie down and sleep on the back seat.

The rest of Australia effected the same law the following year, in 1972.

When it was first implemented, there were some people who felt that the seatbelt requirement was government overreach - but the results speak for themselves: Your odds of dying on Australian roads in 1970 was 1 in 3,200. As of 2024, it’s 1 in 20,000+.

Statistically, someone reading this is alive because of that decision made in 1970. Maybe it's you. Most will never realize how close they came.

From 3,798 deaths in 1970 to 1,337 in 2024 - despite our population more than doubling.
This law has saved hundreds of thousands of lives.

The Royal Australian College of Surgeons has a great digital exhibition about the implementation of the seat belt law (and other road safety campaigns) on their website:
https://www.surgeons.org/-/media/Project/RACS/surgeons-org/files/our-heritage-archives/museum-artboards/racs_trauma_artboard.pdf

18/10/2025

An appeal - if you have old photos of Willunga/ McLaren Vale. This was Charlotte Smith's School in Willunga, now demolished unfortunately. We are looking for a close up of Charlotte who taught here in Willunga and was Head in McLaren Vale during and after 1870s. If you, by some miracle, have one and would be prepared to let us use it in a future exhibition, please message us.
This was at 9 Main Road.
Image: State Library of South Australia: B55417/24

18/10/2025

I just recently received my Nan's commode box. You can't tell what it was unless you know already. It's similar to the one in the picture except mine doesn't have carpet on top.

What was life like for your ancestors? Even furniture can provide clues.

16/10/2025

Well before my time :-)

. The Government Produce Department’s Clear Ice Service began in 1930. This service was a collaboration between the Adelaide Crystal Ice Company, Amscol and the Government Produce Depot. The introduction of home refrigerators from the 1950s led to the gradual decline of home ice deliveries. The Clear Ice Service delivery ended with the closure of the Government Produce Department in 1975.

Do you remember when ice was delivered to your home?

Image Reference: Glass plate and other negatives - Photolithographic Branch, Department of Lands, SRSA GRG35/342/1/18/58/GN12668.

16/10/2025

www.myheritage.com/research MyHeritage

15/10/2025

Just looking at some old photos and Patricia Mann‎ sent me this one a few years ago now; "Vincent Avenue, Athelstone 1962. My parents house was the first house in this street. Immigrants from the UK they purchased the house and land package from Vin Amadio for the grand sum of $6,000. In the background is Black Hill to the right are hills land owned by Colonel Fox. As kids we wandered up and down these hills and around the market gardens that surrounded our street and further out from it . The market gardener was Mr Centifanti who used a Clydesdale to work the land. It was a great place to be brought up and we walked or rode a bike everywhere."
Thanks Patricia, How times change.....$6,000 for the house and block package! And built by Vin Amadio