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This article was published in 1968-69
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An Autobiography
FRANK F. FORSTER, Retired Veterinary Inspector, 1909 to 1956.
"The first thing I would like to say is — I have enjoyed the life, every bit of it, immensely. Nothing could have suited me better in the way of a life-time occupation and I look back on a State-wide gang of good pals.
"I was born and went to school at Port Elizabeth, South Africa; my ancestry dates back to an ancient family from Lieuwarden, North Holland. When we came to Australia I took to the bush at once in pursuit of animal rearing work — the thought of which fascinated me and here was a country brim full of it. I got a job at 16 on Kikiamah Station near Young, owned by the Bank of N.S.W. where, I smile reflectively, I contributed, however slightly, to the proud slogan 'You Can Bank on the Wales'. The pay was nil and after six months I asked the Boss to see if the Bank Manager would agree to pay me a few bob as I had started to smoke a pipe and hoped to buy my own tobacco. The answer to that was: nothing doing — and that I was lucky I had not to pay a premium to get the job. To compensate, I was to be called 'mister' by the station hands. At the end of three years I got 15/- per week.
"I returned to South Africa in my early twenties, travelled the Provinces for 12 months and came back here. At this time the Sydney Technical College ran a two-year course in Veterinary Science, advertised as a means to pass the Government exam. for a job as Stock Inspector. I joined this immediately and doubled up with a course on Meat Inspection under James Douglas Stewart who later took charge of the new Veterinary School, Sydney University. For a bit extra I took on the class in Farriery with practical work at a shop in Liverpool Street just round the corner from George Street. In case anything was missing I got some coaching from Major Gribben, M.R.C.V.S., who ran a Veterinary Hospital in Elizabeth Street near Hunter Street where some of the skyscraper buildings are today.
"After all this preparation there was no trouble passing the examination and an appointment soon after. Nine of us out of 36 applicants got through. Old S. T. D. Symonds, then the Chief, sent for me and after asking did I know which side of a horse to get on, sent me to Tibooburra. Transfers from there after varying periods were to Holbrook, Gundagai, Goulburn and after a spell out of the Department, back to Tibooburra and finally Eden from where I was officially retired at 65 but retained in temporary command for a further seven years.
"I could not possibly say which post I preferred, they were so widely and attractively different. At Tibooburra it was chiefly border work examining Queensland cattle heading for Melbourne and Adelaide fat stock markets. What stuck to me from the start was a complete and absolute knowledge of the signs and symptoms of health so that, although I had never seen a case of Pleuro Pneumonia, I could spot a sick bullock before the boss drovers woke up to the fact that they could not get away with any tricks. Winter was the season of most traffic, feed was dry or absent in summer and watering places too far apart. Horses were loaned to me by the dozen from owners who had animals needing improvement by regular work - I could have told S. T. D. I now knew of several ways of getting off as well as on one. Visiting district properties was largely social stuff: the people were happy to see a caller, and the story was about right that you had to stay a couple of days or so before daring to suggest there might be any business attached to your visit.
"On my second term at Tibooburra I explored the far corners of the three States and amassed a fossil collection which astonished the natives. A visiting palaeontologist said it was the best private collection seen. The field out there is Cretaceous marine and Jurassic plant life. Some Metropolitan Museums were happy to make swaps with me. On Lake Callabonna in South Australia I found the skeletons of three Diprotodonts which I was not prepared in any way to remove.
"There are a number of flowing artesian bores stretching for some hundreds of miles due east and west from Bourke, New South Wales, to the Flinders Range, South Australia, wastefully pouring precious water for well over half a century. Slackening of flow, if any, is due to diminished diameter of the 5-inch casing by rock-forming sediment, not lost supply. It is curious to reflect on the disappointment of the early explorers looking for water when they were actually walking over the top of an inexhaustible supply. It could be there is an artesian reservoir, the size and volume of the Mediterranean Sea under this continent ready for the widest development dreams. The most excellent vegetables have come from Tom Shine's Lake Pure Station garden in west Queensland not many miles south of Birdsville and one glance at a town like Winton gives an idea of the transformation by bore water.
"The move to the Hume Pastures Protection District was a total change indeed. I followed Bob Dawson, a magnificent specimen of old manhood; he must have weighed 15 stone, had a snow-whíte jutting beard and a beautiful florid complexion.
"The bulk of the country was well settled except for the Snowy Mountains eastern end. Properties were almost all in the hands of descendants of the original squatters — there were the Tosses, McLaurens, Herriots, Balfours, McMeckins, Mitchells and so on. The Mountain end was used in summer as relief for Riverina drought-stricken sheep and Archie Rial was king of the business. He had his own staff of drovers who met the stock trains at Wagga, drove the sheep via Tumbarumba and shepherded them on top until the threat of snow started the journey back home in hopes the plains were refurnished with winter feed. For this undertaking Archie collected two shillings and six pence per head for all returned. One year of big drought brought the total to £11,000.
"I changed over here from horse to motor transport and rode motor bikes for five years to get around. It was at this stage that Arthur Luca and his Pastures Protection Secretary laid the foundation of the Stock Inspectors' Institute, At Holbrook I had my initiation at Land Court work. There was always opposition needed to applications for alienation of parts of Travelling Stock Reserves and it was important here to preserve facilities for travelling sheep from drought areas to get to the snow lease relief country.
"My transfer to Gundagai was not marked by much change, the districts adjoined but the town was on the beautiful Murrumbidgee River. Inspector McPherson and I got Departmental consent to exchange. Mac had served in the army and was unable to settle to the old way of life and surroundings. My first job was to arrange the purchase by the Pastures Protection Board of a combined house for the Stock Inspector and office for the Board. It was a good show and very cheap.
"Dr. Dodd came to the District on his early investigation on Black Disease in sheep and I did the inoculating. In later work in another area heavy loss occurred following treatment which was thought to have worried the doctor into a state of ill-health. Sir Ian Clunies-Ross was also a caller in need of some spade-work help. We put the fear of Ross into the slaughteryard dogs as we watched their response to doses of arecoline hydrobromide for inspiration in the preparation of the treatise on The Incidence of Hydatids in Man and Animals, which gained a D.V.Sc. for Ross, the author.
"I could always draw faces and figures of people and used it purely for fun. Dad Elworthy ran a Gundagai paper and urged me to do some cartoons for him. A favourite subject of mine was Charles Fraser, Chairman of my Board, a solicitor by profession, and in every activity moving. He was a natural for me and showed no resentment.
"Long service leave came due and was spent at Coogee. Lectures and demonstration at the Veterinary School, Sydney University, occupied some spare time as a sort of refresher course and later influenced my selection for the more important district of Goulburn.
"All this time I was an active member of the Institute and regular at meetings. The miserable salary paid the Chief of this highly important Department was a disgrace to the Government, and surely influenced his attitude to our status. I was nominated President in contest with Faulkiner and resulted in a tied vote. Two slips, one marked President, were put in a hat and Faulkiner as senior had first dip and drew the blank. My line of action from the start was to go for legal representation to the Arbitration Court. I appeared for our members for nine years before this Court. We were opposed by two Pastures Protection Board representatives and one, for the Department. It was a two-to-one fight against us all the time and although we made no spectacular gains we never lost a step: including the application about 1930 depression for a salary cut of 20 per cent or wipe the lot of us out if we did not agree, as one delegate from the Pastures Protection Board said in Court. We could not make headway on any Superannuation although we stressed we were security officers in Australia's number one industry - the Pastoral Industry. A paltry contribution scheme was set up a few years before I was 65 and continued over the remaining seven years of my service as an acting inspector. This meant when I finally went out I collected £738, half of which was my own contribution.
"One delight that came my way at Gundagai was regular visits to Darbalara. I never tired at walking among those magnificent Milking Shorthorn cattle, bred and reared by J. T. Cole, an outstanding member of the few great men gifted with that uncanny intuition for selective breeding or livestock. If a $100 note is ever printed the picture of the cow, Melba XV should be on it.
"Goulburn was a non-stop proposition, the biggest store stock market anywhere — sheep and still more sheep endlessly, with cattle in plenty. It was a good town, a small district with less travelling and back home every night. I was not left alone to enjoy this for too long. A summons from the Department came along to attend the Tribunal in Sydney for the appointment and dismissal of Stock Inspectors, to answer charges of attempting to influence an election of a Pastures Protection Board director, and lack of co-operation with the Police force. This looked serious so I engaged a barrister and solicitor. The Institute stood the cost, and a director of Goulburn Board, L. T. Watson, joined us for moral and material support. We lined up before the Under Secretary for the Department of Agriculture, George Ross, Sid Smith, Branch Secretary, and Max Henry. Two men from Gundagai complained that I had written a letter to a Gundagai man, suggesting that a quick change of several Stock Inspectors in their District since I left was due to activities of one of them, which my friend had read at a Public Meeting. I acknowledged writing the letter but purely as private correspondence and gave no authority to disclose its contents in public — that disposed of one charge.
"J. J. Watson, Registrar of Brands, appeared to act for the Police and detailed a case where an officer described as the Police Department Stock Expert prosecuted a Goulburn man for an infringement of earmarking. The Magistrate, after hearing me, described it as a technical offence but so trifling that it should have been adjusted without coming to the Court and fined the defendant 5/- so the case against me fizzled. An extraordinary thing happened here — within a fortnight following this inquiry both informants died suddenly.
"After about 12 years at Goulburn, the longest stay in any one place in my life, I got uncontrollably restless and as there was no other possible move in the Department I packed up and joined the staff of Country Life newspaper as artist and general useful, travelling the whole State, all expenses paid and a fair salary. The procedure on arrival at any town was to look up the Stock and Station Agents, perhaps use a back room where local celebrities would be brought in to be sketched. Others would bring in the beer and when I had finished a few pictures there would be more beer. At a visit to Grafton during their July race week I drew about everyone around from the President of the Club to the cook at the Pub.
"At Agricultural Shows and various functions I was often offered a few bob to do a sketch of The Missus - this I declined, not because there was no beer attached to the offer, but women, especially country women, did not see anything funny about my performance.
"I eventually realised that this life could not last. I was no good at selling subscriptions, steadily going more and more broke, so we parted company. After a short spell at unemployment I went back, cap in hand and asked Max Henry for a job again. He smiled on me, for which I was very thankful, so I ended up several years at Tibooburra once more, then to Eden with its lovely Bega Valley of rolling farmland."