James Chester Draper provides an evocative account of his professional and personal life in the Mallee region during the interwar period, detailing his experiences as a member of the Mounted Police and his involvement in local community organizations. His narrative captures the harsh realities of rural life during the Great Depression, including severe drought, agricultural instability, and the transient nature of itinerant workers, while reflecting on the social fabric of settlements such as Woomelang.
We were not always very busy at Woomelang and I put in a tender for thirty pounds for the old school teacher’s residence and got it. Alan Jones and I and a few more got to work with the material and built a Scout Hall. It took about two years to complete. The site was owned by a hospital committee and I got it for five pounds.
In Woomelang the wheat stacks extended along the railway line for about a quarter of a mile. They were about 30 bags high and extended back about a hundred yards. Each bag of wheat was carried from farmer’s wagons to the stack and later loaded onto railway trucks. When wheat was being loaded out was the occasion for more wheat stealing, if the owner of the wheat was not wide awake. Some times there would be a feud and wheat stacks would be slashed and, if not patched up quickly, the stack would fall.
The Church of England Parish was about 80 miles from North to South. The Vicar was Rev. Mourell. He lived in a galvanized iron hut at Tempy. It had two stretchers, one for him and one for the Bishop. He would visit the many little schools in the District. He carried an axe and cut a bit of wood for women on their own. He had a small choir of school boys at Woomelang. We would go to Hopetoun to the Masonic Lodge. I had joined at Numurkah.
Ern Ackland would also go with us. Mr. Mourell found sick people at times and carted them off to St Arnaud Hospital. Our Doctor came from Birchip – over 30 miles, so people out on the farms seldom saw him.
With the continued drought[1] people were very poor and could apply to go under a Debt Adjustment Act[2], which meant they would only pay six pence in the pound on their debts. This was a disaster to store-keepers and other suppliers. I met farmers at Gama who had planted wheat six times without getting a crop. One night I got a phone call from a farmer at Gama East saying a woman school teacher boarding with him had not arrived home. He had suggested to her to cut across the sand hills instead of following the road, thus saving a few miles. I told him to drive to the school with car lights on. I then rang his neighbours to do the same. I found her very quickly without leaving the Police station.
We bought our first car, a 10 HP Ford 1934 model from Dawson’s at Rainbow. It was a wonderful car and would 55 miles to the gallon going to Melbourne. The cost of a whole holiday would be less than the train fare to Melbourne.
I took Woomelang Scouts to the Frankston Jamboree[3], probably the best Jamboree ever held in Australia. Baden-Powell and his family were there, and BP said, “It was the best holiday he had ever had”. Only one of the Woomelang Scouts had been in a train before. We travelled in a special train from Mildura and we got to Melbourne suburbs at daylight. The boys were dumb-founded at the housing and density of living after the Mallee.
We, the Mounted Police, were called in for a refresher course before a Royal Visit. There were 120 of us drilling in Albert Park. At a smoko, I left Robin with our section and went to see someone in another lot. I felt a tug on my back. Robin had come and found me. He had been a drover’s horse before he became a Police Horse.
After Cathie[4] finished her training she was a High School teacher, first at Kyabram then at Mildura. She married Arthur brown at Mildura. The Browns were bakers. Arthur decided to go farming and selected a block at Nulkuyne, 16 miles north of Ouyen. However they struck droughts and had to cart water from Wymlet Government Dam. They had two tanks on the wagon and at the dam - give the horses a drink, fill the tanks and start back. It was heavy going in the sand and if they got stuck they would give the horses the water, camp the night and return to the dam. If they reached home, the animals got a drink and they went back to the dam next morning. They did this exercise for two years before they gave up and went to Jeparit baking. Arthur said, “he left while he had some money left”.
He had a very big thoroughbred gelding in the team. This horse that he called Jimmy, had won the Mildura Cup three times. I visited them. Arthur said, “Do you think you could ride Jimmy for the mail”. I said, “Yes” as I thought I could ride any horse. He gave directions. I gathered the reins and Jimmy bolted. I saw the barb wire Mallee gate ahead and thought of a bad spill, but Jimmy pulled up. I went through the gate and away he went again and stopped at the next gate at the road. I mounted again and five miles down the road stopped at Bill Curran’s, the Post Office. I got the mail and was back in no time. Arthur said, “Aren’t you going for the mail?” I said, “I’ve been”. He said “How”. I said “Flew”. He said, “Did you hold him in?” I said, “I tried to”. He said, “Jimmy thought you were racing, you should have ridden with a loose rein”.
The farmers helped one another and put a lot of horses on to a big roller to knock down the scrub and clear the land. If the roller stopped against a big tree, the horses might be thrown down or the pole would break. The men would cut the tree in front of the roller and away they’d go again. There were small plains with no trees. These plains had sea-shells around the edge. Apparently the sea had been over them at some time. Arthur grew some wheat each year, on account of the ground being new. The rolled scrub was burnt off and crop sown. The Mallee shoots among the crop had to be cut before the wheat was stripped. On Sunday everyone played football and twelve or upwards was a team. A player or two could be loaned.
In 1939 I took Woomelang Scouts to Bradfield Jamboree in New South Wales. Again we went by special train. Our tents etc. were carted to our site and we set to work. The Ridge where the camp was looked bare and then, in what seemed like a minute, it was covered in tents.
We had a tornado one night at Woomelang. The storm was so noisy we did not hear a pepper tree fall on the back verandah. The verandah was knocked down and the doors would not open properly. There were twenty-six chimneys blown over in Woomelang, and scrub knocked as if it was rolled. The street lamps were put out of action. We were five and a half years at Woomelang. As we left we got bogged in the sand between Watchupga and Wycheproof. I remember saying “Why did we stay there so long”. Beat Drove. I pushed. We got out. I broke the window in the back door.
We thought Heyfield was paradise. Plenty of water. At Woomelang water came to the town dam once a year. The water took a lot of getting there. Contractors scooped out the channels and the wind filled them in. If a channel was done and not passed by the Commission, the contractor would have to do it again, but if it had been passed he’d be paid the second time. At the end of the summer the town dam was down to mud. People who had no house tanks had to drink it. We had two spare tanks at the Court House, so didn’t use the mud. The tank water was handy to give water to others. We always filled the tank for the Baby Health Caravan.
There were railway detectives trying to keep the bagmen from the goods trains. One day on my way home, I saw a train stopped a long time. I was told by the two detectives, they had wired Ballarat to say that together with me they could not shift the bagmen[5]. I told them to get out of the road. I started to get the men off the train when the two and the Station Master rushed up with guns in their hands. There were about seventy bagmen. They chased the detectives and Station Master and frightened them. They locked themselves in the Office. The bagmen threatened to burn the Office. The train went without them by backing down the line and rushing past the station. I was still with the mob. One said, “What would you do if we attacked you? You had no gun.” I said, “I knew you weren’t blokes like that.”
I went to the bakers and bought all the bread he had -3 and a half loaves. I gave it to the men. They were gone in the morning, no doubt on other goods trains. There was a bad report in the Herald saying Police used guns. The Chief Commissioner’s Office rang to say six Police were on their way. I rang the Inspector and they took a lot of convincing that help was not wanted.
Among the firms buying wheat at Woomelang was Schutt and Barrie[6]. Ralph Schutt was a Scout friend who went to the Hungarian Jamboree. His brother Arthur was quite young, but used to fly an aeroplane to Hopetoun when buying wheat. He would stay with us at Woomelang. Arthur had a crop dusting firm, and activities at Moorabin Airport later on. Ralph ran the Scouts at Sunshine, as well as working in the flour mill there. Elaine and Robert were born while we were at Woomelang, also Alan. Bruce was born at Heyfield.
[1] During the 1930s, Woomelang and the surrounding Mallee region experienced a severe and prolonged drought that persisted through the World War II era. This period was marked by extremely low rainfall, massive dust storms, and widespread crop failures. Local water shortages became so critical that water had to be transported into the district by train and truck. The agricultural crisis severely impacted livestock, forcing farmers to either feed their sheep directly on the failed crops or send them away due to the lack of feed. It was also during these difficult years that "Big Lizzie," a massive land-clearing machine, operated throughout the district. The severe environmental conditions of this decade, and the endurance required by early farmers to survive them, are extensively documented in the records of the Woomelang & District Historical Society.
[2] The Farmers Debts Adjustment Act 1935 (Vic) was a legislative response by the State of Victoria to the economic hardships faced by agricultural producers during the 1930s. The Act provided a legal mechanism for farmers to apply for a formal "adjustment" of their debts—whether secured or unsecured—which effectively suspended a creditor’s right to pursue legal action. Upon application, a "stay order" was issued, preventing any judicial or extra-judicial proceedings against the farmer’s property or assets. While the Act offered essential relief to farmers by providing breathing room to reorganize their finances, it also introduced significant complexities for executors and creditors. From a legal standpoint, the Act essentially stayed the enforcement of contracts, which could leave other parties, such as executors of estates, in a difficult position where they were unable to reclaim land or collect outstanding purchase moneys despite a buyer's default. The process involved meetings with creditors to agree on a debt adjustment plan; once confirmed by the Farmers’ Debts Adjustment Board, these plans became legally binding on all parties. Source: National Trustees Executors and Agency Co of Australasia Ltd v Dwyer (1940) 63 CLR 1, 24-25.
[3] The First Australian Pan-Pacific Scout Jamboree was held in Frankston, Victoria, from December 27, 1934, to January 13, 1935, serving as a major centerpiece of Victoria's Centenary celebrations. The event marked a significant historical milestone as the first international gathering of Scouts held outside of Europe, attracting approximately 12,000 participants from 18 different countries. Notably, it was the only Australian Jamboree personally attended by the movement's founder, Lord Robert Baden-Powell, who arrived in late 1934 specifically for the event and was assisted in his duties by Imperial Headquarters representative Colonel Glanville Walton. For contemporary reporting on the arrival of international contingents, see "Scouts Here for Jamboree," The Argus (Melbourne), 22 December 1934, p. 18.
[4] Cathie Draper (1901 to 1997), the author's older sister, spent her early childhood living with her aunt in North Fitzroy before returning to the family home at 'Barton Hill' in 1911. After furthering her education at Westleigh in Northcote, she was selected to attend the College of Domestic Economy (which later became the Emily McPherson College). She went on to work as a high school teacher in Kyabram and Mildura. In Mildura, she married Arthur Brown, a baker. Following a challenging and drought-stricken attempt at farming in Nulkuyne, the couple eventually relocated to Jeparit to resume the baking trade.
[5] The term "bagmen" was used interchangeably with "swagmen" during the Great Depression to describe itinerant workers traveling across Australia in search of employment. Evading railway fares by secretly boarding freight and goods trains was a widespread survival tactic, commonly referred to as "jumping the rattler". To navigate the rail network, many of these men carried a pocket-sized train timetable known colloquially as the "bagman's bible". Woomelang, situated on the main railway line to Mildura, was a known choke point where railway authorities would routinely halt trains to clear out destitute men attempting to reach the northern fruit-picking districts.
[6] Schutt & Barrie was established when Charles Ernest Barrie partnered with John Ralph Schutt to operate a chaff mill in West Footscray. The successful enterprise later expanded to include chaffcutters situated in a quarry across Geelong Road, an additional mill at Parwan, and a new flour mill built adjacent to the original Footscray site. The firm purchased wheat in Woomelang during the period J. C. Draper was stationed there.
