Jim was born in Sydney. His mother’s family were on the land. Five of her 6 brothers remained on the land. He gained his love of the land from spending many school holidays on his uncles’ farms. Unfortunately, Jim lost his mother when he was 9.
Jim has a brother Doug, who has retired to Harden and a sister Kay, an Archaeologist who lives in Manchester in England.
After completing his schooling at Barker College, he attended Wagga Agricultural College, now Charles Sturt University and graduated in 1957. He was a torch bearer for the ’56 Olympics while in Wagga. He took up a position with the Department of Agriculture. He became the district agronomist at Tumut moving to Harden to replace John Gunthorpe in 1964 at the Advisory Service which had been established in 1961, the 5th in the state and the only one still in operation.
Ian Pettit and Rob Mcleod had gone to Tumut to open the Show and were instrumental in Jim’s coming to Harden. Jim said that Kelvin Hart, Ben Stocks, Ian Baldry, Bill Hufton and Ted Dixon helped establish the Advisory Service in Harden.
“When I arrived in Harden the motel had just been built along with the swimming pool and they held greyhound meetings at Coddington Park. Over the years farming practices have changed around this area. From 1964 to 1990 the wheat yield has doubled. When I came to Harden only about 10% of land was under crops. There was a lot of rye grass. Now about 1/3rd of land is cultivated,” Jim said.
He remembered being driven around a paddock in an open Land Rover with Bill Hufton. He said, “We hit a huge rabbit burrow and I was thrown out onto a bed of saffron thistles. It wasn’t very comfortable sitting down for a day or two.”
Another time in his early days in Harden, Reg Stocks was driving Jim around. He was suffering from a compacted tooth. Reg said, “It is no good going to see Geoff Kruger, he has arthritis.” So he was taken to see Mr. Maloney, who quickly deadened his mouth and whipped out the tooth. Jim said, “I was out of there in no time. It is ironic because Geoff and I became very good friends, golfing buddies and members of an investment club with the late Robert West. I have been involved with the Kruger Trust, which was a legacy left to the twin towns by Geoff, for many years.”
Jim took part in a campaign to lessen the freight costs of wool to Sydney via rail. Jim said, “Around half a million bales from the state of NSW were sent to Victoria. The railway came to the party and the price dropped from $4.50 to $2.50 per bale and remained at that rate for nearly 20 years.
He said that he became a champion gate opener throughout the years. He said that it was interesting to note that 3 or 4 families in the area have now gone to the 3rd generation on the land. The Harden district has become a broad acre farming area, probably the closest one to Sydney time wise.
Jim retired 7 years ago and at that time had 65 clients.
Jim was a past president of Apex and is a life member. He joined Rotary in 1984, has been president a couple of times and was a Paul Harris Fellowship recipient. He was a director of the dairy factory which suffered when milk operations were centralized in Wagga. Jim said that Rusty Prosser’s operation is still the largest supplier to Riverina Milk.
Jim was the chairman of the railway centenary.
Jim met Rhana Jones a year after arriving in Harden. He said, “It took me a year to find her.”
Rhana was born in the Warraderry area between Grenfell and Goolagong. “Dad & Mum were on the land. Dad was a cousin to Arthur Jones at Beggan Beggan. I was an only child and my parents did not want me to go to boarding school, so we moved in near Grenfell for high school, my parents purchased a property on the Cowra Road,” Rhana said.
She remembered learning ballet, tap and Dutch clog dancing with an Austrian immigrant. She said it was a great opportunity. She once saw Margot Fonteyn dance. She said she and Jim (under sufferance) would attend the ballet and opera when they were married.
After attending Bathurst Teacher’s College, where she studied biology, she was appointed to Murrumburrah High School. She always had a strong sense of social justice and was known to stand up for others. Rhana also taught at Boorowa Central before she was married. Libby, the first of her two children, was 10 months when they moved in to their present house 46 years ago. James came along later. Rhana said she mainly did casual teaching after she had the children.
She also taught a course for women out of work at TAFE. She said she had always been interested in embroidery and quilting and studied for 3 years for an Advanced Certificate in commercial needlework. She remembers taking over from Jan Sharman at Trinity when she became ill. She said, “I had never taught Home Economics but I do remember having to master white sauce at home before going into school. It took quite a few attempts and I was petrified.”
She also remembered muck up days at the high school and being chased by a student with a goanna in his hands on one such day. She remembered teaching Art when Maggie Muirhead won a competition to design a logo for the Harden Shire Council. She said, “I wasn’t trained in Art but my mother was a beautiful artist.”
She told the story of how she was coming home from Galong after a day of casual teaching when she had a sudden feeling that James had been hit by a car after getting off the bus to go to the neighbours, Marj and Bob Beveridge. She hurried home scared of driving too fast, but compelled by the need to get home as soon as possible. Upon arriving at the neighbours, she found the children sitting up having afternoon tea. Bob then said, “We have something to tell you, James was hit by a car, but he is O.K.” Rhana said, “They offered me a scotch and I very nearly took them up on their offer.” There’s something to be said for female intuition!
Rhana was a scripture teacher for 25 years at MPS and the high school. She became a lay preacher with the Uniting Church in 2010, when she was 50. She was also accredited as a sacramental leader. After years of study, she became a Pastor. She said, “I felt that I was called, but I did not have the opportunity to do this until I was in my mid 40’s. I loved delving into the scriptures. I still love relating readings to present day relevance. I have always been a supporter of ecumenism,”
Rhana went on to relate a story of attending a function at Cootamundra with Jim, when she was approached by a ‘gentleman’ who said, “‘What’s God doing in Harden?’ At the time we had two women, Connie Gerrity and me as ministers and a Vietnamese priest. I put on my calmest, blandest expression and said, ‘Probably destroying a few prejudices’, I couldn’t wait to tell Father Tran and Connie Gerrity. I told that story at many a function and it always got a good laugh” Rhana said.
She said she would always remember her first funeral for the late Jack Price, when she was driving with the undertaker to the cemetery. When they were near the Commercial Hotel, now the Light Horse, the undertaker said, “‘Stop here.’ I said ‘we can’t stop here in the middle of the road with a long line of cars behind us.’ ‘Yes, we can,’ said the undertaker.”Upon stopping, out of the hotel came one of the patrons with a beer and a red rose in his hand. It had been prearranged by Jack that if he didn’t sit up and drink it, it was to be given to someone else. Lionel, Jack’s brother had the beer. Rhana said she was mortified but the undertaker said it was all in a day’s work.
During her ministry she has particularly enjoyed working with the aged at the nursing home, and the retirement village. Jim has been involved with St Lawrence since 1977 when it was in Galong and is still treasurer now that it is in Harden. He remembers helping to organise Casino nights to raise money.
Rhana will take her last official service as pastor this Sunday morning. She says that although she is retiring she will still take sacraments, weddings and funerals. In retirement she continues with her crafts and is currently completing a quilt for her granddaughter. She said she remembered helping children to complete a wall hanging for Pam Jamieson when she retired. She designs her own gift cards, loves music, art, and patchwork.
Jim says he enjoys golf, the stock market, being corporate secretary of Bendigo Bank, Rotary and his role with St Lawrence.
Jim and Rhana will have been married 50 years in 2016.
Libby and her husband, both teachers, live in South Australia. She is an accredited translator of Indonesian. Their son John begins university this year while Tom continues in high school. James and Alex live in Germany and they have 2 daughters, Ruby and Stella who are at school. James is a viticultural consultant and works with people all over the world via Skype.
Jim and Rhana enjoy living in Harden and say we have many interesting characters. They were amazed when a past resident, Geoff Bowman, lost his licence to drive his very large army truck, so he resorted to driving a ride-on mower as a means of transportation. Jim said that he would laugh with glee because the Police couldn’t nab him.
Jim sees Harden moving ahead. “It is in too good a spot not to grow. We will need to have more housing, development and services for the future,” he said. He is concerned about amalgamations and disenfranchisement. He says too many decisions about rural areas are made by those living in cities. He feels that if amalgamations are to occur, small shires need equal representation for it to be fair, and for them to maintain their own identity.
Jim and Rhana, you have both contributed to the local community and indeed continue to do so. Best wishes in your retirement. Thank you for being Local Legends.
