My grandmother Ethel Jane Pusell had a new house in which to raise her family. When my grandfather, Frank Duncan, returned from the WWI he was able, through the Soldiers Settlement Scheme, to gain a grant of Crown land on which he built a house for his bride, Ethel.
In this first photo from the 1920s Ethel is pictured with one of the five daughters she had with Frank. I think it may be my mother.
The 32,000 acres of land on which the simple timber house was built on the property "Elsinore" was 40 miles west of Cobar NSW. In 2010 this is a remote area, nearly 90 years ago it was extremely remote. Cobar, the nearest town, was a long carriage ride over rutted, red, dusty roads. Sydney and the coast was 700 km away. Life was tough, there were droughts, bushfires and loneliness.
My grandmother never complained about her lot in life; the stories she told of her early life were laced with the good humour with which she would have faced life at "Elsinore".
This post was prepared for: Smile for the Camera, 21st Edition -Give Their Face A Place - Women's History Month
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