Individual Details

These notes titled: Ninety Years in Geelong and Western District were written on the occasion of the celebration of Mr Henry Alford's 90th Birthday on 29th January 1935. (This despite the fact that his baptism record shows him being born in June 1844 at Barrabool Hills and being baptised 8 August 1848.) NINETY YEARS IN GEELONG AND WESTERN DISTRICT Mr Henry Alford, Inverleigh, celebrated his birthday today, 29th January 1935. Rows of tents in street formation, a butchers shop built from bark and a lake in Kardinia Park covered with swans and ducks. These are some of the early memories of Geelong recalled by Mr Henry Alford of Inverleigh who celebrated his 90th birthday today. Mr Alford was born at Ceres from where is people later moved to the Modewarre district. Then some 60 years ago [ circa 1870] they went to live on the Geelong side of Inverleigh, close to the township. Since that time Mr Alford has spent the whole of his life in the Western District. For four years when only a boy [young man] he was in the Camperdown District driving bullocks. He followed on for a similar period in charge of a bullock team that transported a threshing machine from farm to farm. Some seventeen years were spent at Strathvean, some 4 miles on the western side of Cressy. He returned from there to the the Inverleigh district nearly 40 years ago [circa 1890]. In that district he spent many years working on the Barunah and Mt Hesse stations. In the days of the gold boom, Mr Alford with his father, carted goods from Geelong to Ballarat. A ton load was all that could be drawn at a time, and the payment for that was 80 to 90 pounds per load [sic ???]. There was no Barwon Bridge in those days. The river had to be crossed on a punt and in all the lengthy stretch of country from Inverleigh to Coleraine there were no fences. Quantities of spirits almost invariably formed part of the loads from Geelong to Ballarat, and it was a regular occurence for the consignees of the spirits to give carriers a five gallon cask of rum so that there would be no inducement for them to broach the cargo whist on the journey. Mr Alford recalls that on one occassion he and his father desired to cross the Barwon River at Pollocksford. The river was in flood so his father tied him in the small wagon and droove the six bullocks drawing it into the stream. After an exciting time the animals landed them safely on the opposite bank. Four of the years spent at Strathvean came prominently into the mind of Mr Alford. His horse died and he could not get another, he walked the four miles morning and night for six days of the week from his home in Cressy to his place of employment. The cartage of wool from the stations to the wool stores was another vivid recollection. At Strathvean he used fourteen bullocks for the purpose, and he was proud to recall that everyone of the animals used was broken in by himself. At a later stage in life when horses were in use he took the largest load of wool that had left Barunah, it numbered fourty-nine bales. Two thrilling trips which Mr Alford had from Barunah to Lorne forms an interesting contrast with a journey to that resort today. Now in the motor age the trip can be made in two hours [ sic - 1935 remember] without adventure, but it used to take Mr Alford two days to do the trip with the best team of horses it was possible to have. One of the two trips that impressed itself indelibly on his mind was made just prior to a Christmas. Fires were raging in the bush and he spent many anxious hours negotiating his team through that peril which had been added to the treacherous roads. So adventurous was the trip that for practically all of that part through the forest country the brake was seldom off the wheels. It was also fire that made another trip so memorable. Some two miles on the Lorne side of Deans Marsh he encountered terrific fires, the sparks from which alighted on his horses. So great was the danger that for the night he did not entertain the thought of going to bed but remained on guard over his team and his wagon. Although Mr Alford has not had an over adventurous life, it has been a strenuous one, particularly in the early days, and he was one of that fast dwindling band of pioneers whose story of Victoria's early history provides in this, the centenary year of the state [sic ?? date] , food for thought on the great progress that has been made. From papers in the collection of Mrs Walter Bath, nee Ann Wilson, Hendy Main Road, Mt Moriac.

Birth	6 Aug 1848	Ceres, New South Wales, Australian Colonies
Baptism	8 Aug 1848	Geelong, New South Wales, Australian Colonies
Marriage	1870	Alice Ann GRAY
Marriage	1875	Colac, Victoria, Australia - Elizabeth Maud "Eliza" NORFIELD
Death	16 Aug 1938	Inverleigh, Victoria, Australia
Burial		Inverleigh Cemetery, Victoria, Australia
Alt name		Henry ALFORD

Spouse	Elizabeth Maud "Eliza" NORFIELD (1857 - 1940)
Child	William Henry ALFORD (1875 - 1943)
Child	James ALFORD (1878 - 1943)
Child	Henry J "Harry" ALFORD (1881 - 1957)
Child	Mary Jane ALFORD (1883 - 1958)
Child	Harriet Elizabeth ALFORD (1886 - 1972)
Child	John ALFORD (1888 - 1970)
Child	Zella ALFORD (1890 - 1967)
Child	Fredrick ALFORD (1894 - 1917)
Child	Isaac ALFORD (1897 - 1935)

Spouse	Alice Ann GRAY (1850 - 1871)
Child	Emma Emily Jane ALFORD (1871 - 1946)
Child	John Henry ALFORD (1871 - 1871)

Father	Jonathon "John" ALFORD (1816 - 1888)
Mother	Jane SHEPHARD (1804 - 1882)
Sibling	Sarah ELFORD (1839 - 1879)
Sibling	Henry ALFORD (1844 - 1844)
Sibling	James ELFORD (1851 - 1912)

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