As a teacher for twenty nine years I can look back at incidences that occurred during my career. In my second year of training I was at a very tough Brunswick technical school in inner Melbourne. It was in an era, thankfully long gone, where troublesome students were punished by getting the strap as a deterrent for bad behavior. Never worked. I had an advantage over other male teachers as I was a member of the State Basketball Team for four consecutive years and had the same standing of say an AFL player being a teacher with the relevance to follow.

My father, James E. Conway came to the Mallee about the beginning of the 1900's and bought a block of land 7 miles north of Ultima, a place called "Gowan" in later years called "Gowanford." 

The farm had to be cleared of Mallee trees before being able to sow the wheat and oats. The oats were cut for horse feed. The chaff cutter had a horse powered machine. Water for the stock had to be carted from Swan Hill in tanks with wagon and horses.

My father, Thomas Charles Sutton, (the sixth child of the family) drove with their worldly possessions, in a wagon drawn by two horses; and a few other animals - horses, a couple of cows and dogs; from Mallala in South Australia to land selected between Ultima and Waitchie.