My father told us he was born in 1913 at Ouyen Hospital and after that lived in a tent on his father's farm at Boinka. The photo above is of grandpa on his farm. I had always wondered where that farm was but there were no clues in any family documents. So on a rainy day last winter I decided to search the Internet for any help.

In 1911 Mr & Mrs Leary arrived in Melbourne from Ireland. They had married in London on the way. Ater a short stay in Melbourne during which time Mr Leary worked on the cable trams, they came to Ultima at the invitation of Mr Herbert Cuttle Snr. Ater working for a period with Cuttle's Mallee Stores the Learys "Selected" a government block of land at Boinka (pronounced bow-in-ka), a locality between Ouyen and the South Australian border.