Town Talk | Australia Day debate sparks community feedback and historical family stories

I was very interested in reading this newspaper’s detailed report on the council’s review of the Australia Day decision.

When I met with Cr Anthony Brophy last year, he was very much in favour of the change. However, following feedback he received, he requested a review. Cr Brophy is obviously a man prepared to say, ‘I may have been wrong’. We don’t see this very often from people representing us, and I admire his honesty with himself and the community.

Just a brief rundown on the outcome, in case you missed it.

Crs Brophy, Dobson, and Sali were the only councillors to vote to enable each community to hold the event on any day they wanted, including January 26. Cr Geoff Dobson said the community’s response to the council’s current decision had been ‘largely negative’. He suggested this was not an issue for local government.

City of Greater Shepparton Mayor Shane Sali said he wanted each community to have funding to do what they wanted to do, and whoever wanted to attend could.

I now read that the Yorta Yorta people, represented by Neil Morris, are not happy that this topic came up for review. They no longer feel supported.

An extensive Roy Morgan survey was conducted around Australia in 2023; it found that two-thirds of Australians wanted the day left unchanged. This could have been one of the reasons the Prime Minister has, so far, left the date as it is. Naturally, he wants to be re-elected next year.

Some councils did their own surveys, and this certainly supports a decision. Australians accept election and referendum decisions. In this case, they would say ‘fair enough’ whatever the outcome. As things are, our community remains unhappily divided and unconvinced, despite the best efforts of Crs Brophy, Dobson and our Mayor.

The Pinner family

For some years now, Beverley Turvey has been wanting to share some of her memories. She was born on March 16, 1938, and had many photos and a great deal of documentation about her Pinner family.

Originally, she met with people at our Heritage Centre; that was in 2017. They have kept, for posterity, all her material. This month she contacted this newspaper and her details were sent to Town Talk. I called her and reassured her that her memories would be shared with our readers. I made a promise.

This is what Town Talk is really about, giving a voice to anyone in our region who wants to share — be it an opinion, memories, photos or a particular story.

Please be aware that there was another Pinner family, with some of the same first names, in Shepparton. Working with Kristy Rudd from the museum, we have done our best to sort it through.

This is her story — as Bev remembers it.

Beverley is a member of the Pinner family, and she likes to chat about her grandfather, George. He arrived in Shepparton around 1880, just into his teenage years and quickly became a water carrier. He was an industrious lad and keen to get ahead. He worked in Western Australia as a contractor for some years and then returned to Shepp around the turn of the 20th century.

He built a beautiful brick home on Knight St, and Bev remembers him watering his pansies. She says the garden was beautiful. George became involved in several successful businesses. These included the chaff works, which he bought from Mr George Howard, a butchering and baking business, road and channel contracting, and a fruit and vegetable mart on Fryers St. The latter was successful until the years of the Depression.

His family agrees that he was a hard-working and successful businessman who was good at making money. However, they believe he would have kept more of it if he had been less lenient with his debtors, especially during the Depression. He passed away in 1944, leaving nine children — Myrtle, Dorothy, Allen, Hilda, Eric, Joyce, Stanley, Marjorie and June, who married John Pick Jr.

Beverley’s home was in Sobraon St, near the railway station. Bev says that her mother was an adventurous woman who liked to swim in the tank used for the railway. One day, she was almost caught and had to hang on to the side of the tank as it was filled.

There were, in fact, two family-owned fruit and veg markets. The second one, belonging to Bev’s aunt and uncle, was ‘Robinson’s’ and was fancied by Bev because they sold ice-cream blocks that were dipped in melted chocolate. She says, “I can still see her, out the back, dipping them. Everybody loved them”.

Bev’s mother, Hilda Pinner, married Bill Ashford when Bev was nine years old.

When Bev left school, she was illiterate, but with perseverance, she taught herself to read and write, and since then, she has documented much of her family’s history. She married Jack Turvey in 1956. It was a long and happy marriage, despite “the normal ups and downs”, producing three children.

In 1994, Bev was involved in a nasty car accident; she found herself hanging upside down from the roof of her car, suspended by her seat belt. This resulted in some brain damage to the frontal lobe. After 12 months of severe pain, successful surgery eased the situation.

Beverley is convinced that today’s young folk don’t have as much fun as her generation did. She says that they always had plans for what to do at the weekends or after school. When I said that life is easier, in many respects, she agreed – but doubts that people are as happy as they were in the past.

Bev is upset with the Federal Government, which, she says, is making it difficult for people to stay in their own homes. There are many levels of packages available, but the system is confusing. She has a couple living with her but needs to cover all the costs of the household, including food. This isn’t easy on a pension.

Our chat took some time to organise as Bev now lives in Kyabram and is unable to drive, while I am only now able to leave my hubby with another company.

I thank Bev for sharing her memories, and I hope that this story has satisfied her — for now, at least.

I’m aware that this page has been very earnest for a couple of weeks — taking itself seriously. Anzac Day needed to be treated with respect, and I attempted to do that.

However, other things have been happening that I’ve found interesting.

An octopus

For example, did you happen to see the news report about an Australian female diver and an octopus? I have attempted to verify this story, and it is legitimate. At least, it was being treated seriously by the news outlets. But it is — without doubt — the strangest thing I have ever seen.

The woman was underwater; the report doesn’t say where this took place. She saw an octopus coming towards her. She had encountered the creature previously. It took her hand, pulling her forward. It moved along, looking back to make sure she was following. Then, it stopped beside a broken shrine, which included a photo of a man and a dog. It looked to me as if the shrine had been on the shore and, at some point, fallen into the ocean.

She had footage of the entire incident, which you will find if you search Google for information about a diver and an octopus.

A dog

And this short story is connected weirdly.

There is a dog called Bunny who was originally given a couple of tiles. He could put his paw on one if he were hungry — or the other if he was thirsty. Now, his space in the home is surrounded by dozens of tiles, and he communicates in ways you would not expect. In one instance, he indicated he was ‘bored’. When asked what he wanted to do, he said ‘Grandad’. So, they took him to see Grandad. A few minutes after arriving home, he asked to see ‘Grandma’.

Quite recently, he asked, ‘Why man? Why a dog?’ If, as it appears, Bunny is asking why he is a dog, we are in deep water here. Even The Boss’s Dog doesn’t ask such head-scratching questions.

Here is a link if you want to follow it: https://youtube.com/@whataboutbunny?si=7aSKXdTxoFI3MMzq

When I told my husband these two stories, he said, ‘We think we are smart, but we don’t know anything’. That is true enough, and it doesn’t hurt to remind ourselves occasionally.

“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy” (Hamlet)

Take care and have fun, if you can find any — and may it be easy, my friends.

Marnie

Email: towntalk@sheppnews.com.au

Letter: Town Talk. The News. P.O. Box 204. Shepparton 3631.

Phone: Send a text to 0418 962 507. (Note: text only. I will call you back if you wish.)