The Australian Women's Register

3 sound cassettes (ca. 195 min.) Carr, farmer, speaks of her birth on the land in Hay, N.S.W. while her father was away with the sheep, her education by tutors and governess unless there was a drought when they moved with their father to agistment area such as Albury, use of agistment a great deal such as access to rail transport, how the household was managed and food used, storage and cooking, how the water supply was managed domestically and for stock, the daily routine prior to World War I, the working hours and conditions of station hands, the conditions of Western Land leases, the state of pasture and timber, how they maintained their health, church services, mail and newspaper supply, how in 1928 there were drought-breaking rain but the sheep died because of grass not seen before, dengue fever and mosquitos, how rabbit plagues began in the 1930s, social life such as visiting, picnic races, balls, rabbit trappers and tramps during the Depression, how father died in 1931. Carr speaks of her marriage in 1933 to John Carr of Moolbong, mother died in 1937, how John died accidently in 1942 leaving her with two children while they were living in the Hillston district, explains wartime property management as a widow with the use of a Land Army girl to assist, the education of her children, describes the history of that property ‘Wilga’ and the maintenance of the bores, stocking rates and pasture improvement, the motive for irrigation, how they learnt sheep management, changes in large land ownership from prior to World War II to a smaller household properties, coping with soil deficiencies, tree and pasture growth, the formation of the Western Lessees Association in the 1920s and the agitation to extend leases beyond 1943 and promoted the idea of a large ‘living area’, government responses to this idea, mouse plagues.