1910-1991
Father
Mother
Siblings
David Anthony, Norman Arnold, Florence Edith, Charles Oliver, Harriet Irene, Rebecca Ella, Benjamin Albert, Joseph Orlando, Lillian Ann, Miller Adele, Grace Iris
Married
Children
Norman John , Clifford George, Ronald Edward, Kenneth William, June Elsie, Gordon Bruce.
Thelma’s Life
Thelma was born at Loomvale on 12 October 1910, she was the sixth of 11 children. She lived on Loomvale with her family in a quaint pisé house (made of mud). The floors were compressed dirt, the walls of mud with a corrugated roof. As the family expanded, a tent was erected outside. This became the girls’ bedroom.
She started school at the Burra Burra school and would walk the three miles with her brothers and sisters. When Burra Burra closed the Doust children moved to the Kelvin Grove school which was a little further down the track.
Thelma married John Samuel Strudwick (Jack) in 1931 and started their family. They would often camp out in tents when Jack’s contracting worked demanded it.
In the late 1930’s Thelma and Jack purchased ‘Slapdown” Fifield and it was to become their family home.
Thelma established a lovely garden at Slapdown in similar design to that of her mother-in-law Bedelia, little diamond shaped beds of roses with paths for the kids to tear around and lush lawns.
She was a hardworking rural women looking after the needs of her husband and children to ensure the wellbeing and prosperity of the family. Her cooking and hospitality was divine. Slapdown was legendary for hosting Christmas lunch where family, friends and pretty much the population of Fifield would sit down to a hot baked Christmas meal.
Thelma had the most amazing collection of poultry – hens, turkeys, geese. Although her geese were frightful, if we the grandchildren, disobediently ventured over the fence and towards the dam the vicious things would round us up and send us back home!
Slapdown also boasted several cages of birds on the verandah, a huge source of entertainment to kids who would poke their fingers in the wire netting daring to birds to bite said fingers and squealing wildly when they did.
Sadly Jack died in 1959, a huge loss for the family. However Thelma continued to look to the needs of her family who loved and respected her.
The best thing about Slapdown was being out there for dinner, enjoying Thelma’s fine cooking and homely kitchen and of drifting off to sleep in the big red lounge chairs hearing the comforting tones of adults as they talked into the night.
I remember Thelma (my grandmother) as a kind and gentle women who nurtured and nourished her family.
Authored by Leah Burnheim