Last
update July 2009 Created by Tony Maple: imlac2005@grapevine.com.au
A glimpse of life at Hillside
Lila
May Maple was born at Hillside on 8
August 1910. She married Garnet
Bowyer on 18 Nov 1932 and continued to farm in the Yankalilla district. Their eldest son, Lionel Bowyer, later
purchased Hillside on 12 May 1961 and farmed there until the 1970s. Lila
recorded much information on the early Maples.
The
Bowyer family reside at Normanville near Yankalilla and are some of the last
of Thomas Maple’s descendants residing in the area. Lila and Garnet are
now buried side-by-side in the Yankalilla Public Cemetery.
Una Olive May Tonkin
John Robert Maple at
Hillside c.1912,
Memories of Olive Maple: 1979. “After
her marriage to Robert Maple, she lived on the property at Hay Flat known as Hillside which was once owned by Capt.
Field who built the lovely two-storey house from bricks brought from England.
Here they kept sheep and dairy cows so she continued with the milking and
butter-making. The butter and farm produce was collected weekly by a Mr. Lewis
with his van and taken to Adelaide to be sold. Olive led a very busy life, as
six of her ten children were born at Hillside. Times were hard and each year her husband went away shearing on the
northern stations. While he was away, she coped with the farm and the young
family. She would walk across the hill to a neighbour's place to meet the
grocery van to purchase supplies, On Sundays the family would walk to
Parkfield ("Little Brickie") church.
A few years later, she, with her
husband and family, moved to the property known as Parkfield where they carried on with mixed
farming. In 1936 they sold that farm and purchased another in the Strathalbyn
district, In 1944 her husband died and she carried on the farm with the help
of her son, Len, until six years ago when she decided to retire. Now living
with Len and his wife Susie - still at Strathalbyn - she enjoys reasonably
good health and spends most of her time tending her pot plants, reading and
knitting for her many great-grandchildren. It is her belief that hard work is
the secret to a long life and happiness.”
Allan. Sid, Walt, and Ted Maple at Hillside