Thelma Joyce Roser

  Noted events in her life were:

• note. ³⁷³ Rosy Manton notes:
She lives at Moonbi
Thelma is the 2nd youngest & only living child of John Wm Roser, who is affectionately known by the Tamworth Roser family, as "Winton Bill". John Wm was known by this name to distinguish him from his 1st cousin William Alfred John Roser who they called "Campbeltown Bill". Thelma said that her parents were renting a property of Chaffey's that was well set up with a dairy & had plenty of water on it with the opportunity to buy it but her father chose to leave that & go to the 100 acres they called "Rosedale" that had nothing on it. No water or buildings.
The first job was to build a dairy & in the meantime the family lived under sheets of iron & slept on bags! What an experience to endure with a family. While Thelma cannot remember this she thinks she was probably born at this time. To attend school they walked 3 ½ miles through the properties in a direct line to Bective Soldiers Settlement School. Around the farm they went barefoot but they had shoes to wear to school. After her father died it was difficult but they provided all their own food, like milk, cream, eggs, meat, fruit & vegetables like most farms did in those days. Her brothers would work off the farm to earn extra money for the family too as 100 acres was not enough to provide for the 9 living children.
Her father had also worked on properties in the area of Tamworth. Sometimes he would come home each night but then at times the work was further away & he would be away for extended times. I am not sure how the cream went into Tamworth each day, but if there was another dairy in the area there may have been more & it was collected.
On the farm there were flats that they would grow grain for the dairy cattle. Three large dams were built to have water for some irrigation of these flats even though there was a creek, but it only ran spasmodically. On the eastern & western sides of "Rosedale" the properties were owned by Chaffey's - Albert on the eastern side & Walter on the west. At the back of the property Cob
Atkinson who was the son of John lived over the back of the Hill. Access to their property was through the front property although there is no evidence today where this access was. The property extended further to the west & south than can be seen from Old Winton Road.

Thelma married Neville Allan Jones in 1950.³⁷³ (Neville Allan Jones was born in 1928 and died on 28 Mar 2014 ³⁷³.)