James Herbert Wilson

James Herbert Wilson ('Jim' to everyone save his mother; she called him Herbert) was born in 1872 in Collingwood, Melbourne.

The family had land in Kinglake in Murrindindi Shire, and in his early 20s Jim went there to grow potatoes so that he could earn some money to support the family back in Melbourne. While he was living up there in the little shack he built himself, his younger sister Jessie died of TB, and his brother Andrew moved to Perth to practice Architecture.

At the peak of the gold rush, in the 1890s, Jim followed him and they went to find gold in Kalgoorlie, but with no luck. .

He married Edith Olive Hall on 30 January 1904 in Perth and they lived in a rented house in Lyall Street, South Perth.

Rae writes: "I think after Jean and Gordon were born, he had a stroke of luck and won £100, whether on a horse or a lottery or a raffle I have no idea, but the result was that he was the owner of two blocks of land west of Subiaco. Andrew designed and supervised the building of the house" which was still there (although unrecognisable) in 2005.

In the middle of June of 1914 (shortly before the birth of he and Edith's 5th child, Murray) he bought a farm at Quairading (the block was Avon Location 8286) for which he paid £1,000. This was a forfeited block of 1000 acres, consisting of 600 acres of first-class forest land, mainly York Gum, Salmon, and Gimlet; second-class land mainly White Gum (200 acres); and 200 acres of third-class land, plain and scrub country. There were some improvements, the price paid was 20 shillings per acre, which included six shillings per acre for existing improvements. This was done through the Avon Roads Board and Lands Department and Jim had been there to see the land for himself (there is a reference in a letter to “his old campsite”).

In 1914 he took long-service leave of six months, and spent this time getting the farm set-up, going by train back to Perth as necessary. At times he took one of his children for visits with him (Jean was the eldest, 9 at this time; the youngest missed out on this exciting excursion). He worked the last for nearly a decade, but ultimately his wife didn't want to move to Quairading, and his brother Charlie had started CM Wilson Pty Ltd, and so some time in the early 1920s (or perhaps earlier) he sold the farm. He invested the resulting £2000 into the nascent (and successful) family business, and went to work for Charlie as a timber merchant.

On the return voyage of a business trip to Devonport in Tasmania, in the 1930s (arranging supply to Western Australia of Huon or Hoop pine), he suffered a heart attack. He was in the ship's hospital for some days. On his return to Perth, Charlie insisted that Jim stop work as he was obviously over-worked not well. This meant that the family was short of money, but the children helped as they could. By this time, Rae was nursing at Perth Hospital, Gordon was working in the country, Jean was married, Bruce had entered the Navy (aged 15), and so Murray and Adele were the only ones still at home.

Jim died on 1 June 1942 and is buried in Karrakatta Cemetery.

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