Patricia Gill, Denmark Bulletin
Historian Malcolm Traill officially launched Ian Osborne’s book, The Osbornes of Group 41 Carmarthen, at the Osborne farm on December 4.
The event marked the century since Ian’s grandparents, Group Settlers George and Edith Osborne, took up the property and a century since the 15 Group Settlers arrived in the district.
Ian’s father Fred Osborne, the youngest son of the settler family, took over the property in 1940 until his retirement in 2002.
WA Lands and Agriculture Minister James Mitchell designed the scheme to establish a diary industry which proposed to establish 6000 farms in the South West and attract 75,000 people.
Isolation, Denmark Wasting Disease, the result of soil mineral deficiency, bushfires, huge costs and primitive conditions took a heavy toll.
A Royal Commission into the failed scheme in 1924 found that more than half of the families had left their farms with only 2442 farms developed, costing the State whopping £6.5 million.
Ian’s daughter, anthropologist Janet Osborne, told the gathering that the first few generations of Osbornes ‘couldn’t seem to get out of the gutter or the destitute asylum or the industrial school’.
“The glimpses we have of their lives are fascinating, and the historical processes they passed through and were part of,” she said.
“Also the moments of good-for-nothing defiance certainly resonate with my own obstreperous personality.”
Patriarch Henry Osborne had immigrated in 1836 from Hampshire, England to South Australia and having starting out with nothing died penniless.
Even the ticket that that took him to SA was paid by the Government. Janet said the first time an Osborne ‘had’ something was when George and Edith acquired the farm.
“Again it was given by the Government,” she said.
“It’s never far from my mind having worked in Native Title that it was taken away from someone else in order to be given.
“But it was kept by hard, hard work.”
In launching the book, Malcolm Traill described the generational naming of Osborne males, Henry George, as tricky to keep track of and the ‘wobbling’ spelling, Osborne and Osborn, as problematic for research.
Quoting from Ian’s maiden speech in 1993 as Bunbury MLA in State Parliament, Malcolm said Ian’s childhood had highlighted the shortcomings of bureaucratic control and centralised planning.
“The Group Settlement Scheme was an agricultural, financial and human disaster, and only those with unusual resilience and obduracy were able to survive,” Malcolm quoted.
“Of the scores of families that went to the Group Settlement Scheme at Denmark, only one, ours, still remains on the original farm after three generations and more than a dozen lifetimes of work.
“That and the foresight and determination of my parents, Biddy and Fred Osborne, have put me in this position today.”
Malcolm said the book uses primary sources like one-time Denmark shire president Fred Osborne’s diary and oral history interviews which had been a priceless asset for Ian.
It also mixes family stories, political and social history and even poetry to tell a coherent story.
Fred Osborne can be credited with the creation of the William Bay National Park after he saw that area under threat from developers and the possible destruction of the native vegetation.
See all the pictures in the issue.
This article appeared in the Denmark Bulletin, 22 December 2022.
