E07 – Life in the Country (Part 2)
Produced by David Ward on August 30, 2017
Tags - Crystal Brook - Interviewed by Rod McKenzie - Iris Crouch - Riverton - Rod McKenzie - Stockport
Iris Crouch might be in her 90s and have a broken back, but whenever she sits down to play the organ she counts herself as one of the luckiest women alive.
From her early years on the farm at Merriton, riding her white pony, Biddy, to school, Iris has had a love of playing the keyboard, and it’s stayed with her through the years as she has moved and lived in towns spread all across the mid-north of the state – from Crystal Brook to Riverton, to Stockport until she finally came to live in Gawler some 17 years ago.
You can click on the links below to hear Iris talking about growing up in Crystal Brook nearly 100 years ago, in what seems an entirely different age from the one we are living now.
Iris Crouch
In her 90s and still thanking God everyday for her health!
(Image courtesy of Rod McKenzie)
Bowman St, Crystal Brook
Bowman St in Crystal Brook was named after four brothers who came from England via Tasmania and established pastoral stations around the mid-north. This picture shows Bowman St in 1932.
(Image courtesy of the State Library of South Australia – SLSA B-8465)
Bowman St, Crystal Brook
Same street, different era. This much more recent photo shows Bowman St as it is today.
(Image courtesy of southernflinders-midnorth.com.au)
Crystal Brook West Public School
The teachers and students of Crystal Brook West Public School posing outside the building in 1932
(Image courtesy of the State Library of South Australia – SLSA B-8464)
The sheep runs at Crystal Brook
Sheep were always an important part of the Crystal Brook settlement, and in this picture from 1932 the auction is on, as buyers bid for stock
(Image courtesy of State Library of South Australia – SLSA B-8463)
They say the country breeds them tough, and there’s proof of that in Iris. As a child she would pick up hay in the fields, help deliver the lambs, and walk 4 miles to church each Sunday. And despite being well into her 90s and currently suffering broken vertebrae, she still thanks God everyday for her health and does her own housework – and she still loves to belt out the tunes on the organ.
Production Notes
Title: Life in the Country
Guest: Iris Crouch
Host: Rod McKenzie
Editor: Ian McDonnell
Producer: Barry Neylon
Transcript: Rod McKenzie
GOHP E05 – Life in the country by Gawler Oral History Project is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
