This is the third article in a new Pastoral Times series by Jacquie Marshall called ‘Looking back with Jac’.
Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content
The subject of this column is Judy Small who recounted a life that is both colourful and meaningful.
•••
On my second trip to Navorina in search of ‘Looking Back with Jac’ subjects, I was very excited to meet Judy Small. Surprisingly, our paths had never previously crossed.
Upon entering her room I felt that beautiful comfort and ease that radiates from women of her time.
Before I could sit down and put my pen to the page, Judy was off and running.
Words were just escaping. I am quite the conversationalist, but I had met my match.
Judy was born Judy Davies on September 8, 1934 in Mullumbimby, on the far north coast of NSW.
She describes her parents Margaret and Eric Davies as “great parents”.
She has a very special appreciation of her father and his hard work, and later felt the same of her husband Jim Small.
“I just wanted to say I have been very fortunate because I had good parents, I met a good man - who became my husband - and now I have a wonderful family,” she volunteered.
“And I’m lucky that I have three out of my four children living here that can come and visit me; I’m very, very lucky.”
I don’t think luck has anything to do it with. Judy is simply a special lady.
She referred to luck many times throughout our chat, making the point that certain things in time happened to fall in place in order for her to live the life she describes as “charmed”.
“Just let me tell you about my dad,” she chimed in.
“My father was in England skating on a forbidden pond and he went through the ice,” she said.
“He shouldn’t have been on it, he nearly lost his life.
“He had double pneumonia and was extremely sick. The doctor told him, when he recovered, he needed to go to a warm climate for at least two years.”
At that time there was a shortage of farm help in Australia, so he applied and was accepted.
“He came out on the ship to Sydney where the boys were all sent to train in farming. He was only 16,” she said.
From there they were sent all over NSW.
And that’s how the family came to be in Mullumbimby.
“He was working for a pound a week for a farmer. It was mainly dairy farming and he saw there was a shortage of herd testers.
“He studied that through Lismore by correspondence and became a herd tester. He was then getting four pounds a week.
“That was a big boost,” she said proudly.
She then stopped to gather her thoughts and said “this is how he then progressed.”
“He had nothing when he came to this country. He became a herd tester and eight years later he and a friend had saved enough money to lease a motor garage.
“They did it up and it became Davies Garage in Mullumbimby.”
The Holden car was produced and Judy’s father made his fortune selling the iconic brand.
He did it very well, often topping sales and winning a competition hosted by a Brisbane distributor.
“He won year after year, and the prize each time was a piece of furniture.
“My mother joked and said ‘he furnished the house this way’.”
Judy smiled widely as she told this part, and explained that many of those furniture items are still cherished by members of the family today.
When Eric left his home in Shrewsbury, England for Australia he told his mother he would be back in two years.
It was 37 years later he eventually returned with his wife and five children, travelling by ship to visit family.
They spent five months in England meeting relatives and travelling by caravan, which Judy described as a “wonderful experience”.
They even managed to spot The Queen and her family by chance, which she described as “such an experience”.
Another ‘stroke of luck’ was when Jim Small’s father was the manager of the Bank of NSW in Deniliquin and was moved to Mullumbimby.
It eventually enabled Jim and Judy to meet on her family’s return from England.
A young lady named Kerrie joined Judy’s friend group, which in turn led to another twist of fate.
Judy and a friend decided to throw Kerrie a surprise party in the CWA rooms.
Kerrie’s mother had just previously called Jim Small’s mother to ask if he would accompany Kerrie to the deb ball as one of her friends was making her debut.
“So that’s how I first met Jim,” a very happy Judy said.
“If his father hadn’t moved to Mullumbimby I would have never met him.
“Kerrie’s mum came to me at the ball and asked if I would mind inviting Jim to Kerrie’s party as she knew what we were planning.”
She began to smile, and giggled as she continued her story.
“At the party Mum had made a beautiful arrangement of flowers for the supper table and I forgot them.
“Jim took me home to get them.
“I was in the kitchen washing the dishes and who comes in and gets a tea towel? Jim Small.
“I tell my kids I got to know him over the dishes.”
The pair then started courting, going to the pictures and spending days at the beach.
When Jim left school he wanted to be an architect and his father talked him out of it.
He wanted Jim to go into the bank and get some commercial experience, which Jim did.
But after 18 months in banking, Jim yearned for a different career.
“Jim’s father had a small acreage of land at Wandook (near Deniliquin) and Jim started getting an interest in farming,” she said.
“There was a little place called ‘Billinudgel’ in a village on the north coast, and Jim’s mother liked the name.”
So the Small’s farm at Wandook was named ‘Billinudgel’, which Judy later found out meant ‘home of the white cockatoo’.
The couple had planned to live in Brunswick Heads but a large cyclone and storm wiped out Jim’s crops.
“He couldn’t get to Deniliquin fast enough to the flat country,” Judy said.
“It was very lonely at the start, as he was farming for us and share farming.
“We spent a lot of time apart in the early years.
“I came from a little town where everybody called me Judy, to not knowing anybody and being called Mrs Small. It took a while to settle in.
“We started off with very little, not like today where they want everything straight away.”
The couple had four beautiful children and now have 16 grandchildren and 30 great grandchildren.
While farming, Jim took on many prominent positions in the community.
It included being the first chair of Navorina Nursing Home, which would later become the couple’s home.
He then was steered towards a career in politics, even though Judy says “he was never really politically minded”.
They joined the Country Party, which later became the National Party.
Jim was campaign manager for Tim Fischer when he was NSW Member for Murray.
When Tim decided to go into federal politics, Jim was asked if he would stand to replace him in the state seat.
After discussions with the family he agreed and went through the processes.
He was indeed elected Member for Murray and spent 14 years in politics.
“I was lucky our children were grown up by then, and I could accompany him to a lot of functions,” Judy said.
“We did 130 deb balls in the 14 years across many district areas.”
The couple also attended many school events around the district, among others.
She recalled a time when they were travelling to Wentworth, where her office skills were called upon.
“Jim was driving and because it was such a long trip, he gave me a big pile of mail and I started reading the letters to him.
“He would reply on the dictaphone.
“He would be talking to Faye Felahay who was a wonderful secretary; both she and Merrilyn Hussey were.
“When we got back this day I walked into the office and said to Faye, ‘I have a bone to pick with you’.
“Faye said ‘what have I done?’ and I said ‘all my husband does is talk to you when we are travelling’,” she said laughing.
Jim was not just known for his politics, he was also known for his love of cycling and his big bike trips.
But it was during this time Judy became unwell and found she had cancer of the uterus. She had only just recovered from that scare when she suffered three blood clots in her lung over a period of years.
“The cancer was frightening enough, but my experiences with a clot in the lung have been worse,” she said.
In retirement together, Judy and Jim took a caravan trip around Australia.
They both eventually became residents of Navorina.
Jim sadly passed on October 29, 2021.
“He had such a wonderful mind. It broke my heart to see him with dementia; it’s a terrible thing.
“I just want to give praise to Navorina and the nurses. The way they look after us; they do a marvellous job.
“Bernadette (Werner) does a fantastic job organising the different activities we do. The volunteers are fantastic too.
“And lastly I just wanted to say I love my family so very much.”