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- Charles Farquharson Russell Baxter
Charles Farquharson Russell (ka Russell) was the second child and first son of Charles Farquharson and Jessie Minnie Baxter (Nee Millsore) and was born in Boulder WA on 20 November 1903. At the time of his birth his father owned a Cycle Agency situated at 30 Piesse Street Boulder WA.
In 1904 Charles sold the Cycle Agency and purchased, a 2023 ha, homestead property, called 'Whitehaven,' The property (still called 'Whitehaven') is located 28 kms south east of Cunderdin and about 16 kms from Quairading. His three younger brothers, Robert Barnes, Jessie Norman Eric and George Whitehaven, were all born in Perth but taken back to the farm soon after their births.
In 1914, Charles was elected to the Legislative Council of the WA. Following his election he moved the family to a home in St Alban's Av, Highgate Perth where they temporarily resided until moving to 23 Vale Rd, Mt Lawley, in 1915, which remained the family home until 1952. Charles retained 'Whitehaven' and his older brother, Robert Leys, (Bob or 'Old R.L' as he was later referred) took over as manager. They traveled from Quairading to Perth in a Studebaker sedan, which was loaded with not only the family of seven and their luggage, but also two pet kangaroos and two caged cockatoos. It took all day to drive the 170 kms, over the gravel roads, and after numerous fiat tyres they finally arrived in Perth around midnight.
Russell commenced his education at the Narrogin Agricultural School and later completed it at the Hawkesbury Agricultural College, at Richmond NSW, in 1921. At the time he finished at the College, his mother, father, sister Dorothy and younger brother Norman sailed from Perth on the 'SS Wandilia' to Melbourne. From Melbourne they traveled by train to Sydney where they were reunited. After a few days together in Sydney his father, and Dorothy returned to Perth while Jessie, who had not seen her parents for nearly 20 years, and the two boy's continued by train to the gold mining town of Mt Morgan QLD to visit their maternal grandparents, Robert and Harriet Millsorn, and their Aunt Ruby. While they were at Mt Morgan they met a number of the Millsom family, who resided in that part of Queensland. While there he and Norman also had a funny experience. Their grandparents kept a number of goats for milk and fresh meat and apparently one day they were sent out to slaughter one of the kids for fresh meat. However, after they caught the kid it started to bleat and it sounded so much like a baby crying that they couldn't bring themselves to kill it. As a result the family went with out their dinner of roast cheviot.
After they returned to Perth from Mt Morgan Russell went to work on 'Whitehaven,' which was then managed by a man named Jack Gouch. In 1924, Charles sold 'Whitehaven' and purchased a wheat farm at Waeal Siding and Russell took over the running of this property. He was later joined by his younger brothers, Robert Barnes (Bob), C. 1926 and George Whitehaven, C.1929. In 1931, the country was at the depth of the Depression, and the farm was not making enough money to support the three of them, so Russell decided to leave Waeal and try dairy farming.
At about the same time Norman had just been retrenched from Wesfarmers, and he decided to join him in the dairy-farming venture. Accompanied by his father, they traveled to Balingup to look at a couple of properties. Norman did not accompany them, as he had a temporary bookkeepers job at Toodyay. They managed to find a suitable property of 121.4 hectares called 'Brookland's, about three kilometres west of the town. He and Norman then formed a partnership to buy the property on a 'Conditional Purchase' arrangement. Together he and Norman worked the farm while their mother who had moved down from Perth took care of them and the house. It was hard work and long hours having to hand milk 28 to 30 cows twice a day seven days a week as well as carrying out the other tasked associated with the running of the farm.
Unfortunately, dairy farming was not a profitable occupation the during the depression years, nor during or in the early post war years of WW II. Dairy-farmers received between 8 and 11 pence per lb (one penny = 83 cents at 1998 values) for the butterfat content of the cream. After deducting the other costs of production and paying off the Agricultural Bank of the Lands Department mortgage, there was little money left to live on let alone the cost of improving the dairy herd.
When they took over the farm, their mother came down to look after them by cooking and keeping the house. She was also able to provide them with some financial support as she had rented the family house in Mt Lawley and with the money she received from the rent she was able to help them food and clothing. It was also around the time that she and Charles permanently separated.
In May 1932, Russell and Lavina Smith were married and after the wedding returned to the farm. No matter how hard they tried, the farm was still not making enough money to support the four of them. Around the time of the birth of their first son, Trevor, Russell's father-in-law offered his the opportunity to run his farm at Wagin. Russell decided to take up this offer and towards the end of 1933; he and Norman dissolved their partnership. Norman continued on with the farm and he, Lila and Trevor moved to Wagin.
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1903 - 1974 (70 years)
