The last family group photo is of Robert McClymont's descendants who numbered over forty on the day and, as you can see, took a little time to get organized for the picture!
The total number of Bert's descendants is 107. (The only sibling with more is the first born Thomas who has 121 by our calculations.) Again what a family!
Judith Treweeke, sporting the Lamont tartan across her shoulder, is the soul survivor of Robert's children and the only daughter. She gave a speech that reflected on growing up in that branch of the family:
"You may have read the blogs about Alexander Cunningham and his brother coming to Australia to the goldmines in Victoria, and presently moving to New Zealand, where he married Isabella McKinnon, and of their moving to Inverell in the 1870s. There, they took up Manuka, raising 14 children – of his being the first to grow wheat in that district.
I remember Dad taking Cam and me to visit Manuka; Jim, Isa and Agnes lived there. I recall seeing the table grand piano there, I’d never seen such, then, or since. I believe each son was given ₤100 at 21, to go out on his own. In Robert’s case, his Mother asked him to stay on at Manuka for a further ₤100, which he did, and was not free to enlist in the army until 1917. Other sons and nephews served in the Boer War and in WWI as others may well relate.
In the garden at Manuka I remember two big almond trees, with a netting hammock strung between them, and an old brick edging nearby, so of course my brother Cam and I used half-bricks to crack almond shells.
I remember Dad telling of lots of fruit trees in the Manuka orchard, and a story of taking an unliked visitor there one evening to eat as many peaches as he wished. No one else ate from this tree because the fruit was full of grubs.
There is a photo of Jean, my Mother, sitting among the flowers on the fallen bough of an apple tree – this photo was in Dad’s wallet his whole life.
I recall being told Grandfather McClymont died as he tossed a stook of hay onto a haystack: heart attack. Grandmother McClymont continued at Manuka to the end of her life, and her daughters Isa and Agnes, after her. My brother Ian then purchased Manuka and sold it in 1959, just over one hundred years since Grandfather McClymont had first come to Australia.
Robert (Bert) bought country at Cunnamulla, “Woodstock”, and presently “Murra Downs”. In the early 1930’s he balloted for and won country above Longreach, “Carinya”, and we all moved to live at Longreach for schooling. Dad was a very capable man, a hard worker, non-smoker, drank rum or scotch at night – never ate a meal without saying grace, either aloud or to himself. A Presbyterian, he used to do his office work meticulously at night. He walked quickly, with a kind of spring in his step, loved to play gentle practical jokes on us children. Bert and Jean were both tall, dark haired, with fair skin – a handsome couple, good people.
They had four sons, one daughter; Archie, Ian, Alexander, Cam and Judith. All were assisted to buy land, in turn, and most of them have been able to do the same for their sons
Archie and Claire had four sons, one daughter.
Ian and Nola, three sons, one daughter
Sana and Ruth, three sons, one daughter
Cam and Shirley, two sons, one daughter
Judith and Kelly, three sons.
I believe I can safely say we are all thankful for our Manuka heritage, and to be Australians; the next generation, I don’t think I have enough fingers or toes to count them.
Many in this branch of the family are innovators, inventors, and creative. I wonder do other branches share this gene?
The McClymont motto is I’m told, and I leave it to you to interpret “Spare not, nor dispose”.
(Note: Ian and Judith said that the amount that Alexander provided to give his sons a start in life was ₤100, Arch said ₤380, and Sana said ₤500 because a block of land (presumably in that area) was 200 acres. Mac McClymont said that he had never heard of it, and that he had never heard Jean, Jessie or his father, Jim, speak of it.
The internet says that prior to 1910, Australia was using the British currency. ₤100 GBP in 1890 had the purchasing power of about $13,050 AUD today.)
The following is an extract from a history book written by Robyn Crossle called " TURNBULL, Lives and letters" which covers the family history of three families. One was the Rathies and Robert married into that family.
"The third Rathie daughter Jean, trained as a nurse in Sydney where, in the later years of the war she met her future husband, Robert(Bert) McClymont. Bert enlisted for service in the army soon afterwards and somewhere in the Indian Ocean en route to France when the armistice was signed.
He and Jean were married on his return to Sydney, with Jean's best friend *Trix Hopkins - the Hopkins were old family friends - as her bridesmaid. Jean and Bert went to live at "Woodstock", a sheep property fifty miles east of Cunnamulla in Queesnland, where their three children - Archibald James, Robert Ian and Alexander Cunningham spent their early days.
By 1929, "Woodstock" was sold and the family moved to Longreach, to "Carinya" and "Kensington", properties still owned by the McClymonts.
Two more children, Judith Carol and Allan Cameron (Cam) were born at the family's seaside cottage at Coolangatta, and where their mother, Jean McClymont was to die in 1956 when she was only sixty-three. Today the McClymont descendants are widely scattered throughout Queensland."
Bert was to die within six months of her departure.
*Trix Hopkins was actually a cousin of the bride Jean.
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