General News
4 July, 2026
Gwen Holland recounts memories of growing up rural
Gwen Holland (nee Hayter) was born in Warracknabeal in June 1942 to Harold and Olive Hayter of Ailsa. Mrs Holland was an only child and grew up on the family farm at Ailsa, where she enjoyed her childhood playing tennis for the Ailsa Tennis Club, with the courts located close to the farm.
As a toddler, she remembers travelling to Warracknabeal each Sunday to attend morning worship at the Baptist Church, followed by attending the Methodist Sunday School in the afternoon.
The Ailsa State School only had year eight boys attending when she was in prep, so she did her schooling by correspondence from prep to year two, as her mother didn't think it was appropriate for her to attend school with all boys.
Mrs Holland remembers visiting her correspondence school in Fitzroy as a child, where the teachers often said that parents completed the children's schoolwork, and when this happened, they stamped the word ‘excellent’ upside down so the parents would know they shouldn't be doing it.
After year two, when her mother got sick, Mrs Holland lived in Warracknabeal with her grandmother and two aunts from Monday to Friday, then back on the farm over the weekend.
During this time, the family worshipped at the Ailsa Presbyterian Methodist Church, which alternated between Presbyterian and Methodist services each Sunday.
Due to living in Warracknabeal from Monday to Friday, she attended Warracknabeal State School, then completed year 12 at Warracknabeal High School - now Warracknabeal Secondary College.
She noted that at the Warracknabeal State School, from years three to six, her English teacher was Colin Cave, the father of Nick Cave.
Mrs Holland recalled a day trip to see the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne, when a special train came to Warracknabeal to pick up passengers.
The train left at 3.30am and arrived back at 3.30am the next morning.
The workers on the train who collected them commented that the staff looked more tired than the students.
The highlight of the trip, she said, was watching track and field sprinter, Betty Cuthbert, win a gold medal.
Mrs Holland’s love for the piano led her to teach music lessons and oversee exams, either in the pupil’s home if they had a piano, or at the Warracknabeal Methodist Sunday School, shortly after finishing High School.
Once she started working full-time, Mrs Holland often began work earlier in the morning to finish earlier in the afternoon, so she could fit in lessons after school; however, she noted that her enthusiasm for music teaching eventually dwindled.
In April 1960, she took up a clerical position at the Warracknabeal District Hospital, which she held for the next 14 years until 1974.
Mrs Holland outlined the role of a junior clerk, including tasks that have now been replaced by modern computer systems, such as handling and collecting medical records and handwriting patient accounts.
The first job every morning was collecting the bed returns to record the number of patients admitted and discharged during the day.
After seven years, the senior clerical person left and was promoted to the top administrative position, where she compiled wages for the domestic, maintenance, and nursing staff.
Love struck in 1964 when Gwen met Boyce Holland at the Molly Taylor Memorial Kiosk after football one evening when he asked her to dance.
Mrs Holland fondly recounted Boyce asking to take her home, but she had come in her own car, so he had to follow her home.
The pair were engaged in 1969 and married on October 10, 1970.
Mrs Holland reflected on the early days of their marriage, living in a rental property on the Holland family farm at Brim East for three years.
The old farmhouse hadn’t been lived in for a while before the young married couple moved in, and it was wired for 240-volt electricity with a generator and a kerosene refrigerator.
Mrs Holland recalled one night getting up to use the toilet, which was separate from the house, as they had no septic tank or hot water.
Boyce saw her torchlight, thinking she was an intruder, and waited at the door to hit the intruder over the head.
Mrs Holland resigned from her clerical position at the Warracknabeal District Hospital shortly after giving birth to their first son, David, in 1974, followed by their second son, Graeme, in 1977.
She noted the hardships of becoming a new mother, as she had grown up as an only child and was unfamiliar with babies.
She played for a year at the Brim Tennis Club and the Brim East Tennis Club after moving to the farmhouse, then retired from tennis at 40.
Mrs Holland noted they bred border collies on the farm from a dog bought after a puppy she was given for her birthday was run over.
She described the dog as an all-black, lovely, faithful companion and a good sheep dog, which sired five litters.
Mrs Holland’s advice to the younger generation was to “have your standards, and don’t be afraid to work.”
Her husband, Boyce Holland, passed away in the Dunnmunkle Lodge in August 2024.
Mrs Holland has five grandchildren and celebrated her 84th birthday in mid-June.