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van der Plaat Family
Kybeyan 1952


This photo was taken in 1958 in front of our house at McLaughlin (the old meat works ) we lived there until November 1959, starting from left are: Alex, Arie (pluto), Henk (father), Steffie (in front), Alie (mother) Arno and Henk Jnr

THE VAN DER PLAAT FAMILY

Our family emigrated from the Netherlands in 1951. Australia was the country dreams were made off. Leaving post war Europe was not difficult. At that time various countries including Canada and Australia actively promoted themselves as desirable destinations for emigration, and this how we came to Australia.

We left the Netherlands from Rotterdam in November and arrived in Sydney just prior Christmas and after a short stay at the Bathurst Migrant Centre Father, Henk and I were engaged by Mr. Ron Mould of Kybeyan Station to work at the family property at Midlingbank. Mother and the three younger members of the family were to stay in the camp until we could arrange appropriate accommodation for the whole family. Another couple and a small child were also to go to the same farm to work

Early in the morning of the 23rd January 1952 we arrived at the Cooma railway station where we were to be collected by someone from the farm and while we waited at the railway station we overlooked the town and really started to wonder what we had let ourselves in for.

After a while we were picked up by the farm truck and to our surprise the driver was a Dutch Man, Kees Wassink from him we learned that Mr. Mould was keen on hard working Dutch people as he had a whole group of them employed. On arrival at "Arthella" we found a small Colony of Dutch men, this did help us to settle down with out too much trouble.

After some time we went to live at Kybeyan Station as there was accommodation for the rest of the family, we were allocated the shearers quarters to live in until such time as these were needed for the shearers at shearing time. Our main work was in the eradication of the rabbit plaque that was ruining the farmland and in spare time we cleared up the dead timber from the ground and stacked it on heaps to be burned when the conditions were suitable.

Life on a farm was vastly different from what we were accustomed to in the city, shopping was done by messenger and meat was provided at the farm in the form of half a sheep, milk came straight from the cow. Cooking was done on wood stoves and one had to chop firewood. Water came from a tank and was very limited. The bath had to be shared and then the water was put on the garden with a bucket

At Kybeyan we encountered even more Dutch people, there was Peter and Ans Goed, Peter was in charge of the mechanical workshop and looked after the machinery. There was another family by the name of Koster; Mr. Koster and his son together with some other persons looked after the stock. There were more Wassinks there and over some time a fair few would come and go. Shearing time arrived and we had to vacate the shearer's hut, we moved to Countegeny and worked there for Mr. and Mrs Pat Rose of Parkside. Again cleaning the land was our main occupation. On completion of the work there we moved back to Kybeyan for a while and then went to work for the Mr. Rose at Parkside. Here we had our first taste of stock work but again our main occupation was clearing land and rabbit control

We were given the old homestead to live in and after some upgrading it was our first real home in Australia and we were very happy there. In the mean time the Snowy Scheme had started in earnest and Cooma was becoming quite a town, the influx of so many people created shortages in many fields and one of those was fuel for the cooking stoves and heating. On a social gathering in Cooma it was suggested that we should sell the wood instead of burning it and after some discussion with Mr. Rose we decided to do just that. I went to work on the farm and the rest of the family started our firewood business. At that time the three youngest members of the family still went to school in Nimmitabel. Father organised truck and equipment and so our first business venture in Australia got off the ground. It all looked so easy but the reality was quite different, but we persevered and did very well out of it

Having a truck in Cooma every day, almost automatically got us into transport, by bringing goods back to the local community, from there we started to carry superphosphate from the railway station or sidings to the farms. And again we fell into the transport for the American Contractors to the Snowy Mountains Authority.

Parkside was a bit far removed from the centre of our work and we started looking for a place of our own and our interest fell on a disused factory on the Bombala road at the McLaughlin River, we bought this property and used it as a depot and workshop for our trucks, as by that time we had five trucks and our operations kept expending.

Peter Goed who had moved to Nimmitabel from Kybeyan had started his own Mechanical workshop under the name of "Nimmitablel Motors". He used to do all the major mechanical repair work to our fleet for many years until we later had our own workshop and mechanics, he also had quite a thriving business and was later joined by Thijs Nijholt as partner while Ans kept the books and accounts

At McLaughlin we turned a small cottage in to a house and lived there for some four years. We had great plans for this place as our first owned property we planned to stay there for many years but the pressure of work forced us to a more central location and in 1959 we moved to our own depot at the "Four Mile" near Cooma.

Our life in the Kybeyan area, McLaughlin and Nimmitabel was a great experience in particular for us young people, the Saturday movies, the shows and festivals organised by the people of the various nationalities residing in the town. As said before we were young and the girls became of interest. Henk had a serious interest in one young lady and we as a family were befriended by the girl's family and spend many an evening playing cards and eating supper.

Shopping was mostly done at the Thistleton's and our own Dutch baker George kept us in bread and many other goodies.

We enjoyed our time there, hard work but an adventure I would not have wanted to miss

These days of course we all lead our own lives with our own families, where I was sixteen year old then I am now sixty seven and look back on all of the past with pleasure and pride. Our parents that brought us to these shores are now long gone to their heavenly reward and sadly Henk Jr. already has untimely departed this life just over a year ago

Arno van der Plaat
Ph/fax 02 6452 4566
Email trinder@acr.net.au