AFTER MANY YEARS.
SOME OLD IDENTITIES.
(From an Old Contributor.)
A short while back it was my good fortune to obtain a brief holiday, which I elected to spend where in my youthful days I spent some pleasant times. In the days when Kapunda was the terminus of the railways to the north, Cobb and Co.'s coaches ran from there north to Clare and beyond it, and the fertile valley from Hamley Bridge (then the junction) to Manoora was commonly known as "the Valley of the Gilbert." Riverton and Saddleworth and Rhynie, or "Baker's Springs," then called, were existing and busy, as the roads, such as they were were well lined by teams carting to the towns and stations further on.
Twenty-five years has made many changes, and most of the pioneers have passed away. Many sleep in the pretty gum tree shaded God's Acre that remains. Where the old church-school stood on the hill at Navan, the church built by those same pioneers and replaced by a small neat mortuary chapel, a monument to and erected under the will of John O'Brien, for very many years an employee of Anstey V. Giles, of Marocard station, now known as Giles' Corner. The Navan church was closed and pulled down, and a new one erected at Tarlee —a very pretty church indeed. It was here I saw that much loved priest the Rev. M. Brady, and it didn't take one long to see the confidence and mutual affection of this priest and his people. They are simply one in all that tends to the advancement of our religion. Fr. Brady may well say he "hasn't a bad Catholic in his parish," when whole families drive nine to eleven miles over heavy, wet roads, and remain fasting up to 12 or 1 o'clock before they can reach their homes, and practically the whole congregation at Tarlee received Holy Communion, and this on an ordinary Sunday. We dwellers in towns and cities think 9 o'clock too long to fast. Shame on us!
It was here at Tarlee I hoped to meet many friends of past days, but the majority had gone. Still a few remain, to prove what a healthy locality this is. I met the present patriarch, Mr. Denis Nash, now in his 91st year, and good for a game of 45's yet. He resides with his son, Mr. M. Nash, at the farm adjoining the township.
I also saw Mrs. M. Mclnerney, now in her 87th year, and but for a severe eye trouble in good health for her great age, while her memory for old times is wonderful and interesting. Her late husband, Mr. M. Mclnerney, was one of the earliest settlers in the district. Mrs. John Horgan, of Linwood, too, I met. She is the juvenile of these pioneers— only 84—and goes one Sunday to Hamley, the next to Tarlee, but always fasting to receive Holy Communion. These are the Catholics of the old Gilbert Valley.
Then look at the younger group outside—Smiths, O'Deas' Fitzgeralds, Horgans, and others from "over the range," all, young and old, at the rails. I saw that well known racing man, Mr. M. F. O'Dea. He had returned from Adelaide races the night before, but could be at the Communion rails at Tarlee at 10.30 next morning, after a seven-mile drive. These are the people whose children will hold up the banner of the church for all time. It's good to be among them, even for a short stay. I was there again on Ascension Thursday, when Fr. Hayes, of the China Mission, called. Mass was at Riverton early, and Frs. Brady and Hayes started the Tarlee but-half-way their car struck work, as care will if you're in a hurry, and a kind non Catholic, a Mr. Thomas, got out his car and brought the two priests to Tarlee where Fr. Hayes heard confessions until Fr. Brady was well on with the Mass. It was refreshing, too, to see the crowd surrounding Fr. Hayes after Mass, and I saw many little, aye, and some big, trifles presented to help things along. I heard Fr. Hayes was pleased with his reception at Tarlee, and at Riverton, too, where Fr. Brady's small bandbox of a presbytery can't contain all that he would extend his generous hospitality to. When I saw it he had, two priests on a visit to him, and that genial, popular, and skilful medico, Dr. R. McMahon Glynn. Of Dr. Glynn it may safely be said he is one of Riverton's indispensables, particularly from the Catholic viewpoint, but he is admired and respected by all creeds as a master of his profession, as a townsman, and as a superior in every public capacity in which he is concerned, and they are many and various; and one only need mention Mrs. Glynn to hear a burst of praise and gratitude for her good deeds—from the church, where she cares for, the altar linen, teaches catechism, and prepared and instructs candidates for the Sacraments, to the patients in Dr. Glynn's hospital, a chorus of praise and gratitude is heard, and all this having the cares of a large family, eight sons and one daughter, I was told, the latter now on a visit to an uncle in Ireland.
It was here, too, I met Mr. John Callary, son of an old friend, the late Phillip Callary, one of the few first settlers on the Gilbert, who was instrumental in building the old church and getting a school at Navan when that place showed a prospect of growing to a township, and before the railway was made. John Callary is a true son of his father. When the church wants him, he's there, and anything he can do is done—a real pillar of the church—and he can find help ers easily.
John Mclnerney son of the lady at Tarlee is here and his wife, daughter of Mrs. J. Horgan, of Linwood, and their numerous family; and cheery Tom Cleary, erstwhile manager of The Hermitage, and valued of the Tennants and Mortlocks, of squatting fame. Cheery as ever, he is, and his good wife has been one of the principal benefactors to the Riverton Church. To me, after long years of absence, most of the faces are strange, but I can discern that the faith has- not deteriorated, and that people like these, with a priest like Fr. M. Brady, will certainly make their mark in any community, and I was pointed to more than one good convert obtained by their good example.
Most of the decorations of the Church at Riverton are ornate and valuable, and the Altar rail is, I think, unique. It is a memento of the wife of the late James Buckley, of Tarlee. The uprights seem mahogany, supporting ornamental railing of solid brass. I've seen nothing else like it. I was shown the new presbytery now approaching completion, and a fine block of land, where it is intended, ere many years pass to have a convent and school; and I am reminded that the Archbishop Reynolds would say: "Where priest and people are united there is no such word as failure." And now my time comes to say "good-bye", to old faces and old places, I will not likely see again, and I turn sadly back to the crush and bustle of the town, refreshed and strengthened by the hearty welcomes of a big-hearted, generous people. God bless them all. I forgot to mention, in writing of Mrs. Horgan, that she was originally Miss Honora O'Leary, one of the well known Salisbury family, who arrived in the State in 1840. She is, I believe, the only one living of the passengers of the ship "Mary Dugdale." Her brother, Mr. W. J. O'Leary, of Salisbury, must be one of the very oldest contributors to the "Southern Cross." (2)
1. 1896 'Country News.', Southern Cross (Adelaide, SA : 1889 - 1954), 1 May, p. 4. , http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article166349321
2. 1922 'AFTER MANY YEARS.', Southern Cross (Adelaide, SA : 1889 - 1954), 14 July, p. 24. , http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article167030380