Oswald’s adventure abroad
• Oswald Crowden of Scottsdale (centre) with granddaughter Theresa Crossing and daughter Kathryn Crossing.
• Oswald (front left) with the other Junior Farmer representatives at Tilbury Docks in London on their trip to the UK in 1953.
By Daisy Baker
January 15, 2020
Scottsdale's Oswald Crowden has lived through the Great Depression, a world war and the reign of two monarchs, not to mention many technological advancements.
Mr Crowden turned 90 on Monday, a milestone he celebrated with 45 of his friends and family on Sunday.
He was born at Deloraine where he grew up on his family’s dairy and sheep farm.
At eight years old he started milking cows, and he continued to live and work on the farm until his mid 30s.
He said living on a farm was a different ball game in those days.
“In the country when I was a boy there was no electricity,” he recalled.
“It was only in the town and it cost a lot of money to bring it out of the town – they made you pay for the poles and the wiring and the men to put it up.
“I was about 18 when we had electricity put on. We were about three miles from the town of Deloraine.”
Until then, their house was lit with candles and hurricane lanterns and they cut wood with an axe to fuel their woodstove.
“I can remember the first truck that came to Deloraine. Before that we used to take our wool to the railway station three miles with four horses on the wagon,” he said.
Mr Crowden and his siblings walked the three-mile journey to school each day until a school bus was introduced when he was 12, which met them one mile in and drove them the rest of the way.
In 1953 at the age of 23, Mr Crowden was selected to go to England on a four-month trip for the anniversary of the National Federation of Young Farmers’ Clubs of England.
He was one of six Junior Farmers (now known as Rural Youth) from around the country chosen for the trip and invited to attend the coronation of Queen Elizabeth.
Pointing to a photo of him and the other Junior Farmers taken at Tilbury Docks in London, he recalled the trip.
“It took a whole month to get there on the boat because we made stops for fuel to Sri Lanka, Columbia and the bottom end of Arabia,” he said.
“When we go there we were billeted for about a week in each place with a farming family, they varied a lot.
“They used to interview you over there on the air so public speaking was a lot of it too.”
When the official trip had finished, Mr Crowden and the Queensland representative spent some time traveling through Europe.
“We bought a new bike in London for exactly 10 pound, gears and all it had,” he said.
“We spent a while in London and took it across to Denmark and then rode around Germany.
“We sold the bikes in Belgium and I think we got about eight pounds for them and that was enough to pay the train fare for a week to stop at each place we wanted to stop, all the way to Naples where we met up with the others on the boat.”
Mr Crowden and his wife Lola met in 1955 at a dance at St Ailbes Hall.
“There were two of them together dancing and I was a cheeky young thing and said, ‘the two of you wouldn’t be brothers, would you?’ and that’s how it started,” Lola laughed.
They shared a dance and the rest is history.
They have now been happily married for 64 years.
Mr Crowden said his fondest memories are getting married and the birth of his three children, Lisa, Kathryn and Jonathan.
After his parents died, the family farm was sold and Mr Crowden took a job near Gladstone working at Boobyalla Farm.
Later in 1977, he moved on to Mineral Banks at Ringarooma, where he worked for 19 years until he retired.
These days Mr and Mrs Crowden are enjoying their retirement in Scottsdale, with the occasional spot of gardening and community events.