Reflecting on a life on the trails
• Sue and Don Johnson of Bridport.
By Daisy Baker
June 24, 2020
Looking out at the farm they have called home for the last 45 years, Bridport’s Don and Sue Johnson reflect on a life well lived.
Mrs Johnson has lived in Bridport for most of her life, after moving to the town when she was just two.
Her family camped along the foreshore each year, and one summer they decided to sell up their home in Scottsdale.
They lived in the tent for some time, while Mrs Johnson’s dad built a shed on a block they owned in Walter Street.
“Part of that shed is still standing today. We lived there for about seven years,” she remembered.
“We used to bath outside in the troughs in the summer time but in the winter in was in a tub in front of the fireplace.
“My father built every block in the new house with a brick mould.”
Throughout the 1940s and 1950s Bridport’s streets were gravel and tracks, and there were few decent houses among old-fashioned shacks.
“The difference between now and then in Bridport is mindboggling,” Mrs Johnson said.
“We had no TV and spent our days riding bikes around the tracks and going to the beach.
“It was a bit of a one horse town and I had the horse. I got my dream at 11 years old and so I changed from riding a bike to riding my horse Pixie around the town.
“Of course the tracks we used to ride on, all through here, are the tracks I’m walking on every day now.”
Mr Johnson grew up on a farm in Winnaleah with his mother and grandmother, learning the ways of farm life from a young age.
“I went to school at Winnaleah and I still remember carrying our books up from the old school into the new school when I was in grade three which would have been in the mid-50s,” he said.
The pair crossed paths when Mrs Johnson was transferred to Winnaleah as a young teacher in the mid 60s, where she worked for the next five or so years.
As they say, the rest is history.
“I was part of the Bowood Hunt Club and even Don joined in when we joined up, crashing through the bushes and there were lots of busters,” Mrs Johnson remembers.
After they married in 1967, they lived in a cottage at Winnaleah with two acres of land.
Mrs Johnson was later transferred back to Bridport Primary where she worked for 30 years.
“We bought this block here, developed it and turned it into the farm you see today.
We cleared the fence line and built a house,” Mr Johnson said.
Don worked at Bowood for the Hurst family for 17 years, and also spent a lot of time carting for different truck drivers throughout the area.
“Now I’ve got the little farm here, breeding beef cattle and with horse riding and plenty of good friends, I’m pretty lucky,” he said.
“It’s not where you start, it’s where you finish up.”
Around seven years ago, Mr Johnson had a nearly fatal accident while horse riding on their property, when he was bucked off the horse.
He was hospitalised for 12 weeks with an ‘open book pelvis’ and internal bleeding.
After an operation on Father’s Day, he started making a recovery.
“I could feel myself getting better the next day,” he said.
“I was one of the lucky ones.”
He said despite the accident, he was not reluctant to get back on the horse.
“It was probably eight months before I got back on and it was as if I’d been riding the day before.”
During the mid-90s Rob Hammond started Waterways Trailblazers rides for horse riders around the state.
Mr Johnson hosted riders each October for 20 years, taking them on rides out to Sandy Point and sharing good times into the evening.
While it’s no longer an official event, some keen riders continue to visit the Johnson's property each year in October for rides.
Since retiring from teaching, Mrs Johnson has taken up woodwork and she spends several hours each day in the shed crafting toys.
“Sometimes I work from plans, picture, other toys and some of the designs come out of my head,” she said, picking up a wooden Noah’s Ark in progress on her bench.
“The time I spend on each toy varies, depending on how complicated it is. A log truck for instance, would take me a full week to build.”
When she’s not making toys, Mrs Johnson enjoys playing tennis and volunteers with the North Eastern Arts and Crafts Association and the Hospital Auxiliary.
The Johnsons enjoy spending much of their time on their farm with their four dogs and horse Molly, they particularly love having regular visits from their children Ben and Stacey and their families.