The Duncan Family

Alec Duncan came from Moonie Ponds to the Millewa in 1927 in a T-Model Ford truck onto which he had built a body to hold a lot of things from whelan the wrecker in Melbourne. With this load he made the long, lonely trip to his allocated land 3 miles south of Meringur. Shortly afterwards he obtained timber from the "Melbourne Timber & Trading Company" in Werrimul. And by the end of 1927 had built a house on the block.

He and Mary Burke of Essendon were married that December, and spent their honeymoon working on the farm. What a culture shock that must have been, going from the suburbs to a new farming enterprise.

Two children, Bill and Mary were born while they were on that farm, then in 1937 they moved to Karween were the family has lived ever since. The farm had been Black Bill O'Connell's dairy farm ('black' because he had black hair, contrasting with the red haired Bill O'Connell).Alec and Mary lived in a tin shack with the two children while the house moved board by board by Vic Dunn of Yarrara from "Whites" to its present position.

Some of the land was cleared, but Alec and some Italian workers cleared the rest with axes and a Ma. The dead trees were later burnt, with Mary helping to stoke up the fires when she could. As each paddock was cleared it was sown to wheat or oats.

Sometimes the years were good; others were droughts and it was a big struggle to keep going. Barbara was born during these hard times. Later as the grain prices improved and there were more good years than bad, Mary announced she was pregnant again. "But we cant be having a baby" said Pop - "Its not a drought!"

Meanwhile, Bill was growing up, helping his Dad when he was able. He went to school at pine tank, and then Meringur when the schools were consolidated, lastly to board at St. Patricks College, Ballarat for two years. He never lost interest in the farm and went back to work with his father as soon as he finished his schooling.

Mary, Alec, Barb and Chris went to live in Mildura when in 1958 Bill married Norah Sheahan who taught at the Meringur and Werrimul schools. Alec kept coming out to work on the farm for many years. Bill who had been keen on fowls for a long time built up a thriving laying hen business. He built the shed, and later a motorised feeding cart that was driven along the rows of caged birds, putting out crushed feed on two levels.Bill transported the eggs to the egg floor in Mildura.

Bill and Norah had four children:- Russel,Lucy(dec),Tony and Jacinta. In 1978 Bill bought Friday O'Connell's farm at Morkalla, this had been owned by Friday's father, Red Bill O'Connell, causing old Mrs O'Connell to say, "Now you have both the O'Connell's farms".

Bill managed cows and sheep and grew various grains, he has planted wheat, oats and barley but being an innovative farmer, he has also tried canola, field peas, vetch, triticale and sunflowers. He was also innovative with his methods of farming, being one of the first to sow with an air- seeder, he has and always will keep up with the latest ways of doing things including doing the farm bookwork on the computer. Bill may have seen a few years go by, but he is a modern farmer. He also finds time for many community activities, he is at present (2002) the President of the Meringur Plantation and Pioneer Forest Committee and in a pretty much hands on roll