Life History

Other facts

Notes

• "Uncle George worked with horses and sheep in Kent.  Living at Ufton Lane, Sittingbourn.
  Sam lived and went to school here as a child.
  Next door Neighbours were 'Bretts'."
  
  Death certificate for first wife Ellen Elizabeth shows address as of 20th May 1910 as Stony Road, Dunkirk, Kent.  He was an agricultural labourer.
  
  General Register shows marriage to Ellen R Woollett September quarter1911 Faversham 2a 2193
  
  Bill, Arthur, Les, Bob, Albert and Stan left England with their parents in steamship "Euripodes" arriving in Albany in March 1924.  They were all farmers except Albert who worked in various timber mills.
  Les, Albert and Stan served in the Australian Army during the war.
  
  George was a witness at Mabel's wedding in 1923.
  
  Birth certificate shows born in Kneesworth Street, Royston.  The birth was registered Fifth July 1886 by his mother Ellen Beebe, formerly Woods, who made a declaration on 30th June 1886 that her address was 7, St John's Street, Bedford.
  
  ***********************************************
  
  The following notes were sent to me by Lesley Beebe (wife of Stan).
  
  "The following is some more information of the early days of Stan's parents arrival in Western Australia as Stan remembers it, it may be ofinterest to you".
  Lesley Beebe, February 1997.
  
  *** The Early Years of George and Ellen Beebe - Northcliffe ***
  "In the early 1920's, the Premier of Western Australia (WA) was Sir James Mitchell who decided to open up the South West of WA for dairy farming. The
  WA Government recruited migrants from England.  George, seeing this as a great opportunity, migrated to Australia with his wife Ellen (commonly known as Nell) and 6 boys, not aware of the trials that were to face them.  With hundreds of other English Migrants, they boarded the Steam Ship Euripodes for Australia and arrived in Albany WA on the 10th of March 1924.  From Albany they were taken by train to Perth and then by train to Pemberton, a distance of 920 miles.  On arrival at Pemberton they were put onto trucks and taken into the Karri Forest, a further 20 miles on, which later became known as Northcliffe.  They wereplaced into camps which consisted of tin shacks of two rooms, dirt floors and no windows or doors!  Conditions were unbelievable and many of the women wished they had never left England.  Toilet facilities were non-existent.
  George made chairs out of kerosine boxes and beds were a piece of hessian slung between poles.  Each day the men were taken out in gangs toclear the forest for house sites.  After this, eventually, weatherboard cottages were built and the families balloted for them and gradually moved into a cottage from the camps.  Once you had been allotted a house you were on your own and had to clear land for your farm, with none of the modern machinery of today, this was no small task!  In factit must have been rather daunting!  The men were paid £8 per acre by the government to clear the land.  Then, as the pasture grew, they were issued with 2 or 3 cows depending on what the pasture would carry.These payments and cows were a debt against you at the bank which eventually had to be re-paid when you were self supporting.  By the 1930's many were self supporting but there were many who were disenchantedby the hard life and conditions and walked off the land and went to the city of Perth to look for work.
  George's determination was such that he was one of the few who stayedand made a go of it, he grew his own vegetables which helped to sustain them.  By this time a few shops had been built in Northcliffe, thusother supplies were available.
  In the mid 1930's, Bill, Arthur, Les and Bob took up land of their own. When war broke out in 1939 Les, Albert and Stan joined the army, after the war ended Les and Stan took up land and farmed while Albert went to the city to work.  Les eventually left the farm and went to Perth to work at Chamberlains Factory.  Stan also went on to sell the farm (a move he still regrets today) and went on to buy a  mixed business in Northcliffe which he ran for two and a half years before sellingup and moving to Albany to manage a beef farm.  His (Stan) wife died in April 1976 and he went to live with Sharon and Tony for a few months and worked for Automotive Investments managing their farms until heretired in 1986.
  Albert worked in various timber mills in and around Perth until his retirement in 1996.
  Now in 1997, with only Stan and Albert alive, the Beebe line is slowly dwindling.
  Albert still lives in Kewdale, a suburb of Perth, and Stan lives in Albany when he is not touring around Australia in car and caravan, a life he enjoys very much!"
  

Sources

• 1. Footnote: Birth certificate registered July 5th 1886. General Register quarter ending September 1886 ref: Royston 3a 457.
• 2. 1901 England Census
  • Name: The Generations Network, Inc.; Location: Provo, UT, USA; Date: 2005;
  • Database online.
• 3. Footnote: death certificate
• 4. Footnote: marriage certificate