Person Page - 5

Life Events

     Ernest Harry Edmonds was born on 28 August 1883 in Comongong, Queensland, Australia, son of John Hinton Edmonds and Mary Louisa Puplett.¹

His biography gives more detail of the first 50 years of his life.

In 1909 while acting as coach driver and general caretaker of the coach and horses for a Royal Commission tour of Eyre Peninsula, he learned of the Government’s plans to build a railway from Port Lincoln, northwards through the centre of Eyre Peninsula and to open the land for farming; so he got to see, first hand, the land that was being made available for selection. (For more on the Royal Commission tour click here).²

In 1910 he, together with Mr. F. Simmons, took over the Agency for the Adelaide Steamship Company in Cowell, South Australia.³

On 13 April 1910, Ernest, aged 26, married Mabel Jane Haines, daughter of George Haines and Johanna Miriam Bawden, in St Paul's Church in Adelaide, South Australia. The officiating minister was Reverend E. H. Bleby. The witnesses were Harry's brother-in-law, Frederick William Pyle (husband of his sister Gertrude Hinton Edmonds) of Frederick Street, Unley and Mabel's sister-in-law, Ellen Ann Haines (wife of her brother Thomas David Haines) of 10 Mill Street, Adelaide.⁴

On 5 February 1915 he was allotted section 49, Hundred of Pygery, County LeHunte, South Australia.²

In 1916 a shed was erected, by the Government (on a long term - low interest loan), on the block and part of this was enclosed in early 1916 with “pine and daub” to make two rooms to be used as living quarters. The first crop was planted, by hand, in that year of 1916, on a grassy plain near the shed and proved to be successful, the beginnings of a successful farming enterprise that, three generations later, was, until early 2014, the Edmonds’ family farm.²

Between 1919 and 1943 Harry and Mabel boarded the local school teacher at the farm, after public agitation resulted in a school being built in the district in 1919. The school closed in 1943.²

In 1924 Harry was secretary of the “Central Eyre Peninsula Medical Club”. This club was district wide and anybody could become a financial member. A committee was elected with a member or two from each district. It was through this group and the District Council when it was formed, that a doctor eventually came to the district, and the Wudinna Hospital was built.²

In 1927 Ernest Harry Edmonds was elected as Councillor for the Pygery Ward of the Minnipa Council. The District Council of Minnipa was formally constituted on 28th May 1925 and in 1932 there was a change of name to the District Council of Le Hunte, after Sir George Ruthven Le Hunte, Governor of South Australia, who proclaimed the County of Le Hunte on 4th November 1908.
Harry continued as a Councillor until 1944, including 11 years as Chairman.²

On 24 October 1928 Ernest Harry Edmonds was made a Justice of the Peace for South Australia by the Executive Council.⁵

During the 1928 harvest Harry put a note in one of his bags of wheat before it was delivered to the merchants, to see where it might go. This is the reply he received.

On 7 August 1943 it was reported that he would nominate for selection as a candidate to contest the election for Northern District of the Legislative Council of South Australia.⁶

In 1944 he resigned his position of chairman and councillor in the LeHunte District Council when he was elected as the representative for the Northern District of the South Australian Legislative Council.²

In 1950 he was included in "Who's Who in Australia."

On 28 March 1950 he married Ellen Baird, daughter of James Baird and Margaret McInerney, in St Lawrence's Church, North Adelaide, South Australia. Ray Edmonds children called her Auntie Nell.⁷

On 28 February 1962 he retired from the Legislative Council.

He died on Sunday, 8 April 1962, aged 78 years, 7 months and 11 days, in Thebarton Community Hospital, Mile End, South Australia, from a cerebral thrombosis.⁸

He was buried in Centennial Park Cemetery, Pasadena, South Australia, in Section: Anglican B, Path: BE, Site: 20.⁹

A memorial to Harry can be found at the Wudinna Cemetery, Wudinna, South Australia.⁷

Life Events

     Mabel Jane Haines was born about 1884 in Mundoora, South Australia, daughter of George Haines and Johanna Miriam Bawden.¹

On 13 April 1910, Mabel, married Ernest Harry Edmonds, aged 26, son of John Hinton Edmonds and Mary Louisa Puplett, in St Paul's Church in Adelaide, South Australia. The officiating minister was Reverend E. H. Bleby. The witnesses were Harry's brother-in-law, Frederick William Pyle (husband of his sister Gertrude Hinton Edmonds) of Frederick Street, Unley and Mabel's sister-in-law, Ellen Ann Haines (wife of her brother Thomas David Haines) of 10 Mill Street, Adelaide.²

Between 1919 and 1943 Harry and Mabel boarded the local school teacher at the farm, after public agitation resulted in a school being built in the district in 1919. The school closed in 1943.³

She died on 13 September 1946 at home in 25 Ballantyne Street, Wudinna, South Australia, of debility from carcinoma of left ovary with metastases intraperitoneal, at Wudinna. Informant was E. H. Edmonds, farmer of Wudinna.⁴

Mabel was buried on 15 September 1946 in the the Wudinna Cemetery, Wudinna, South Australia.⁵

Life Events

     Ralph Haines Edmonds was born on 11 March 1912 near Cowell, South Australia, son of Ernest Harry Edmonds and Mabel Jane Haines.¹

On 17 February 1940, Ralph, aged 27, married Rose Ellen Kayser, aged 29, daughter of Lorentz Kayser and Katherine Margaret Fitzgerald.

He died on Monday, 24 October 1988, aged 76 years, 7 months and 13 days, and he was cremated at Centennial Park Cemetery, Pasadena, South Australia, on 28 October 1988.²

Life Events

     Gwenyth Cecilia Mabel Edmonds was born on 19 December 1918 in Cummins, South Australia, daughter of Ernest Harry Edmonds and Mabel Jane Haines.¹

On 29 September 1944 aged 25, she married Arthur Reginald John Moxon, aged 26, son of Arthur Louis Moxon and Lydia Maria Burton, in Methodist Church, Wudinna, South Australia.²

She died on 8 December 2003 in Western Hospital, Henley Beach, South Australia, of a relapse of bowel cancer which had been in remission for ten years, aged 84.

Following a celebration at White Lady Funerals, Plympton, SA, she was cremated in Centennial Park Cemetery, Pasadena, South Australia, and her ashes were interred with her father, in Anglican B section, Path: BE, Site: 20.³

Life Events

     John Hinton Edmonds was born on 9 February 1911 in Cowell, South Australia, son of Ernest Harry Edmonds and Mabel Jane Haines.¹

On 10 March 1934, John, aged 23, married Ella Coraline Osborn, aged 21, daughter of Herbert Bertram Osborn and Margaret Atkinson Gray, in Church of Christ in Wudinna, South Australia. Jack's brother, Ralph and Ella's sister, Elsie were witnesses.^2,3 John began his military service in 1940 when he joined the AIF; he was discharged soon after to work in the Islington machine shops on war contracts, then in late 1942 joined the Mechanical Engineers (RAEME) and was eventually posted to New Guinea.
At the end of the war, while stationed in Brisbane awaiting discharge, he suffered a botched operation at the hands of a questionable MO, which was to affect him for the rest of his days, spending weeks, sometimes many months at a time, in Repatriation Hospitals.

He died in 1990, aged 78 years, in Denham, Western Australia, and is buried in the Denham Cemetery.