Geraldine (Jill) O’Dwyer was born on January 8, 1937 to Jack and Elizabeth O’Dwyer.
Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content
She was the second youngest of six children in the family, who could never have envisaged the hardships they would face.
While just a young mother, Elizabeth was diagnosed with breast cancer.
While she battled hard after breast surgery, it was a struggle to look after her children and cope with the stress of serious drought conditions.
Sadly, she lost her life when Jill was 10 years old.
It was an unbelievably difficult time for Jack, taking on total responsibility for four daughters and two sons, with a farm to run.
However, his eldest daughter, 19-year-old Marie, capably took responsibility for keeping the family together.
The farm was not connected to power back then; however, in 1953, electricity was brought to local country areas, totally transforming people’s lives.
Life became easier with electric milking machines and shearing equipment, power-driven tools and improved living conditions.
The family property, Glenfield, was situated 5km out of Barooga at Boomanoomana.
Jill began her schooling at the local school, 3km away, to which the siblings often travelled in a horse and gig.
Later, when the school closed, the children attended Tocumwal Catholic Primary and boarded there during the week.
They were brought home on Saturdays by Fr Hanrahan in a truck with side covers, joined by students from local families, the Danahers, Brooks and Cullens.
From a young age, Jill excelled at sport, winning multiple championships in the district and interschool competitions. She was athletic and determined.
In Year 10 Jill was sent to boarding school in Albury. But being not particularly happy, she was allowed to return home to help her father and her brother Gerald on the farm until the age of 23.
She loved it, and proved she could turn her hand to anything, from cutting wood to milking cows and carting the milk in buckets to a separator in the dairy.
Draft horses were vital for farmwork, and it became Jill’s job to water and feed the much-loved animals.
Money was often quite scarce, with little cash left for treats; however, the family were happy, and their door would always be open to anyone, including boarders who were sometimes teachers at the school.
Jill married Vin Toohey, a great mate of her brothers Gerald and Phillip, and the Barooga couple became recognised as trendsetters at that time when their 180 guests attended the first evening wedding ever held in the Cobram district.
The couple were destined to become farmers, with both brought up on the land. They purchased a 640-acre property called Claredale in 1961, which Vin worked for six months before their marriage.
They survived on pigs and rabbits prior to buying a small herd of cows and setting up a dairy.
Initially, they sold cream. Later they installed a refrigerated vat in the dairy and took to selling liquid milk.
Life was tough. They couldn’t afford to employ farmhands and were forced to do all the work themselves.
At weekends, they would milk in the morning, then head off to play sport in the afternoon, returning home for the evening milking.
If they could afford to, they would drive back into town to enjoy a night out.
In 1963 Jill and Vin’s first child, Bernard, was born, followed by Liz in 1965, Gerard in 1966, Stephen in 1967 and Helen in 1969.
Jill loved taking her children to sporting events and delighted in their many achievements.
She was highly competitive, and her children appeared to have inherited the gene.
Sport was to play a large part in the lives of the Toohey family, including Mum and Dad.
Jill became a driver for the family, often piling a carload of children into the family Holden station wagon.
She would take her own five kids, and often neighbours’ children, to football, basketball, netball, tennis, cricket, Little Athletics or swimming.
She was not only the driver, but would stand in as team manager, scorer, umpire, a nurse if anyone needed a band-aid, and if the kids were extra lucky, the icy-pole lady on the way home after the game.
She loved it all, and she was invested in ensuring her children did not miss out.
Then it was time to head home and prepare either lunch or dinner for the family and her hardworking husband, Vin, who had milked 80 cows and cleaned up the dairy on his own, while they were away.
Keep an eye out at cobramcourier.com.au, or pick up a copy of the Courier, January 7 edition, for part two.