Ted was the 'Real McCoy'

His primary education was spent at the Bell State School then at a little one-teacher school called Sunnyvale State School, 5kms from the family farm which he and his siblings rode to and from each day on horse-back. Ted’s secondary school years were spent at Nudgee College in Brisbane until he left at the tender age of 15yrs to go home and work the family farm with his father, with whom Ted shared a very strong bond.

His older brother Terry and his two younger brothers Des and Brian also spent their secondary school years at Nudgee where both Ted’s and Terry’s sons and grandsons have spent their secondary school years as well.

In 1950, Ted’s eldest brother Terry, drew the house block of the then Sidney Kidman owned Hamilton Downs, in a land ballot.

In 1951, at the age of 16, he moved north to Hamilton with Terry and his father to help develop the property with them. During his time working at Hamilton, he slowly, but surely, put together his own flock of sheep.

It was this flock of sheep which was to shape his destiny, as he became a passionate and very good sheep man. One of Ted’s tasks at Hamilton was to delve the long bore drains there with a team of Clydesdale horses his father bought from Eddington Station, west of Julia Creek.

He always spoke with great fondness of these horses when he relayed stories of how they all knew their roles and their positions in the team when being harnessed, and how the old lead horses would continue straight ahead on the corners until commanded to turn so as not to pull their mates behind them into the drains.

Ted pulled off quite the feat on one occasion while at Hamilton with a man called Frank Stockham who was working there at the time. The two of them set off from Hamilton in the early hours of one morning to deliver a mob of dogger-horses they had sold to a fellow named Tom Hutchison from Amelia Downs, just south of the Ayrshire hills, about 60kms north-west of Winton. After handing the horses over to their new owner, Ted and Frank headed straight back to Hamilton at the trot. They arrived back at Hamilton late that evening. That round trip was a distance of around 160kms, not a trip for the faint hearted man or horse.

In early 1957, while at Hamilton on his own, Ted received news that his beloved father had passed away suddenly of a heart attack in Dalby aged 54 years. He took this news particularly hard, and it was very wet at Hamilton at the time so the roads were all impassable. To rub salt into the wound, despite exhaustive attempts to dry the airstrip out by walking a mob of sheep up and down the airstrip on his horse he was unable to get a plane in to make it to his father’s funeral. This was a source of great sadness to him throughout his life.

Shortly after losing his father in 1957 Ted met Sylvia Margaret Stephens who was Governess for the Anning family at Wetherby Station Richmond. As a result of this momentous meeting, a strong friendship between the Annings and the McCoys was forged which has spanned 57 years and three generations. The relationship between Ted and Sylvia blossomed and culminated in their marriage in 1959 which spanned 55 years.

After their marriage Ted and Sylvia moved to Hamilton where they lived in the cottage. Later that year their eldest son Michael was born. In the first half of 1960 they sold the sheep from Hamilton and moved back south to Dalby. In July of 1960 their second child, Joanne, was born in Murgon.

They then purchased the post office and store at Kaimkillenbun, between Dalby and Bell. During their time in Kaimkillenbun, in December 1961, their second son, Jed was born in Dalby. They sold the post office and store in July 1963 and moved into a house in Knox street in Dalby. The house was next door to Bernie and Pam Langton with whom they formed an extraordinary friendship which has been lifelong. During this time at Knox Street, Ted took a job with Keyland aviation delivering aviation fuel to crop dusters on the various farms where they were spraying crops.

Ted’s heart still lay in the north with his sheep so in February of 1964, Ted and Sylvia, in partnership with the rest of his family (the estate of E.J. McCoy), purchased Judith Royl, next door to Hamilton. February of 1965 saw the arrival of their second daughter Tanya, and unfortunately the failure of the wet season. This saw the start of a dreadful run in the rural industry in north Queensland.

The drought of 1965, which is indelibly etched in the memories of all who experienced it, combined with the wool price crash, it dealt them a heavy blow so soon after buying the place. These bad seasons and low prices dogged them right through until 1970. To add insult to injury, in the midst of all this, in 1967, the gas hot water cistern malfunctioned and burned the Judith Royl house to the ground leaving them with only the clothes they stood up in.

Their good friends, Keith and Vera Walker, from Maroola, next door to Judith Royl were a great help to them by giving them the old Windsor Park homestead for the family to live in, among other things whilst Ted closed in and concreted one end of the Judith Royl machinery shed for somewhere to live while a new house was built. It was only Ted’s and Sylvia’s grit and determination, and their incredible capacity for work which saw them through these and subsequent years.

Money was so tight in those years that Ted and Terry formed a shearing team with friends of theirs, Frank Wells from Mt Campbell, Gordon Kennedy from Werna, Bob and Buck Little from Craicrin, Tom Hutchison, Lenny Mutton, George Dixon, Mark Tanks and Moose Herchell, all from Winton, to name some of them.

Some very funny stories from these shearing days brightened up a very tough situation. Bob and Buck were a lot younger than the other team members and Ted had a great affection for them due to their excellent work ethic and the great sense of humour they both possessed.

Ted also used to cart wool on his beloved Chevrolet truck to the rail heads in Winton, Maxwelton and Richmond to earn a few extra dollars whenever he could.

Survival during this difficult period was a team effort.

Obviously while Ted was away trying to earn a quid to put food on the table, it was left to Sylvia to keep the wheels turning at Judith Royl which was a huge task for a woman with four children to care for as well.

By the late 60s, as a result of successive droughts, the land had become almost completely denuded and very dusty, and the prevailing winds were strong and persistent from the south and south-east.

These winds shifted so much soil every day that they would fill the bore drains completely with dirt. This made it necessary for Sylvia to go out on the old Fordson tractor with the four kids and delve sections of the bore drain every afternoon to give the water a chance to flow downstream during the night when the winds would ease a little.

The Judith Royl house had large verandahs on it and so much dust used to blow there at different times that shovels had to be used to remove the bulk of the dirt off them before brooms could be used to sweep them. This went on for quite extended periods and was character-building to say the least.

The sheep handling was done exclusively by Ted, Sylvia and the four children. In the early days, mustering was done in a 1965 model Nissan patrol, one horseman and the balance on foot. This number varied depending on temperature, time of day and temperament of the individuals involved, at any given time. Later on a few ponies were added to the plant which was slowly made redundant by the advent of motorbikes.

Understandably, Ted’s family members had become totally disillusioned with the sheep industry by this time and wanted their money out of Judith Royl, so he tried to sell the place for quite some time unsuccessfully. There were so many properties on the market by then that people had either walked off or were also trying to sell that there were just not enough buyers.

Ted and Sylvia then decided to go to the bank themselves and see how much money they could borrow to offer the family. They made the family their best offer, which they accepted, and Judith Royl was their own, albeit, with a huge mountain to climb. Fortunately, the 70’s saw things pick up for the sheep industry.

These changes made it possible for Ted to start introducing better quality rams into his flock. He really liked the large framed, medium-woolled rams from Collinsville stud in South Australia. He stuck to these rams and they stuck to him, because it wasn’t long before Ted was known for his big framed sheep producing heavy fleeces of wool.

Such was his dedication to his sheep, that he spent more than one Christmas dinner beside “Cockatoo waterhole”, or along a bore drain somewhere on Judith Royl, eating a cold meat sandwich with his much loved mare “Cindy”, whilst checking for bogged, or otherwise distressed sheep.

In 1984, Ted and Sylvia purchased the neighbouring property, Robyn Downs, which fitted perfectly into Judith Royl and gave them a very efficient 70,000 acre holding. They continued to operate these two properties until 1988.

Another run of very ordinary seasons during the 80’s combined with concerns Ted and Sylvia held about where the “floor price scheme” was taking the wool industry, led them to sell Judith Royl and Robyn Downs in 1988 and purchase Rainscourt, north east of Richmond, and move into the cattle industry. In 1993, they expanded with the purchase of “Rowena”, a very good fattening property 13kms east of Richmond where they lived until their retirement in 2007.

Ted was a private, dignified, proud man, whose sole objective in life was to provide for his family. His honesty, integrity and loyalty were beyond question. He was a dedicated, motivated, hard-working man of simple pleasures. His great loves in life were his family, his siblings, his sheep, his country, his car, a few beers with family and friends, Neil Diamond’s music, a good joke and the ABC news. His pet hates, in this order were dingoes, foxes, wild pigs, barking dogs and noise while the news was on. If you were looking to stimulate a lively debate with Ted, all that was required was to mention what a good job Julia Gillard, Kevin Rudd, Anna Bligh, Peter Beattie, Paul Keating, Bob Hawke and Gough Whitlam had done!

Ted also had a dry and unexpected sense of humour. One memorable example of this took place in the early hours of one morning during the 1970’s after a ball in Winton. Ted’s share price took a sharp and sudden plunge when at departure time he appeared to have been a bit too under the weather to take the pilot’s seat, leaving the less than impressed co-pilot to take the controls for the 130km journey home. The pilot in control was taking a very direct route, straight up the middle of the road, swerving to miss nothing and as she was crossing the Wokingham bridges she squarely hit a number of large pot holes which Ted always diligently avoided in his much cared for car. From his peaceful slumber in the co-pilot’s seat, Ted bravely declared “Good on you Love, you didn’t miss one of them!”

Ted was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2005 which he was handling with the same courage he handled life but a heart attack in 2006 took a terrible toll on his health.

On March 25, 2014, tragically, Ted lost his long battle with his health problems, passing away at 3am in the Richmond hospital. Ted is survived by his loving, devoted wife Sylvia, four children Michael, Joanne, Jed and Tanya and ten beloved grandchildren, through whom Ted’s legacy will live on. The void left in these lives by his loss is impossible to fill.

This is an extract from the heartfelt words spoken by his eldest daughter Jo McClymont at his funeral which summed him up;

“I am who I am today because I knew him. He was not much into chat so I will keep it brief. Dad was steady, reserved, unassuming, hardworking, loyal and generous. His presence was constant and unchanging. He went about his business quietly, completely honestly and without imposing on anyone else along the way.

“He did not seek, nor want, thanks or accolades. Dad aspired to work hard, remain on the land, educate his children and put something together, all of which he achieved. He was a family man who loved his family first and foremost.

“Above all else, Dad was a homebody, so it was a great comfort to us, and I know to him that we were able to keep him here to the end.

“The last 18 months have been a wild ride for Dad, but true to form, he did not give up easily. We feel incredibly fortunate to have had him in our lives for as long as we did, and the world is a better place for having had him in it.

“We have no choice, if we love we grieve. We will miss him dearly but he has now gone for a well-earned camp. Goodbye Dad, tonight I will fall asleep with you in my heart.”

Ted was farewelled in Richmond by a large gathering of people, some of whom travelled enormous distances which was deeply appreciated by his family. His family was comforted and very humbled by the outpouring of sympathy and support from all their family and friends during this sad time.

The family are also extremely grateful for the wonderful help, support and kindness they received from the Richmond community nurse Sally Harrison, Ann Maree Doyle and the entire HACC team, as well as the caring staff at the Richmond Health Centre.