JULIAN Ernest Malcolm Jewell (Jim) was born on May27, 1931 at Aramac Central, Queensland, the fourth in the Jewell family of four brothers and two sisters.
He arrived with our parents in Charters Towers from Aramac in 1932.
Jim had a lifelong love of horses. His first business venture with livestock was at 13 years of age in 1944 during the latter part of WW2. Jim decided, the two shillings (20 cents) he and I received as payment for weekly chores that dad paid us on Saturday afternoons to go to the movies, could be put to better use than buying a pie or pasty.
It cost nine pence (nine cents) per movie ticket.
Therefore the one and three pence change (13 cents) could be combined and put to a better use than buying something to eat. I was his business partner, and we both swore to keep secret our business deals from our parents.
So, after we purchased our tickets, Jim collected my 13 cents change and added it to his change. Within a couple of weeks we had 5 shillings (50 cents) which we used to buy our first horse. She was a fairly old mare and Jim and I used ride her bareback with a borrowed bridle on weekends rather using ponies from our friends.
The change from our picture money was building up into a little bank roll so we sold our first horse for seven and six pence (76 cents). With that money, plus our hidden cash assets, we purchased a better class of horse for 10 shillings ($1). This went on for nearly three years selling and then buying a better horse each time.
Jim was a good balanced rider with good hands and seat on a horse. Mum and dad never had any idea we were the proud owners of a horse and often asked who owned the different horse when it appeared on weekends in our backyard.
Our friend Claude Risdale innocently wore the blame most times as we were allowed the use of a paddock not far from Claude’s house out on Sandy Creek, provided we kept the water trough clean and full and its boundary fences in good order (the cheapest and most willing labour the owner ever had).
Early in 1947 we brought a good chestnut mare called Goldie for £7 pounds ($14) this was big money to us; we also had a second-hand Carr Poly saddle by then. We learnt the hard way that Goldie was a better than average buckjumper as she promptly threw me saddle and all. I was still in the saddle lying on the ground when Jim walked up. He looked down at me and said “We need a crupper”. I recall I told him just where to shove the crupper and saddle. Jim always rode her out like he was sitting in an armchair.
Later that year (about three years after we brought our first horse) there was hell to pay when dad discovered the Bills of Sale for Honey, Ponto, Creamy, Havelock, The Grey, Tex and Goldie that we had hidden on a ledge above a door at home. That was the finish of our horse trading venture.
Jim left Charters Towers High School in 1947 aged 16 and went to work on Gregory Downs Station in the Gulf Country as a stockman, receiving a good grounding in stock work from our uncle Charlie Schaffert. Over the next seven years Jim worked on a number of cattle station’s including Strathmore (Collinsville), Wando Vale, Boomera, Silver Valley, Hillgrove, Eumara Springs, Chudleigh Park and Dotswood. At age 20 was the head stockman on Dotswood running one of the 3 cattle camps.
In 1949 I came in from Wando Vale where I was a stockman during the Christmas break. Jim was already in the Towers for his break and, with some friends, had run Goldie into our backyard where we had built a small stable. Goldie had had about an18 month spell by then. Jim decided to ride her in our backyard which had a bit of space. Our double gates in the backyard faced out onto Plant Street opposite Thornburgh College, they were broken and it was left wide open. It was a Sunday morning. Dad armed himself with a big stick and stood in the centre of the open gate to block Goldie if she tried to get out of the yard. I lugged her by the ear for Jim to settle into the saddle. When he was ready I let go of Goldie’s ear. Goldie put her head down and really put on a great buck jumping exhibition. She went to town with all she had, but couldn’t throw Jim. Goldie then saw the open gate and bolted straight for it. Dad did a magnificent sidestep that Wally Lewis our champion footballer would have been proud of. Goldie shot out into Plant Street, still pig rooting, straight into the Thornburgh College boys marching along Plant Street on their way back from church. Straw Boater hats flew everywhere as the boys and teachers dived out of the way. Jim ploughed straight through them. Nobody was hurt and I told mum who was upset that most of the boys came of cattle stations out west and would have enjoyed the action more than their church service.
About three years later, after I had finished the droving season with the late Ron Carrington I came down to Charters Towers for a break, but Charlie Freestun, the manager of the 1,000 square miles Wando Vale station, was short-handed so I never did have that break, but I joined Jim and Jack Trewick and we shot out several big mobs of brumbies (wild horses) on Wando Vale over a 100 road miles in those days from Charters Towers. One of the Brumbies, with a long tangled mane and a huge crow’s nest of hair in her tail, looked familiar, we checked the carcase and sure enough it was Goldie. How she got there we never knew. Probably some light fingered drover stole her but found she was too good for them to handle so let her go.
A few days later Charlie Freestun sent word to Jack Trewick, who was the 12 Mile’s head stockman, to muster the Devil’s Elbow country. So, with the full mustering camp of six men, we got into it. Jim and I worked as a pair taking turns to throw some big cleanskin bulls. Over several days we put together a big mob of mixed cattle. We then took them over to the big yards at 12 mile. We had great trouble yarding them up as the thick red dust rising from the yards entrance was blinding. Jim was on the left wing with Ginger well behind him. I was over on the right wing with Jack, Billy and the Ghan on the tail. I caught a very quick glimpse of Jim’s riderless mare trotting away. I didn’t know what had happened to Jim as I had troubles of my own.
I found out later that Ginger saw Jim’s mare trot out of the dust. Ginger did a smart piece of work by spurring his horse straight thru the blinding dust right into the mob, found Jim and protected him from being trampled or horned as he was still groggy from the fall.
We finally yarded them and I immediately rode around to Jim. He was knocked about a bit and complained one ankle was a bit sore. We found the impact of his leg smashing onto the big lave rocks had actually bent the long shank of his spur at right angles to his boot heal, something none of us had ever seen before.
He was a very lucky boy that day.
In 1954 with seven years of livestock experience behind him Jim joined the Livestock Department of New Zealand Loan & Mercantile Company Ltd at Townsville, which in 1960 was taken over by Dalgetys. He must have drafted thousands of cattle through the Garbutt, Bohle, Miowera and Mareeba Saleyards. He also sent stud cattle to Iraq by aircraft and by ship to the Philippines , Papua New Guinea etc.
Jim always had a keen eye for both horses and cattle. He was outstanding in his knowledge of blood Lines and pedigrees so much so many of his clients trusted him to purchase livestock on their behalf. He was also invited to be the livestock judge at many of the North Queensland Shows and one time he was flown up to the Lae Show in Papua New Guinea to judge their livestock exhibits.
Agents and buyers covered a wide area on bad roads in those days. One time Jim organised for Sydney Kidman & Co to inspect 1,500 head of Newcastle Waters steers in the Northern Territory. Jim flew to Mt Isa in a DC3, then by bus to Tennant Creek. Ernie Spence, Kidman’s Buyer, brought them for £18 ($36) per head and they were then walked down into to South Australia.
Another time Jim flew the late “Tiger” Nelson, Swift’s cattle buyer by Bush Pilots to the Valley of Lagoons Station to inspect store steers for Swifts fattening property Bentley. At about 9am on the third morning of riding around the property inspecting steers, Jim’s horse put her foot into a hole in the grass and fell. Jim’s wrist was sore from the fall so he put his arm inside his shirt as a sling. He rode all day until late afternoon when they flew back to Townsville. In Townsville, Jim went to the hospital for an x-ray. His wrist was broken in two places and he wore a plaster cast for the next 12 weeks. He showed the same fortitude recently whilst in hospital.
In 1966, Jim purchased some good quality, but unhandled, young herd bulls from the late Fred Drew, Uutchie Creek on behalf of Fred Keinzel, Yodda Vally, Kokoda, New Guinea for top money. I came down to the Cairns airport from Mareeba to help Jim load them onto a DC3. The two of us started at 1am. as they had to be loaded for take-off at 3am to enable the aircraft to arrive at Port Moresby by daylight to then get over the Owen Stanley Range in the early morning before the clouds rolled in. The two of us had trouble loading those bulls as they were playing up very badly and refusing to board the DC3.
Jim roared at Fred as he was standing watching “Fred, the deal was that you were going to break them in to be led by a halter. Did you do that?” Fred yelled back “Yes, once around the paddock hooked up behind the Ferguson Tractor”. Fred lost his temper and, and with that, jumped up onto the side of the truck, to help Jim and I. Unfortunately for Fred there was a part of a side panel broken right beside his legs. One bull let fly with a kick right through that gap and planted a beauty right into Fred’s thigh at full force. Fred jumped down rubbing his thigh. He must have thought of the top money he had received, so gave a sickly grin and said “All for a good cause boys”, but then kept right out of the way. We managed to load them in time for take-off.
Fred advised Jim he was happy with the bulls. However Jim and I often wondered what happened when some poor unfortunate native stepped into the yard to put a halter on one of those bulls.
Among Jim’s papers I found a couple of stories he wrote. One story he wrote I will read as I was also involved.
“Back in the 50s and 60s the roads were fairly primitive and we found it a lot quicker to use Bush Pilots at Townsville to fly us around to make inspections. On one occasion we were to inspect heifers at Glen Ruth, Mt Garnet. The only aircraft available was a Cessna 172. It was fairly crowded with five heavy men including my brother John who was also working for Dalgetys. John did not want to go as, in his opinion, it was overloaded and underpowered. However as Jan Kingma, our pilot, had taught John to fly, he came.
The airstrip at Glen Ruth, at that time, was fairly short but lengthened later. It was fenced off with a huge split ironbark top rail on it at one end with some tall trees further back. At the other end was a vegetable garden then some dead trees that lead out over a rocky gorge.
The heifers were purchased. It was an extremely hot windless summer day. At 1pm Jan taxied right back to the garden fence to obtain as much length as possible for take-off.
We raced down the strip, passed the station people waving goodbye, but it became obvious we would never clear that Ironbark top rail. John, up front with Jan, turned in his seat and called “Brace yourself!, brace yourself!”, but my knuckles were already white from hanging on. Jan was an exceptional pilot. He said to John “Can’t make it, I’m swinging it around and will try to get off at the other end”. We raced back past the still waving station people, just cleared the garden fence by a very narrow margin and just made it over trees and staggered out over the rocky gorge, with the stall warning signal chirping away. One of the Buyers asked me what the noise was, I said “It’s nothing Mate”.
Arriving back at Townsville John walked away muttering “I never did like those Bloody 172s”.
In 1976, after 12 years as a livestock agent, Jim hopped the fence and joined FJ Walker as a cattle buyer. He worked continuously with this company through their several name changes for 37 years until he retired last year in December 2013 aged 83.
Jim was also a keen Racing enthusiast and could be found out at the Cluden Race Course on most race days. His knowledge of the bloodlines of racehorses was outstanding. I only had to ask him what was the breeding of a certain horse and he could quote it from memory without reference.
During his last two days in hospital my daughter Susan and I took his old photo album up and although he was very weak he very alert mentally. He whispered the names of all the horses, the ringer’s names, and on what cattle stations the photos were on. When I asked him about the two English blokes on horses in one photo at Egera, he replied “Bloody useless Pommy B’s”
Jim devoted his life to the livestock industry for 67 years from the age of 16 to over 83 years of age. As he said to me recently whilst in hospital “I’ve had a fair crack of the whip with my life and I have no regrets”
He will be sorely missed by our family and his many friends he made over his 83 years.