Mexborough and Swinton Times, April 22nd 1932
Thurnscoe Man “Making Good”
News is to hand of another Thurnscoe emigrant to Australia under the Farm Emigration Scheme. Mr. S. Jackson, son of Mr and Mrs. S. Jackson. His father was formerly a police constable stationed at Thurnscoe, and is now employed as watchman at Hickleton Main. Mr. Jackson, jun., is at Beerwah. Peachester, New South Wales, and reports plenty of work and a hope of returning home soon with “a nice little nest egg”. He preferred to remain an employee instead of setting up farming on his own, and it has proved a successful line of action, finding him regular work without any of the current worries about wool or wheat prices. His savings have steadily accumulated.
He writes home: “There is not much news. This part of the country is the quietest place on earth. The last eleven days have brought a continuous rainstorm and everything is covered with mud. The cow yards are knee deep and you could do with wings to get the cows in in the mornings, when it is dark. From the look of the sky it looks like raining for another eleven days! The rainy season here gets on your nerves.”
Entertainment is so sparce that he rode ten miles to see a travelling film show and got there in time to see disappointed people coming away. The car conveying the apparatus had got bogged in a swamp 26 miles from its destination, and there was no show.
This sensible young man writes in a letter dated 25th February that he has just been to Brisbane on business with the emigration authorities, and at the same time has banked his savings. The Agent tried, he said, to get him to buy a farm, but Jackson’s reply was “Nothing doing.” He is enthusiastic about Australia, though he says anyone who wants to get on there must be prepared to work, and work hard – 16-18 hours a day – but it has many advantages which make him feel sometimes he would not like to leave Australia, though he wants to see home again. The biggest drawback to the life out there is the loneliness, he finds.