###MY TIME AS AN AUSTRALIAN SCHOLARSHIP STUDENT – Part Two

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ONE WEEK LIVING WITH AUSTRALIAN FARMING FAMILIES

 Before I commenced my first Year at the university, my case manager arranged for me to spend one week living with a farming family, Mr. and Mrs. John Anderson, in Harrod in the Western District of Victoria.

The District was settled by returned servicemen under the Soldier Settlement Scheme, and many had fought against the Japanese in Borneo during the Second World War.

Life was good for them as there was a strong demand for wool and the price of wool was historically high due to the Korean War. 

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I took a train from Melbourne to Horsham and was met on arrival by Mrs. Anderson. The next morning, I accompanied Mr. Anderson (John) to see his flock of sheep numbering over one hundred heads. John also had about a dozen dairy cattle and a couple of horses.   

 On the second day, I helped John’s son, Ian, with another farm worker, loading hay packs onto a truck to cart away for storing in the storage shed for feeding animals in winter. The work was heavy and tiring but I toughed it out.             

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In the following evening, there was a gathering of the Country Women Association members and their families and I was invited. Mrs. Anderson was the president of the Association. She also asked me whether I would like to give a talk about my country.

 At the meeting, Mrs. Anderson introduced me as an Australian scholarship student from Borneo coming here to study engineering at their university in Melbourne. I explained that I was from the northern part of Borneo, called Sarawak, a British colony,  population about 600,000 comprising 40% Dayaks, 25% Chinese, 20% Malays, and others.                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

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  My country, Sarawak, had a colorful history. It used to be a part of the Malay Sultanate of Brunei. However, the Sultan’s authority was limited to the coastal area settled mainly by Malay fishermen while the interior land was inhabited by hill tribes known as Dayaks who were rebellious against the Sultan as well as warring among themselves. They were the head-hunters of Borneo and had the ghastly practice of cutting off their enemies’ heads and proudly displaying the skulls as war trophies to show off their fighting prowess.       

During the early 19^thcentury, an English adventurer, James Brooke, arrived in Sarawak in a schooner and found the country was in chaos. He decided to join the Sultan in suppressing the rebellions. As a reward for fighting the insurgencies, he was bestowed the title Rajah to rule over the western part of the sultanate, and thus the Kingdom of Sarawak was established with Kuching as its capital. 

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Over the years, The Kingdom of Sarawak expanded its territory, by treaties or annexation, at the expense of the Sultanate of Brunei.     

Rajah James Brooke was succeeded by his nephew Charles Brooke who, upon his death, was succeeded by his son, Charles Vyner Brooke. All three rajahs were granted a knighthood by the British Monarchs.

Rajah Charles Brooke set up a system of public administration and promoted agriculture and mining development. Chinese immigrants were welcome and most worked in the thriving rubber plantations and gold and antinomy mines, whilst others worked as market gardeners growing peppers and other produce. When oil was discovered, more immigrant workers were needed to work in the oil field. 

Christian missionaries were encouraged in the kingdom setting up schools and propagating the gospels. The main missionaries were the Anglicans, the Catholics, and the Methodists. 

The advent of the Brooke government brought an end to the warring among the tribes and head-hunting was outlawed. Sarawak was now a peaceful country where the various communities lived in harmony.

Rajah Vyner Brooke continued the policies of his predecessors and the booming economy enabled him to modernize his government institutions. He gave up his absolute power, introduced a new constitution, and set up the Council Negri (Legislative Council) which comprised a majority of senior government officers appointed by him and a smaller number of Dayak chieftains, Chinese leaders and, and Malay headmen. The Council was empowered that no legislation would become law and no government money spent without its approval. 

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Education, however, was left to the community groups to operate each with their own agendas.

The Brooke dynasty continued for a century until the country was occupied by the Japanese imperial armies during the second world war. Towards the end of the war, the Kingdom of Sarawak was liberated by the Australian forces and became a British colony when the Brooke family ceded Sarawak to Britain. As a crown colony, Sarawak now had a governor appointed by the British government, in place of the rajah.                                                                      

I also talked about the climate and the infrastructure, or rather a lack of infrastructure in Sarawak. I thought my talk was well-received as two of the farmers complimented me on my knowledge of my country. 

After the meeting, another farming couple, Stan and his wife, Robyn(?), came up to invite me to stay with them for the remaining three nights of my trip. Stan said loading hay packs was not for me as I was not used to such work. He would like to take me to Mount Gambier in South Australia to see the famous Blue Lake about a two-hour drive away, and the Andersons had agreed to the arrangement. Thus, I thanked Mr. and Mrs. Anderson for their hospitality and left to join Stan and Robyn.

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Stan was also a returned soldier and a sheep and cattle farmer. Stan got up early in the morning to milk his cows. He had a collie, an intelligent and well-trained dog, which herded his cows to queue up at the milking shed while he prepared his machine for milking.                                                                                                                

Later in the morning, Stan and Robyn drove me to Mount Gambier to see the Blue Lake – an extinct volcano crater that changed the color of its water from steel grey in winter to bright cobalt blue in summer. 

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In the evening, Stan took me to see greyhound racing. While he was placing his bet, Stan asked me to look over his shoulder. There was a belief among some Australians that a “Chinaman” looking over their shoulders would bring them good luck in gambling. Unfortunately, Stan’s greyhound came in nearly last. He just shook his head and mumbled to himself, not true.  I tried to explain to Stan that I was no pure “Chinaman” as I was educated in English and had thus lost my good luck charm! We both had a good laugh.  

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Stan liked eating Chinese food and asked me whether I could cook Chinese food. I said I could cook simple dishes like fried rice. I knew many Australians liked fried rice and sweet and sour pork. There were plenty of yabbies, which tasted like prawns, in Stan’s fish pond. They usually just boiled the yabbies and eat them with salt and pepper. Robyn had some ham, peas, and eggs in her refrigerator. With a packet of rice and a bottle of soy sauce bought from the grocery shop, I had enough main ingredients to cook my yabby-ham fried rice. There was no pork in the house and I thought a rabbit would do.  Before the use of rabbit poison, there were plenty of wild rabbits on the farm, which tasted like chicken if properly skinned. With a shotgun Stan lent me, I soon managed to shoot a rabbit on the paddock. Together with a small can of pineapple, some onions, and tomatoes, I had enough main ingredients for cooking my sweet and sour rabbit. Using bits of rabbit meat as baits, I pulled up a dozen yabbies from the fish pond for cooking my fried rice.  At dinner that evening, my fried rice and the sweet and sour rabbit went well with Stan’s cold beer and we finished off a large bowl of fried rice and a plate of the sweet and sour rabbit. 

Next day, I said farewell to Stan and Robyn and thanked them for being gracious hosts and for the enjoyable time I had on their farm.  Part of the objective of the Australian Colombo Plan was to promote people-to-people relationships and bring Australia and Asia closer together. In this respect, I thought my trip was successful. I returned to Melbourne feeling a mission accomplished.

         Written by  Leong Chee Seng 龍志成 22 January 2019

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FOOTNOTE:

The author Leong Chee Seng, 龍志成 was among the first batch of students graduated from Kuala Belait Chung Hua Primary School after the 2nd world war. For the story before St. Thomas’s School time, see “Memories of our venture to China for further education”                    

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