Preece Family Tree

Racing to send apple cargoes off to England

Families are working long hours to pick and pack fruit

By Freda Young

Among the apple orchardists all over Australia who are working round the clock to send off bumper cargoes to England are men and women for whom the rich harvest has a sentimental significance.

They are descendants of the early English settlers who planted the first apple trees in South Australia on the slopes of the Adelaide Hills winding down into valleys, ideal apple country.

All growers are sharing the satisfaction of getting off 375,000 cases of apples this month to fruit-hungry England.

They are working at terrific pressure to get the fruit picked before it is weather-spoilt, and for the majority of them and their families this has meant a seven day and night working week for a long time.

During recent weeks the growers received a bitter disappointment when they were told that owing to shipping shortages the original order of a million and a quarter cases could not be sent.

The situation improved when, thanks to Argentine fruit boats becoming available, it was found that a quarter of the order could be sent.

Extra apples are going off to England in dried and "solid pack" (a species of jellied canning), for which a huge consignment is being processed.

About 100,000 cases are also outward bound from South Australia by Swedish freighters for Sweden.

Still more will be sent off to troops in Japan and the Islands and even local markets are benefitting.

In the lovely Adelaide Hills, where flourish some of the most beautiful orchards in Australia, I found the Elliott Hannaford family, of Mount Bera, Cudlee Creek, busy picking export apples.

Included in their quota are apples from trees planted by their forebears more than 100 years ago.

Back in 1840 Susannah Hannaford, a courageous widow with several sons and a daughter, came from Totnes in Devon and built a home, Mount Bera.

She planted Cleopatras and Stone Pippins, many of which, proud monarchs of the orchard, are still in full bearing, and it is from these that her great-grandson, Elliott Hannaford, has, for sweet sentiment's sake, sent specimens "Home".

There is a truly English air about most fruit gardens in the Adelaide Hills. They are encircled by hedges and leafy lanes, often overhung with English trees.

No wonder orchardists have thrilled to the sound of "Apples for England."

Elliott Hannaford is proud of his early pioneer connections.

His home is the one built by Susannah and her sons, and it is almost in its original state.

In the orchard there is a sprinkling of stately English trees, and walnut trees abound.

Opal glass portraits of Frederick Hannaford (Elliott's grandfather) and his wife smile from the walls of the sitting-room at Mount Bera, framed in walnut wood grown on the property.

The export of apples from Mount Bera began in Frederick's days, when he sent the first consignment of South Australian apples ever to go to England.

They were wrapped in newspaper, packed in second-hand kerosene-cases, bound with second-hand hoop-iron, and despatched as ordinary cargo, and brought 27/- a case at Covent Garden!

The orchard has moved with the times and Elliott is something of a pioneer himself.

He was the first man in South Australia to put in an overhead system of pipes for spraying. About ten thousand gallons are sprayed about seven times a year.

For three years during the war Elliott did all the spraying himself.

There was a good deal of speculation among neighboring orchardists over the revolutionary spraying plant, but it was successful, and much hard work has been eliminated.

The Reddens are another pioneer orchardist family.

John Redden settled in the same Hills district with his wife and children, and many of his descendants have large fruit holdings.

His son, Fred Redden, has a fruit property at Prairie. Up the winding Hills road is Fred's nephew, Leslie Redden.

Leslie Redden's sister, Mrs. S. J. Hurst, of neighboring Paracombe married into another pioneer family. Her husband was the youngest of eight sons of the original Hurst settler.

Growing and picking apples is not the whole of the apple story.

Many orchardists have grouped together and established co-operative stores and packing sheds.

The famous Hannaford family are in on this end of the business also, and managing the Cudlee Creek Co-operative Packing Society is Susannah's great-great-grandson, Bill Hannaford, nephew of Elliott.

Bill was connected with the co-operative society for a number of years before he enlisted. He served five years at the war, two and a half of which were spent in England where he was a sergeant in the R.A.A.F. stores.

South Australian history is founded on such families as the Hannafords and the Reddens.

[Photo captions:]
Ex-R.A.A.F sergeant Bill Hannaford carries a case of Cleopatras ready for wrapping and despatch to England

Lovely panorama shows part of Mount Bera, in the Adelaide Hills, where there are some of the most flourishing apple orchards in the Commonwealth

Pretty apple-picker is Peggy Hannaford, who with the rest of her family shares the seasonal job of picking

Hannaford family at work on their orchard, Mount Bera, S.A. Mrs. Hannaford and Clair and Peggy are seen at left. Mr. Hannaford and his son John inspect apples. Apple tree in foreground is 100 years old.

Smart packers at work at Cudlee Creek, S.A. (From left) Harold Nobes, Daphne Wilson, and Len Nobes sealing cases of apples