Sadie Kirkham with her late husband Mac during a staff member’s wedding.Sadie Kirkham has had a long involvement in community organisations – and bad luck with bureaucracy.Berwick’s Sadie Kirkham recalls bureaucracy at its worst when the State Government acquired her family’s farm without warning.
“Our farm was on land they wanted for the Moorabbin airport at what was then known as Heatherton,” she said.
“We were virtually kicked off our own land.”
Mrs Kirkham said her family was in the field cutting cabbages for market when men walked on to the property and began putting in white pegs.
“The boys went over and asked what was going on,” she said. “They were told that our farm had been acquired.
“I was only 17.”
The property was the Brownfield Brothers market garden and dairy farm owned by Sadie’s father and brother.
“We fought it for years, but it was hopeless,” Sadie said.
“They offered prewar value for land, but prewar was the depression time.
“My father died during that time, brokenhearted.”
Sadie said things changed after that episode and the Government found it could no longer deal with people in that way.
“Not long after, another family with a smaller farm not far away from ours received $1 million for their property,” she said.
“People are now being treated more fairly, but the airfield has only ever been used for private business.”
Sadie Brownfield was born at Chelmer Hospital, Cheltenham, and lived a fairly typical life of a young girl growing up in the area at that time.
Her penchant for community was probably inbred from day one because her father helped to run the Heatherton Carnival.
Sadie began her education at the Heatherton State School three miles from home.
“For the first year my brother dinked me to school on his bike,” she said.
“Then I got my own bike.
“I went from Heatherton to the Dingley State School because the Ventura bus started on that route.
“I then went to Dandenong High School for three years.”
Sadie, like many of her peers, left school to help on the farm, despite a passion to advance her schooling in Melbourne.
“Mum said girls got married and didn’t need a career,” she said.
“I stayed on the farm until the Government took it from us.”
Sadie said in those days you worked at whatever job you could get.
“I worked for the butcher, in a cake shop, and took on childminding,” she said.
“When I was childcaring I lived in with some families, which was fairly okay.
“Mostly I slept in the room with the children.
“One family was fantastic and to this day I am friends with the daughter of the family.
“I was courting with Mac Kirkham when I was there and stayed until we were married when I was 21.”
The Kirkham family was farming on a property at the corner of Hallam and Pound roads, Hampton Park.
“Mac’s father gave the first 50 pounds to help build the Hallam Hall on land donated by another family,” Sadie said.
Intercommunication and a friendship led to that allimportant meeting with her future husband, Mac.
“A girl I went to school with had been in Tasmania,” Sadie said.
“When she came home she asked me to go to a ball with her.
“Mac walked into the hall and we just clicked.
“I was 18 and we courted for three years until we were married at the Heatherton Methodist Church.
“We first lived with Mac’s brother in Dandenong.
“We didn’t have much to start out with. He was 27 and I was 21.
“He had mostly worked on the farm without pay as they did in those days.
“We borrowed Mum’s car for our honeymoon at Lakes Entrance.
“He worked at a mill in Beverage and would go each day by train from Dandenong.
“On weekends he would deliver milk and ice for his brother.
“I worked for a year at the Beaumont stocking factory near the Dandenong Railway Station, but I developed an allergy problem with the silk and had to leave.”
The couple took on the Cosy Corner cafe on Lonsdale and Foster streets, Dandenong.
“We ran that for three years before we sold,” Sadie said.
“We worked long hours, but it gave us a good start.
“People would come in for a feed after the dance and the Wonthaggi bus would drop people off for a meal before they caught the train.
“We sold pies, pasties, and sausage rolls that we made ourselves.
“We made our own iceblocks for sale in the shop.
“The truckies came in for a meal and that was always a good recommendation.”
The Kirkhams left the shop and returned to farming in Hampton Park, but Sadie was one to put in and kept working a job.
“I worked making hamburgers for Wally Werritt in Dandenong, and that helped us get on,” she said.
“Mac was busy on the farm and in the community.
“He was fire brigade captain, football club president and we were involved in the Methodist Church.
“I would bake cakes for stalls.”
The couple sold the farm with a plan to buy land at Yarram, but alas the Government again stepped into Sadie’s life and decided it wanted the land they had chosen.
“The Government wanted it for soldier settlement farms,” she said.
“We returned to Hampton Park and bought a house, but later moved to Dandenong and then out to Harkaway.
“We were always on committees.”
Along the way she became the proprietor of McKinley’s Haberdashery of Berwick and will be remembered for her years in the shop.
“We had everything from pins to school uniforms,” Sadie said.
“It was an old fashioned drapery store.
“I retired from the shop in 1986.”
Sadie became heavily involved in the Guiding movement and recently received a 30year certificate noting her commitment to the cause, during which time she served as district commissioner and as regional commissioner.
This led to a dedicated involvement with the Berwick Hospital.
“The Guides would serve suppers at the hospital and I was invited to join the hospital auxiliary,” Sadie said.
She served two terms as auxiliary president totalling 14 years.
Sadness came when one night Mac was restless and a visit to the doctor resulted in bad news for the family.
He was seriously ill and passed on during 2001.
Sadie found that time hard to bear, but kept her interest in groups such as the Liberal Party, the Trefoil Club for former Guides, the horticultural section of the Berwick Show, garden club, and golf.
She recalls one night in the Dandenong Town Hall long ago when she heard Sir Robert Menzies speak.
“Then I was hooked,” Sadie said.
“I was just a member (of the Liberal Party) but became more involved after Mac died.
“I’m keeping on with things just as long as I can,” she said.
