Charles Edward (Charlie)
Wells was born in Kent in 1899. When just 2 years old, he broke his back as the
result of a bad fall. The treatment recommended at the time was for him to be
kept in a fixed posture to give his spine time to heal. To do this the family
made up a wooden box, so that Charlie could be laid down with his movements
quite restricted. After some years, and several boxes later, the spine healed
and he was able to walk again. However, his education was severely set back.
His older brothers worked as
fitters and turners at the Chatham Dockyards; when war was declared in August
1914, they were classed as being in Reserved Occupations, and could not enlist.
Charlie was too young to enlist, although drummers and buglers as young as 14
years old could join, but that was not for him. The Dreadnought Scheme provided
another option for him, and with it, he left London in July 1915 aboard the RMS
Osterley, bound for Australia.
Trust records show that
Charles Wells arrived in Sydney on the 10th of September 1915, with three other
Dreadnought Boys - Sidney Bingle, Robert Raquet and Stanley Tiffin. Two other
boys were meant to travel with them but had missed the sailing. The Trust records
show that all four were sent "Direct to Employment". In
Charles Wells case, this turned out to be on a large property called Arrawatta,
on the Macintyre River, just north of Inverell in northern New South Wales.
Arrawatta was a
large sheep station, and when it was bought by Thomas Bowling in 1903, it had
8500 acres and was running 11,000 sheep. Bowling had a vision for a dairy
estate, and by 1908 had begun to make it reality. He divided the property into
smaller tenanted farms for dairying, and by 1912, he had built a cheese factory
which processed the milk from 450 Dairy Shorthorn cows, and had integrated
operations for the distribution of fodder to the farms. With more than 50
people on the estate, it was even necessary to build a school.
Drought which hit in 1919 and 1920, jeopardised
viability, and revealed the extent to which
Thomas Bowling had over-capitalised the development of Arrawatta. He arranged for the New South Wales Government to
take over the property for 5 years, during which time it would be used for farm
training of new migrants. This was to include the training of Dreadnought Boys,
and the first of these came in August 1924. Over the next 5 years, 277 Dreadnought
Boys were trained at Arrawatta. In May 1925 a new Lang Labour Government
was elected to power. It immediately tried too close the farm operation, but
yielded to very strong local reaction and desisted until 1929, when the training
farm was closed down, the property broken up and sold off at prices well below
valuation.
Charles Wells’ placement on Arrawatta in September 1915 would
have been with one of the tenant farmers. Charlie would get his farm training
the hard way! Charlie did learn and he continued in farm work for some years,
particularly in dairying. He had gone from being a kid with a broken back, to a
strong fit outdoor working man. He was also trusted with milk deliveries to customers
in Inverell.
Charles changed jobs from time to time, and during 1922 was employed by
Hawke and Co, produce merchants in Inverell. On 31 October, he and a bootmaker
next door had their bicycles stolen from where they were parked outside their
shops. Police found the bicycles at Glen Innes - they had been stolen by two
men, who were already well known to the courts for their thieving.
Around this time Charles Wells had come know Laveen Campbell. Marriage
was planned for the end of 1924, and with this in mind he took a job on Percy
Buttenshaw's dairy farm in May that year; there was a cottage which went with
the job. Charles did the milk deliveries for him as well as other farm duties. The working relationship deteriorated, mainly over the actual
accommodation arrangements, and Charles gave up a week's pay in lieu of notice,
finishing at the end of October - a week and a half before the wedding. Just
days before the wedding, an irate Percy Buttenshaw took Charles Wells to the Police Magistrate's Court for breaching the Master
and Servant Act in leaving his employment without reasonable cause. The
case was dismissed, Charlie had done what was required.
Charles and his
wife initially shared a house with his brother-in- law. Later they had their
own place in Evans Street Inverell, where they lived for many years and where
their four children grew up. Charles Wells settled down to a generally quiet
life, often doing labouring work. He died in 1958 aged 59 years, Laveen
survived until 1966.
Charles Edward
Wells was no high-profile individual but, by looking into his life, we have
been able to find a lot more information about Arrawatta, and its farm
training role.