There is not much in common between Birmingham, England and Eyre Peninsula, but Edie and Dennis Grainger have called both places home.
The Eyre Peninsula Advocate sat down with them following Edie’s recent 90th birthday to talk about their journey.
Despite hailing from England’s second largest population centre, the Graingers happily made the switch to living in half a dozen small Eyre Peninsula towns, including the remote Yalata, 200km north-west of Ceduna.
Edie was born in Canada to George and Lena Wetton but when she was two years old her family returned to their former home turf in England.
By the time Edie and Dennis met in the Birmingham chemist shop where she worked in 1956, he had already been accepted to immigrate to Australia.
“We were only going out for a couple of months before he left,” Edie said.
Dennis had accepted a job as a station hand on a western Victorian property at Lake Bolac, with the family who owned it sponsoring him.
As a Ten Pound Pom Dennis only had to pay 10 Pounds (about 10 per cent of the cost) for his ship fare to Australia, but needed to remain for at least two years.
Despite the short time they had known each other, they decided that Edie would follow, but she first needed to find an Australian sponsor, a requirement of the scheme to bring urgently needed workers to cope with Australia’s post World War II boom.
“I didn’t know anyone here and Dennis couldn’t sponsor me,” Edie said.
She gained sponsorship from the Salvation Army to work as a home help for a western Victorian family with four little boys and immigrated in May 1957.
They married on November 2, 1957 and began a life together that would see them live in Adelaide, Kimba, Wudinna, Yalata, Ceduna and Oak Valley, before retiring in Cleve in 1999.
While working as an interstate truck driver Dennis regularly drove from Melbourne to the Barossa Valley and Adelaide.
Dennis said they had holidayed in South Australia a couple of times and liked it, so moved to Adelaide where their youngest child Rick was born, while he continued that work.
In 1972 they bought the Kimba BP Roadhouse and began their love affair with Eyre Peninsula.
“We came over to Kimba and we discovered the Eyre Peninsula,” Dennis said.
They stayed four years until Dennis accepted the job of manager at the then new Wudinna Community Club.
After five years, it was off to Yalata where they managed the roadhouse for four years.
The Graingers then spent a year living in Adelaide while looking for another business to buy, before they bought Ceduna Country Cabins Caravan Park – on the highway into the town – in 1989.
Dennis was approached by then Department of Aboriginal Affairs to rehome 17 old-age pensioners and two children to Oak Valley, and manage what was to the start of the Aboriginal community there.
Edie continued operating their Ceduna caravan park, but when she became ill, Dennis resigned from the Oak Valley job so he could manage the business until they sold it.
They retired to Adelaide but their children were scattered about South Australia and interstate, and wanted their parents to be closer to them.
However, the Graingers said that of their children only the youngest, Rick, had been permanently settled in one place for any length of time, having married Phillipa Trigg and living in her home town of Cleve.
“The family approached us and said we were too far away,” Edie said.
“Because we had lived on the Eyre Peninsula before, we were quite happy to come here.”
So they moved to Cleve in 1999 and have no regrets, as they enjoy being part of the community.
Edie said Australia was a sharp contrast to the England of their childhoods.
“When we lived there, there was a war on,” she remembered.
“We were kids and practically no one had cars, so we didn’t travel.”
Edie enjoys handicrafts, and getting together fortnightly to enjoy them with four or five other local women, from the former weavers’ and embroiderers’ guild.
She has also joined the recently formed Cleve Creatives, which gives her the opportunity to share more of her artistic hobbies with others.
She learnt to knit at a young age, and made two handsewn dresses while she was still in primary school, as she was not allowed to use the electric sewing machine.
Her other crafts include painting, quilting, tapestry and embroidery, egg carving and parquetry.
She also used to make soft toys such as teddy bears and gollywogs, and is self-taught in most of her crafts.
Edie grew up without a telephone in the house, as her father worked for the British GPO, and said if he had a telephone in the house, he would always be getting called out after hours.
She remembers fondly when he bought a record player for the family – at a time when they were very new.
The couple have been married 67 years and said life had been good to them and they had done most things in life together.
Dennis also remains active as caretaker for Cleve Show Society’s RV park.
The couple returned to England for one visit together, and Edie on her own for a niece’s wedding, but South Australia and Cleve are where they now call home.
Edie said it was her favourite place of everywhere they had lived.
“I don’t think we could do any better than Cleve,” she said.
