Graeme Williams
FatherFrank Larsen 'Dick' Williams b. 8 Jan 1911, d. 1970
MotherViolet Alice 'Bub' McDonald b. 2 Jul 1908, d. 6 Jan 2008
Pedigree

Birth, Death, Marriage

Graeme Williams married Margaret Dalwood on 29 November 1969 in Shepparton, Victoria.1 

Family

Margaret Dalwood
ChartsCampbell, John, descendant chart
McDonald, Archibald, descendant chart
Steer, Edward, descendant chart

Story

Graeme was born in the mid-1930s. He was the only child of Violet 'Bub' and Frank 'Dick'.1,2
 
The family of three lived with Dick's mother Anna in the Echuca Rd house.

Graeme played with the many cousins living nearby. Sometimes his mother or Auntie Pauline would take him on holiday.3,4,5
 
'Williams' Family Visits
May and Dick and their families visited Thelma and her family in Adelaide in 1940.

Mr and Mrs J Norton and their son [Mervyn], of Mooroopna, accompanied by Mr Frank Williams and his son [Graeme] left on Wednesday morning for a tour to Adelaide by car.

Mr Frank Williams and son, accompanied by Mr and Mrs J Norton and son, have returned from an enjoyable holiday spent in Adelaide, South Australia.6,7

 
Family Life in Preston 
In 1940, Bub left Frank in Mooroopna, and she and six-year-old Graeme then lived with her brother Dougal and parents Donald snr and Alice in Preston. It is reported that when Bub left Frank, she went to Melbourne for a holiday and just didn't return.

Initially they lived at the back of Dougal's butcher shop. Later Bub rented 60 Austral Ave nearby.

Cousins Graeme and Don went to school together at Bell Primary school. Graeme was there for one or two years.8,1,9,10
 
In late 1941, Bub and Graeme returned to Mooroopna, to the Cricketer's Arms hotel, and Alice soon followed.
 
Life at the Cricketer's Arms Hotel
Alice's sister Beatrice and her two youngest children, Frank and Margaret moved from Lake Boga to Mooroopna and also lived at the hotel.8,11
 
Bub had Alice help run the hotel, and Beatrice became one of two cooks, the other being Ma Hawking.

Beatrice enjoyed the peacefulness of a room with her two children.

Frank, Margaret and Graeme started school in Mooroopna. Graeme attended the Mooroopna State school.1,12,13,14
 
The lease and licence for the Cricketer's Arms hotel expired late 1944. Bub, Alice and Graeme lived with Nene or Pauline for a short time before Bub and Graeme moved to the Hotel Australia in Shepparton.15,9,1
 
Hotel Australia First Time
In November 1944, when Tom & Sis Phillips started operating the Hotel Australia in Shepparton, they were still living in Orr Street. According to Bub, Sis really wanted to move into the pub, but Tom said only if Bub helped out. According to Bub's son Graeme, they were there for maybe six months. And Bub recalled working there at the end of the Second World War (September 1945), so Bub may have started there around March 1945.

This was Bub's first of two associations with the Aussie Hotel.8,1
 
Education
Graeme's primary school education was at Mooroopna State school, and secondary school was Shepparton High school. In the Christmas holidays between the two, he and his mother moved from Mooroopna to Toolamba. Graeme rode his bike to high school, approximately 20 km.1
 
Cousins
Don and Brian Phillips, and cousins Don McDonald, Graeme Williams and John Courtie enjoyed each other's company whenever they could.
 
Life at the Junction Hotel Toolamba
Graeme was there early when attending Shepparton High School. And he was there later after doing tertiary studies, then briefly working in Melbourne.1
 
WOMAN RUNS PUB; RULES FOOTBALL
MELBOURNE. — The Victorian hamlet of Toolamba has a woman hotel licensee who is also the president and coach of the district Australian Rules football eighteen, and the town's unofficial policeman.

She is Mrs Violet Williams, 41, of Toolamba, 103 miles from Melbourne.

Mrs Williams said she had taken over the presidency of the Toolamba-Goulburn Valley football team because it needed a 'strong hand' to control it.

She is also unofficial coach of the team.

Mrs Williams supervises the massage and health of the players.

Toolamba team has improved its premiership position since Mrs Williams took over the presidency and coaching of the team.

SON A FORWARD
Mrs Williams has a 15-year-old son who is a forward in the team.
He told a reporter that he didn't see eye to eye with his mother, 'who dabbled in football.'

SHE SETTLES IT
Toolamba residents say that when there's a fight or argument in Toolamba, Mrs Williams is called in to settle it.

After football matches Mrs Williams takes her team to the hotel.

Mrs Williams' 60-year-old mother is one of the team's strongest supporters. [Sep 1949]16,17,18
 
Kittens on Graeme's shirts: Without prompting, both Nene and Bub tell this same story, so it must have been significant. For a month or so after selling the Toolamba pub, Bub and Graeme stayed with Nene and Jack. While there, a black cat had kittens on Graeme's nice white work shirts.19,20
 
Civil Engineering
After four years at high school, Graeme earned a scholarship to study at RMIT in Melbourne, where he did his Leaving/Year 11 equivalent year. He started doing mechanical engineering, but switched to civil because he thought it was more interesting. During this and for about five years, he lived at 501 Bell St, Preston with his uncle, aunt and cousin Don McDonald.12,1
 
After qualifying, Graeme worked for two years for Excavations Pty Ltd in Kensington, including work on the Upper Yarra Dam for about six months.

He then worked for the State Rivers & Water Supply Commission (SRWSC) in Tatura for seven years, living at the Toolamba pub. His work there included: Enlargement of the East Goulburn Main Channel (living in Echuca for about 12 months); Numurkah Construction Branch (now living in Hayes St, Shepparton); East Goulburn Main Channel stage 2 (till about 1964); Buffalo River dam (living in a camp); and Lake Bellfield, Halls Gap (living in a camp).

Graeme then left SRWSC to join the engineering consultinbg firm, CW Candy & Partners in Wangaratta. He left early 1968. He worked for RA (Bob) Stewart on water supply and sewerage works in Rochester (camps again), till late 1969. He also did work in Euroa and Mooroopna.

Graeme joined WH Young & Sons, Shepparton in late 1970. He worked with them until 1986 when Tom and Jack Young retired, at which time he bought some of their equipment.

Graeme Williams Constructions started in February 1986 and was still going as of 2013.1
 
Marriage
Margaret Dalwood and Graeme Williams were married at Scots church in Shepparton on 29 November 1969. They had no children.1
 
Community Work
Cousins Don and Graeme were active members of the Lions Club. In 2021 they received awards for 60 years of service.
 
Shepparton Club
Graeme joined the Shepparton Club in 1960.21
 
Graeme Williams ... has been on the Shepparton Club's board of directors for 15 years and first joined the club in 1960. He runs his own construction business in Shepparton. [May 1995]
 

Citations

  1. [S265] Graeme Williams, personal communication, 31 January 2013.
  2. [S58] Violet 'Bub' Williams, personal communication, 7 August 1996.
  3. [S21] Lorraine Phillips, personal communication, 21 August 2012.
  4. [S21] Lorraine Phillips, personal communication, 17 December 2012.
  5. [S58] Violet 'Bub' Williams, personal communication, 1 September 1996.
  6. [S201] 'Paragraphs about people', Shepparton Advertiser, 1914-1953, newspaper, Thomas Pettit and William Callender, 3 June 1940, p. 3, viewed 19 September 2017, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article174613771
  7. [S201] 'Paragraphs about people', Shepparton Advertiser, 1914-1953, newspaper, Thomas Pettit and William Callender, 20 May 1940, p. 3, viewed 19 September 2017, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article174613397
  8. [S58] Violet 'Bub' Williams, personal communication, 28 September 1996.
  9. [S58] Violet 'Bub' Williams, personal communication, 28 December 1999.
  10. [S21] Lorraine Phillips, personal communication, 17 December 2012.
  11. [S376] From the Memories of the Life of Beatrice Lee, unpublished, 1987, p. 11.
  12. [S58] Violet 'Bub' Williams, personal communication, 7 July 1996.
  13. [S376] From the Memories of the Life of Beatrice Lee, unpublished, 1987.
  14. [S563] Salt of the Earth: Inspirational stories of Mooroopna & Ardmona women, Mooroopna Education & Activity Centre, 2016, pp. 51-54.
  15. [S220] 'Hotel licences', The Argus, 1848-1957, newspaper, Argus Office, 4 November 1941, p. 3, viewed 9 June 2014, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8214590
  16. [S203] 'Woman runs pub; rules football', Evening Advocate, 1941-1954, newspaper, 2 September 1949, p. 7, viewed 18 July 2017, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article213971948
  17. [S699] Ron Testro, 'Woman runs her own football team', The Australasian Post, 1946-1996, newspaper, Argus and Australasian Limited, 18 August 1949, p.5, viewed 6 March 2020.
  18. [S1] There were similar stories in the Western Mail (Perth WA 1949), Weekly Times (Melbourne Vic 1949), Queensland Times (Ipswitch 1950), Cairns Post (Qld 1950), Lithgow Mercury (NSW 1950), Northern Star (Lismore NSW 1950), and Pioneer (Yorketown, SA 1952).
  19. [S58] Violet 'Bub' Williams, personal communication, 30 December 1996.
  20. [S52] Doris 'Nene' Courtie, personal communication, 30 December 1996.
  21. [S18] 'Shepparton Club: Renovation feature', Shepparton News, 1877-, newspaper, Roy McPherson, 19 May 1995, viewed 6 March 2020.