Donald Glenorchy McDonald (snr)
Image: Nene Courtie
FatherArchibald McDonald b. c Jun 1833, d. 26 Dec 1890
MotherLucy Turner Campbell b. 26 Jul 1845, d. 22 Nov 1929
Pedigree

Birth, Death, Marriage

Donald Glenorchy McDonald was born on 6 March 1878 in Swan Hill, Victoria.1 
He married Alice Euphemia Steer, daughter of Philip Steer and Euphemia Forrest, on 12 May 1910 in Swan Hill, Victoria.2 
He died on 12 May 1953 in Mooroopna, Victoria, at age 75.3,4 

Family

Alice Euphemia Steer b. 17 Aug 1880, d. 18 Sep 1957
Children
ChartsCampbell, John, descendant chart
McDonald, Archibald, descendant chart
McDonald, Irene, pedigree chart
Steer, Edward, descendant chart

Story

Donald Glenorchy McDonald probably spent too much of his life in pubs. He was born in the White Swan Hotel in Swan Hill, spent too much time drinking in Nyah then Preston where he was a butcher, and died of liver failure while living at his daughter's pub in Toolamba. But he provided well for his wife Alice and their family of four children, and to most of those around him was a lovable man and the life of any party.
 
Twins Alexander Hugh and Donald Glenorchy McDonald were born at the White Swan Hotel in Swan Hill on 6 March 1878. They were the eighth and ninth children of Lucy and Archibald. Alexander was the older of the twins.1,5
 
The first of three generations of Donald McDonald, he was known as Donald. His son was known as Dougal and grandson as Don.6
 
Family Life near Swan Hill
In Donald's father Archie's later years, he went into farming. In his will, he asked that for a period of six years after his death, the family continue to work the farm for their separate and joint benefit. This may be why Donald went into share farming.7,8
 
It is not known where Donald and Alice met, but they soon set up home on Pental Island. This was near Lake Boga where Alice's family lived and Swan Hill where Donald's family lived. The couple were share dairy farming there, and Alice helped milk 70 cows by hand.

She used to take the twins to the shed with her and put them in a big box, they could stand but not walk.8

Alice, Sis (Irene) & Nene (Doris) Steer/McDonald, Pental Island, Swan Hill
Image: Margaret Sellwood
Then Dougal was born; Mum [Alice's sister Beatrice] had to help to look after them [twins Nene and Sis]. Then Violet (Bub); she was only six weeks old when Alice was back milking. One morning a cow attacked her, she tried to get over the fence but wasn't quick enough, the cow's horns caught her. She was taken to hospital and had about 60 stitches; she was very lucky and got over it ok. She kept the baby in hospital with her. Mum had to look after the others with the help of a neighbour.8
 
Alice once fell in a fire resulting in a bent little finger (just visible in the photo with the twins) and missing part of her thumb (in the photo with Bub).4
Alice Euphemia, Sis (Irene) & Nene (Doris) Steer/McDonald; Alice has bent left little finger from fire accident
Image: Margaret Sellwood
Violet Alice (Bub) McDonald
Image: Nene Courtie
Marriage and Family 
Alice Euphemia Steer and Donald Glenorchy McDonald were married in Swan Hill on 12 May 1910. They had four children, all born before the marriage, between 1903 and 1908.

The marriage was conducted by John Stewart Drummond, a presbyterian minister. Neither of the two witnesses, Ernest Gerald Gray and Donald Urquhart, were family; Gray was the registrar for Swan Hill.

Because of the delayed marriage, the twins were originally registered under the name Steer, though they were always referred to as McDonalds. No father's name was provided for the original registration of twins Doris and Irene, but Donald's name was added as the father when these two births were re-registered in June 1943.

Donald McDonald is shown as the father for Donald (jnr) and Violet.

It says something about the Australian treatment of names that the four children, Doris, Irene, Donald and Violet were always known as Nene, Sis, Dougal and Bub.

While we don't have any photos of the wedding, we do have a photo of the three eldest children that could have been taken at the time.9,2,10,11,12,13
Nene (Doris), Dougal (Donald) & Sis (Irene) McDonald
Image: Nene Courtie
Around 1912, Donald moved from dairy farming on Pental Island to being a butcher in Swan Hill, and for a short time around 1914, the family lived in Swan Hill.

In the 1909 electoral rolls, Donald is a dairy farmer, on his 1910 marriage registration he is a labourer, and in the 1912 electoral rolls he is for the first time shown as a butcher. In the 1912 and 1913 electoral rolls, Alice gives her residence as Pental Island, but in 1914 she is 'c/o Renkin Bros, Swan Hill'. Renkin Brothers were butchers.14,2,15,16,17,18
 
[Florence Renkin, daughter of Robert George Renkin, butcher, was born two weeks before Violet and appears with Violet's birth registration.]
 
Donald snr remained a butcher for the rest of his working life.

By September 1914, the family was living in Nyah.19
 
Swan Hill to Nyah by Ballast Train
According to Nene and Bub, the family travelled on the ballast train when they moved house from Swan Hill to Nyah. The line was being built from Swan Hill to Piangil, through Nyah West (or Nyah Rail as it was then known) around 1914. It must have been quite a sight and adventure for the four young children to have all the family's belongings piled onto a railway wagon.4,20,21
Ballast train, old S-class steam locomotive No.199, early 1900s
With Donald a butcher, meat would have been readily available, though most sold to support the family and perhaps a growing drinking habit. A treat might have been Murray Cod from the nearby Murray River, or a rabbit.

The four children attended the local school in Nyah.

We walked 3/4 mile to get to school. We sometimes took a shortcut through the swampy paddock, but snakes were a problem. [Nene Courtie]4,21

 
Entertainment for the children was based on whatever was available.

As a young girl she would paddle in the channel, catch yabbies and race horses with her twin sister and two other siblings ...

Nene tells the story of how, with Sis and their 'Auntie Beat', they once walked across Lake Boga. [Beatrice was only ten years older than her nieces Nene and Sis.]22,4
 
The children helped with the butcher shop. Bub remembers delivering the meat on her bay-coloured horse, Paddy, from Nyah to Wood Wood, about 7 km to the North.

Dad loved horses, but had an aggressive streak. I once mentioned to him that Paddy had misbehaved the previous day. He attacked Paddy so viciously, I deeply regretted saying anything. [Bub Williams]

Dad drank too much. Mum once asked me to go and get him because he'd had an accident while delivering the meat. I found the cart upside down, and Dad sore, sorry and slightly drunk. [Bub Williams]23

 
LOST from Nyah Two Bull Calves, red and white, one branded TC on rump. £1 reward. Don McDonald, Butcher, Nyah. [Mar 1918]24
 
Through a combination of drink and poor management, Donald snr lost the butcher shop, and most of the family moved to Preston.

There are unknowns relating to the family's last years in Nyah. The first relates to a report in On 'This Bend' of the River, where in May 1919:
New butcher shop at Nyahwest in Gray Street, built by AN Lewis for McDonalds of Nyah.

No family member has ever mentioned living in Nyah West, only Nyah. And the electoral rolls for 1921 show Donald in Nyah.

Another mystery relates to a photo showing 'McDonald Bros, Butchers'. Being a family photo, it would be our McDonalds. And the photographer's shadow shows an old vehicle, so the photo was not just a more recent photo of an old building. The brother would be Herbert William, as electoral rolls show him as a labourer living in Nyah West at the time. But the butcher shop was established in 1921 and in Nyah, which appears to contradict that McDonalds had a new butcher shop in Nyah West in 1919. The shop appears to have living quarters behind it, which fits with electoral rolls showing them in Nyah at the time.

A third mystery is Nyah Cafe next door, and the names 'I&D McDonald'. The initials don't match any of Donald's siblings or any other McDonald in the electoral rolls. The only I and D McDonald we know of are Irene and Doris. They would have been about 18 years old, but not yet on the electoral rolls. But no one in the family, including Nene (Doris), has ever mentioned a cafe in Nyah.25,3,26
McDonald Bros Butchers, est. 1921. Nyah Cafe, iced drinks, fruit, confectionery, I & D McDonald
Image: Rene Barnes
McDonald Bros Butchers, est. 1921. Nyah Cafe, iced drinks, fruit, confectionery, I & D McDonald
Image: Rene Barnes
A highlight on the family's social calendar was the annual Nyah picnic sports day. Held on New Years Day, the social gathering drew people from all around the region, including a large contingent from Swan Hill. A popular location was the Nyah recreation reserve on the bank of the Murray. At night, dances would be held in any available hall.

During the war, the day was used as a fundraiser for the war effort, for the Red Cross, and also to help returned wounded Nyah soldiers.

The 1916 event featured athletics and swimming. In the girls' under 14 race, the McDonald twins came first and second. Their father, Donald, was one of two judges on the day.27,28
Nyah picnic sports: McDonald girls 1st and 2nd 1916
Nene and Sis were both good runners.

In 1917 & 18 she [Nene] won the Ladies Nyah Gift when she was 13 & 14 years old. A book presentation prize has this inscription - 'Donated by JT Millen "Roseville" Swan Hill to the Nyah Red Cross Sports - January 1917 won by Miss Doris McDonald of Nyah.'

Nene said that on both occasions her prize was a book, and the following year she won a hat. When asked how Sis went, Nene replied 'She came second'.

In 1985, the local Lions Club got the sports day up and running again, and in 1990 Nene visited for old time's sake.

When here, she was given the honour of presenting the winners of the Nyah Gift and Sam Jeans Memorial race with their sash and prizes.28

 
Four McDonald Children
The occasion for this photo is not known.
Dougal (Donald Glenorchy jnr), Bub (Violet); seated: Nene (Doris) & Sis (Irene) McDonald, c. 1920
Image: Laurie & Lorraine Phillips
Family Life in Preston 
In the early 1920s, Donald snr, Alice, Dougal and Bub moved to Preston where Dougal was a butcher. Nene (Doris) had married Ken Stuart in Nyah then moved to Melbourne. Sis (Irene) had married Tom Phillips and moved to Shepparton.

By 1924, Donald snr and Alice were at 182 Bell St, Preston. In 1925, Alice is shown in the electoral roll at the same address, but Donald snr is not. Neither Donald nor Alice have been found in the 1926 and 1927 electoral rolls, but by 1928 they are both back in Preston, now at 60 Austral Avenue.29,30,31
 
The butcher shop was one of two shops on the south-west corner of Bell St and Austral Ave. A greengrocer was right on the corner with the butcher shop next door. The house ran across the back of both shops with the back yard opening almost opposite 60 Austral Ave.32,33
Don McDonald, Preston, c. 1944
Image: Rene Barnes
Don McDonald, Preston, c. 1944
Image: Rene Barnes
Neither Donald nor Alice have been found on electoral rolls between 1930 and 1935. Nene once said that during the Depression (early 1930s), her mum ironed and her dad worked in the Mallee somewhere. And Bub said that her father once worked at Murray Downs station, just over the New South Wales border from Swan Hill. This fits well with the absences from the Preston electoral roll.34,35,4,36,3
 
Donald snr worked in the butcher shop, though he was not that helpful. He was a soft touch, and when a down-and-outer came to the shop for a hand-out, he was known to give expensive eye fillet. He would also sit out the front of the shop with young 'friends' and drink and tell stories.3
 
Donald senior was shot at in Preston in July 1932.37
Image: The Advertiser (Hurstbridge)
From 1936, Donald snr and Alice were living in Austral Avenue.34,35
 
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.38,36,21,39
 
In late 1941, Bub and Graeme returned to Mooroopna, to the Cricketer's Arms hotel, and Alice soon followed.
 
The Dancer
Donald was a very good dancer. His grandson, Laurie found this out when he once stayed with them.40
 
When the two once went to a dance, a lady asked Laurie if she could dance with his grandfather because he danced so well.40
Donald Glenorchy McDonald (snr)
The only time I saw him dressed like that was when I went to dances with him in Preston. He was very popular with the ladies, he was such a good dancer. One night I met a girl at the hall and she asked me if I would ask Grandpa to have a dance with her. He had the dance with her and came back to tell me she was Parson Pearce's granddaughter who was in Swan Hill all those years ago when Grandpa had the butcher shop there. [Laurie Phillips]41
 
Parson Pearce was always trying to get Donald to stop drinking and go to church.40
 
The Joker
He was a very good roller-skater and dancer, and annually went roller-skating in his kilt. He would sit out the front of his son's butcher shop in Preston with young 'friends' and drink and tell stories. He was a bit of a joker, spinning yarns about feeding his stock at the MCG when Swan Hill was affected by drought, and about riding his bike from Alice Springs to Swan Hill, first with rubber tyres, then later on the rims when the bindy-eyes got to be too much of a problem.42,3
 
In early 1946, Donald snr left Preston to live with Bub and the family in Toolamba.
 
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.36
 
Drink and Other Trouble
He was quite a handful at times, particularly in the last years of his life, while living with Bub at the Toolamba Hotel. He drank far too much. With a little drink, he was happy and the life of the party. But with a bit more drink, he would become aggressive and Bub would often be called to come and pick him up and take him home. While at the Toolamba Hotel, Bub attempted to alter his drinking habits to include less cheap wine and more (lower alcohol) beer, but there was always a serious drinking problem. After one particularly aggressive incident, Bub phoned her mother, who was staying with Pauline at the time, and said that she would not put up with it any more and that he would have to go. After much pleading by her mother and some very good behaviour (for a short time) by her father, Bub relented and allowed him to stay. Donald died soon after of liver failure.23,4
 
Donald Glenorchy McDonald died of liver failure at Mooroopna hospital on 12 May 1953, aged 75.4,3
 

Citations

  1. [S28] Donald Glenorchy McDonald, birth registration no. 12134, 6 March 1878.
  2. [S53] Donald Glenorchy McDonald and Alice Euphemia Steer, marriage registration no. 4052, 12 May 1910.
  3. [S58] Violet 'Bub' Williams, personal communication, 7 July 1996.
  4. [S52] Doris 'Nene' Courtie, personal communication, 10 November 2001.
  5. [S566] Alexander McDonald, birth registration no. 12134, 6 March 1878.
  6. [S126] Peter Phillips, personal knowledge or recollection.
  7. [S110] 'Archibald McDonald', VPRS 28 Probate and Administration Files, no. 44/962, probate, 4 May 1891.
  8. [S376] From the Memories of the Life of Beatrice Lee, unpublished, 1987, p. 2.
  9. [S146] Edwardian Index Victoria 1902-1913: Indexes to births deaths and marriages in Victoria, CD-ROM, Macbeth Genealogical Services, 1997.
  10. [S375] Doris May Steer, birth registration no. 8481, 4 April 1903.
  11. [S374] Irene Gladys Steer, birth registration no. 8482, 4 April 1903.
  12. [S5] Irene Gladys McDonald, birth registration no. 9877/1943, 4 April 1903.
  13. [S391] Violet Alice McDonald, birth registration no. 23071, 2 July 1908.
  14. [S392] Australia, Electoral Rolls 1903-1980, online, division of Wimmera, subdivision of Swan Hill, 1909.
  15. [S392] Australia, Electoral Rolls 1903-1980, online, division of Wimmera, subdivision of Swan Hill, 1912.
  16. [S392] Australia, Electoral Rolls 1903-1980, online, division of Wimmera, subdivision of Swan Hill, 1913.
  17. [S392] Australia, Electoral Rolls 1903-1980, online, division of Wimmera, subdivision of Swan Hill, 1914.
  18. [S39] 'The sheep dipping act', Swan Hill Guardian and Lake Boga Advocate, 1892-1937, newspaper, A Knox Chapman, 13 July 1914, p. 3, viewed 25 June 2021, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/87217083
  19. [S39] 'Red Cross Society: Nyah branch', Swan Hill Guardian and Lake Boga Advocate, 1892-1937, newspaper, A Knox Chapman, 28 September 1914, p. 2, viewed 25 June 2021, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/87216824
  20. [S188] On 'This Bend' of the River, Nyah district centenary committee, 1993, p. 110. This was probably around 1913-1915 because at the time railway workers camped in the Nyah area as the rail line was being built from Swan Hill to Piangil, through Nyah West (or Nyah Rail as it was then known).
  21. [S58] Violet 'Bub' Williams, personal communication, 28 December 1999.
  22. [S257] 'Doris delights in 100th birthday', Shepparton News, 4 April 2003, p. 5.
  23. [S58] Violet 'Bub' Williams, personal communication, 1 September 1996.
  24. [S39] '(Advertising)', Swan Hill Guardian and Lake Boga Advocate, 1892-1937, newspaper, A Knox Chapman, 4 March 1918, p. 3, viewed 3 July 2021, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/87265559
  25. [S188] On 'This Bend' of the River, Nyah district centenary committee, 1993, p. 111.
  26. [S392] Australia, Electoral Rolls 1903-1980, online, division of Wimmera, subdivision of Swan Hill, 1921.
  27. [S39] 'Nyah picnic sports', Swan Hill Guardian and Lake Boga Advocate, 1892-1937, newspaper, A Knox Chapman, 6 January 1916, p. 2, viewed 7 June 2013, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article92121872
  28. [S188] On 'This Bend' of the River, Nyah district centenary committee, 1993, pp. 68-70.
  29. [S392] Australia, Electoral Rolls 1903-1980, online, Commonwealth division of Batman, Victorian division of Jika Jika, subdivision of Preston, 1924.
  30. [S392] Australia, Electoral Rolls 1903-1980, online, Commonwealth division of Batman, Victorian division of Jika Jika, subdivision of Preston, 1925.
  31. [S392] Australia, Electoral Rolls 1903-1980, online, division of Batman, subdivision of Preston, 1928.
  32. [S32] Laurie Phillips, personal communication, 27 July 2019.
  33. [S265] Graeme Williams, personal communication, 28 July 2019.
  34. [S392] Australia, Electoral Rolls 1903-1980, online, Commonwealth division of Batman, Victorian division of Hidelberg, subdivision of Preston, 1936.
  35. [S392] Australia, Electoral Rolls 1903-1980, online, Commonwealth division of Batman, Victorian division of Heidelberg, subdivision of Preston, 1937.
  36. [S265] Graeme Williams, personal communication, 31 January 2013.
  37. [S258] 'Shot fired at butcher', The Advertiser (Hurstbridge), newspaper, GP Armstrong, 29 July 1932.
  38. [S58] Violet 'Bub' Williams, personal communication, 28 September 1996.
  39. [S21] Lorraine Phillips, personal communication, 17 December 2012.
  40. [S32] Laurie Phillips, personal communication, 16 June 2019.
  41. [S281] 'Phillips Family', Facebook, webpage, Facebook Inc, group created 25 June 2011, 22 February 2012 comment by Laurie Phillips in response to 18 February 2012 post by Lesley Blythman.
  42. [S52] Doris 'Nene' Courtie, personal communication, 6 April 1996.