Living next door to his daughter Lisa, Bill’s house overlooks the 50 hectare farm located on the corner of Hanwood Avenue and Stokes Road. 

The farm was founded in 1919 by Bill’s parents and has since been sold to a neighbor. 

‘Farm nine’ as it used to be called was one of the first irrigated farms established on the land which was formerly a part of Cooba Station.

The land was allocated to Bill’s father Hugh Alexander in 1919 as part of the NSW Government’s soldier settler scheme. 

Being born in NSW but having emigrated back to the UK just before World War I, Hugh served as an engineer working on munitions production at the Vickers machine gun factory in London. 

RELATED

It was during his time working between the bullets and barrels of the Vicars factory in 1917 that Hugh met his soon to be wife Kathleen. 

The couple married in England in 1919 and expecting the arrival of their first child Hugh Alexander junior, the two left for Sydney by boat in May that year arriving in Griffith by train in October. 

Arriving in Griffith Bill said his parents spent one night in the rough and tumble world of Bagtown, before deciding to set up their tents on farm nine the very next day. 

“Farm nine was a corner block which had been used to grow wheat before planting fruit trees and vines,” wrote Kathleen in an publication for the Griffith Genealogical And Historical Society.  

“There was a long galvanized iron shed facing the road on the east side, on the west side there was a very large dam, it had a lot of noisey frogs in it. 

“Until we were able to get a rain water tank we had to boil all the water, there was also a well, however the only water we could pull up was in a white billy can with animal fur in it,” Kathleen wrote.  

Following the arrival of his elder siblings Hugh, Allan and Kay, Bill said it fell to him to become the family’s next engineer. 

With the farm only getting electricity in 1948, Bill spent his early years working with his two brothers helping dig irrigation ditches following the government’s second soldier settler program after World War II. 

Bill was able to find an apprenticeship as an engineer in 1953 and eventually ran his own engineering firm WP Alexander and Co for about 20 years. 

Bill said his hardest task in the region was putting together thousands of custom crop lifter kits for rice farmers in 1967 and 1968 following a massive crop fall across Griffith. 

While you're with us, did you know that you can now receive updates straight to your inbox every Monday at 6am from The Area News?

To make sure you're up to date with all the Griffith and MIA news you can sign up here.