Chapter 24 : The Descendants of Margaret Robertson Chiselett

Norman Ashton CHISLETT (1922-)

Youngest child and eighth son of Arthur Chislett and Emma Straub, bom at 12 July 1922. Spells his surname without the middle ‘e’.

Like his brothers, Norm started his working life on his parent’s vine farm at Merbein. “It was the middle of a drought and every second day was a sand storm at Merbein”.¹ After a windy night they would have to dig the sand away before they could open the shed doors and when they were laying pipes, if they didn’t get the pipes in the day they dug the hole they would have to dig it again the next day. The farm was sold in 1943. Norm’s older brothers, George and Gordon, persuaded him to join them at Boundary Bend where George had bought land.

The new project involved starting a farm from scratch and planting 100 acres with oranges along the Murray River at the end of what is now called Chislett Rd. Their intention was to make a living from growing vegetables but this proved impractical because of the distance from the market and poor roads and transport. “The roads were gravel and rough and the trucks that were running were ex-army trucks and they broke down.”

The brothers gave away vegetable growing and went into the timber industry, cutting red gums along the river and running a saw mill at Boundary Bend. ‘Chislett Brothers’ owned the paddle steamer ‘Hero’, which was used for towing barges loaded with timber. A second paddle steamer, the ‘Kenally’, was stripped to use as a barge and there was a punt onto which timber jinkers could be driven for getting logs across the river. The ‘Hero’, built 1874, was the last steamboat to work out of the Echuca wharf. In 1957 she caught fire and sank. Forty years later the ‘Hero’ was refloated and is being restored at the old saw mill site at Echuca, by G Byford. The ‘Kenally’ has also been refloated and is being restored at Mildura.

Gordon Chislett’s wife, Claire, says that when she first started doing the washing (at Boundary Bend) the clothes had little red spots that wouldn’t come out. It was the red gum.² Norm commented in 2000: “Since the last flood, red gums have come up like hairs on a dog’s back.”

In 1949 Norman married Addie ATKINSON (1915-1997) and they have three children, Greg (1951), Susanne (1953) and Pamela (1955). Addie died in 1997. In 1999 Norm married Marjorie CUNNING, a widow. The Chislett and Cunning families had been long-term friends. Norm is now retired and his son Greg runs the family citrus farm at Kenley.

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‘Hero’ undergoing restoration at Echuca, April 2000.

Norman Chislett with his son, Greg, grandson Brenton and Greg’s wife, Susan, in Kenley, April 2000.

James Robert CHISELETT (1921-1974)

Eldest child and only son of William Chiselett and Doris Tylor born at Merbein on 25 July 1921. Note the different spelling of Chiselett in this section of the family.

When he was growing up James worked in the family cordial business at Merbein. In 1942 he married Dorothy TREADWELL (1921- ) and they have three children, Neville (1943), Ivan (1946) and Narelle (1962).

After his father’s death in 1948, James took over running the family business. In 1949 a violent storm caused considerable damage to the factory building and its contents. The roof was torn off by the wind and deposited on a fruit block on the edge of town, bottles and crates were broken and the sugar soaked through. “No insurance was forthcoming as it was called an ‘act of God'.”⁵ The building had to be re-roofed and re-wired.

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Because of James’ failing health the business was sold as a going concern in 1970. It continued as ‘Chiselett Drinks’ until 2001. The soft drink factory is now run as a Schweppes franchise.

Chiselett family. Left to right: Despina, James, Edna, Isabel.

James suffered from rheumatoid arthritis and it seems probable that the anti-inflammatory drugs he took damaged his kidneys. He developed diabetes and died from renal failure in 1974. He is buried in the Merbein cemetery.

Isabel Eva CHISELETT (1924- )

Eldest daughter and second child of William Chiselett and Doris Tylor, born at Merbein on 12 August 1924.

Isabel left school at fourteen and took on the job of running the domestic side of the family life while her mother worked in the family’s soft drink business. She tells us there were always lots of visitors to the family home in Merbein - Doris’ relatives from Adelaide and Croft relations from the Chiselett side of the family.

In 1947 Isabel married Erik NORDIN (1924- ). Erik was serving in the army in New Guinea during the Second World War when a friend, who had been a neighbour of the Chiselett family, gave Erik Isabel’s name and address as a pen friend. The couple did not meet until Erik came home from New Guinea.

Erik’s family had migrated to Australia from Sweden in 1925. There was illness on the ship on which they sailed from Southampton and two of Erik’s three brothers died within a fortnight of landing in Melbourne. The family settled at Swan Hill where Erik’s maternal uncle, August Engstrom, was already living. August had come to Australia prior to World War I and served in the AIF during that war. As a result he was eligible for a soldier settlement farm in the Mallee.

Isabel and Erik have two children, Ralph (1948) and Glenys (1951).

The couple lived in Bendigo for a time but returned to Merbein in 1951 to help Isabel’s brother, James, run the family soft drink factory. After the factory was sold in 1970, Isabel and Erik moved to Belmont in Geelong, where Erik worked for a local soft drink company as Production Manager until his retirement in 1985.

In 1980 Isabel and Erik made a trip to Sweden where they met with Erik’s many relations. His father came from a family of seventeen and Erik has forty-five first cousins on his father’s side of the family.

Isabel and Erik still live in Belmont but their activities are limited because of Isabel’s severe osteoarthritis.

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Nordin family. Isabel and Erik’s golden wedding anniversary 1997. Left to right: Kathleen and Ralph Nordin, Monica, Glenys, Chris and Ngaire Long, Erik and Isabel Nordin, Paul, Simon and Daniel Long.

Edna Muriel CHISELETT (1930-1962)

Edna Chiselett

Youngest child and third daughter of William Chiselett and Doris Tylor born at Merbein 12 August 1930. Her older sister Isabel was also born on 12 August.

In 1949 Edna was studying to be a dressmaker when she started experiencing pain in her hips. This was diagnosed as rheumatoid arthritis. After treatment at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, which included having her legs put into traction, she was transferred to the Mildura Hospital. “She was in such pain when [she] went to lie down at nights, they finally left her sitting up night and day. This was a mistake as her hips fused and she never laid down to sleep again.”⁶ Edna became completely crippled and suffered with pain for the rest of her life.

After two years in hospital her mother brought Edna home. However, the continuous nursing became too much for the family after four or five years and Edna was moved back into Hospital. Edna died in the Mildura Hospital in 1962. She is buried in the Merbein cemetery.

Notes

1 Interview with Norm Chislett, April 2000. Quotes in this section are from Norm unless otherwise noted.

2 Interview with Claire Chislett, April 2000

3 Interview with Norm Chislett, April 2000. Quotes in this section are from Norm unless otherwise noted.

4 Interview with Claire Chislett, April 2000

5 Isabel and Erik Nordin, 8.3.2001

6 Isabel and Erik Nordin, 15.5.2001

Garry Gillard | New: 27 March, 2019 | Now: 5 September, 2022