Fred's Story:

In the year 1889, Edmund Jabez Sheldrake, a man of nineteen years of age, arrived in Rockhampton by boat from Norfolk, U.K. He was the only one of the family of four boys and one girl to come to Australia.

During 1890, he married Adelaide Moore and this union produced seven children, Edmund (Ted), Violet, Marie, Florence, Lionel, Hilda and Victor.

In the early years of 1890's, the family took up farming land at Alton Downs.

From there, Violet married Frank Murray, Marie married Albert Dobeli, Florence married Maurice Murray, Lionel married Marjory Grambauer, Hilda married David Fisher & Victor married Evelyn Green,

The name Sheldrake lives on in Fred & Kevin (Lionel & Marjorie's children & both have two sons each.
Return Home
Reminiscing with Fred SHELDRAKE In 1925, my father Lionel SHELDRAKE started a warm milk run in Rockhampton. He used a model T-Ford to do his delivery. His Dairy Farm was nine miles from town, so a horse and cart were not on. During the time from 1925 to 1943 he only missed his deliveries because of floodwaters. In early 1942 or 1943 the Fitzroy River at Pink Lily was flowing through the waterholes and swamps and he had to go around Yeppen. So he drove his Ford sitting in water while my brother squatted on the seat beside him. Observers would see him start off but would nearly lose sight of the Ford at the deepest part as he pushed through the waves before him. In 1943 during World War II, tyres for his vehicle, then a 1938 V8 Ford had near finished their life. (tyres were only available on permits). So he gave his milk away. About 1943 or early 1944, Dad bought a BIG draught horse with feet like dinner plates. We called him "Bolder". "Bolder" hated the shafts of the dray but would work real well in chains. We used to get our firewood from McKenzie's Jimmy Hall paddock. This paddock had good ironbark, some twenty foot long. One time, we picked up a load of firewood from this paddock with the two old leaders in front. They pulled the load halfway up the hill towards the cemetery and were about done, when "Bolder" decided to go - and go he did! He pulled that load on his own the rest of the way at a trot! When I was a kid WILLIAM BOOTH lived across the road from our place. His offsider (for the want of a better word) was JACK ALLEN, who kept away from the grog except for odd occasions when he caught the train to Rocky and came home in a taxi. Will bought a car at about the end of the thirties and on Sunday afternoon, he would start it up and have a drive around near his place. I can still hear the engine revving hard and the awful grinding of gears! He didn't keep the car long. Both Bill and Jack were nice people. Bill was also a Salvation Army man and tried to play a cornet (tried it was!)