Joyce McMullen celebrates 101 years
Tricia Duffield
Gongolgon’s longest serving citizen, Joyce McMullen, celebrated her 101st birthday last week, a milestone worthy of recognition.
Joyce is a living treasure, and a proud country woman who has dedicated her life to her family and to her beloved community of Gongolgon.
During her lifetime, she has been a witness to the changing fortunes of people on the land - the droughts, the floods, and droughts again.
She grew up in an era when living in the outback was truly having to live in isolation, with limited access to services, virtually no telecommunications, rough roads, few cars, and none of the luxuries we take for granted today.
Gongolgon was once a stop for Cobb & Co coaches, when the mail - and anything else a household required was brought up from Sydney by horse-drawn wagon. Ironically, the recent floods have seen a temporary return to the days when residents had to wait patiently for supplies to arrive.
Resilience and resourcefulness in tough times, and a staunch belief in charity, were essential qualities in the small bush community and have stayed with Joyce throughout her long life.
Joyce was the only daughter of Ted and Kitty Wright and was born on December 1, 1921. She spent a carefree childhood with brother Alan on Woodembone station at Gongolgon, on the banks of the Bogan River in the Brewarrina Shire, 566 kilometres – and a world away – from Sydney.
Joyce attended the Convent School at Brewarrina as a boarder, but said she was often in trouble for being a tomboy and never really mastered the piano lessons that were part of the curriculum, much preferring to be out in the paddocks with her horses and dogs.
In 1942, she married Jack McMullen and moved to Gongolgon Station where she still lives today, and raised three children - Greg, Mark, and Kathy.
Although living off the beaten track, there was always plenty to do for a busy mother on a station - she went ballroom dancing, played tennis, was an accomplished horsewoman and mastered the skills required of any worthy country wife - cooking, handcrafts, crochet and gardening and the grounds at Gongolgon Station were the site of many luncheons, parties, barbecues and a wedding.
She was one of the community members who helped to get the Gongolgon Public School built in 1964 and was on the P&C until the school closed in 1969. She was an avid CWA member and president of the Gongolgon and Brewarrina branches for many years.
When her children joined Pony Club, Joyce threw her energies into the organisation and used her considerable equestrian skills to become an instructor, and in 1997 was named Brewarrina’s Citizen of the Year.
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