General News
5 January, 2025
Two shakes of lamb’s tail: Jack Harrison's 100 years
JACK Harrison was 14 when he finished school to ride a horse from one end of the family’s Hopefield property to the other checking sheep. School for Jack had been Loddon Vale State School, 5km north on the property, and a few months of studying by...
JACK Harrison was 14 when he finished school to ride a horse from one end of the family’s Hopefield property to the other checking sheep.
School for Jack had been Loddon Vale State School, 5km north on the property, and a few months of studying by correspondence.
A century after being born at the Pyramid Hill Hospital in June 1924, Jack is still very much at home on Hopefield, near Durham Ox.
He has stories, tales, yarns and sayings of a life lived breeding sheep and cattle, indulging in his passion for sport and introducing family to his interests.
Never married, Jack was the eldest in the family of four boys and a girl. Nieces and nephews and the community have shared in Jack’s passions and generosity.
Ahead of his 100th birthday today, nephew Chris Harrison recalled: “When anyone was visiting his mother Nan, he’d ask who wanted to come round on the water checks.
“He made it sound so exciting, we’d all pile into the back of the International Scout which started out without a padded seat and ended up with a bare metal bench having been destroyed by the many kelpie dogs who always accompanied him on these trips.
“It was a battle to get in the back between the children and the dogs. The dogs always won. And when we’d get bored and ask when we’d go back, Uncle Johnnie would say ‘in two shakes of a lamb’s tail’.”
The arrival of cars, trucks and tractors, says Jack, was the biggest change he has seen in 100 years, taking over the the horses he had ridden as a teenager.
There was also the arrival of electricity in the mid-1950s. Jack, an avid photographer, also kept pace with technology and purchased his first digital camera a decade ago.
Jack’s reputation as a farmer continued a family tradition. As breeders of short-horn cattle, Hopefield enjoyed success at Sydney’s Royal Show; as sheep breeders Jack was part of the family that picked up ribbons at the Australian Sheep and Wool Show.
He points to the wall of his dining room - certificates showing Hopefield had the highest price fleeces through Dalgety for five successive years.
Beside the show ribbons, there’s photographs of Jack indulging in his passion for golf.
A life member of the Pyramid Hill club and many times champion, golf was but one sporting pursuit over his long life.
He played cricket when Loddon Vale had its own side and then later with Macorna, once taking five wickets in a day.
Chris says that Jack was a member of the Melbourne Cricket Club for more than 70 years.
“Every year he would gather up his brother’s ladies’ tickets and taken four of his nieces and nephews to the Boxing Day test or the VFL grand final,” he said.
“They’d spend three days at the cricket until Uncle Johnnie decided that he didn’t think he could drive to Melbourne any more. Not a problem was the answer, they drove instead and the tradition continued for another 10 years.”
Jack said his love of sport and photography had taken him to Olympic Games in Mexico City and Munich and to Commonwealth Games.
He has special memories of meeting at many games Australian sprint superstar of the 1970s Raelene Boyle.
World travel was just one avenue of discovery. He still maintains a collection of several hundred volumes of National Geographic, sitting beside almost as many vinyl LP records.
Recognised as one of the oldest CFA members, Jack was this week awarded an 80-year medal ahead of his 100th birthday.
The London Vale Fire Brigade pre-dates formation of the CFA by 18 years and Jack is recorded to have joined in 1942.
The original fire station was built in 1976 the land that was donated to the CFA, by the Harrisons and electricity and water from for the shed came from the Hopefield farm. The current fire station is still in this same location next door to Jack’s house.
Jack frequently still engages with brigade members, often stepping out for a friendly chat when they’re at the `station.
“All the Harrisons have been involved in the CFA,” said Chris. “There were the Sunday morning radio checks, practice for the annual CFA competitions involving climbing a rope and squirting a target and fighting fires.
“The CFA is just the culture of the family, passed down the generation of Harrisons who are still very much active member of the brigade.
Across from the fire station is the Hopefield shearing shed. He was there on an October 1957 day when Kevin Sarre was priming himself for a tilt at the world record and recalls the cheer that went up in the shed when 326 large crossbred lambs - ewes and wethers - had their fleeces removed in under eight hours.
Jack lapped up the recollection of memories when a member of Sarre’s team, Alf Parsons, returned two years ago to look over Hopefield’s shearing records for that historic day.
After a century of life at Hopefield, Jack still scoots around the farm on his stroller.
His days start with a bowl of Corn Flakes and a jar of apricot jam is never far away.
“We used to live on mutton but I do like a steak,” he said. A good cup of tea is another family tradition that Jack continues.
Jack said: “We don’t have the cattle any more - they are sadly gone - but there are still the sheep and we have grown some nice crops.”
He remembers when crop yields were stacked in bushel bags three high and is regarded as one of the Loddon’s biggest irrigators over the years.
And on turning 100, he said: “It’s just happened, getting on with family and neighbours and helping when people need help.”