ACT Heritage Library Manuscript Collections
HMSS 0440 Pine Grove Farm Records
Call Number | HMSS 0440 |
---|---|
Collection | Pine Grove Farm Records |
Date Range | circa 1931-2015 |
Quantity | 1.63m (9 containers) |
Access Conditions | open |
Copying Conditions | with attribution |
Related Collections | HMSS 0125 Max Hill Papers; HMSS 0364 ACT Potato Marketing Board Records |
In October 1930, vegetable grower Reuben Hill submitted an application to the lease Block 1 Section 2, Duntroon (later know as Pialligo) He was one of nine applicants. Reuben application detailed that he had been commercially growing vegetables in Canberra since 1917, had an established shop at Kingston, was already growing vegetables on a seventeen acre block – No 56 Woden and owned a number of plant and equipment. The administration offered the lease with the condition that Reuben surrender No 56 Woden. Reuben agreed and the lease for the 42 acres was granted on 1 December 1930, at a rental of 126 pounds per annum (inclusive of rates).
Reuben and his wife Eva (Eileen Eva May nee Carnall) and their children (two teenage girls, Eileen and Joyce, and four boys, Max, Fred, Geoff, and Doug) moved to what would become “Pine Grove” Farm, in the first week of December 1930. This became the family home for the Hills, and later their son Max’s (Norman Maxwell Hill) workplace, for the next fifty nine years. The land at the time was unsuitable for vegetable production and required a lot of effort to make it suitable for farming. The house also was very small for such a large family and Reuben was able to source two cabins for the boys to sleep in. The letter to the Chiefs Land Officer requesting the accommodation is included in the collection.
Reuben wanted his boys to join the public service so that they may enjoy a better working life than the one he experienced on the land. Max, however, had suffered whooping cough every winter since he was a baby. Reuben’s friends suggested that it was better for Max’s health to stay on the farm. Max began working on the farm in December 1934 after leaving school. He took over the farm in 1957 and was also permitted to buy the house, prior to this it was part of the lease. Max ran the farm until 1989 when he retired, at which point his son, Ian, took over.
This collection includes Pine Grove records of accounts, employees, plantings and correspondence predominantly during the time Max managed the property, but also includes records from his father’s and son’s periods of management. Interwoven are glimpses of Max and Reuben’s personal life such as Reuben’s invitation to a civic welcome for Queen Elizabeth II and Max’s radio broadcasting licenses. The collection also contains Max’s comparison of farming in the past to that of more modern times.
The ACT Heritage Library also holds Max’s personal stories of his life. These catalogued items provide further context about the records in this collection, and those related to it, from the employment of European migrants to working with the CSIRO to improve insecticides.
BOX | DESCRIPTION | QUANTITY | DATE RANGE |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Commercial Reckoners | 3 Publications | [1923]–[1935] |
1 | Insurance certificates, Agreements with Buzacott- Wolseley Limited | 1 Envelope | 1930-1953 |
1 | Taxation papers, receipts, Insurance certificates, receipt of application to RMS for Douglas John Hill (1944), land lease correspondence, Car owners certificate (1939) Hospital and Funeral correspondence and receipts for Geoffrey Alexander Hill, Thank you letter from Department of Education NSW re the Geoff Hill Shield for All Schools’ Sports competitions, (1938) | 1 File | 1931-1953 |
1 | Letter to Chiefs Land Officer regarding request for 2 cubicles (sleeping accommodation) to be placed on Vegetable Block No.1, Duntroon, to relieve pressure on the house. | 1 File | 1931 |
1 | Accounts Book | 1 Book | 1936-1943 |
1 | Accounts Book - Employees and wages, plantings | 1 Book | 1940-1957 |
1 | Receipts, orders and correspondence with Buzacott- Wolseley Limited | 1 File | 1942-1952 |
1 | Cash and expenditure accounts, planting activities, Broadcast Listener’s Licences | 1 Book | 1942-1948 |
1 | Insecticidal Control of cabbage Pests : Canberra 1944-48 | 1 Publication | 1944-1948 |
1 | Queanbeyan Pastoral, Agricultural & Horticultural Association (Queanbeyan Show) prize cards for Reuben Hill | 5 Prize cards | 1944-1950 |
1 | Accounts Book – alphabetical by account holder | 1 Book | 1946-1955 |
1 | Bank of New South Wales Deposit Book | 1 Book | 1947-1955 |
1 | Cash and expenditure accounts, Broadcast Listener’s Licences, Receipt of ground tablet purchased for the late Geoffrey A. Hill (Allot 122C, Presbyterian portion, Canberra Public Cemetery), Bank statement | 1 Book with loose papers | 1948-1955 |
2 | Vegetable Boom Instructions and plan (followed on from CSIRO work on recommendations) | 1 File | circa 1950s |
2 | Account Books – Employee Wages | 3 Books | 1955-1961 |
2 | Accounts presented, Deposit bonds | 1 Book with loose papers | 01/07/1959–30/06/1968 |
2 | Seed plantings, mostly alphabetical by plant type | 1 Book | 1950-1958 |
2 | Accounts Book – alphabetical by account holder | 1 Book | 1951-1955 |
2 | Taxation papers, receipts | 2 Files | 1952-1954 |
2 | Reuben Hill - Invitations and Ephemera regarding Queen Elizabeth II visits | 1 File | 1954,1958 |
2 | Accounts presented (incomplete) | 4 Carbon books | 1957-1958 |
2 | Invoices | 1 File | 1959-1960 |
2 | Business receipts | 1 File | 1959-1960 |
3 | Accounts - Expenditure | 3 Books | 1955-1975 |
4 | Business receipts | 1 File | 1960-1961 |
4 | Accounts presented (incomplete) | 4 Carbon books | 1960-1963 |
4 | Account Books – Employee Wages | 3 Books | 01/07/1961-30/06/1965 |
4 | Business receipts, Invoices | 1 File | 1963-1964 |
5 | Account Books – Employee Wages | 5 Books | 01/07/1965-30/06/1975 |
5 | Accounts presented | 2 Books | 01/07/1968-30/06/1975 |
5 | Pine Grove Correspondence | 1 Ring bound folder | 1968-1975 |
6 | Account Books – Employee Wages | 4 Books | 01/07/1975-30/06/1977, 01/07/1977-30/06/1979, 01/07/1979-30/06/1981, 01/07/1981-30/06/1983 |
6 | Accounts – Invoices (hostels and Messes – submitted for goods) | 1 Folder | 08/12/1978-11/10/1985 |
6 | Correspondence and account statements | 1 Ring bound folder | 1982-1985 |
7 | Accounts - Expenditure | 3 Books | 07/07/1975-16/01/1986 |
8 | Alphabetic listing of invoices sent to organisations for goods supplied | 1 Ring bound folder | 1980-1985 |
8 | Accounts presented | 1 Book | 03/04/1981-08/07/1985 |
8 | Account Books – Employee Wages | 2 Books | 01/07/1983-06/09/1985 |
8 | Pine Grove Correspondence | 1 Ring bound folder | 1985-1986 |
9 | Farming Photograph 1 - Max Hill inspecting a small crop of 4,000 cabbages nearing maturity | 1 Framed photograph (26cm x 21.5cm) | December 1987 |
9 | Farming Photographs 2 -15:
| 1 folder containing 14 photographs (10cm x 15cm) | circa 1950-1970 |
9 | Then and Now by Max Hill – a comparison of vegetable farming life and work in Canberra in the 1930s with life 50 years later. | 1 Plastic sleeve | 2015 |
9 | Early life of Max - address by Max hill at the ACT Heritage Library, Woden, 18/02/2003 | 1 Plastic sleeve | 2003 |
9 | The Back Door by Max Hill– memories of a supplier of fresh food to the Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia | 1 Plastic sleeve | circa 2000-2015 |
8 | Canberra Pioneer Reuben Hill and the evolution of the business widely known as R Hill & Son by Max Hill | 1 Plastic sleeve | 01/01/2003 |