Annie Bragg was one of nine children of Sarah and William Bragg who settled on the Nambucca in 1886. She was born in 1895 with the help of midwife Mrs Ainsworth and was an active Macksville resident until her death in 1983.
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She writes that the area their family farm was situated in was known as Wooraboorabee, an aboriginal name meaning "plenty native bear".
Annie attended the Lower Nambucca School from the age of six. This was a one room, one teacher school, which she attended until the age of 14.
There were never any school excursions, but Annie recalls a day when in great excitement they were let out of school in order to see a motor car driving down the gravel road.
Annie and her siblings walked the one mile to school, ate bread and dripping or bread and honey for lunch and, like most farmer's children, went straight home after school to help on the land.
After leaving school she worked on the farm ploughing crops, dairying and helping out with their one hundred bee hives. She mentions being stung by bees a few times and having to be rescued by her sister armed with a smoker.
A lot of Annie's life was taken up with domestics, making bread and butter and carting water. Washing was done about a mile from the house at a well.
One of Annie's talents was being the family barber, cutting all the children's hair and her father's as well as her own. As she got older Annie was well-known for her handcrafts.
Annie never married, but she mentions her three eldest sisters lived on the farm until they married and each wedding was celebrated at home. She did, however, have her share of mothering as her brother's wife passed away and she had the care of their twin boys from the age of two and a half years. She also cared for her parents and many young people who boarded with the Braggs.
There are sadder parts to the story which, reading between the lines, may have brought more suffering than Annie lets on. Her brother William left home to find paid employment and died from an illness while working at a mine at Tungsten. Another brother, Arthur, was killed in the First World War. In remembrance of Arthur, the family called their North Macksville home "1917", which was Arthur's regimental number.
Annie was skilled at floral arranging and was often called upon to make funeral wreaths. She also sold flowers from her large garden.
Annie Bragg died in 1983 at the age of 88 and is interred at the Goonellabah Crematorium near Lismore. A large crowd attended her funeral at the Macksville Uniting Church.
This article used the resources of the Nambucca Headland Museum and the Macksville and District History Group publications.
