It's a Community Place - John Cooper

A baby crosses Bass Strait to Flinders Island in a cupboard drawer, and eight decades later that same kid is still showing people what steady work, resilience and community look like. In this episode, Jacqui sits down with her dad, John Cooper, to explore a life shaped by the land, the sea, and the people who make island communities what they are.

From his family roots at Woodlands near Emita, John shares memories of growing up in the dairy shed, supplies arriving on the cream truck, school days at Whitemark, and a time when neighbours quietly looked after one another through shared labour, produce and practical support.

The conversation follows John's journey into stock work across Flinders Island and the Outer Islands, where days were spent mustering cattle through scrub, freshening country with patch burns, swimming bullocks ashore, and relying on local knowledge, signal fires and a healthy dose of ingenuity long before mobile phones and modern communications.

Along the way, John reflects on the rise and fall of the wool industry, life in the shearing shed, building Wandella with his wife Jen, managing drought, training working dogs, and helping transform the sheep operation on Prime Seal Island. He also shares stories from decades of community involvement through sport, agricultural shows and the Lackrana Fire Brigade, including the challenges of the 2003 bushfires.

If you care about island life, Tasmanian farming history, the Australian wool industry, working dogs, or community resilience, you’ll find something here that sticks. Subscribe, share this with someone who loves the bush and the coast, and leave a review.

If you'd like to provide feedback on this podcast, we'd welcome your comments at crew@furneauxcollective.com

Transcript

Welcome And Introducing John Cooper

Jacqui Cooper: 0:03

Welcome to Latitude 40, brought to you by the Furneaux Collective. This podcast celebrates the heart, soul, and history of the Furneaux group, told by the people who call these islands home. Here we share stories of island life, of resilience and connection, of land and sea, of old ways and new beginnings. From the windswept shores to the heart of our communities. Each episode captures a piece of what makes this island life so unique. So, islanders and visitors alike, settle in and join us as we explore the stories that shaped the spirit of the Furneaux Islands. One voice at a time.

Jacqui Cooper: 0:48

Hello and welcome to Latitude 40. I'm your host, Jacqui Cooper. Thank you so much for joining me today. On Flinders Island, stories aren't often written down, they're lived, in the rhythm of the seasons, in the work of the land, and in the people who shape this place over time. My guest today is one of those people. He arrived here as a newborn, crossing Bass Strait in a rather unusual way, lying in the drawer of a cupboard on the boat. And was raised at Woodlands in Emita, the eldest son of dairy farmers Jack and Doss. Over the years, he's worked in many roles across these islands. A stockman mustering cattle on Flinders and the Outer Islands, a farmer, a shearer, and a good one at that with multiple wins in the annual quick shear event. He's managed farming operations at Happy Valley and Prime Seal Island while building his own life on Wandella in Lackrana, and more recently on MacCrimmon in Emita. He's someone who has contributed quietly but consistently to this community. A long-serving member and for many years a fire chief of the Lackrana Fire Brigade. And still today serving as livestock steward for the Flinders Island Show Society, where he's been awarded a life membership. When I spoke with Steve Crawford, who worked and farmed closely alongside him for many years, he told me he learned simply by being there, working beside him, talking in the catching pen between sheep, absorbing his knowledge and his passion for farming wool and wool sheep. And he said something that stayed with me. I idolize the man. It was never on my radar to host a podcast, let alone to have the opportunity to sit down and record a conversation like this. Today I'm speaking with my father, John Cooper, about a life shaped by family, farming, and community here on Flinders Island. Welcome, John. Can I call you Dad?

John Cooper 2:52

Yeah, of course you can.

Family Roots And Early Hard Lessons

Jacqui Cooper: 2:54

So, Dad, what do you know about your family history on Flinders Island?

John Cooper 2:59

Well, my grandparents on my dad's side arrived from King Island, actually, in 1911. My Auntie Mary was only a few weeks old when they came. And they settled at Woodlands. My grandfather had been over, him and his brother came over from King Island to have a look at Flinders, and they actually bought land around Emita and quite a bit of land at Palana. And I think that they bought the land at Palana because there wasn't many trees on it, and it was just roughly ah native pasture and whatever.

Jacqui Cooper: 3:33

So, any stories from those early years that have stayed with you when your grandfather started farming on the island?

John Cooper 3:39

My dad tells me that at some stage during their farming career that they had these bullocks and they had to go off to Welshpool to be sold, and they went on the boat from Port Davies and they didn't have the right paperwork with them, so they put it let them out on the beach and they shot them all. It was his whole yearly income. So what does he do? He turns around and he sells most of the land of Palana and retains a bit of the Emita and had a dairy farm there or two dairy farms. My grandfather's son, so he had a dairy farm, and dad ran the dairy farm at a at the Emita, yeah. At Woodlands.

Jacqui Cooper: 4:19

That must have been heartbreaking for them.

John Cooper 4:21

Yeah, pretty hard for them, yeah, pretty hard for the old fellow, yeah.

Jacqui Cooper: 4:24

And so on your mum's side, there's a connection to lighthouse keeping. What do you know about that side of the family?

John Cooper 4:30

Well, grandfather there, he was a lighthouse keeper. He was transferred from island, from lighthouse to lighthouse around Tasmania. They were on Tasman Island and what's the other one down there?

Jacqui Cooper: 4:41

Maatsuyker.

John Cooper 4:42

Maatsuyker, yeah, Maatsuyker. They were on Swan Island for a while and down the Tamar River. And mum reckons she had a really good life travelling around like that. She had a horse or a dog and always had a cow. Cow for milk and butter.

Jacqui Cooper: 4:57

And they took those from island to island or I don't reckon they did.

John Cooper 5:01

I reckon they once they got there, I reckon they stayed there because it was pretty hard on Tasman and Maatsuyker in particular, where they had to winch everything up and down the cliffs there, and winch them up with a horse. Had to, of course, turn the horse around and reverse it slowly too to take the stuff down. And of course they only got supplies there sort of every three months or so. It's a pretty hard life those days.

Jacqui Cooper: 5:27

I reckon. And so how did your mum come to live on Flinders Island?

John Cooper 5:32

My mum during the war she joined the land army. She worked around in Victoria there for a little while, and then she came to Flinders Island to work for Cyril Robinson, who was her uncle. That's when she met my dad.

Growing Up In The Dairy Shed

Jacqui Cooper: 5:47

And so what do you remember about your parents starting out together, particularly their life farming at Woodlands?

John Cooper 5:52

Well, before that they used to have a there was a hall at a Emita, just below the just below where the cenotaph is now. There was a dance there every week. Mum and her cousin would dress up and come in in the buggy with a horse and buggy, and they'd dance all night and then go home and milk the cows. Yeah, right. And that's actually that's where she met Dad at a dance. She sort of went on from there.

Jacqui Cooper: 6:19

Yeah. So you arrived on Flinders Island as a newborn, and the story starts with your mother Doss placing you in a drawer of a cupboard, ensuring your safe passage on the boat to get home. What are your earliest memories of growing up on the farm at Emita?

John Cooper 6:37

The cows, I reckon in the cow shed.

Jacqui Cooper: 6:39

Yep.

John Cooper 6:40

I had these big milking short on cows. They're as quiet as quiet. I remember, you know, you could touch 'em, you could pat 'em and whatever in the in the bale. And I remember climbing up the side of the bale there and on one of the cows. One of them must have been really quiet.

Jacqui Cooper: 6:56

So do you know how many cows they milked there?

John Cooper 6:58

Be about, you know, never got much over thirty.

Jacqui Cooper: 7:01

And so as a young child in a busy dairy environment, how did your parents manage to keep you safe while they got the work done?

John Cooper 7:08

They were used to put you in a cream can. Yeah, put you in the cream can with something to eat, I suppose. And a blanket or something, keep you warm.

Jacqui Cooper: 7:16

Yep.

John Cooper 7:17

Yeah.

Jacqui Cooper: 7:17

You were safe.

John Cooper 7:18

That's what everyone did.

Jacqui Cooper: 7:19

Yeah, right.

John Cooper 7:20

When I had little kids like that, they put them in a cream can or, you know, some something like that to keep you away from the the belts and whatever else that were going on and yeah, keep you safe.

Jacqui Cooper: 7:30

And is it right? I think I remember your brother, Peter, telling me that he used to get hung in a sack if he was naughty.

John Cooper 7:37

If we played up a bit, he'd catch you and put you in a chaff bag and hang on on a fence. And you couldn't get out.

Jacqui Cooper: 7:44

No, that's right. Some child care tips. Yeah. Living on the island at that time, it was a long trip to White mark. How did your family manage to get groceries and essential supplies?

John Cooper 7:57

Usually on the cream truck. You'd send an order down with the cream truck. He'd come out every second day, or three times a week, and pick up the cream, take to the butter factory, and on the way he'd take all the orders, any grocery orders, he'd take them down, and Mrs. Bowman would go through them and she'd scratch off the ones she reckoned you didn't need and put in the order.

Jacqui Cooper: 8:19

Just have the essentials. Yeah.

John Cooper 8:20

Yeah.

Jacqui Cooper: 8:21

So do you remember who had the cream cart back then?

John Cooper 8:25

Yes, yeah. I remember vaguely Jack Gardiner and he used to whistle all the time. And my dad tells me a story where he got this new truck. We had to cart the cream out into the middle of the paddock where we kept the cream in a cool shed. So it was out in the wind. Anyway, old Jack comes down and he's driving around around the cream shed. He couldn't stop the truck. He's yelling out, whoa, whoa!

Jacqui Cooper: 8:52

Oh dear. So when your father would kill a lamb, he often shared meat and other produce with others in the community. And I think even your mum made some bread. What role did you play in that?

John Cooper 9:05

Ah, he'd give us a parcel of meat for someone, you know, someone that wasn't going so well, and or someone that didn't have access to that sort of thing. And we'd just take it on the horse to wherever. There was a few people, you know, a few big families around the place. And sort of later on, I remember there was an old boy called Harry Armstrong at West End, and the old man would, you know, give him a a few chops or a shoulder a meat or something and put it on a school bus.

Jacqui Cooper: 9:32

Lovely thing to do. So life on the farm must have kept everyone busy, but of course school was part of life too. Where did you go to school and what do you remember about those school days?

John Cooper 9:44

School, I quite liked school actually. We went to school at White mark Area School. Our bus driver was Ray Faulkner early in the piece. We'd stop at the Emita Church corner there, and we'd play marbles for about half an hour. And that happened just about every day. He loved playing marbles, and he'd draw this big ring and we'd put the marbles in and he'd keep the ones he you eventually give them back to you, but but he'd keep the ones he won.

Jacqui Cooper: 10:10

The one yeah, he took them.

John Cooper 10:11

Yeah.

Jacqui Cooper: 10:12

So did you have a favourite teacher back then?

John Cooper 10:14

Yeah, Miss Chilcott.

Jacqui Cooper: 10:16

You also had a teacher who later went on to teach your youngest daughter, Nikki. Do you remember who that was?

John Cooper 10:21

Yeah, that was Mrs. Blundstone, and she taught me and she taught she taught the girls. I don't know how long she was at the school, but she was there a long, long time. She probably should have been the principal, because she was pretty tough on everyone. I remember she used to take us for singing sometimes too. I remember one time we were singing there and Colin Brown was standing next to me. he's singing old black Joe, and we're supposed to be singing something else, and I started to laugh, so I'm the one that got into trouble. Gotta got a whack with the ruler.

Jacqui Cooper: 10:52

He would have thought that was funny.

John Cooper 10:53

Yeah. Oh, Brownie, he was always up to something, yeah.

From School To Stockman Life

Jacqui Cooper: 10:57

So once your school years came to an end, what direction did life start to take?

John Cooper 11:03

The first proper job I got was actually with Brian Stackhouse. And I had to have my horse and dog and cut lunch, and the first thing he did, he gave me a box of matches. And we'd be mustering they had access to a fair bit of land, then all the Marshall Bay and Pine Scrub and Carnacks. So we'd be moving cattle from one place to the other and all that stuff. And as we'd go along, you know, like the be a little patch of tussocks or something like that, and you just drop a match there and it might burn half an acre, it might burn five acres. But you never have a big fire, because it was always a bit of burnt stuff, and it was also produced feed for the cattle as well.

Jacqui Cooper: 11:40

Yeah.

John Cooper 11:41

Yeah. All those tussocks would come up as soon as you got a rain, they'd be up, and they were soft feed for the cattle for cows anyway.

Jacqui Cooper: 11:48

And that prevented some of those bigger wildfires that we get today.

John Cooper 11:51

Yeah, that's right. Yeah, we never had a big fire like that ever. There'd be a fire through the summer, but it'd be, you know, it'd go out and burn itself out because there'd be little patches of green stuff here, there and everywhere. Yeah.

Jacqui Cooper: 12:02

So can you describe what it was like moving stock around the island?

John Cooper 12:06

There'd be one or two of us and always had a good dog. Brian always had good dogs. We'd move cows and calves a few times up to Pine Scrub, which is up near West End. Sometimes we'd stay overnight. There's a bit of a hut there. We'd tie the horses up to the big old fig tree and stay the night, do some repairs and maintenance on the yards or whatever, ride back again. Or we take cattle out to Carnacks, out along the five mile road, and there's no fences, of course, but had good dogs, yeah.

Jacqui Cooper: 12:39

It's a long way, a really long way.

John Cooper 12:41

Well, I suppose it is, yeah.

Jacqui Cooper: 12:42

At what point did you start working as a stockman beyond Flinders Island, like on the Outer Islands, yeah.

John Cooper 12:48

Well, first trip I went out to Hogan's with Brian, and we went on the Shear water. We had we had some young cattle on there to go on to Hogan's. We stayed out there and made some water troughs, and that was hard work because you had to carry those big bags of cement they were those days. You carry them up the hill there and dig out the soak and make a water trough underneath it. Right. And fence it off. And I think we did three of those there. There was no hut or anything there, we just had an army tent. And I remember we'd been there a while and one night this boat came in there called The Plover. He went round and round in the bay there just about all night, yeah catching cooter. Then he went back to Welshpool or wherever he came from, yeah. Of course, we were there for about ten days, I reckon, ten or twelve days. So the bit of meat we had would have gone, you know, we were eaten. Yeah. And it was in the mutton bird season, we had a dinghy, so we rode out to a little patch of rocks and got a good feed of mutton birds. Yeah, caught a few rockfish, and we actually came home on the Mary Knowling, which is a another fishing boat that used to fish down round Sisters.

Jacqui Cooper: 13:59

Right.

John Cooper 14:00

So he brought us back to Killiecrankie.

Jacqui Cooper: 14:03

And so how did he know to come and get you after ten days?

John Cooper 14:06

No, no, no. He was in the bay fishing. He was in the bay getting cooter, and Brian rowed out and saw him, and he said he was going down to the Furneaux Group in a couple of days, so he took his load of fish back to Welshpool and then picked us up on the way down.

Jacqui Cooper: 14:23

Right. And you still had plenty of water at that stage?

John Cooper 14:26

Yeah. We had drinking water and made a cup of tea and whatever, but we always had a wash in the sea. Stripped off and in you go.

Jacqui Cooper: 14:34

Yeah.

John Cooper 14:35

Have a washer every day.

Jacqui Cooper: 14:36

After a hard day at work. So what are some of the other islands that you went to?

Outer Islands Cattle And Bushcraft

John Cooper 14:42

Well, on Hogan's Route had 120 bullocks there. They were about three year old, and we'd take sixty off and put sixty young ones on there, and you just swim off the off the boat, had a race running out and with no end in it, and they'd just jump off into the water. And they'd swim out a couple of times you'd have to get the dinghy out to head them back the if the wind was blowing the wrong way, that they want to swim into the wind all the time. So you'd have to turn them back so make sure they go onto the land. Yeah.

Jacqui Cooper: 15:07

Right.

John Cooper 15:08

Otherwise they just go to go into the wind for till they die.

Jacqui Cooper: 15:11

Wow. So they just jump off the boat and swim into the island. And you head them into the island basically.

John Cooper 15:17

Yeah, make sure they go and go onto land, yeah.

Jacqui Cooper: 15:20

I bet it's a bit of a shock for them.

John Cooper 15:21

Oh, yeah, absolutely would be. Yeah. Yeah. And they'd be climbing up rocks and things because most of the time they didn't go to the beach, they'd go into the rocks.

Jacqui Cooper: 15:28

Oh, really? Oh.

John Cooper 15:29

Yeah. But they got all they got there all right.

Jacqui Cooper: 15:31

So can you describe how was it that you swam them back off the island to get on the boat?

John Cooper 15:37

We'd have a bull rope off the main boat, off the Lady Jillian mostly that I work with. You'd have a bull rope onto the shore and you put a headline on the bullocks. My job was to put the headline on and make sure it didn't choke 'em and made sure it didn't come off as well.

Jacqui Cooper: 15:54

Jeez.

John Cooper 15:55

It's a pretty responsible job.

Jacqui Cooper: 15:57

Yeah, and they're pretty wild cattle. They haven't seen humans.

John Cooper 15:59

Well, they're quiet until the kid let them out with a headrope on 'em they're quiet enough. And one of the things you do there when you're working those cattle is you don't talk. You just you have someone in the yard with you. Or in my case I was on my own most of the time there, but you just have a long stick and you just poke 'em here and poke them there and don't talk because it'll you know, they're not used to that. Yeah. They get spooked a bit, yeah, otherwise. Yeah. And you can have the wildest ones that'll probably chase you, but when you get them in the yard

Jacqui Cooper: 16:29

They settle down.

John Cooper 16:30

Just sneak them into the race and put a put a headline on them, hook them onto the bull rope, and then you wave. Two hands wave, was everything's okay. Two hands up straight, but you better stop, because we're in trouble.

Jacqui Cooper: 16:44

Right. And they'd start winching them.

John Cooper 16:47

Yeah, they'd winch them out into the water. Once they got in the water, you could handle them pretty well. You keep the head up and you'd tie the head up on the workboat so they didn't get water in their nose, because they'd drown really quickly.

Jacqui Cooper: 16:59

Right.

John Cooper 16:59

Yeah. My times going there. I went there a fair bit. My time's going there. I think we only ever drowned one, but I remember anyway.

Jacqui Cooper: 17:08

Mm-hmm.

John Cooper 17:09

So we just hung him up and butchered him up there, yeah.

Jacqui Cooper: 17:12

So it's a very unique operation, isn't it?

John Cooper 17:14

Oh yeah. Yeah, you've got to take the right people.

Jacqui Cooper: 17:17

And they don't have cattle out in those islands now, do they?

John Cooper 17:20

No, no, unfortunately. Which is bad, yeah, I reckon. If you look around all the islands and the amount of money that they generated was a lot of money.

Jacqui Cooper: 17:30

So are there any musters on the Outer Islands in particular, but any really, that stand out in your memory, perhaps for how tough they were, or was there a time when something happened unexpectedly?

John Cooper 17:42

We had trouble getting the there was 40 bullocks on Erith, and we knew the boat was coming in in sort of two or three days' time. You had to get them yarded, and we are having trouble getting them yarded. Brian shot there was a couple of leaders there, and Brian shot one, and then he shot another one, and we shot three, I think, before Stormy. And I said, Well, right, we're not gonna have any cattle left here to keep that up.

John Cooper 18:07

It was funny because it was a moonlight night. It had a lot of moon there at the time. So I don't know whose idea it was. We'll cut a good long stick each, and we pointed it, put a point on a nice sharp point, and the cattle would go into these little scrubs and camp in there, they just stop there, and go into these little clumps with the cattle in them, and you wouldn't talk, you'd just walk in there and they'd be quiet, you know, because they'd they thought it was another cow coming or something or whatever, and you'd jab them up the arse with a stick and they'd rush out, and they go to the next one. So you'd follow them over there, and they'd all be in there standing there with their heads down, and you'd jab a few of them up the arse with a stick, and they'd all run out. We we got them in one evening, yeah, one night.

Jacqui Cooper: 18:53

Wow.

John Cooper 18:54

Put them into the holding paddock, and the next day we well all we had to do was just get them into the yard. We only ever did that once, but they wouldn't see many people there for a long time.

Jacqui Cooper: 19:03

And being on foot without any horses there.

John Cooper 19:06

Brian took a horse there once, but it wasn't really suitable.

Jacqui Cooper: 19:09

So were there some islands where you rode horses for stock work?

John Cooper 19:14

yeah, on tin cuttle we did. Tin cuttle we rode a horse there to do the mustering, yeah. Took a good dog and didn't have so much trouble, no.

Jacqui Cooper: 19:22

So, Dad, before UHF radios and mobile phones, when you were on the Outer Islands, how did you stay in touch with people back on Flinders Island?

John Cooper 19:32

Well, on Hogan's and Erith, we had you had a lighthouse keeper on Deal Island.

Jacqui Cooper: 19:38

Oh yeah.

John Cooper 19:39

So he was okay. There was always fishermen around Hogan's, so you contact with them somehow, you know, that and you just have to go down the beach and wave your hands or whatever. And on the sisters, the first thing we did when we get there was we'd have three fire heaps up on the hill. So that Miss Maleye she was, , and later Eddie used to check at six o'clock every night. And if we were in trouble, we could like three of them, you know, get something there soon because we were in trouble.

Jacqui Cooper: 20:08

Emergency.

John Cooper 20:09

Yeah. Two was I'm not sure what two was now, but most of the time we're all okay. We ran out of food once there on the Inner Sisters. We used to run four thousand, used to shear four thousand sheep there.

Jacqui Cooper: 20:21

Goodness.

John Cooper 20:22

Yeah, four thousand Corriedales. We ran out of food there once, and we had this big roo dog, and we're trying to catch a hare.

Jacqui Cooper: 20:30

Oh yeah.

John Cooper 20:31

And so he'd he'd line this hare up and he'd be chasing this hare just about to grab the hare and the hare would take a sideways. Dog would do a big lap, and but we never ever caught a hare.

Jacqui Cooper: 20:44

So did you light one of the fires so that someone bought you some food over or

John Cooper 20:48

We lit a fire to say, you know, we want to get off there, we're finished.

Jacqui Cooper: 20:51

Oh yeah, we're done, yeah.

John Cooper 20:52

But the weather was no good to get a boat out there.

Jacqui Cooper: 20:55

Right.

John Cooper 20:56

I remember Chesty he caught a few sheep because he wanted milk in his tea, he didn't like black tea. So milk a sheep and get a few cups of milk.

Jacqui Cooper: 21:05

Yeah.

John Cooper 21:06

But we didn't have a fridge or anything, of course.

Jacqui Cooper: 21:08

No. No, they're a pretty hard time.

John Cooper 21:10

Yeah.

Jacqui Cooper: 21:10

It was pretty rough.

John Cooper 21:11

But we we killed a lamb and we had meat.

Jacqui Cooper: 21:14

Yeah.

John Cooper 21:14

About all we did have, I think. Yeah. Yeah, right. We were there for three or four days with virtually nothing. But we we're right, we're fine. Didn't notice.

Jacqui Cooper: 21:22

No.

Wool Industry Peak And Crash

Jacqui Cooper: 21:23

So sheep farming was a big part of life on Flinders Island. Can you describe the sheep and wool industry on Flinders in its prime?

John Cooper 21:32

Oh, it was it was a going industry. Put a lot of money around in the economy of Flinders. Yeah, we used to have , I think at the peak it was about 320,000 sheep, and we would have had three permanent gangs of shearers going, you know, pretty well all the year round. There was a lot of money generated, having a lot of sheep. And there was other work as well, you know, through the winter time there'd be the some of the rouseis would be working on farms, doing a bit of farm work. And drenching sheep or whatever, you know. And during the winter we'd be crutching sheep.

Jacqui Cooper: 22:05

Yeah, well, with sheep there was always a job, wasn't it?

John Cooper 22:07

There was always a job. Yeah. Generated a lot of money.

Jacqui Cooper: 22:11

So when the soldier settlement farms were first established, there was only one shearing shed at Namana. What do you remember about those early shearing days?

John Cooper 22:20

Well there was only the Mamana area settled. They didn't have any shearing sheds, so they built a big shed down there next to Alan Lamont's place, it was. I think Scott Anderson's got that property now. And everyone used to walk their sheep down there, and there was three shearers.

Jacqui Cooper: 22:38

Yeah. Take it in turns, taking your mob in and

John Cooper 22:43

Yeah take their sheep down there and get them shorn, and they had a big manual Kurtz press, press the wool. I remember working down there once, and Brownie and I were rouse abouting, and they were crutching these sheep and they were dirty. Brownie's wheeling the dags out in the wheelbarrow. And when we knocked off to come home, my ute my car was absolutely full of dags. You've been putting them all.

Jacqui Cooper: 23:07

He'd been putting them in your car

John Cooper 23:07

You had them in the boot and in the back seat, the front seat, everywhere. Yeah. I got him back though. I put I put a dead rooster head under the back seat of his car. It smelt for ages, yeah.

Jacqui Cooper: 23:23

There was a celebration of wool on the island with the blessing of the fleece. Can you tell us about it and paint a picture of what that day was like?

John Cooper 23:31

We had a Padre here in those days. Well, most of the time, yeah, we had a Padre here. So to have a blessing of the fleece at someone's property. Someone would shear the sheep. I got to shear it, two or three sheep at different places. People would gather round and they'd have a little service, as in they do with , I suppose the blessing of the fleet. Yeah, but you got a good crowd there and they'd have barbecue or something afterwards.

Jacqui Cooper: 23:56

Great way to involve the community in I suppose so, yeah. And there were some difficult periods for the wool industry. How did those times affect farmers on Flinders Island?

John Cooper 24:06

They were pretty hard, actually. You know, like interest rates went through and we were paying 23% at one stage, and the reserve price scheme collapsed. They had all this wool. So they charged us 25% of our wool clip to service that. And in our situation, you know, we had two girls away at school, and the headmaster at the school, he was he was a good bloke, a real good bloke, because he we rang up and said, you know, we wouldn't be able to keep the girls at school the way it's going. And he said, Oh, it's all right, it's all right. He said, You you know, you'll pay some time, you'll be right. And we did.

Jacqui Cooper: 24:46

That's huge, isn't it? And so in those tough years, how did the farmers pull together and support one another?

John Cooper 24:52

We shore for each other and the shearers would shear, the rouse abouts would work, and you know, there was no there was very little money changed hands. You'd shear for your neighbour or whoever else. It'd be a work exchange, really. There was yeah, very little money changed hands.

Jacqui Cooper: 25:08

Yeah, great sense of community isn't.

John Cooper 25:10

In our situation, we just shut the gate, didn't spend any money on the farm, just did what we had to do, you know, for a few years. Yeah.

Jacqui Cooper: 25:17

Yeah.

John Cooper 25:18

And got through. You just gotta buckle down.

Jacqui Cooper: 25:20

Yeah.

Building Wandella And Farming Wisdom

Jacqui Cooper: 25:21

And just as a side topic, over the years you've kept rainfall records. When did that start and how many years of annual rainfall history do you have now?

John Cooper 25:32

I think it goes back to 78.

Jacqui Cooper: 25:34

And you've still got all those records?

John Cooper 25:35

Yeah, we've still got the original records, yeah.

Jacqui Cooper: 25:38

So it was obviously from 1978 was when you and Mum bought Wandella.

John Cooper 25:42

Yeah.

Jacqui Cooper: 25:43

What did it take for you both to make that happen?

John Cooper 25:47

We sold everything we had. Just kept the Ute and not much else. We had a nice little humpy at the North East River. Nice little shack up there, and we had to sell that, but it was pretty hard to sell that. Yeah.

Jacqui Cooper: 26:01

Hmmmm

John Cooper 26:02

Because, you know, like you girls used to.

Jacqui Cooper: 26:05

Yeah, I loved that.

John Cooper 26:06

Yeah.

Jacqui Cooper: 26:06

It was amazing.

John Cooper 26:07

Mum loved it, yeah. Yeah. Anyway, we sold everything and put it into the farm and got started. We had no money to buy livestock. And we're at we're at Pony Club one day, and I said to this bloke, I was just telling him that, you know, we had we had no money to buy livestock. We're not sure quite how we're gonna get the get the money to buy some livestock. And he said, Oh, Jesus Cooper, he said, I've got 15,000 sitting there. He said, You can have that.

Jacqui Cooper: 26:31

Wow.

John Cooper 26:32

Yeah.

Jacqui Cooper: 26:33

So he lent you the money to buy the livestock.

John Cooper 26:36

So he just gave me the money. I paid him 10% interest, and he said, You keep it for two or three years. I had it paid back in the first year, at the end of the first year.

Jacqui Cooper: 26:44

Oh, amazing.

John Cooper 26:45

We got it started, yeah. And we just bought cast for age ewes, you could buy them for two dollars, join them to a prime lamb, and eventually got into the wool industry, yeah.

Jacqui Cooper: 26:55

And speaking of that, inter interestingly, I was speaking with Steve Crawford about the years that you spent shearing together. He'd taken over the shearing team from Leo Foster and Steve Skews.

John Cooper 27:07

That's right.

Jacqui Cooper: 27:08

And he said working beside you really shaped his work ethic. He also talked about the long days that you and Mum worked, shearing all day and then going home and continuing on with the farm into the night. What do you remember about that period of your lives?

John Cooper 27:24

It was good when we were shearing, because Crawf and I would shear alongside each other and we'd just talk farming all day.

Jacqui Cooper: 27:31

That's what he said.

John Cooper 27:33

Well, I'd be away shearing and mum was nursing, so she'd come home and she'd muster a mob of sheep and we'd crutch till midnight and then go to bed.

Jacqui Cooper: 27:45

Yeah, long days.

John Cooper 27:46

Then up at six and away again. And I mean we didn't have that many sheep. We probably only had probably maybe 1,500 sheep then. And mum used to wean all the lambs on her own. She could she could work the dogs good.

Jacqui Cooper: 27:58

Yeah, so Steve said that you had a real passion for wool and wool sheep, and that you were generous with your knowledge. He also said that because of all the questions he asked in the um catching pen, he earned the nickname Tony Barber.

John Cooper 28:13

Yeah.

Jacqui Cooper: 28:16

But what was it about wool and sheep that really sparked that passion in you?

John Cooper 28:22

Being a shearer, you get to shear bad wool sheep and good wool sheep, and yeah, I just love the feel of really nice wool, soft wool, , you know, and after a while, you know, you get to shear those really good wool sheep that just I don't know what it does to you, but it just makes you feel good. I reckon, you know, Crawf had a real thing about wool, and he produced the best a wool flock of sheep on the island.

Jacqui Cooper: 28:49

Right.

John Cooper 28:50

He had a really good feel for wool and a real good eye for wool.

Jacqui Cooper: 28:53

Fantastic. Nice to have someone up the road not too far away that had shared the same passion.

John Cooper 28:58

But we'd talk sheep and farming all day when we're shearing it. And we'd shear fairly good numbers, you know. Like I'd sort of school myself to try and shear 160 a day. Well, I reckon we probably did better than that. Yeah, but we'll still be talking.

Jacqui Cooper: 29:13

Yeah. And Flinders Island isn't immune to dry seasons. What's been your experience farming through drought over the years and what's helped you to get through?

John Cooper 29:23

I was always told by the older guys when it when it becomes really dry, you know, you de-stock, or you de-stock before it becomes really dry. And I always did that, always de stocked, never bought feed, and then we got this consultant that came over and he had a field day thing, and we got involved with this stuff, and he said, Oh no, no, you don't sell your stock. He said, you like you buy feed and you do this and you do that. Well, we spent a whole heap of money that year buying feed, and what do we end up with a heap of thin cattle and thin sheep that you couldn't sell, and you ended up shooting a whole heap of sheep.

Jacqui Cooper: 30:06

Heartbreaking.

John Cooper 30:07

Yeah. So we never I never did that again. I always remember to restock early, hang on to the money, and buy in early.

Jacqui Cooper: 30:15

And horses and dogs weren't just companions, they were essential workmates in those days. What role did they play for you day to day?

John Cooper 30:22

Well, I always had a good dog in a shearing shed that everyone could work. We used to take a dog round with us. Some of the sheds you went to, the dogs weren't much good. You know, a good working dog, you just can't beat a good working dog.

Jacqui Cooper: 30:36

Yeah, and over the years you've trained many working dogs, but one in particular stands out to me, a little black Smithfield called Sue. And she was a bit mischievous. Can you share with us the story of what she stole?

John Cooper 30:50

Yeah. It's a bit embarrassing, actually. She I went up Conway's Road to get them mob sheep in, and and this lady and her grandchildren were walking these cattle up the road. That's fine. You know, I'd let her walk past the gate, and then I sent a dog round to these sheep of mine and brought them out onto the road, and I couldn't see where my little dog was. She disappeared. I thought, oh, that's funny. Anyway, I thought she must have gone home for some reason. Anyway, I take my sheep down the road, go inside, have a cup of tea, and all of a sudden, this lady comes down the road and she says, Your dog stole our cows. I said, What? I looked around and here's the little dog, Sue. She'd stolen these about 40 cows. She'd stolen the cows past the this lady and her kids. And though she had them in the sheepyards, and she's sitting in the gate.

Jacqui Cooper: 31:48

Guarding them.

John Cooper 31:49

Yeah, guarding her, watching her. Yeah. Yeah.

Jacqui Cooper: 31:53

At some point you and Mum began expanding Wandella. What led to that decision?

John Cooper 31:59

Oh, we're both hungry for more livestock.

Jacqui Cooper: 32:02

Didn't have enough work.

John Cooper 32:04

Well, it's not really more work. It was good. We had a couple of thousand acres eventually out there. And I think, you know, you get big enough to say that we employed a little bit of casual labour, but not much. And you could do the rest ourselves. And it takes out the highs and lows a bit of a farming enterprise. If you've got enough enough livestock there to take out the highs and lows, it makes it a lot easier.

Jacqui Cooper: 32:30

Yeah. And I've been speaking to a few people and I don't think they'll mind me naming them. So there was you know, Crawf and Macca and Tom. And they kept coming back to the same things that you don't do things in halves, but it pays off. And that your cattle your number one priority after Jen. And that you've always been generous with your knowledge, especially with young farmers starting out. You're part of the farm discussion group here on the island, a group that comes together to learn from one another, support each other, and share both the challenges and the wins. What is it you enjoy about being part of that group?

John Cooper 33:09

I enjoy seeing the young fellows getting going and doing well. You know, we've got there's such a lot of information out there now that we never ever had when we were when we were starting off. I mean, if you saw your neighbour doing something better than you, were you you would go and do what he did. That still applies, I suppose, but being involved with these younger guys that are really switched on, doing the job well, it's really good. Yeah, I got a lot of time for for those young fellas that are doing a job really well, and it's good to see, and they're getting good results. It's good to be involved with those young fellas, yeah.

Jacqui Cooper: 33:46

And Macca said that he loves the fact that you know the history of what's been in every paddock on the island. You can tell them what was grown here, you know, 50 or 60 years ago. Yeah.

John Cooper 33:59

Yeah.

Jacqui Cooper: 34:00

Yeah.

Prime Seal Island Turnaround

Jacqui Cooper: 34:01

So you spent some time farming on Prime Seal Island, which is a 1220-hectare island about 21 kilometers west of Flinders Island. How did that come about? And can you describe the operation and the logistics?

John Cooper 34:16

Yeah, well, this bloke called George Jennings rang me up once and he said his manager was going into hospital for an operation. He said, Would you be able to sort of oversee what was happening out there? And I thought, oh yeah. Just go out there, you know, once a fortnight or whatever. Anyway, the bloke that had the operation, he didn't come out of hospital. Poor bugger. So I sort of took over the job there, I suppose. It was a bit of a mess. There was about 400 sheep there, and they were lousy as cookers and full of sand. Every run we were wheeling out half a wheelbarrow full of sand from under the table. Yeah, they were terrible, terrible condition, and hard to muster because as soon as they heard a motorbike or anything, they all headed into the bush. But we changed all that. I sat down with George one day and we went through about the things we needed to do there, and had a budget of about 80,000 to get things back on track. We didn't spend all of it that year. George was pretty happy about that, and we got good results. The first thing we did was get the lice out of the sheep. When we mustered them, we made sure we got everything. You know, we'd go back and get everything. And so the first shearing I did there, we got the old water dip going, pumped that out, cleaned it out, put a put a bit of a yard up there, and every sheep that was shorn and went through that dip, and we never saw lice again.

Jacqui Cooper: 35:44

Yeah, right.

John Cooper 35:45

Yeah, it was really good. And we produced some really good wool there. We were shearing about 1,800 sheep after a while, and got the wallaby population down. We had good grass, and yeah, when it was paying for itself. I don't think you wouldn't have made much money out of it, but maybe ten grand or something. But those islands are they're expensive to run and hard to run.

Jacqui Cooper: 36:10

Can you describe how you would get the wool bales off the island?

John Cooper 36:13

Yeah. Get the sheep off there too, because previously to me going there they used to shoot all the old sheep.

Jacqui Cooper: 36:19

Oh.

John Cooper 36:19

Yeah. We'd line the bales up down onto this flat rock. And when we moved the sheep off, we'd take maybe fifty at a time, so if we lost them, we only lost fifty, not three hundred, you know. And run them down sort of a a lane way with the bales of wool onto the rock and the barge come in and he'd sit to the gate down there and we'd run the sheep straight onto the barge. And it worked well. Didn't lose any

Jacqui Cooper: 36:46

Great

John Cooper 36:47

One or two jump over, but the dog would bring them back and jump back in again. And then we'd put the wool on. We ended up chewing about 1800 there for the last few years, cutting about 70 odd bales of wool.

Jacqui Cooper: 36:59

That's great, isn't it?

John Cooper 37:00

Yeah, it was good.

Jacqui Cooper: 37:01

And did you enjoy your time over there?

John Cooper 37:02

Oh, I just loved it. I loved it. The two blokes were working with us over there, they just loved it after a while, once we got things in order and we did some fencing there, and so we had seven paddocks, and we had a rotation of a fortnight in each paddock, so that we had grass for the sheep, also for the wallabies, of course, but we used to cull the wallabies and we had a good little setup going there, yeah. Really good.

Jacqui Cooper: 37:28

So, Dad, at 80, most people in the community think you're bulletproof. You still head off to gym a couple of times a week and you eat what you grow and hunt and gather. At one point, though, your health forced some big decisions, the biggest being to sell Wandella and the farms on the East Coast. When you look back on those years at Wandella, everything that you and Mum built, what are you most proud of?

John Cooper 37:54

Oh, we had a good, good, good farm there. We had good ground, we had good pasture, and we had it was a really good setup we had there. Yeah, like you know, mum was really good.

Jacqui Cooper: 38:05

Pretty amazing, isn't it?

John Cooper 38:06

Yeah, she knew the job inside out. I got a muscle disease thing that I lost all my muscles and the specialist said you need to go home and have a good thing about what you're doing because you won't be doing it for long. We decided to settle out there and keep the place at Emita. And probably jumped the gun a bit. Anyway, he said you know you're gonna have this thing for five years at least. Anyway, I reckon three years when I was out of it. And I went off all the medication. I reckon that it probably took three months for it to get out of my system. I woke up one morning, I thought, geez, I feel good. I feel real good. Just like that. And previous to that I was battling to get myself out of bed. I couldn't make proper decisions, and you know, like it was all

Jacqui Cooper: 38:54

That's pretty tough, wasn't it?

John Cooper 38:55

All getting too hard, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I'm sad we sold that, but anyway, it is what it is. I'm still doing what I like doing anyway.

Community Sport Shows And Firefighting

Jacqui Cooper: 39:04

That's right. So, Dad, outside of farming, you've been involved in community life on the island. What did that look like for you over the years?

John Cooper 39:13

We've always been involved with a bit of sport. Once mum and I were married, we played badminton tennis still, and we're part of the clubs, you know, fear part of the clubs. Fire Brigade. Joined the Fire Brigade about 1980, I think.

Jacqui Cooper: 39:32

And I remember you mentioning there used to be the Flinders Island versus Cape Barren Island matches. Yeah. Did you play in those? And what do you remember about the floor?

John Cooper 39:42

Yeah, I played in a few of those, yeah. And the King Island, King Island used to come here every second year as well. But going to Cape Barren early in the piece, we'd take the police boat . It was it was a big, it's probably about a 50-footer diesel-driven sailing boat, and we'd all climb on there. There'd be probably, I don't know, be 30 or 40 people on it. Plenty of beer and some for the boys over on Cape Barren. Once it was pretty hot, and we took the beer down and put it in the creek and played the game of footy, went down to get the beer and there wasn't one bottle left.

Jacqui Cooper: 40:17

Someone had a few drinks.

John Cooper 40:18

That knocked her all off. They were good games because you know, sometimes we'd win, sometimes they'd win. Yeah.

Jacqui Cooper: 40:25

And you and Mum played badminton at Country Week in Launceston. What was it like representing Flinders in those competitions?

John Cooper 40:31

Oh, we were pretty proud to represent Flinders Island, actually, yeah. And we did we actually won Country Week one year. Yeah.

Jacqui Cooper: 40:38

Some of the places that people gathered were built by the community themselves, like the Emita Hall. What do you remember about how the hall came together?

John Cooper 40:48

Peter Hay gave us the ground there at that Emita Hall. I think it must have been about probably only 50 acres, I suppose, but he donated that. And we wanted to build a hall there. It was built mostly on donations and what the club raised on sports days. And a bloke called Rodney Fowler, which Dick Fowler's son, he was a builder and he built it. And you know, when he wanted a hand with anything, everyone would turn up to do the roof and the floor and all that stuff. He'd just say when he wanted us and we'd be there, yeah.

Jacqui Cooper: 41:25

So once it was built, what kind of events and gatherings stand out in your memory?

John Cooper 41:30

Oh, the Sports Day was, you know, it was always a good day. It was New Year's Day, was good horse events, a few running races. I remember David Anderson used to win the the marathon every time, just about.

Jacqui Cooper: 41:44

Is that right?

John Cooper 41:44

Yeah, yeah. Only little fellow, but he's a good runner. And there'd be bowling at the wicket, all those sorts of things. And we'd have to shoot home and milk the cows, of course.

Jacqui Cooper: 41:53

Yes.

John Cooper 41:53

Yep, ride a horse home and milk the cows, and back for the dance at night.

Jacqui Cooper: 41:59

And the very first Emita sports were held at Little Plain. Can you describe where Little Plain is?

John Cooper 42:06

Yeah, Little Plain's down on the coast below John Dygan's house now. It was part of Grant Hayes property, and it's a nice flat area there, and the hill comes up on the south side nicely, and you could park your cars there and you could look out over the whole lot.

Jacqui Cooper: 42:24

Right.

John Cooper 42:25

They were good days, as I remember that I didn't compete in them because I was too young, I think. But like remember, you know, George Fisher he donated the Snake Gully Cup. He had a four-wheel buggy, and he had these two big grey draft horses. He'd turn up there and it had Snake Gully ridden across the side of the buggy, and also had ribbons on them, and you know,

Jacqui Cooper: 42:46

oh wow, really fancy.

John Cooper 42:49

Oh, she was. She was fancy, all right, yeah. And they were good horses too, that that Jack Hay at Thule, he had thoroughbred horses there, and he used to bring some of them up. Happy Valley had some thoroughbred horses, they'd bring them up, and Bert Moyle had good horses. George Harley had a couple of good thoroughbred horses.

Jacqui Cooper: 43:10

And as a young man, you rode your horse to the show. Where were the show grounds then and what was the show like in those?

John Cooper 43:17

The first show I rode down to was in Whitemark. The paddock behind the church there now, near the abattoir, there was a paddock there. They used to have all the show part there, and then the jumps were all across the road from there. And of course, there was water in all those lagoons those days.

Jacqui Cooper: 43:36

Right.

John Cooper 43:37

Yeah, behind the hydro buildings. That's where we had the jumps there. Yeah.

Jacqui Cooper: 43:42

And in later years, you and Mum were entering livestock, wool, and competing in sheepdog trials. What stands out to you about that time?

John Cooper 43:52

I was pretty involved in the setting it all up. Yard dogs it was, yard dog trials, and I was fortunate to win a few of them too. Trevor Nichols had a good dog. He won. We had a lot of competitors too. A lot of the ladies had they'd work a dog. Yeah.

Jacqui Cooper: 44:09

It might be nice to see that again.

John Cooper 44:11

Yeah, it'd be good. But you know, you had different things. You had chooks and ducks and all sorts of things those days and bales of hay to be judged and

Jacqui Cooper: 44:20

oh right.

John Cooper 44:20

Yeah. Fodder competitions and all those sorts of things.

Jacqui Cooper: 44:24

And there's a story about a bending race at the show between a motorbike and you riding Flicker the Horse. Can you describe the race and the atmosphere of the crowd at that event?

John Cooper 44:34

Yeah that was good we used to look forward to that every year. The crowd would be they'd be back on the horse of course they'd be around the rails there just as thick as you can get people if you want to be there watching them.

Jacqui Cooper: 44:47

And cheering on the horse.

John Cooper 44:48

Yeah. He was a good little horse that horse he could he could bend he could go through the bending race and the motorbike George Woolley rode the motorbike. The first time we did it the horse just was too far in front you know so we put the the bending we put them wider. Oh yeah to give the motorbike a bit more room motorbike a bit more chance yeah but no we could clean the motorbike up every time even though it was pretty wide you know yeah I could go faster on the horse yeah and he was good yeah

Jacqui Cooper: 45:15

Crowd right behind you.

John Cooper 45:16

Yeah and the crowd they'd be a roaring yeah

Jacqui Cooper: 45:19

So Dad you were a part of the Lackrana Fire Brigade for more than 50 years including 22 years as fire chief how did you first become involved in the brigade?

John Cooper 45:31

We never had a brigade here on the island and Jim Grace virtually started it and I think we were living at Emita then so we just had a little crew at a Emita two dollars or a dollar or something it was to join. But we had no equipment.

Jacqui Cooper: 45:49

Oh

John Cooper 45:49

We had no equipment at all and it wasn't until probably the early eighties or later no you it would have been later I reckon we had a we had a little fire tanker at Emita that you tow with a tractor we had a little fire tanker at a Lackrana and a and yeah just a thousand litre or two thousand litre fire tanker that you'd tow with a tractor.

Jacqui Cooper: 46:16

Right. You weren't going to get there fast then were you?

John Cooper 46:18

No no it wasn't until later years we got a truck yeah yeah the first truck came to and then I got one at Lady Barron and I remember going to a fire the tanker was at my place this tanker and it was full of water I had a David Brown 990 and I had to get a fire get to a fire at Allan Stackhouse as it is now and it took forever to get there you know yeah

Jacqui Cooper: 46:50

yeah

John Cooper 46:51

I had to go around the road because the the track at the back the back track was too sandy

Jacqui Cooper: 46:55

And a few steep hills

John Cooper 46:57

And you're pulling a big heap of water yeah

Jacqui Cooper: 46:59

So there would have been some tough times along the way including the 2003 fires which is still fresh in the mind of many islanders. What do you recall about that time and what was your role during that fire?

John Cooper 47:12

I was the Fire Chief at Lackrana so I spent a lot of time when the first fire first started we were shearing and so Jenny looked after the couple of days we had left while I went and supervised this fire at Lackrana and then of course as the fire got bigger because it was in Crown land and you couldn't get in there with anything to stop it so we just had to control keep it out of the grass. And you know we never lost a building never got onto the grassed area seriously we had people with you know motorbikes and utes and people with wet bags it was just incredible and then when the westerly went round to the east everyone had come over this side to protect the the buildings and whatever on this side and yeah she was a hard six weeks that yeah I remember going home about two o'clock in the morning and I'm thinking I'm nearly home I turned down Conway's Road and got on the gravel and went to sleep. Next thing I'm off the road oh jeez yeah she was pretty tough going there for a while long hours yeah Jim Gross did a marvellous job no doubt about that.

Jacqui Cooper: 48:34

So what was being part of the brigade what did that mean to you?

John Cooper 48:38

Oh well it's a community thing isn't it you know and I thought I found it was good to train lot of people that they were good with their hands but they couldn't do the exam stuff you know they couldn't do the paperwork so I used to sit with them and they'd do that and I'd get through them get them through and so they could work on the truck and you know they're available. They were really good people.

Jacqui Cooper: 49:00

That's fantastic.

John Cooper 49:01

Yeah yeah

Jacqui Cooper: 49:02

So alongside all the work over the years family life has been a big part of it too mum's been beside you through it all how would you describe that partnership over the years

John Cooper 49:14

Yeah Jen's the love of my life and yeah I couldn't do it without her I don't think yeah you know we've been we've been lucky we've had two girls and everything's been good yeah yeah

Jacqui Cooper: 49:33

And you're still in love at 80 both of you it's pretty good isn't it

John Cooper 49:37

yep

Jacqui Cooper: 49:38

So you've recently turned 80 and you're still surrounded by people you've known most of your life how does it feel to look back on those years having shared your life in this community

John Cooper 49:51

It's gone really quickly isn't it too quick we're looking at the point here now and yeah but I've had a good life I think Jen's had a good life.

Jacqui Cooper: 50:02

And you've loved it here on the island haven't you

John Cooper 50:04

yeah yeah

Jacqui Cooper: 50:05

wouldn't want to be anywhere else

John Cooper 50:06

I've never had to you know to go off the island for work and you know Flinder's Island's a good place to farm.

What We Owe The Next Generation

Jacqui Cooper: 50:14

So looking ahead what advice would you pass on to the next generation whether it's about farming or life in general or just caring for this island?

John Cooper 50:25

There's not too many people here so the thing about Flinder's Island is it's a community place. It's not the so you don't know your neighbour or like down the street or anything like that. It's a really community place and anyone in trouble only got to ask you can help them.

Jacqui Cooper: 50:45

You'd like to see that continue.

John Cooper 50:47

Absolutely absolutely if we get too many people here it all disappears and so does what we've got if you want to build it up like the Gold Coast go to the Gold Coast I reckon. Keep Flinders as good as we can keep it for as long as we can

Jacqui Cooper: 51:03

so Dad listening to you reflect on your life what stays with me isn't just what you've done but how you've done it. The long days the hard seasons the quiet decisions and the work carried out without fuss. And at time the remoteness of those outer islands and just how resourceful and brave you had to be it's a life shaped by partnership especially with mum by a deep connection to the land and by a willingness to contribute to those in the community around you. And maybe that says more than anything else because in the end it's not just about what you build or achieve it's about how you show up, the example you set and the way you leave something of yourself in others. Thank you Dad for sharing your island story today. I feel incredibly fortunate to have had this conversation with you.

John Cooper 51:55

Thanks Darl

Jamie West: 52:00

We acknowledge the ancient history of the Tasmanian Aboriginal people as the first people of Lutruwita, Tasmania. This episode is recorded on the lands and waters of the Furneaux Islands we recognize the continuing spiritual and ancestral connections of Tasmanian Aboriginal people to these islands and we honour the strength resilience and living culture of Aboriginal people today