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The Misfortunes of the Hulleys

After the sad story about the death of Patrick and Catherine Kenny's second child John, I'm afraid my next story is also not a happy one. Patrick and Catherine's third child was Mary Lillias Kenny. Mary married Trafalgar farmer, Joseph Walter Hulley, in 1907 and had four children: Edward, James, Joseph Jr. and Mary. The elder Mary died just short of her 50th birthday in 1929, and while this was relatively young, she was at least spared the family's grief that would be all too prevalent over the coming years.

By the 1930s Joseph Hulley (Sr) was a timber worker and in 1936 was the victim of a nasty accident. While splitting timber deep in a gully at Sea View, a slip of his axe nearly severed his leg between the knee and ankle. His workmates fashioned a stretcher but couldn't get him out of the steep gully and Hulley had to be winched out. From there he could be driven to hospital, but was said to have shown 'great fortitude' during the ordeal and was able to pull through.  

This misfortune was but a taste of what was to follow for the Hulley family, particularly for second child James William Hulley, who also worked in the timber industry as a wood merchant. James married Edith Violet May Kendall in 1932, and in 1934 they only narrowly escaped injury when a truck in which they were passengers crashed into a tree at Willow Grove. Six years later, in March 1940, severe bushfires broke out around the state, and a Gippsland outbreak raged down upon James and Edith's home near Trafalgar. An initial rescue party was driven back but a resident clergyman was able to drive his car five miles through the danger area to rescue Mrs Hulley and their two children (reports differ as to whether James himself was part of the rescue or was rescued with the rest of his family). Shortly after the rescue, a 'thrilling race was made against the flames to Trafalgar and safety', however the Hulley's home was destroyed (The Age, 15 March 1940). Three years later and now in Noble Park, James was in court for not being able to meet debts dating back to 1939, where he stated that as a result of the bushfires he 'had to battle to get established again' (Dandenong Journal, 3 March 1943).

1943 had not started well and in August that year, Edith Hulley was one of seven parents fined for failing to send their children (they now had three) to school regularly. Then the following month James, now an employee at a Dandenong timber mill, suffered a crushed pelvis and other painful injuries when a tractor tipped over on top of him on the Toomuc Valley Road in Pakenham. Fortunately, three other men were present and able to lift the tractor, then get James to hospital. 

As painful as these events were, worse was to follow in 1945 when their youngest child, Charmaine Hulley, aged 4 years and 9 months, was struck and killed by a train at the unprotected Heatherton Road crossing at Noble Park. Charmaine and friends had waited for a citybound train to pass, before stepping onto the tracks without realising a Gippsland train was speeding from the other direction. Charmaine was the only one hit and was killed instantly. The train driver was unaware of the accident and did not stop. As Charmaine had been running late home from school, her mother had set out to look for her and arrived just minutes later, just as her daughter's body was carried into the station. A protest meeting was held to demand that the Railways install some form of protection at the crossing, meanwhile an appeal fund was set up for the family.

While I haven't been able to find out for sure, these events might have been too much for James Hulley's marriage. By the 1950s he is still in the timber industry but living at Forrest in the Otway Ranges and Edith does not appear to be with him (and there is no record of her death at this time). James passed away in 1959 at just 48 years of age but there was yet more grief in store for the family. William John Hulley, James and Edith's second child, had followed his father into the timber-cutting business. On 3 March 1962 while working at Bennisons Plains near Licola, William was killed when hit by a falling tree. He was only 24 years old.

Having lived through the death of his son and the tragic deaths of two of his grandchildren, in 1963 Josph Hulley Senior passed away - but at least he could claim a decent innings of 83 years. It was at least heartening to discover that James Hulley's only other child, James David Hulley, made it to 71 years of age before passing away in 2016. James lived in Buchan where he farmed then worked as a dog trapper, and apart from going bankrupt in 1975, he looks to have escaped the kind of bad luck that had run in his family. But then again, there could yet be more stories to discover.





  





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