Celebrating 100 years of life

Gwenyth May Read was born on the 29th of June 1922 in Fremantle Western Australia. Her parents were Lilian May Mundy (nee Parker) and Morris Hunter Mundy. She married Albert Read on January the 1st 1949, they had three children which went on to thirteen grandchildren, eighteen great grandchildren and one great. great grandchild.

Family members came to celebrate her 100th birthday in Bridgetown on the 29th of June, 2022.

The following are some extracts from her book ‘My Life’, allowing us a small glimpse into her life, Gwen and Burt Read moved to Bridgetown in 1951.

“I’m not sure how or when we were alerted to the Rowley Street house owned by an Egyptian man, but we liked it so much we bought it for £1,800. With our future secured, we drove home to begin arrangements for our early March shift.

“Bert and me said our goodbyes to our family and friends in Perth as we drove off in the Vauxhall, as Bert says, “With wife, new baby and new car to a new future life.

“Then in 1951 we purchased a farm ‘Kingsley Downs’ which was named from the beginning of our War Service farm by Bert, in memory of Kingsley Fairbridge and the Farm School, where his hopes for a successful future farm life began.

“February 1953, began twenty-seven years of family life for us on the farm.”

During these years, music was an important part of Gwen’s life, both choral and instrumental. She was in the Bridgetown Repertory Club from 1954 and was playing music during the intervals.

“Back on the farm, life went on as usual, and I often had an urge to write. One day in the old house, or maybe it was in the new house, I gazed out of the kitchen window visualizing the scene and the urge became too strong, hence the following poem:

Painting a Scene with Words

The scene is one of in between green,
Two horses stand, a light pole between,
In sheep yards beside a large shearing shed
Lambs take their drench or they will be dead
From deficiencies, worms, or an excess of feed,
An onerous task, but such a good deed.

The gaze wanders further and stops at a mill,
Sun silvered and whirling and pushed with a will
By the wind sending water to paddocks afar.
In the distance a bulldozer leaves its scar,
Whilst gazing in awe at this splendorous beauty
My husband walks in and returns me to duty.

“In 1984, I decided to write seriously and to improve my style, so I attended workshops and joined Janice Kelly’s Writers Group, the first of later workshops.”

The other major influence on Gwen’s life was music and her teaching skills went on to benefit others.

“My reason for becoming a music teacher had a very small beginning but grew in size in time, so it is a rather long story. However, as the song says, ‘Begin at the very beginning, a very good place to start,’ I’ll begin with my beginnings.

Both Bert and I were very keen for our children to learn music and enjoy the musical life we knew, with Bert singing in choir and me playing the cello in several groups.

“I’d had training in both piano and cello by Perth’s leading teachers and felt I had the knowledge.

“As they came of age, I gave piano lessons to my four Bridgetown grandchildren Donna, Mark, Anthea and Alana and they all loved the lessons and became very good players with a lifelong love of music.

“A couple of my more outstanding students which went on and had musical careers, one was Cathy Evans, who was an outstanding pupil, and Tracey Barnett was another one of my pupils she has risen to the top, but not with piano.

“I gave up teaching music in the year 2000 at the age of 77/78, after having been a music teacher for 45 years.”

Gwen continues to write and is a member of two writing groups, one in Bridgetown and one in Mount Barker.

On her 100th Birthday the family are enjoying reading the book that Gwen has written ‘My Life’.