When Trevor Newell inherited 160 acres in 1974 from his parents Royden and Florence Newell, at Strathcedar on the Mooral Creek Road, it was going back to tea tree scrub and weeds.1 As a boy growing up he had helped work the farm with his siblings. In later years the family grew peas for extra income before Trevor took it over.
Sawmilling was Trevor’s main occupation and he cut timber from Dolly’s Flat, Four Ways at the Den and at the end of Mooral Creek Road.After settling at Strathcedar, he purchased a sawmill from Comboyne, setting it up on the property to cut timber, using a Fordson Major tractor to drive it.Using a bulldozer driven by Sid Green and hired from the Watson family, and a lot of hard work he cleared much of the land bringing it back into production for running beef cattle.
As the buildings and fences on the farm were almost non-existent he started from scratch erecting infrastructure.He worked at the Wingham Tannery, cut fence posts and constructed fences for extra income.He and wife Lillian (nee Yarnold) had three children, Royden, Roslyn and Tom.
Author: Robin Sheppard
References:
1 NSW LRS Volume 7335-246.
