"Victoria Park" in 1907-08

In 1907, George Faulkner, George and Maria's son, who was by then in his early sixties, entered the Sydney Morning Herald and Daily Mail farm competition in the Northern Tablelands division.

The prizes were attractive: first, £50; second, £10; third, £5. The judge, Mr H. Dawson, could award up to 100 points under each of eight headings: "general management; fencing and gates; water supply, and provision for same; dwelling and steading, including garden, orchard, and stockyards; live stock breeds, and suitability to district; cultivation - crops, provisions for storing, supplying fodder; plant, including all implements, machines, and means for carrying produce to market; situation, and general plan of improvements".

Twenty competitors entered, from Inverell to Armidale, Tamworth, Quirindi and Glen Innes. Among them, by chance, was Henry Voss whose family would mesh with George Faulkner's forty years on.

On Thursday 9 January, the Sydney Morning Herald reported the winners of the second and third prizes, including this sketch of "Victoria Park":

"Mr. George Faulkner, of Victoria Park Inverell, has 1140 acres. He is an older resident than either Mr. Harding or Mr. Cosh [second and third prize-winners]. Mr. Dawson says his place looks remarkably well; he has a nice orchard, the fruit in which is looking in remarkably good trim. The sheep are of the Riverina merino strain. There are 100 acres under lucerne, other areas are devoted to other crops, and there is a herd of 30 cows, milk from which is sold at the local factory."

The judge had this to say of Henry Voss's much smaller farm, near Glen Innes:

"Mr. Voss has introduced the L.K.G. milking machine on his farm. It is driven by a four horse-power engine, and by its means eight cows are milked at a time. The engine power is utilised for separating the cream as well as for other work. Two little boys milk between 70 and 80 cows, so to speak, in no time. As far as Mr. Voss is concerned, the milking machines appeared to be an unqualified success. The crops were rather backward, except the wheat and oats. But as a man who makes the best of his opportunities Mr. Voss is one whom it would be hard to beat anywhere."

Sydney Morning Herald, 30 November 1907, p.9 and 9 January 1908, p.5