THE WHITE FAMILY
by Alvyn Hopgood
The White family were very respected in the Milang area. Ted White, a hard-working road contractor cracked stones to the approximate size of a cricket ball. He worked with heaps of much larger stones that were left in big piles along the sides of roads. They were then moved by hand to the middle of the roadway and rolled, crushed and levelled. Ted was also a wood cutter for the paddle steamers of the lake.
The Whites were a large family. Ted and Mary’s sons were Bert, Vic, Harry, and Cecil, and their daughters, Vida, Sheila, Flo, Wyn, Dorris, Rene, Lila, Ethel and Essie. Their home was in Watson Street, Milang and remained in the family until Bert passed away.
Bert was a WWI Gallipoli RSL returned soldier who came home with many injuries, but worked for years afterwards. One of his jobs was to cut the large Milang Soldier’s Memorial hedge. Bert cut it the best it was ever cut and all with hand shears. Bert was also a grave digger at Milang Cemetery and the first grave he had to dig was his father’s in the 1940s. His last job was at Bleasdale Winery.
Vic left Milang while working for the PMG and is buried at Strathalbyn. Cecil had a successful business and owned one of the first diesel cars. Harry did labouring jobs in the district for many years and his with his wife, Valerie, had several children.
The Whites were a very special family in Milang, as shown when Ted White was sick with fever in 1907, when 26 Milang residents gathered to erect fencing for him. The White family eventually spread to all parts of the state, but Bert, Harry, Wyn, Vic and Sheila remained in the area most of their lives. Ted and his wife Mary (nee Bowden), Bert and his wife Ethel, and his sister Ethel are all buried in the Milang Cemetery.