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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-03-04 Daily Xml
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LAUNER, MRS G.

Mr PICCOLO (Light) (15:34): This Sunday, 8 March, women across the world will be celebrating International Women's Day. I draw the house's attention to one particular woman in my electorate, Gert Launer. Gert will be celebrating a special day on this occasion as well; she will be turning 100. A Gawler East resident, Gert was born 100 years ago on a farm in the Koonunga district south-east of Kapunda at a time when horses were still the main form of transport and power for farm machinery.

Gert attended Upper Bright School (which closed in 1955), just a few miles out of Robertstown, which meant a six mile walk or a ride on the neighbour's horse and cart to the small school of under 20 students. The school was a galvanised iron clad building lined inside with ceiling board. While times were tough, Gert is still able to recall some fond memories, like the time when the horse and cart tipped over into the creek alongside the road and she lost her lunch tin. One of her strongest memories is the day her younger brother Norman, 11 years her junior, was born.

At age 12, Gert started work cleaning farmhouses and carrying out other domestic duties on nearby farms. While she worked long and hard, as was the custom in those days, Gert would hand her wages to her father for the benefit of the whole family. When you speak with Gert you get a feel for the harsh landscape that many farmers encountered, as she talks about the wind and the dust storms dominating the countryside for long periods.

Gert met her husband, Karl Launer, who was 14 years her senior, at the local Lutheran Church in Upper Bright (formerly the Zion Lutheran Church, Bright) and, after a short courtship, she married at the age of 18. According to Gert it was 'no big deal', as she had known Karl for many years as a fellow parishioner. Marriage was no escape for Gert from a hard farming life, as she worked a farm with her husband at Worlds End Creek near the Burra Creek. Karl built the four roomed house they lived in.

Gert gave birth to two daughters: Venda, on 11 February 1928, and Bernice the year after, on 12 February. As it turned out, the two sisters married two brothers and they both became Falkenbergs. However, work did not stop while Gert was with child, and she narrowly escaped serious injury when she fell through a hole in a wagon when she was six months pregnant.

While horses were the main form of transport on the farm, they had a 1926/28 Rugby Buckboard that had been converted from a car to move around the district. Gert said that the horses were kept for ploughing and harvesting. 'We never had a tractor,' she said.

The depression hit the farms hard. Gert said there was no money for Christmas presents and the like and that about one in 10 years were good years on the farm. Daughter Venda recalls those shocking years, and if it were not for the home-grown chooks and trapping rabbits there would have been no meat on the kitchen table. Gert said, 'Rabbit pie was pretty good, but those rosellas were no good to eat. They only looked nice.'

During the 1950-52 period Gert and Karl moved to Nuriootpa and started a new life by tending their vineyard and fruit trees. Shortly after moving to Nuriootpa the girls married: Venda in 1953 and Bernice in 1954. The hard life took its toll on Gert and Karl. They longed for an easier life, and moved to Dirty Corner just outside of Nuriootpa, where they grew strawberries, tomatoes and gherkins.

In 1966 Karl died from a sudden stroke, leaving Gert to fend for herself. Like the country folk before her, Gert was too proud to seek government assistance and, at age 57, she once again went cleaning houses and picking grapes around the district. The stoicism that saw her through the depression years was again on display as she adjusted to a life without Karl. She spent later working years as an in-house carer for a number of prominent older women in the area. When not working, Gert would live with her daughter Venda and son-in-law Clarence. Daughter Venda said that her mum was 'really good with old people', not noticing the irony of her comments.

In reminiscing, Gert remembers the long, lonely days on the farm, stooking, kangaroo hunting and spotlight shooting for food. For Gert, hunting was not a sport but a necessity of life. It is when you speak with people such as Gert that you get an understanding of the reality of how life in our rural areas was, rather than the one that is often romanticised in our literature and the media. They were extremely tough times.

Gert has spent the past 14 months as a resident of Southern Cross Homes in Gawler East, when she takes time to think about her life and wonder about how her family has grown to include six grandchildren, 13 great grandchildren and two great, great grandchildren. Her quiet, unassuming and shy demeanour belies the steely courage she has had to muster throughout her life to earn the right and privilege to celebrate her 100th birthday this Sunday.

Time expired.

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