How can we measure change? One way would be to compare the life of a contemporary 10‑year-old with that of young Ted Walker. At that age, in about 1916, his job, before setting off to walk the roughly one hour to the Humpybong school, was to deliver, on foot, the milk from his father’s cows to the 20 or so houses near their farm at Scarborough.
He also delivered milk after school. Ted died in 1987 and during his 81 years witnessed the transformation of the Redcliffe peninsula from mostly bucolic backwater to thriving dormitory suburb.
At 21, Ted bought a farm of his own, 104 acres near Kippa Ring. Although he continued to live at Scarborough, he single-handedly, albeit with the assistance of a kelpie, cultivated his land – initially with horse-drawn equipment – milked his cows and managed a milk run from Margate to Scarborough. He continued to live at Scarborough, not moving to live at the farm until he married Violet in 1953. He bought his first vehicle, a Chevrolet, in 1927 and remained a devotee of the brand all his life, proudly driving a 1925 Chev to the shops well into old age.
World events were of little moment to Ted. Interviewed in 1985, he said that with his busy life on the farm, he was not greatly affected by the Depression and that the Second World War had largely passed him by: some soldiers, he said, had camped nearby, but he “never took much notice of them … I used to get on with my work”.
As little as momentous world events impinged on him, life for Ted had its ups and downs. In 1927, his milk van overturned, resulting in injuries to several children he was driving to school, and in 1936, he was fined for plugging a hole in a milk can with soap.
The End of an Era
In 1968, with the dairy industry becoming more regulated, Ted sold most of his herd and land, retaining only one acre on which he and Violet continued to keep some hens and run a few cows, which they used to graze on the nearby Redcliffe Leagues football grounds. In 1972, though, he was still delivering milk, being lauded, after 59 years on the same milk run, by the Courier Mail as “the oldest practising milk vendor in Australia”.
Ted’s long life encompassed much change, not least the demise of Redcliffe farming and the encroachment of suburbia: next time you’re at a Redcliffe football game, think of Ted’s cows grazing on the field.
Read more stories from our Redcliffe Guide print magazine here:
- Reddy Roundup: Updates from the Community
- What’s Hot Around Town
- Podcast Review: The Big Pitch with Jimmy Carr
- Chamber Chat – October 2025
- Business Needs Rest
- Strong Is the New Skinny
- What’s On This Spooky Season
- Barred Javelin fish (Grunter) – Pomadasys kaakan
- Organic Gardening in October
- Jacaranda Festival Branches Out with Two-Day Bloom
- Brad’s Business Tips
- Bay Cruise to Explore Olympic Tourism Potential
- Stacked Stones a Stirring Sight
- Brisbane Writers Festival Brings Literary Legends to Moreton Bay
- Clontarf Beach State School Celebrates 75 Years
- Annual Convoy All for the Kids
- Team Utopia to Play Final Show After 15-Year Run
- Be a Citizen Scientist in the Great Southern BioBlitz
- Halloween Haunts Take Over Redcliffe
- Judith Newton Peirce – Piercing the Veil on Modern Slavery
- Moreton Bay Dancers Take on the USA Stage
- Romance in Redcliffe
- Rick Price Brings Nostalgic Tour to Redcliffe
- Shakespeare in Love Comes to Redcliffe
- Improving Mental Health One Meal at a Time
- ZEPPLIN Set to Rock Redcliffe with Unmissable Tribute Show
Featured image: Ted and Violet Walker in 1985|With thanks to MBRC , Image courtesy of Moreton Bay Regional Council, reference number RMPC-100\100346
