John Sparrow is a retired farmer who lives on a 16-hectare property near Tailem Bend in South Australia, a small town on the lower Murray about 100km from Adelaide.
His working life included 35 years on a family market garden in the Adelaide Hills and a stint on remote Kalamurina station off the Birdsville Track, before buying his own 650-hectare mixed livestock-cropping property near Keith.
Now 83, he has been retired for 22 years and when not at home can be found travelling across Australia’s vast inland. He and his wife, Valerie, are the parents of four children, have nine grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.
Tell us about an average week for you
We have quiet days, do a bit of walking and gardening. Tuesdays I normally go golfing, woodworking on Wednesday mornings, and we still do a lot of travelling while we’re capable of it. We’re heading to the Gulf [of Carpentaria] in May to catch mud crabs.
What is your housing situation?
We own this place outright. We were brought up with the ethos that if you couldn’t afford it, you didn’t get it; and when you could afford it, then you got it – then it was yours.
What are your major stressors right now?
I’m not worried about too much. I get annoyed with the health system. It is not as good as we would like it to be here in Tailem Bend [population 1,700] because the doctors are only here five days a week. If you get sick on the weekends you’ve got to get to Murray Bridge somehow, but it’s better than nothing.
We could possibly get better health systems if we travelled to Murray Bridge [25km away] and met up with permanent doctors.
What do you hope to do next year?
The same as I’m doing this year.
Are you better off than you were three years ago?
Prior to the pandemic I think we were better off. Since then things have gone backwards, I reckon. Everyone wants to do things online, and that is beyond me. Last week we had trouble trying to book camping in a national park, so we made a special trip [to the Parks office] and found someone to talk to. But it still took her an hour to book the campsite. And we found out more about the campsite through her than what we would have got on the internet. It is annoying and frustrating – not that they [National Parks] will take any notice of me.
Are you generally optimistic or pessimistic about the future?
I feel sorry for our grandchildren and the pressure they must be under getting a home. How is this younger generation going to get their own home?
Do you think life was better for you than it was for your parents?
We’ve had it easier than our parents. I reckon our parents had it bloody tough. They had nothing, absolutely nothing, and they worked their guts out. We had it a bit easier because Dad had already established something [the market garden] and we joined in and helped him. Then it got to the stage that the farm was too small for all of us, production prices kept increasing and it got harder and harder to farm, and that’s when we went up the Birdsville Track.
Where do you get your information about current events?
On the TV, Channel Seven, which I get very annoyed with, but they have some good programs after the news. I don’t trust any of the news, the way they sensationalise it. They sensationalise people killing people, and next minute you’ve got a copycat. It’s encouragement for another bloke to do something silly. If they didn’t broadcast it in the first place, the copycat wouldn’t know about it. I could change the channel but I’m too lazy and the other stations are probably all the same.
We listen to the ABC radio news bulletins in the mornings. They’re not too bad but they’re not long enough. You’re lucky to get 10 minutes now.
I’m quite happy not hearing the news.
What could the federal government do to make your life easier?
They don’t know me – so are they going to help someone they don’t know? If I made a lot of fuss and bother, they might take notice of me, but we’ve had to help ourselves all our lives and that’s not going to change.
If the federal government offered me a million dollars to spend, I’d take it and I might buy a new motorcar, but I bet there’d be a catch.
I only vote because I’ve got to.
Who will you vote for?
That’s my secret!
Has your vote changed over time?
I stay with the same characters, but they’ve got no backbone now. You used to have prime ministers showing the way and making things work but I think the last good prime minister was before my time, when they were building the Snowy Mountains Scheme and all that. People had get-up-and-go back then.
