Living in the sticks
By Judy Evans
@JudyEv (358105)
Rockingham, Australia
July 10, 2025 8:39pm CST
Ted, Annie Pergande and their only child, Teresa, lived in what many Australians would call ‘the sticks’, meaning well out of town in an isolated area. Ted went to an area out of Mt Marshall, Western Australia, in 1910 and his wife joined him a few years later.
They would travel to Trayning periodically to attend mass. To get there, they would sleep under the horse-drawn cart on the way there and back. In later years, mass was held in the house. In 1935, Ted was instrumental in having a church built in Bencubbin. He held a number of prominent positions in the town before retiring to Perth. He quickly became bored and took up a position teaching farming at Bindoon Boys’ School. His wife, Annie, taught English to boys for whom English was not their native language.
The collage shows one of the beautiful rock formations in the vicinity of the house.
8 people like this
8 responses
@DaddyEvil (152912)
• United States
12h

1 person likes this
@JudyEv (358105)
• Rockingham, Australia
5h
@DaddyEvil That's the opposite mostly to what happens here. Small blocks of a few acres are subdivided and dozens of houses built on them.
1 person likes this
@DaddyEvil (152912)
• United States
2h
@JudyEv The guy had bought another rancher here out and was just adding more acres to his new ranch. It doesn't normally happen like that here, either.
@FourWalls (76545)
• United States
15h
That’s a beautiful rock formation, indeed! And we call the sticks “the sticks” here, too. 

1 person likes this
@wolfgirl569 (119015)
• Marion, Ohio
5h
We are considered as living in the sticks now.
1 person likes this
@LooeyVille (58)
• United States
5h
My aunt used to "live in the sticks" out a long gravel country road
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (358105)
• Rockingham, Australia
12h
The colours are really impressive. I know a lady who paints these sorts of landscapes. i'll buy a painting off her one day.
@JudyEv (358105)
• Rockingham, Australia
12h
Yes, it's in the south-east of Western Australia. Some say Australia broke off from Africa at some stage. We share some plants that aren't found anywhere else.
