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On the previous page is an account of Selina Wilkes' marriage to E.J. Sykes. Selina was the youngest child of Christina Power and Frederick William Wilkes.
Their second child, William Frederick Wilkes served in the Boer War In 1899 as a supervisor of horses. He returned around 1902 and in 1905 set up the Hotel at Gol Gol across the river from Mildura (a dry area then). Several years later he purchased a sheep property called Darragh at Youll Plain, on the Murrumbidgee, near Balranald. He married Molly Madigan, and had three children, Peggy, Dorothy and William.
Mary (Maysie) Florence was born in 1883, and Bernard Bede (known as 'Uncle Bern' to Des and the younger ones) in 1887.
A photograph taken in 1911 shows Des and Maureen with Maysie Wilkes, their aunt, a year after the Sykes' moved to Wentworth (before Joan was born). 1911-1912 St. Ignatius Catholic school in Cadell street Wentworth was built.
In 1914 Maysie Wilkes, the third child of Christina and Frederick married James Loomes.
Around 1910 Bernard Bede Wilkes formed a partnership with Harold Bear in a Mercer's shop in Wentworth. He purchased a property, Oakdean, outside Balranald, around 1920, but stayed on and looked after Tara after his aunt Selina Wilkes died in 1925.
Bernard would visit Tara for family celebrations. At Christmas time he would wrap presents for the children in layers of paper and various boxes, with a carrot or an onion in the bottom, and took the family out to the sandhills for picnics. According to Jean Roper (nee Loomes) was always great fun. He enlivened celebrations such as Guy Fawkes day, and loved to dress up as a ghost to scare the children.
Florence Tuck and Uncle Bern Wilkes
Florence (Fon) Anderson (1897-1985) trained as a nurse and
worked at Swan Hill hospital. She married Keith Tuck and had three
children - John, Mari and Andy. When her husband Keith died (drowned
crossing the Murray), Fon, in 1943, married 'Uncle' Bern Wilkes.
Fon and Bern had always been close since they were young. Fon was always in love with Bern, and kept a letter from him for 50 or 60 years. It was his reply to her letter in which she wrote to tell Bern she was getting married. When, after they were married , she told Uncle Bern about the letter, he admitted he still had her letter that she had written him all those years ago.
The day Uncle Bern (a renowned bachelor, and heavy drinker, now aged 60) was to marry Fon, he had forgotten he was due at the church. Jim Loomes found him pruning, but got him dressed and to the Church on time. They were married by Father Higgins in the St. Francis Xavier Church in Wentworth. Fon, a convert to Catholicism, was very devout.
After they married, they bought a property (originally owned by the Holdings) just above Tara, where they brought up Stephanie Tuck, who was the daughter of Fon's youngest son, Andy, whose wife died in childbirth. Fon looked after Stephanie all her life. Stephanie later married and now lives in Perth. After Bern died in 1964, Fon bought a house in Wentworth, where she lived until her death, aged 90, in 1985.