Lillian May (Dickens) FULFORD 1921 to 2003

Lillian was born 27th October 1922 in the New England area of Black Mountain, Guyra near Armidale. Daughter of Charlie and Mary Dickens, Lillian had 11 siblings, 7 sisters and 4 brothers. A tough child hood during the 1920's 1930's depression one of Lillian's child hood jobs was to go into the snow with her sisters in the dark early hours of the morning and check the rabbit traps. Lillian recalled finding live rabbits in the traps and having to "Put the poor creatures out of their misery" Lillian recalled it was a task she hated but had to do this to survive. The family kept some rabbits to eat and sold the rest, her father would skin the rabbits to sell, also if they were lucky he would make shoes for the children from the skins.

At 16 years old Lillian left the family and went to work as a Nanny and Maid for the "Gents", a well to do family living in the Sydney suburb of Gordon. Lillian would often recall with fondness working for this family as they were kind and would take her on family outings to such places as Lunar Park etc.

In her early 20's Lillian, having a strong Christian Faith, went to the The Salvation Army training college at Petersham Sydney where she became a Salvation Army Officer and was stationed at Maclean Northern NSW for a time.

After World War 2, Lillian’s sister; Violet’s, husband Roy Knight brought his best friend home from the war, Sargent Albert Raymond Fulford (Ray) born 26th January 1921. Lillian and Ray married on 3rd October 1946. They lived in Armidale for a time however then moved in 1949 to the Macleay Valley and the very, very isolated country of Maria River to try their hand at dairy farming. Maria River is situated at the back of Kundabung; Kundabung is now about 20 minutes south of Kempsey NSW by "good road” of today’s standard.

In August 1949 the one in one hundred year flood hit. Ray and Lillian lost every physical possession to this flood water, including all cattle; they had to be also rescued with a row boat by Ray’s brother Keith. At this time Lillian and Ray had two children under three years old, Lynette and Waynne.
Ray and Lillian borrowed money from a bank to start over, however as fate would have it in 1950, although not as big as 1949 flood, another did hit where they lived and destroyed their lively hood and belongings again.

Ray and his brother attempted to pay their debts by cutting timber on their properties using a cross saw. Each man stood either end and took both of them to use this saw, after weeks of hard work they went to the timber mill manager and made arrangements for the timber to be collected. After some time not hearing from the mill about payment and a trusting man, Ray went to inquire, only to be told "We don't know what you’re talking about, we didn't collect any timber".

During this disappointment and struggling for food Ray shot Kangaroos, they ate old flood damaged vegetables from their farm. (No Government payments back then.) Not seeing any other way to move forward they sold the property for very little.

Ray and Lillian bought land on the old Pacific Highway opposite, what was the old Kundabung school, just near and opposite also what was the Kundabung Motel, the new highway has changed all the geographical landmarks in 2016. Lillian had been left a small inheritance from her mother which paid for the land and Ray in his little spare time built a small & sparse dwelling for the family. During this time Ray fortunately was able to get a job at Mineral Deposits, where he often worked 24hours a day to pay the family debt from the 49/50 floods. Mineral Deposits was a company that mined mineral sands at Crescent Head, some of these minerals can be found in the tiles of the Sydney Opera House. In 1963 Ray was able to obtain a war service loan, sold their simple dwelling at Kundabung and moved to River Street Kempsey where they lived out the rest of their lives.

Ray worked at the Mineral Deposits until he retired at the age of 60 years old in 1981., He would have liked to work later in life however environmentalist and Government pressure forced the mine to close.

Lillian throughout her life and more so from the mid 1960's onwards, did charity work for the Salvation Army while raising five children, 3 boys and 2 girls, Lynette, Waynne, Rayleane, Desmond and Stephen.

Lillian was a fantastic cook and could make delicious food out of very little. She also became a bit of a local legend making jams, mustard pickles and other condiments. Fortunately their son Stephen saw there was something special about these mustard pickles. People would rave about them and as Lillian got older she would sell her condiments and jams at the local community markets. She would then get orders from Darwin, Sydney and as far away as England. Lillian won prizes at local Agricultural shows on the North Coast of NSW as well as taking 1st, 2nd and 3rd places at the Royal Easter Show Sydney NSW during the early 1990’s.

Ray passed 26th September 2001 and Lillian followed him 31st August 2003. They were married just shy of 56 years.

Fulford Fine Foods PTY LTD Trading as CHEF’S HOMESTYLE will continue to carry on Lillian's Mustard Pickles recipe, now Stephen is very glad he took notice and learned the magic of Lillian's recipes.