Our names Kylee & Michael Tindale-Smith.  We have 4children, one of which is still at Uni.  We have lived and worked in rural communities for majority of our lives.  Our careers have predominately been in the Sheep and wool industry.  Michael was a shearer and presser, while I classed and cooked for 20 years.  

Michael then spent 4 years as an agent for Landmark and then went onto work in the coal and gas industry for the next 10 years. I started my bag manufacturing business known as Gidgee Smith Bags in 2003 in Quilpie which has continued to grow over the last 21 years, now providing work for a couple of local ladies. We send bags all over Australia and have just launched a new wholesale sector of the bussiness
We returned to my hometown of Morven in 2009. With the downturn in oil and gas and sudden family illnesses, Mick returned to  work on a cattle grazing enterprise, and now managers the Morven Rail and Freight hub for East West Road & Rail.  His job consists of unloading cattle that are spelled over night to  be reloaded back on trucks or trains.  Cattle can also be weighed at the rail hub prior to being sold privately. 
We have just entered stag 3 of our camping project where we have developed our powered and unpowered sites and now move towards wellness and agritourism venture focusing on bird watching and wellbeing. 

I love to create sculptures, out of wire and steel and they are on display around the camping grounds for guest to enjoy.

Am I local, is a question I am asked on a daily basis. I was born in Charleville and grew up in Morven, both in and out of town. I moved to Quilpie in the Channel Country where I worked, married and started a family and lived for 22 years, before returning to Morven in 2009.  My grandparents Bob and Clara Johnson came to Morven in 1928 when they brought Wilmavale. There was no house on Wilmavale because it had been dismantled and taken on a Bullock Wagon to Maryvale, which was a much larger selection and originally was made up of many stations that surrounded it, including Wilmavale.

Mum was born in a little house in Morven in 1941, and she grew then grew up on her parents property. There were not many girls on neighboring properties and she grew up along side the Curley's on Tregole and the Crichton's on Maryvale. It was fair to say the boys out numbered the girls, but by all accounts the girls could handle themselves in any given situation, which generally meant the boys came out second best.  It has been a great achievement to build a replica of the first house that mum lived in as a child, which we call Wilmavale Hut and is now used for a bar area and meeting place.

Dad came out to work with the Turner family on Hillgrove in 1956.  Although he worked around shearing, he has lived in Morven sense then. He spent 25 years on the Rail and is very excited to see the #morvenrailhub come to live and give Morven some exciting prospects for the further. There has now been 3 generations of Johnson's attend the Morven State School from our side of the family, and hopefully we will get to celebrate a 100 years of family history and connection to Morven in another 8 years' time

​

​

​