From Devon to South Australia
Lena Annie Bales, third daughter of George Frederick Bales and Mary Jane Jones, was born on 7 May 1870 in Saddleworth, South Australia. When Lena was about 10 years old, the Bales family moved from Saddleworth to the Central Flinders Ranges, South Australia.
Lena married John Cail McKenzie, a farm labourer from Victoria, on 3 April 1895 at her father’s home in Arkaba near Hawker, South Australia. Lena’s sister, Wilhelmina and brother Frederick, were witnesses to the marriage. Jack and Lena McKenzie had a daughter on 25 July 1895. Agnes was born at Willow Plains, a pastoral property located about 55 kilometres north-east of Hawker. Jack was farming at that time.
Jack and Lena were in Broken Hill, New South Wales four years later, where they had a son, Frederick Hugh, on 5 August 1899. Two more daughters were born while the family lived in Broken Hill, Lillian in 1901 and Hazel Christabel born on 26 September 1903. Lillian died as an infant. By 1909 they were back in Hawker where their fifth child was born on 13 May 1909, another daughter she was named Emma Jean. After he returned to Hawker, Jack McKenzie got involved with the local council and in 1917 he was District Clerk for the Hawker District Council. |
Jack and Lena eventually grew apart and Jack went to live with his step-sisters in Victoria. Lena lived with her daughter, Agnes Bowden until her death on 31 May 1936 in Adelaide South Australia at the age 66 years. Lena McKenzie was buried at Cheltenham Cemetery, Cheltenham, South Australia on 30 April 1936.