Malcolm
Dingwall, the osn of schoolteacher, was born on 24th August 1891
at Burrawong, NSW. Being an adventurous young man, he took a boat
to Townsville and ravelled to "Yelvertoft", west of Mt
Isa. Here he worked as horse tailer for the carrier carting wood
to fuel the steam engine running Yelvertoft Bore.
In the Gulf, he worked as a stockman for the legendary Quilty family
at "Oakland Park" and "Euroka Springs". Later,
he worked on "Dalgonally", and "Fort Constantine"
outside Cloncurry where he joined up in September 1915. The troop
train, which left Cloncurry was only half full, but by the time
it left Townsville for Brisbane, not another man could fit in.
He embarked from Australia for Egypt on 31st January 1916, and joined
the 5th Light Horse Regiment at the camp at Maadi, which was 10
miles from Cairo.
Malcolm Dingwall never talked much about his experiences during
the war, and only ever referred to the funny happenings. He said
they were told by the officers to make a lot of noise when charging
to frighten the Turks. during some periods, Malcolm was involved
in railway construction at Rafa and Dur el Belah.
He embarked for Australia on the "Port Sydney" on 4th
March 1919 and was discharged on 13th June 1919. Returning also
on the "Port Sydney" was another 5th Light Horseman, Bill
Barnes, who had been wounded. Many years later, in Mitchell, Qld,
Malcolm was to mee tup again with Bill Barnes and fellow 5th Light
Horsemen, Dick Mouritz, Harry Bunton and Jim Burke.
Bill Barnes always said that he spent his time during the war either
breaking in remounts with mad Jim Burke, or else in the front line
fighting with mad Harry Bunton. Jim Burke solved the problem of
shoeing a fractious horse by hobbling, pulling the horse over and
shoeing it on the ground.
After the war, Malcolm caught a train to Yuleba, Qld and, with two
horses, went mustering on "Myall Downs" at Roma. In 1920,
he took up an offer for Returned Servicemen of a 1000 acre block
off Mt Hutton near Injune. These blocks were virgin Brigalow scrub
and many of the ex-soldiers discovered they were too small to make
a living. 
However,
Malcolm persevered and eventually acquired addition blocks to have
an area of 5000 acres on Injune Creek, west of Gunnewin Siding on
the Injune - Roma rail line, which he called "Dynambarin"
- an aboriginal name for "many yams". He lived there for
the rest of his life.
In December 1926, he married English lass, Rosabell Branch, who
had migrated with her parents in 1914. Together they reared 2 boys
and 3 girls on "Dynambarin". To supplement his cattle
income, Malcolm went tank sinking around the district for 10 years,
with his 2 sons, Keith and Allan, as offsiders. Draught horses dragged
the wheeled scoops and malcom bred his own horses and at one time,
had up to 60.
Malcolm Dingwall, bushman and light horseman, died following a stroke
on 21st September 1984, at the grand age of 93.
Contributed by the Dingwall family of Roma and
Mitchell.
