Lil (nee Elizabeth Ellen McMahon) and Jim grew up together in Cronadun. Jim's parents owned the Cronadun Store and Hotel, which were busy places as they were the only store and hotel in the Inangahua valley between Reefton and the Inangahua Junction.
Lil and her twin brother Pat, and Jim O'Malley, started school on the same day in the little Cronadun school. After
leaving school Lil stayed on the farm, working with her mother to run a big and very busy farm homestead. Jim
joined his father in the business, working long hours in the store and on the delivery runs to take groceries to
people as far away as the Junction.
LIL & JIM O'MALLEY
When Lil and Jim married in 1940, they agreed to live on the farm in the meantime as it was only six months
since her mother had died suddenly, and there was no one to run the home for her father and two bachelor
brothers. This arrangement just continued through the decades until the family had grown up and left home, and
Lil's father, husband, and brothers had passed on. At that stage the farm was taken over by Lil's youngest
daughter and her husband - lan and Theresa Foster.
O'Malley's Cronadun Hotel, with the Store to the left, about 1940
The old O'Malley store was typical of a country store of its day. It sold everything the farmers needed. From the
roof rafters hung rolls of bacon, pots and kettles, items of saddlery, brooms and buckets. Behind the counter were
the shelves of bulk and hand packed groceries.
Lil and Jim had also opened a store at Inangahua Junction. They ran this, and the Cronadun store, which was now
in a new building over the road, with the help of their daughter, Madeleine. The Inangahua store was severely
damaged in the 1968 earthquake, and it did not re-open. It was a very sad day for all when Jim had a stroke and
was left partly paralysed. He and Lil continued with the Cronadun store, but eventually they had to wind it down.
With the good sealed roads in the valley, and the decline in rural population, the store was no longer viable. Jim
died in 1975. When lan and Theresa took over the farm, Lil moved down the road to her own little house which is
on the old O'Malley land, near where the store and hotel were. She has suffered falls and broken bones on several
occasions, but she fights back to mobility sufficient to let her travel to Canada to spend time with her two families
over there; Catherine and Lindsay McDonnell in Vancouver and Barbara and Ed Barsaraba in Kamloops in the
Rockies. Catherine and Lindsay have four children: Stephen is a pilot in the Royal Canadian Air Force, Alan works
for a computer firm, Ruth Mare has completed tertiary studies, and Kevin is at high school. Barbara's husband
Ed Barsaraba is a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. They have two children: Kerryann, who recently
married, and Ryan.
The other O'Malley family members live in New Zealand. Madeleine and Gordon Mannering live in Christchurch
where they own and operate an expanding business in bottling gherkins and pickled onions.
They have two sons:
Gregory and Adrian. Mary and Gordon Moore also live in Christchurch where Gordon is in the Police Force.
They
have three children: Nicola, Michael, and Shannon. Theresa and lan Foster are on the farm. They had three
children: Andrew, Karen Mare, and David. Andrew had a severe heart condition.
He had undergone major surgery at Greenlane in Auckland on a number of occasions and he had suffered much ill health.
He passed away peacefully after the last major surgery in May, 1993. Jim and Lil's only son, Peter Gerard, was a Downs
Syndrome child who brightened the lives of all on the farm for the few years that he was there. He died at the age of
seven
Snowy Walker and M. S. O'Malley
Mr O'Malley snr looking at scales and his son Jim in foreground.
In the window corner by the door, old Michael Stephen O'Malley
presided, standing at an elevated desk, doing all the paper work. All invoices were written by hand, with each
item named and priced, and totals added and checked. Farmers ran accounts which were paid off when the cream or
wool cheque came in, so it was important to keep full and accurate statements on all transactions. Michael Stephen
was an imposing figure, tall heavily built, and with a big bushy white beard. He was a deeply religious man, and a
man who spoke his mind fearlessly.
OMalley Scrapbook
The new store at Cronadun, about 1950.
Jim O'Malley with Teresa and Des McMahon after a swim in Boatman's Creek. About 1942.
Lil and Jim's wedding, 25 March, 1940. Left to right:
Mrs Catherine O'Malley, Michael Stephen O'Malley, Lil and Jim, Timothy McMahon.
Len McMahon, Jim O'Malley, and Pat McMahon in the Buller Gorge
after the Murchison earthquake in 1929. Jim's car, on the left, is
a Pontiac. The McMahon car, on the right, is an Austin.
By Des McMahon 1992
