Name: James Kimberley Wells

Date of Birth: 25 February 1954

Birth Location: Bunbury, Western Australia

Also Known As: Joe

Date of Death: 4 October 1977

Age: 23 years

Death Location: Boundary Road, Boyanup, Western Australia

Date of Burial: 7 October 1977

Denomination: Congregational and Presbyterian

Row/Grave: Row 5. Grave #51

Grave Transcription:

REMEMBERED WITH LOVE

JAMES KIMBERLEY WELLS

25 – 2 – 54 (JOE) 4 – 10 – 77

SADLEY MISSED HUSBAND OF ANNETTE

AND FATHER OF JOANNE

“WORDS CANNOT EXPRESS THE SORROW

OF MISSING YOU”

Father: Charles Barber (Jim) Wells. Born 7 February 1929. Died 24 April 2003

Mother: Laurel Wells nee Greenaway. Born 13 January 1929. Died 29 November 2020 at Bunbury, Western Australia.

Grandparents (father): Charles Knowles Barber. Born 1863 at Cheshire, England. Died 29 February 1932 at St John of God Hospital, Bunbury, Western Australia and Katey Lillian (Kitty) Volrath nee Wells. Born 10 July 1907 at Tin Pot Cottages, Botolphs, Anningston, Steyning, Sussex, England. Died 15 September 1995 at Freeman Nursing Home, Rossmoyne, Western Australia.

Grandparents (mother): Thomas George Greenaway. Born 28 May 1891 at Ballina New South Wales. Died 17 January 1957 and Jessie Ann Greenaway nee Urquhart. Born 1897 at Fremantle, Western Australia.

Siblings:

Vivienne Wells

Beverley Wells

Eric Lesley Wells. Born 22 November 1955 at Bunbury, Western Australia. Died 13 February 1990 at Kuri Camp, Gulf Province, Papua New Guinea.

Susan Wells

Spouse: Robyn Annette Wiese. Born 27 March 1953 in Narrogin, Western Australia.

Children: Joanne Lee Wells. Born 31 March 1978.

Occupation: Farmer

Their Story 

Joe attended Bunbury High School until year ten. He completed his schooling to year twelve at the residential Harvey Agricultural College, Harvey after which he returned to work on his parent’s farm in Elgin. Around this time his father purchased a dairy quota and stocked the farm with dairy cattle. They built a new herringbone dairy capable of milking sixteen cows at a time. The cows had to be milked twice a day, every day, to maintain milk production.

Joe gained his truck driver’s licence at an early age, being granted dispensation to do so as his father, Jim Wells, had only one hand, after having lost his left hand in an accident. They argued Jim could not manage the gears on the truck as a consequence and needed Joe to undertake this responsibility.

Joe had a natural affinity for this rural life and enjoyed the outdoors work and lifestyle. He was an excellent football player, playing for the Southwest League team of Boyanup-Capel-Dardanup until a knee injury saw him unable to play for some time. Although he resumed playing, the injury affected his agility and speed on the ground. Joe had a happy, gregarious, optimistic nature and enjoyed the company of others. As a teenager he was something of a wild spirit, enjoying a family life that allowed considerable freedom.

When he was twenty, Joe met his future wife, Robyn Annette Wiese (born 27 March 1953) through their parents. Annette was born in Narrogin. Her father, Doug, a wheat and sheep farmer at Yornaning. After Doug retired to Busselton, he helped establish the gun club at Capel along with Joe’s father, Jim Wells. Jim invited the Wiese family to stay with them at their holiday cottage at Cowaramup Bay. Joe and Annette met that year but as Annette was at university studying, they did not pursue the relationship until the following year when they met again in 1973.

By mid-year 1974 Joe had moved to Perth to live with Annette. He took the opportunity while there and studied at Leederville Technical College. A reference for Joe at that time described him as ‘steady, reliable and very hardworking, with a sound knowledge and background in beef cattle and dairy farming’. On completion of their studies, Joe and Annette relocated to Capel, renting a house on Cable Mine Road from Joe’s Uncle, Johnny Vollrath. Joe returned to work on the family farm and Annette secured employment as a social worker at the Bunbury Regional Prison, assisting prisoners with maintaining contact with their families and ensuring they had accommodation and support on their release. Joe and Annette married at Busselton on 12 March 1977.

In 1976 Joe decided to take up farming in his own right. He secured a loan from the Commonwealth bank and on 11 August that year he leased a farm on Boundary Road, Boyanup from Bernie Trigwell.  Joe also used finance through Elders to buy and sell cattle. Effectively trading, buying cheap and selling at a higher price. He also purchased sheep from farmers in drought areas at low prices and took the risk they would survive on the farm where there was plentiful food and water. Joe would later shear the sheep, and with natural increases in the numbers, they were sold at a profit after his death. He also fertilised the land which had lain fallow for many years, fixed the fences and planted oats and sold a crop for hay. His father lent his equipment for the seeding and harvest of the crop.

Joe died suddenly on 04 October 1977 in an accident in a second-hand cattle truck he was purchasing from his good friend, Ross Jamieson. He was driving back to the Boyanup farm after a cattle sale. He had a friend with him who had been working for him on the farm, and after leaving a local cattle sale, as they were travelling along Boundary Road, just outside his leased property, the truck veered off the road into a tree. Joe died immediately of head injuries, and his friend sustained only minor injuries. Annette was almost three months pregnant at the time.

Joe and Annette had written their wills, and Joe was to sign his will the day after he died. He had included in his will a desire for his friend Ross Jamieson to be his Executor. Annette approached Ross who agreed to sell the stock on the farm for her. She will be forever grateful for his assistance at this difficult time.

Annette moved to Busselton to live with her parents after Joe’s death, and remained there until after her daughter Joanne was born. Joe and Annette had one child. Joanne Lee born 31 March 1978.

Story written by Joe’s widow Annette Carter for the Capel District Cemeteries Project website.

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© Capel District Cemeteries Project 08/09/2025