Name: Laurel Wells

Date of Birth: 13 January 1929

Birth Location: Possibly Geraldton

Maiden Name: Greenaway

Date of Death: 29 November 2020

Age: 91 years

Death Location: Bunbury, Western Australia

Date of Burial: Cremated at Bunbury, Western Australia 7 December 2020

Denomination: Congregational & Presbyterian

Row/Grave: Row 6. Grave # 61

Grave Transcription: No Memorial

Father: Thomas George Greenaway born 28 May 1891 at Ballina, New South Wales, Australia. Died 17 January 1957 at Bunbury, Western Australia.

Mother: Jessie Ann Urquhart. Born 13 December 1897 at Fremantle, Western Australia. Died 1 January 1993 at Bunbury, Western Australia.

Grandparents (father): George James Greenaway. Born 1895 at Ballina, New South Wales, Australia and Mary Everist (Everest). Married c1888.

Grandparents (mother): William Urquhart born c1873 and Eliza Garry Reynolds. Born c1878. Married c1897.

Siblings:

Joan Greenaway. Born 1921 at Fremantle, Western Australia. Died 2015 at Bunbury, Western Australia.

George David Greenaway. Born 1924 at Geraldton, Western Australia. Died 30 June 1989 at Lynwood, Western Australia.

Gordon Greenaway. Born 23 August 1924 at Geraldton, Western Australia. Died 23 October 2017 Western Australia.

Shirley Greenaway. Born 24 April 1927 at Geraldton, Western Australia. Died 6 November 1982 at St Anne’s Hospital, Mt Lawley, Western Australia.

Maureen Greenaway. Born 1931 in Geraldton, Western Australia. Died 16 April 1985 at Beckenham, Western Australia.

Dawn Greenaway. Born 20 November 1937. Died 11 May 2014 at Fremantle, Western Australia,

Spouse: Charles Barber (Jim) Wells. Born 7 February 1929 at Capel, Western Australia. Died 24 April 2003 at Capel, Western Australia.

Children:

Vivienne Wells

Beverley Wells

James Kimberley Wells. Born 25 February 1954 at Bunbury, Western Australia. Died 4 October 1977 at Boundary Road, Boyanup, Western Australia.

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

Occupation: Farmer

Their Story 

After leaving school, Laurel was employed at the Bunbury Regional Hospital as a trainee nurse. On 05 January 1950, her future husband, Charles Barber (Jim) Wells was helping some neighbours in Elgin with chaff cutting.  He was pushing hay stalks into the rollers taking the hay to the cutters to chop it into chaff, when suddenly his arm became caught between the rollers and went into the cutters. Jim’s arm was cut halfway to his elbow before the others there heard him shouting. He suffered severe shock and was hospitalised for over a month.  Jim and Laurel met while he was in hospital recovering from this accident. Jim and Laurel married on 10 March 1953.

Laurel joined Jim at his property, ‘Hope Farm’, at Elgin. Jim’s obituary in the Boyanup Post in April 2004, describes them as developing a dairy, milking for butterfat and running calves and pigs. Later they established a Murray Grey beef stud ‘Glenhope’. In 1972 they built a new dairy and purchased a dairy quota, operating the dairy with their sons, Joe and Rick. The farm operated under a company called C.B and L Wells and Sons.

Jim and Laurel also purchased a holiday cottage at Gracetown, and many family holidays were held there. They sold this cottage in 1972 in order to buy a property at Treeton in Margaret River. This operated as a separate company under Jim and Laurel’s names, called Barwell Pty Ltd. An obituary on Jim’s life in the Boyanup Post also describes how Jim realised they needed to diversify to make ‘Hope Farm’ viable, and he started a portable timber milling business with his son Eric. They initially worked this on the Margaret River property and at Scott River. Later the mill was set up on ‘Hope Farm’, where they continued the business of providing sawn timber for housing and furniture. Jim was also involved in breeding South African Meat Merino sheep.

Jim and Laurel moved to a 2,300-acre property they purchased in Boyup Brook in 1992. They sold Barwell in 1992 to fund the purchase of this farm at Boyup Brook where they grew grain to supplement the dairy at Elgin. Their daughter, Sue, and her husband, Tom, had leased ‘Hope Farm’ from them, and were maintaining the dairy herd with the assistance of Sue’s cousin Craig. Laurel and Jim sold their dairy quota around 1996, prior to the national deregulation of the dairy industry in 2000.  After this Jim and Laurel sold steers raised on the farm, ran sheep and converted the property at Boyup Brook to a Blue gum tree farm.

In later years Jim and Laurel enjoyed travelling in the northwest and also undertook an eighteen-month journey around Australia. After Jim’s death, Laurel remained on the Boyup Brook property until 2007, when she sold to fund the purchase of a retirement home in the Bunbury Retirement Village. She remained there until her death on 29 November 2020 in Bunbury, aged 91 years. After her death, the estate, including ‘Hope Farm’, was sold and distributed amongst the surviving children and grandchildren.

Story written by Laurel’s daughter in law Annette Carter for the Capel District Cemeteries Project website.

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© Capel District Cemeteries Project 08/09/2025