Gordon Poultney - Balla
Balla Days
This page is still under
construction.
I was born in the Bulawayo General in March 1958 and
raised on Irisvale Ranch
which was three miles south of Balla Balla. My father,
(Harold) Mort Poultney, managed the ranch for Bartelus (Pvt) Ltd
which was owned by David
Butler, well know Salisbury businessman and Rhodesian
yachtsman. The ranch was made up of six farms - Irisvale,
Charter, Strathmore, Folleys Luck, Balmoral and Amazon - which
had been purchased during the 1950s and combined to form a block
of 46,000 acres (a relatively small Matabeleland ranch actually)
which stretched from the main Bulawayo - Beit Bridge road,
straddling the Umzingwane River, almost to Filabusi in the east
and butted up against the TTL's in the south.