The only grandparents Bertha knew were her mother's parents, Abraham and Sarah Freeman, who lived in the regional centre of Warwick not far away.
Bertha and her siblings would often visit Granny Sarah and she recalls how they would hear the family history retold.
"We'd sit outside on granny's plank of wood held up by two old boxes and she'd tell us all our history of how they came from Armidale to Warwick with a horse and covered wagon," says Bertha.
Sarah and Abraham had already started a family before leaving Armidale in 1895 or 1896 and Bertha's mother, Ethel was an infant when the journey began.
The trip took between one and two years and the family would stop for months at a time at towns along the way.
"Old grandfather would get jobs along the way wherever (he) could," says Bertha.
"He was a good fencer… so he got plenty of work and as soon as he got enough money to move on they'd go a bit closer to Warwick.
"And they travelled like that, from Armidale to Warwick (in a) covered wagon."
"Mum was growing up on the trail. She had two sisters, Lucy and Sarah."