19-03-2018, 03:06 PM
14
Re: A Journey Down Under and Back, an Australian pictorial story.
There's more.After my Gran died, and we found the old film and photos under her bed, my Dad had them all printed off as a present to my Mum.
This inspired her to look into her family history, and eventually went back to Oz in the early eighties on a journey of re-discovery.
She met her Uncle, my Granddad's twin, who now lived in the town of Donnybrook.
She also met her cousin, Craig Boulter, the son of Sally whose husband built the Margaret River Hotel.
Craig had become a fairly successful artist. A couple of his paintings can be seen here.
Mum wanted to find the old farm and Craig offered to drive her, but Mum only had a vague idea of its location. She was only about nine or ten when she left and nearly sixty years had passed since.
Anyway, whilst driving around they came across a farm entrance with the name Elberton Farms, the same name as the village in South Glos where my Granddad came from. This had to be it said Mum, but the house beyond looked nothing like her old home. As luck would have it, a Ute appeared with the farmer, his son, and a farm hand in it. They stopped and asked if they could help, and Mum showed the farmer the photo of the old farmstead. Yes, he said, it's still here, a few miles away.
The old farm had been bought up along with several others, and added to become a large farm estate.
The farmers said, we were going dingo hunting, but we are not now. You are going to come and meet the wife, and then I'll take you out to the old farmhouse.
Yer Tiz, still standing nearly sixty years after it was built, although a bit storm battered.
One of the fireplaces. The woodwork is simple but functional.
This is probably Grandad's twin's bedstead as it's too big to have belonged to either of the children. He never married so it would have been the only adult single bed in the home, probably made by my Granddad like most of the furniture there.
The old water tank. and site of the well dug by the men. There was also a windmill pump but I think the piccy of that is at my Mum's nursing home.
This is where water was stored, pumped into a water-cart, then transported back to the house by horse, them pumped into the domestic holding tank. Beyond the tank is one of the old fields that would have been cleared, ploughed, and planted with wheat.
This gives a rough idea of what the land might have looked like before the men started clearing the ground for planting.
A view from the "paddock" with one of the old fields beyond. You can just make out a few of the old fence posts.
Apparently my Mum wandered around the place in a daze, remembering where she had lived and grown up with her family.
Thank you all for your very kind comments. It has made the effort of making the thread worthwhile.
20-03-2018, 03:02 AM
16
Re: A Journey Down Under and Back, an Australian pictorial story.
great recent photos fruitcake - OZ is dotted all over with places like that and it's weird walking through them - sort of ghostly but friendly ghostly - someone once said that the top soil in the OZ countryside was about 9 inches deep and that was it - then they pulled all the trees out and the soil started blowing away!I always say that the backbone of OZ are the country folk who are still there - there is a program here called Back Roads that travels all over OZ and introduces us to the country folk - they are very different from the cityfolk - suspicious at first and then welcoming and friendly and helpful
https://iview.abc.net.au/collection/...omplete-series
ps: what an experience for your mum quite magical and part of the ozzie magical bush.
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