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 Swallowfield
Is were I grow up
swallowfield has a very special place in my heart
It is a part of my past that I will always cherish
It is where I grow up
Swallowfield has been in the family for five generations
The old home was a beautiful majestic home
5 bedrooms
2 bathrooms
2 lounge rooms
An old outside laundry
And a huge kitchen
And verandas both back and front the length of the house
So there was plenty of room or rooms to get lost in
The gardens where simply beautiful
Based on the old style English gardens
With grand old oak trees
Rose gardens and the big old Rhododendrons
The lot... it just had everything
Swallowfield was one of the first homes built
In the tinny town of Gembrook
In the late 1800's
My Great Grand Parents moved out here
From England at around that time
Being one of the first settlers in this region
Gembrook was a timber milling town
Milling timber and moving it to the city of Melbourne
By Rail ( Puffing Billy )
For sale to use for building homes in the city at that time
Swallowfield was sold around 1986
It had been in the family for over 100 years
I miss the Old Estate
But the memories I have
Will always be with me
Forever in time
Lest We Forget
What they gave in the time of War
To you My Grandfather
I will never Forget
** The Solider **
A Time gone by
Long past
Just a memory
Of when our Grandfathers where young
Full of pride and patriotic ideals
A solider with no fear
Ready to fight for his country
To stand for the rights of the generations to come
He marched away to a land never seen
But now in time
Only a haunting tune to remind us
Of these souls now long past
Who walked the plains of war
Through the fields of blood
From the time of our yesterdays
Only a whisper in the winds
And the stories of old
To remind us of this time
ln the dark shadows of history
That are now told
Their memories will live on in our hearts
For all eternity
ln the sands of time
Of the sacrifices they gave for what they believed
With their last breath they took in this life
They knew their purpose was so right
They fought with pride
And a silent fear
Along side there mates
For all the tomorrows to come
So it would be right for the ones left behind
The tears of war
The sacrifice of blood
The silent grave yards covered with a cold mist
Will always be with us
Haunting our minds
Till we learn
The lessons of life
The lesson of living in peace
With no secrets to hide
When the haunting drums of war
Are silenced forever
****
This poem is in memory of my Grandfather
JHC Russell
He fought in WW1
He gave more than most for what he believed was right
He was only 19
(c) copyright 2005 Susan Russell-Smith All rights reserved
Gembrook
A Little History Of How
Gembrook Came To Be
A Little Town that will always be in my Heart
The first land selection in the Gembrook area was made by the Le Soeuf Family
in 1873.
Albert Le Soeuf came up with the name
'Gembrook'
to describe a creek on which he and others were prospecting for gemstones
(mainly sapphires and emeralds).
A.A. Le Soeuf later purchased 320 acres and named it Gembrook Park.
At Gembrook Park they set up an Acclimatization Park
with the aim of importing European Species
to be introduced to Australia.
Quail, deer, guinea fowl and blackberry were some of these.
People of the time really did want to bring a bit of Europe
to make Australia a bit more like
'the Old Country'
This attitude often brought catastrophic results.
A Colac farmer named Austin
is credited with importing and releasing the first rabbits to the colony
with disastrous results.
It nearly ruined the pastoral industry
and rabbits remain a constant problem to farmers to this day.
60 acres of this park still remains today
John Ure, another early settler had brought in a water powered stamper
to use in mining.
As the gold and precious stone supply was quite scarce
he modified it to enable him to power a small sawmill
which he used to supply the locals with timber.
Soon after a flourishing timber industry began.
By 1896 Parliament decided to build a railway to Gembrook
to service the logging industry.
This arrived in 1900.
The committee that decided this commented that
'the amount of marketable timber appears unlimited'.
The mills that worked in the area provided much of the timber
used to build Melbourne.
Life was hard for these families.
The mills had to be moved regularly,
tramlines and tracks constructed,
fires regularly destroyed both their mills
and the raw materials they were harvesting.
Remember there were no chainsaws in those days,
just the axe and the crosscut saw for felling
and steam powered machinery for the milling.
The timber Industry struggled through depressions
and unpredictable timber prices for many years
but large scale sawmilling ceased in the 1940's.
Then came the farmers who cleared the land
and planted the crops, orchards berry farms
and ran dairy herds to feed the developing suburban populations.
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A Little bit of Gembrooks History.
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Puffinbilly was a big part of Gembrooks history.
A life line to the city at the time.
The train running from Belgrave to Gembrook
- Belgrave being the change over point for the link into Melbourne.
Puffingbilly was also a timber train,
taking out timber from Gembrook
( a big milling area in the early 1900's)
As well, the little train brought in supplies
to the towns population as well as a passenger service.
Puffingbilly was brought back to the hills of Gembrook
in the late 1990's
It is one of the Dandenongs main tourist attractions today.
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At historic Kurth Kiln,
deep in the Gembrook Forest,
bulk amounts of charcoal were produced
for the burners that were fitted to engines
in our cities in the fuel short days of the Second World War.
Now a major potato producing area,
with a fast growing flower industry which rivals any in the
Dandenong Ranges,
Gembrook is the ideal getaway for peace and tranquility.
With the magnificent Gembrook and Bunyip State Parks
and numerous bed & breakfasts,
nurseries, tea rooms, craft shops and galleries
on our front doorstop and being within easy reach
of many wineries, animal parks, hotels, restaurants and theme parks Gembrook is also experiencing a boom in the tourist trade. |
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