Introduction
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This storybook is to document our family history of life through photos and recollections at our Kiewa Valley homes. Brother, Ian Edward, was born in Deniliquin, NSW, in 1940 and as a babe in arms, Gordon Bernard White, with his new wife Hazel Rebecca, all moved to the Kiewa Valley in Victoria. It was to be the promised land, where work on the Kiewa Hydro Electric Scheme was the talk of the town. Soon after arriving, Gordon and his sister's husband, Charles Le Roy Roberts, each started building a 'squatter's' home on the East Kiewa river. Their toil was difficult as it was in between working a job, scrounging and dragging material and roughing a family life in tents outside their parents hut, while their shack was being built.
The majority of the land was purchased from the local farmer families of Hollands and Maddison. About 200 acres at the northern tip adjoined the historic Maddison family farmhouse and was excluded from the Government land acquisition for the Kiewa Scheme. Officially, the Whites' and the Roberts' were trespassing as squatters inside the triangle 'island' on the East Kiewa river branch but no-one really cared. It was very different in those days.
Inside the triangle 'island' of Mt Beauty, looking south-west, three SEC men sit on the Hollands family acquired land. The West Kiewa river is behind them in the gully with Hollands remaining farming land in the background.
Gordon White starting to build his family's first home
on the East Kiewa river in 1940. 
Gordon and Hazel at their finished home with Charlie and Gordon's sister, Joyce. Their home is to the left.
The layout of one of the first homes built on the banks of the East Kiewa river 200m downstream from the old Rock Pool.
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Charlie and Joyce Roberts home is at the top left and Gordon and Hazel White's on the right. Ada is in the foreground.
Family home of Ted and Ada White in Petticoat Lane as it was named in 1940 (now Simmonds Creek Road).
Their parents Andrew Edward and Adaline White had built their little house in Petticoat Lane (Simmonds Creek Road), Tawonga South. Andrew (Ted) was also a carpenter and arrived in the valley 6 months before. They had been seeking work with their eldest son, Clarence Isaac (Clicker), you guessed it, also a carpenter. While working on the Hume Weir Dam construction 50 miles away, they were privy to the new and exciting work commencing up the valley. So they packed up their bags, as you did in those days and headed up to where the bread and butter was.
When settled into their scrap-material shacks with dirt floor, Gordon and Charlie, every work day, would walk 200 metres up the steep hill near the now "new reservoir" location and meet the bus from Tawonga SEC camp, heading up to the Clover Power Station work area at Lower Bogong. As carpenters, this is where they helped build the associated works buildings, concrete form work and housing accommodation for married couples.
Lower Bogong Arbatorem undisturbed since 1949
When the homes at Lower Bogong were completed and allocated, life here for the growing White family was such a far cry from the dust, heat and flies of Victoria's Mallee and Central NSW's. This is from where they had left after helping to build several locks, weirs and dams for the Murray River Irrigation System. The terraced foundations on the mountain slope for around 15 married couples' houses can still be seen at the Lower Bogong Arboretum.
The White's home in the foreground at Lower Bogong in Winter, 1948.
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The serenity of the tall gums, gigantic tree ferns, trickling creek waters, native birds and marsupials sometimes interrupting the quiet Australian bush was not hard to bear. Even the few months of snow and cold weather had its serenity and beauty.
This is where the second son of Gordon and Hazel White, Errol Bernard, in 1942, was brought home to, after being born in the only hospital 50 kilometres away, at Yackandandah. Life on the mountain was bliss. It was here also that I spent the first eighteen months of my life, after also being born in the Yackandandah hospital. However, the nature of the Scheme and its necessary progress with new developments meant moving on.
This is where the second son of Gordon and Hazel White, Errol Bernard, in 1942, was brought home to, after being born in the only hospital 50 kilometres away, at Yackandandah. Life on the mountain was bliss. It was here also that I spent the first eighteen months of my life, after also being born in the Yackandandah hospital. However, the nature of the Scheme and its necessary progress with new developments meant moving on.
It was hard for the families at Lower Bogong to let go of their location after eight wonderful modern-living years. The cruel reality of progress and change meant the need to re-locate the homes to Bogong Village, thereby furthering its development. Also at this stage the commencement of Mt Beauty township had already begun.
So Mt Beauty was our new home in December, 1949 and although not as leafy and homely, it was new and big and a wonderful gift from the SEC to start our new life. My first recollection of life was in long grass in the front yard of 4 Arthur Street, Mt Beauty. As a cheeky 18 month old, I either remember, or remember being told that I would hide amongst the 2 foot long sun-dried, brown, summer grass of our new home. I was hiding from my calling and worried mum. We had just moved from Lower Bogong Village, as we had chosen this location after being allocated one of the homes in Mt Beauty, by the Kiewa Works Administration. Dad was a very respected carpenter and through an economic low at this time, he was kept on when many others were laid off, as the Hydro Electric Scheme was reduced in size.
Dad worked hard to establish the home, workshop and garden. Mum then took over as the architect and dad became the engineer and labourer. His immaculate wall created with selected flat rocks to produce an amazing garden wall along the front and back of the house was a masterpiece. The walls terraced the property and provided open flat areas, making the most of the sloping land. Mum would then lacquer every single face rock every year and it would then again look spectacular.
The new home all lacquered and front landscaped.
Lawn area levelled and seed laid. |
Probably the most unique structure they designed and built was the huge flower basket in the centre of the lawn that became an icon within Mt Beauty. Tourists would call by and photograph the basket when flourishing with a wonderful array of pansies, lupins and angel fires displayed in a spectacular arrangement. It was possibly the most photographed rock wall structure outside of Jerusalem.
Rockwork all laid by Gordon and Hazel's flower basket.
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