Kiewa Life as a Kid
Introduction
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Before commencing to document my life recollections at Kiewa into a storybook, I must first explain a bit of family history that had gone under the bridge before I was born. 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 and Hazel at their finished home with Charlie and Gordon's sister, Joyce. Their home is to the left.
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.
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. |
Gordon White starting to build his family's first home
on the East Kiewa river in 1940. 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.
Family home of Ted and Ada White in Petticoat Lane as it was named in 1940 (now Simmonds Creek Road).
Charlie and Joyce Roberts home is at the top left and Gordon and Hazel White's on the right. Ada is in the foreground.
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
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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. The StoryIn this limited storybook, I will only be able to relate a handful of prominent, funny and important memories, as the life I experienced at Mt Beauty had so much more. To do justice to the fun, action, friendships and variety of life in these times, it would need to be written as a novel. We were in a very lucky place at that time.
To begin the story, I would like to start off on the right foot, or should I say digit. I was probably just three when it was decided for medical reasons and agreed by everyone but me, that I required to be circumcised. I remember being dragged to the Tawonga and District Hospital. I remember being held tightly by three unfriendly white Casper ghosts as the gas hissed and I believe I then nodded off. I woke up to the beautiful smell of tomato soup. I still taste that moment even today. Then back at home, I remember my brothers saying "giss a look" and I dropped out a little bandaged digit. It was so sore, bloodied and gruesome. Then again, 90% of the boys those days had a helmet, so I didn't feel too different when lined up at the school urinal at playtime.
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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.
Tawonga and District Hospital in 1949.
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I had now grown up considerably as I was now going to kinder and later, school at Mt Beauty. At kinder, I had my own bag of toiletries and a real suitcase that, like dad, I would have my lunch packed by mum with mashed egg and lettuce sandwiches, an apple and pure cow's milk for my bones. I still have that little blue case with my name inside. We would all put our toiletry bags on a coat hook bearing our name and the case below it. Funny but that is all I remember of Kinder. School was different. I had so much fun. Miss Brown Gr.2, Pop Campbell Gr.4 and Mr Grimes Gr.6, the main teachers I could remember, saw out some of the grades through one to six. We had the times table belted into us parrot fashion but we have never forgot them. Into Form One and I guess it was my time in life to sow some seeds. Miss Goldstraw, a honey in herself, caught me and Glen Mann 'titting' one of the girls sitting in front of us. After that she made a rule that we were to be separated and always seated next to one of the best behaved in the class.
I was now approaching four years of age and my next adventure was one of my numerous brushes with the authorities. I found dad's box of Bryant and May Redhead matches and as mum kept the yard so clean and mown, there was nothing around to burn. Across the street up a house was the playground and I concluded that the dry grass was a real problem there. So I helped the SEC out by conducting an uncontrolled burn. The SEC Forestry Fire truck was there in no time and put it out. A blonde headed skinny kid with freckles and no shoes was seen in the area but I was smart and hid. When dragged out from under the car, I was questioned by four big men and mum. I blurted out, "Jack Payne, the grader driver ... he did it." What a dobbing little prick I was. Dad must have been a brilliant, indispensable worker, as this was one of the many times my mischievous adventures landed him in hot water and he could have been told 'down the road charlie'.
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There was always something to do around Mt Beauty. We had access to rifles, we were always responsible and often went shooting rabbits. We fished and ferreted and made sleds where we would wax the runners and race down the Mt Beauty hill behind the town. We would start at the top and head down a 30% slope at probably 20 miles an hour and pull up in the blackberries at the bottom. We had forts all over the mountain and our favourite day trip was the West Kiewa Gorge. Every night after school it was 'see ya up the bush' and off we would go. Weekends as well and we would leave early and get home at dark for tea. It was a free and safe upbringing. No cotton ball protection as we see so often with kids today. We were always dirty, ripping our clothes, skinning our knees, leech and mozzie bitten, throwing stones, climbing 70' gum trees and making swings. Swimming and diving in all types of unknown pools and waterways but rarely were we hurt. One of the more dangerous types of fun was what we called sapling bending. We would find a group of trees and saplings and jump from about 15' high in a tree across to the tip of a sapling and the bend would take us down to the ground and a fairly rapid but soft landing.
Left: Kim, Ron Mc Kendrick and Brownie head up the bush with a gun and holster slung by the side.
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We had billy carts and official billy cart races when the streets were cut off to all traffic. The course was usually from the top Gatehouse near the end of Tawonga Crescent and would finish at the Post Office in Kiewa Crescent. I remember one of the yearly races when the Pyle twins, Roger and Graham (local mechanical garage sons), made a sleek billy cart that was way out of specs. It had 26" bicycle wheels on the back and ball bearing pram wheels on the front. It was pointed in a nose shape for supersonic racing and here we were in our little axel 6" hard rubber axel pram wheels. We had no hope. They broke the record by 45 seconds. It took the best of us 68 seconds to finish the run! They went past the finish line at 40 mph and ended up at the Tawonga South Hill where the cart only then would slow down. Cheats!
As we moved into our later teens there was more to life than just up the bush. There was sport and music, a sneak of a drink and most importantly, girls. There was the time mum and dad were away for the weekend and I had a few of the boys over for a few drinks, tucker and fun. The five of us, around seventeen years of age, were bored this day so being egged on, I rang one of the girls and asked if she would like to come over. Well after two hours of musical chairs and individual fun, we thought a refreshing shower would be nice. Jorg Kiene was cooking and he yelled out to me, "Kim, how do you like your eggs cooked with your bacon. Oh, by the way, her dad's coming up the drive". I said, "Ha, ha, what a joke Jorg". No joke, as her dad barged into the bathroom and stood staring at us both naked. I won't go into detail of what happened then but I did go to his place later that day and apologise. I must have been convincing in my apology, as he never did tell my mum or dad.
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Cricket, Football and Golf then consumed my life both in school and local clubs. I became the youngest player to ever play football for Bogong in finals and although we never won a flag, it was a strong team in the middle sixties, with former VFL players like Lenny Cottrell and Graham Mayberry (Carlton), George Barton and Jack Cooper (Hawthorn) and Barry Cottrell played with North Albury. They had been part of the champion team that I had played in three finals with.
Dad had always hated football or any physical contact sport, for that matter. So when Thorald Merrett, a Collingwood recruiter at the time, asked him through the Bogong Football Club President, Wally Tappe, if I could be recruited to a Collingwood training camp in the school holidays in 1964, dad said no. One of my greatest moments was at a school match against Myrtleford in 1964 that I was asked to play centre half back on the superstar Ovens and Murray player Sam Kekovich. Being a forward, I couldn't understand why the coach would do this. Sam was kept goal-less and I was awarded 'Best on Ground'. The umpire was Ron Branton, a Richmond champion and Myrtleford coach, so I think I might have earned it that day. I owed it though, to Coach Max Davies, with his tactic to nullify this great champion, as we won the game. |
In late 1964 I had a knee injury from a school game and had my right cartilage removed. The highlight of my footy career had to be when I won the Wodonga and District Junior Football League Best and Fairest award in 1964. Late in the season of 1965, I was elbowed in the stomach by a Lavington player at a home game at Mt Beauty. I was attended to and rubbed down on the field by Peter Ranton, the trainer and then played on, even kicking another goal. That night the injury manifested and I was rushed to Wangaratta Base Hospital in a critical condition. Every bump in the road shook the ambulance and for the 80 mile trip each jolt felt like a kick in the guts. Mum was with me and the Surgeon, Mr Bartram later said to her "another 10 minutes and peritonitis would have set in and he would have been dead by morning. A very lucky boy. His bowel was ruptured and we had to vacuum out the shit that was everywhere". What a shock. I don't think I ever played as well after that as it was a long road back.
Cricket has always been my greatest sporting love and as a thirteen year old, I was asked to play for the Mt Beauty firsts. The competition was the Ovens Valley Cricket Association and Mt Beauty fielded two sides in the one competition. Not an ideal situation as there was immense disharmony between the two sides. If someone was playing well, then they would be poached by the first eleven but then again everyone was getting a game. Soon after I was selected, the seconds decided to breakaway and form their own team. The second team became the Mt Beauty Rovers and the local teams continued their rivalry. In one particular match against the Rovers I achieved my best bowling figures of 8 wickets for 11 runs and we dismissed the Rovers for 38. The association was growing and one new team, the Myrtleford Rovers entered the competition in about 1970. They were a young team coached by two older players, Mick Dineen and Vic Garoni, who led them through their teens and into a fine young team. Their spearhead opening bowler became their big threat and they started to win more games. The bowler was Merv Hughes who had commenced his senior cricket career with the Saints, when his father took up a teaching position in Myrtleford. Myself, as an opening bowler for Mt Beauty, I would often run in fast and with the same bowling action deliver a slow leggy. I started my bowling in cricket as a leg spinner as my idol then was Ritchie Benaud and as I had good control, I captured many wickets with this delivery, just as Merv Hughes did in his test cricket career. I like to think that he copied me with that one as I had him tied up in knots a few times. I held five record batting partnerships with Mt Beauty Cricket Club at one stage and I won two Association batting averages.
With the addition of more teams and a much stronger association, now called The Ovens and Kiewa Cricket Association, it was in 1978, that I was selected to represent the Association in Country Week Cricket in Melbourne. The teams competing get the opportunity to play on many of the beautiful suburban turf wicket grounds and even the MCG. It was at Box Hill when we needed to win the match to gain a place in the final. We needed 4 runs to win and I was 17 not out. We were 9 wickets down and my Mt Beauty compatriate, Geoff Willing, was on strike in the last over. He tickled one around the corner and I was then facing. The next ball was pitched well up on middle stump. I played straight and firm and the ball flew from the sweet spot middle of the bat past the outstretched bowler's right hand to the boundary. We had won and then with the bowling strength of Merv Hughes and a good balanced team, we went on to win the Country Week Cricket final. This was the first and only time the Association had won the title.
Ovens and Kiewa Cricket Association team that won Country Week Cricket in Melbourne in 1978. Merv Hughes is third from the left next to me, both in the Mt Beauty sweater with red and black banding. The final was held at the South Melbourne Cricket Ground.
I captained the Mt Beauty Cricket Club for a record five years straight and the club had appeared in seven finals, winning three premierships. I had made seven centuries throughout my cricketing career and played for Richmond Union in Melbourne's VJCA from 1970-71 making 93 not out against Parkville. However, the family life of bringing up two kids soon became too hard and I gave competition cricket away in 1979. I recently caught up with an old Mt Beauty successful cricket captain in Clyde Smith. Clyde was the local policeman at the time and captained three of our premierships, namely 1964/65, 1965/66 and 1966/7. He was instrumental in guiding me through my cricketing career. He always said I had potential. He said to me at our meeting, "Kimmy, did you ever get to play for Australia?" That was a nice compliment from a revered and respected older friend.
With the addition of more teams and a much stronger association, now called The Ovens and Kiewa Cricket Association, it was in 1978, that I was selected to represent the Association in Country Week Cricket in Melbourne. The teams competing get the opportunity to play on many of the beautiful suburban turf wicket grounds and even the MCG. It was at Box Hill when we needed to win the match to gain a place in the final. We needed 4 runs to win and I was 17 not out. We were 9 wickets down and my Mt Beauty compatriate, Geoff Willing, was on strike in the last over. He tickled one around the corner and I was then facing. The next ball was pitched well up on middle stump. I played straight and firm and the ball flew from the sweet spot middle of the bat past the outstretched bowler's right hand to the boundary. We had won and then with the bowling strength of Merv Hughes and a good balanced team, we went on to win the Country Week Cricket final. This was the first and only time the Association had won the title.
Ovens and Kiewa Cricket Association team that won Country Week Cricket in Melbourne in 1978. Merv Hughes is third from the left next to me, both in the Mt Beauty sweater with red and black banding. The final was held at the South Melbourne Cricket Ground.
I captained the Mt Beauty Cricket Club for a record five years straight and the club had appeared in seven finals, winning three premierships. I had made seven centuries throughout my cricketing career and played for Richmond Union in Melbourne's VJCA from 1970-71 making 93 not out against Parkville. However, the family life of bringing up two kids soon became too hard and I gave competition cricket away in 1979. I recently caught up with an old Mt Beauty successful cricket captain in Clyde Smith. Clyde was the local policeman at the time and captained three of our premierships, namely 1964/65, 1965/66 and 1966/7. He was instrumental in guiding me through my cricketing career. He always said I had potential. He said to me at our meeting, "Kimmy, did you ever get to play for Australia?" That was a nice compliment from a revered and respected older friend.
Life After School in Brief
When completing Matriculation in 1967, I was successful in my application for a position with the SEC in Melbourne. After two years in the big horrible smoke, Pat Canny had just retired from the SEC Merchandise position in Hollands St, Mt Beauty in 1970. I was successful when applying for that position and returned home to my beloved Kiewa Valley.
The next three years was a blur, being single, engaging in fun, girls, drinking and sport into my late 20's. My courting soon slowed me down and led to marriage in 1973. Two great kids in Lisa and Brad entered and unreservedly and unconditionally consumed my life. We had built our first home in Mt Beauty and then another in Tawonga South. In 1980 I succeeded in my application for a promotional position with the SEC back in Melbourne.
The Melbourne working years through to 1989 was as a Health and Safety Coordinator until the SEC was privatised. I then became the Risk Management Officer for the Springvale City Council up until council amalgamations in 1995. I divorced in 1995 and the kids stayed with me. They went through College and University and then I re-married in 2001. My formal working career ended in 2011 with Kmart as a Distribution Centre Analyst. I then semi-retired to a hobby farm in Northern Victoria, selling that in 2013 to fully retire and peruse Helen's and my dream of traveling around Australia in our great new home on wheels, stopping off to work part time here and there.
So 32 years in Melbourne that was preceded by 32 years in Mt Beauty. I have never forgotten that wonderful country upbringing. That great life in the Kiewa Valley that is so mindfully entrenched and will always be dearly replayed and to return there every opportunity for hopefully another 32 years. Looking back at those Kiewa years, almost all of my peers had left the valley well before me and were never to return. I may have been 'Just a Kiewa Kid' at that time but I probably still hold the proud title of being the longest serving Kiewa kid of my generation.
The next three years was a blur, being single, engaging in fun, girls, drinking and sport into my late 20's. My courting soon slowed me down and led to marriage in 1973. Two great kids in Lisa and Brad entered and unreservedly and unconditionally consumed my life. We had built our first home in Mt Beauty and then another in Tawonga South. In 1980 I succeeded in my application for a promotional position with the SEC back in Melbourne.
The Melbourne working years through to 1989 was as a Health and Safety Coordinator until the SEC was privatised. I then became the Risk Management Officer for the Springvale City Council up until council amalgamations in 1995. I divorced in 1995 and the kids stayed with me. They went through College and University and then I re-married in 2001. My formal working career ended in 2011 with Kmart as a Distribution Centre Analyst. I then semi-retired to a hobby farm in Northern Victoria, selling that in 2013 to fully retire and peruse Helen's and my dream of traveling around Australia in our great new home on wheels, stopping off to work part time here and there.
So 32 years in Melbourne that was preceded by 32 years in Mt Beauty. I have never forgotten that wonderful country upbringing. That great life in the Kiewa Valley that is so mindfully entrenched and will always be dearly replayed and to return there every opportunity for hopefully another 32 years. Looking back at those Kiewa years, almost all of my peers had left the valley well before me and were never to return. I may have been 'Just a Kiewa Kid' at that time but I probably still hold the proud title of being the longest serving Kiewa kid of my generation.
OTHER SHORT STORIES
THE TRAIN OF LIFE
At birth we boarded a train and we met our parents. We rattled along through our younger years, looking at the views and learning from our parents what lay on the tracks ahead. The train stopped at all stations and we looked at many of the new and exciting attractions of life. On the way, we swayed from side to side and went through several dark tunnels. But we received hugs and cuddles in our need for security and love. However, at some station along the way, our parents will step down from the train, leaving us on this journey all alone. But we know that they will always travel by our side.
As time goes by, other people will board the train and they will be as significant as our parents. Our siblings, friends, our love of our life and children. We will all travel together, winding through the valleys and tunnels, watching the signals and hopefully taking the green light. Tragically, many will take the red light, stumble and fall off the train leaving behind a permanent vacuum. Others will just go so unnoticed that we don't even realize they have vacated their seats and moved to another carriage. This train ride will be full of joy, sorrow, fantasy, expectations, hellos, goodbyes, and farewells. We will learn to show compassion for those in need by opening the train window for someone who is hot and closing it when they are cold.
Success will consist of having a good relationship with all passengers, always being honest and requiring each of us to constantly give the best of ourselves.The mystery to everyone is that we do not know at which station, we ourselves, will step down. So, we must live in the best way we can by loving, caring, forgiving, and offering the best of who we are. It is important to do this because when the time comes for us to step off and leave our seat empty, we should leave behind beautiful memories for those who will continue to travel on the train of life.
As we near the end of our journey, we look out of the window of the train of life. A myriad of scenes rush by, becoming blurred. The sky is dark and as we round the bend, we see behind us the tracks fading away into the distance. With what we have learned on this long trip, we can offer some advice. Strive and work hard to reap success and never miss giving lots of love to those who care the most to you. We wish you a joyful journey for the future on our train of life. The next stop is now where it is time for your parents to step down from the train. The cord is pulled. You are left on this journey with all those that you care for. Like our parents gone before, they travel in your heart. Lastly, thank you for being one of the beautiful passengers on our train.
As time goes by, other people will board the train and they will be as significant as our parents. Our siblings, friends, our love of our life and children. We will all travel together, winding through the valleys and tunnels, watching the signals and hopefully taking the green light. Tragically, many will take the red light, stumble and fall off the train leaving behind a permanent vacuum. Others will just go so unnoticed that we don't even realize they have vacated their seats and moved to another carriage. This train ride will be full of joy, sorrow, fantasy, expectations, hellos, goodbyes, and farewells. We will learn to show compassion for those in need by opening the train window for someone who is hot and closing it when they are cold.
Success will consist of having a good relationship with all passengers, always being honest and requiring each of us to constantly give the best of ourselves.The mystery to everyone is that we do not know at which station, we ourselves, will step down. So, we must live in the best way we can by loving, caring, forgiving, and offering the best of who we are. It is important to do this because when the time comes for us to step off and leave our seat empty, we should leave behind beautiful memories for those who will continue to travel on the train of life.
As we near the end of our journey, we look out of the window of the train of life. A myriad of scenes rush by, becoming blurred. The sky is dark and as we round the bend, we see behind us the tracks fading away into the distance. With what we have learned on this long trip, we can offer some advice. Strive and work hard to reap success and never miss giving lots of love to those who care the most to you. We wish you a joyful journey for the future on our train of life. The next stop is now where it is time for your parents to step down from the train. The cord is pulled. You are left on this journey with all those that you care for. Like our parents gone before, they travel in your heart. Lastly, thank you for being one of the beautiful passengers on our train.