Valda Johnson (now Gee) is co-author with her sister Rosalie of The Sausage Tree, UQP, 1995, a wonderful memoir that I am a third way through today. And the late Doris Brooks of Lalla wrote a lovely short Memoir too which her son Phil Cornwell, currently Secretary of Heritage Lilydale, has allowed me to read. Dulcie Erb, later Woodland, was brought up on "Lowe's Hill" at North Lilydale, the only daughter of Mate Erb and Pearly Miller among all those boys, classmates and lifelong friends of my father.
Mr. and Mrs. R. A. J. Woodland, who were married at Paterson Street Methodist Church. Launceston, are honeymooning on the North-West Coast before making their home at Newnham, Launceston. Mrs. Woodland was the former Dulcie Pearl Erb, of North Lilydale (Tas.). Advocate, 5 July 1952. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article69451774
C. K. Denny and the war effort is mentioned at the bottom. It makes me think how strong the British Empire was still, that he decamped from southwest England in 1920-1 and set up the lavender farm at North Lilydale in Tasmania and was a magistrate in the police court in no time. In WW2, that Empire was just about exhausted and our orchards soon knew it when Britain foresook its old dominions and joined the Common Market (what irony that Brexit may now reverse that process).
So, is local history all just gossip? For me, human life is about human beings and their stories, their doings, technologies, cultures, interconnections, joys, ideas, even our struggles and strife are endlessly fascinating.
NORTH-EAST
LILYDALE EXAMINATIONS- The results of the terminal examinations at the Lilydale Area School were as follow:-Grade 7: Darcey Glover (Tunnel); grade 6, Allan Mathewson (North Lilydale); grade 5, Nancy Dornauf (Lilydale); grade 1, Ila Webb (Lllydale); grade 3. Valda Johnson (Lilydale); grade 2a Vivienne Turner (Lilydale); grade 2, Aileen Sulzberger (Tunnel); grade Ia, Margaret Clancy (Lilydale) and Leslie Smith; grade 1b, Lindsay Webb (Lilydale).
Domestic arts-Grade 8. Doris Brooks (Lalla); grade 6. Dulcie Erb (North Lilydale); grade 5, Irene Grandfleld (Lebrina).
PATRIOTIC CARNIVAL-A suggestion that a patriotic carnival be held at Lilydale was made by Mr. C. K. Denny at a meeting of the Lilydale Red Cross on Tuesday night. Mr. Denny felt that in view of the cancellation of the annual show some means of bringing the people of the district together was necessary. The funds to benefit would be the Red Cross and A.C.F. A meeting to consider the proposal will be held on Monday night. The president (Mrs. L. A. Procter) was in the chair.
NORTH-EAST (1940, December 12). Examiner (Launceston, Tas. : 1900 - 1954), p. 7 (LATE NEWS EDITION). Retrieved May 28, 2017, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article52392997