Someone told my oldest brother a few years ago that he had been in the district 20 years. Had not met my brother before. How long had he been there?
- Oh, a while, said my brother.
- What? 5 years? 10?
- Oh, family came about 1880, 1882, I believe, said my brother, enjoying the effect.
My nephew once said to me "You want to write a novel? Gee, you'll be going to get a best seller out of Lilydale!"
Oh well, that is still my ambition after note taking for 40 years and recording interviews with about 50 people across that time.
My interest in history started with my father's yarns about his grandfather, his uncles, those bachelor cousins on the hill who still lived as if in the 19th century, and I needed to write out a family tree to get all the cousins straight and ask Uncle Leo's advice on it.
My father also talked about 'old Bill Mathewson' and Eddie Weston the ANZACs, and he'd point out 'Snow Turner in his garden'. Or, that's where Les Proctor used to have his blacksmith's. Sister Walsh, an angel sent to earth you'd say from the respect with which everyone spoke of her. Dad and Leo and the old cousins would tell yarns of Farrellys, Sulzbergers, McCarthys, Griffins (good mate at school was Peter Griffin), Collins, Browns, Blighs, Byes, Arnolds, Chicks, Alf Kerkham and Bill Wilson and Cock Kelp ... I just had to start writing them all down to get them all figured out. Still not finished. Geoff Erb used to call me 'Pat's secretary'. I have found a phenomenal expert in Suzanne Griffin of Underwood whose genealogy skills are stunning.
The late Marita Bardenhagen was a good friend and we were utterly boring for anyone else to be around if we got onto Lilydale history, Germans, the wars, her clan(s) and mine.
I am still pestering people with my questions, generous welcoming people like Allen Mathewson, Jillian Weston, Trevor Brown, Helen Chick, David and Jessie Brown. So many more I owe thanks to.
Now that I have retired, I'm taking car trips around the district with Betty Viney and Owen Sims, with Noelene Clayton and Ray Bassett, and plotting out who lived where and when. See my Lilydale Historical Googlemap.
I also began gathering documents and articles years ago. The NLA Trove is a great gift to the nation and you can find my list of Lilydale Tasmania History articles.
I am so happy to meet the knowledgeable, hardworking Heritage Lilydale folks and honoured to work with them.
I'll tell you why I do all this in my next blog post.