The Gurdies by Ethel Pike, 1970s By Florence Guilfoyle
I WAS born at the Gurdies in 1897. My father, Henry Edwards Cole, a surveyor who later worked on the Wonthaggi line, had a property which backed on to the Hurdy Gurdy creek. I had four brothers, twins born in 1893 and two younger brothers.
My grandfather William Henry Cole from Harrow in England was a pioneer of the Hurdy Gurdy and went there in 1885. He lived in a wattle and daub hut on the bank of the creek. Over his hut he planted a grape vine which bore luscious purple grapes for many years.
I WAS born at the Gurdies in 1897. My father, Henry Edwards Cole, a surveyor who later worked on the Wonthaggi line, had a property which backed on to the Hurdy Gurdy creek. I had four brothers, twins born in 1893 and two younger brothers.
My grandfather William Henry Cole from Harrow in England was a pioneer of the Hurdy Gurdy and went there in 1885. He lived in a wattle and daub hut on the bank of the creek. Over his hut he planted a grape vine which bore luscious purple grapes for many years.
| To get to our farm we had to leave the Bass track and walk through dense bush up through Chambers property. This would have been Peacocks Road. There were gums, wattle and scrub so thick it was almost impenetrable in places but after a fire the wild flowers were glorious. Every summer the fire came up through Chambers property with the wind behind it. My father ploughed an area around the house and when the fire was really savage my father placed me out on the ploughed patch for safety. We had an orchard and grew all our own fruit apples – Jonathans, five crowns, wine saps –grapes and beautiful cherries and peaches, as well as our own vegetables on the bank by the creek. My uncle Robert Cole was a nurseryman and owned and ran the Twyford Nursery at The Gurdies, so perhaps we also got vegetables from him. We did all our shopping at Lang Lang where my father drove in a sulky and horse. My mother rarely went, but gave him a carefully compiled list. Sometimes I was allowed to go too. I do not remember ever being ill – in fact my first visit to a doctor was when I was 25 and having my first child. However my mother kept a good medicine cupboard containing belladonna aconite (for fever), mentholine for our colds and nuxvomica, among other things. These she obtained from Martin and Pleasance, the homeopathic people in the city. | This essay is taken from an interview with Florence Guilfoyle (nee Cole) by Sheila Skidmore and Muriel Norris for the Bass Valley Historical Society. It is stored in the archives with other papers about the history of the Gurdies area. Have you ever thought to record your memories or those of your family? The tales the older members of your family can tell are a valuable resource for local historians but they also remain as a tribute to our pioneering ancestors. We need to archive the past. The picture of The Gurdies was painted in the 1970s by Ethel Pike, an artist friend who attended the National Gallery School with Norman Lindsay. She was a lovely friend. I used to take her out with her paints and pencils when she could no longer drive. She died over 20 years ago but I still miss her a lot. - Libby Skidmore, Archivist Bass Valley Historical Society |
When I was six it was time for me to go to school. St. Helier was the nearest and I remember the first day walking through the bush to our gate to wait for one of the Chambers girls who was big and nearly ready to leave school. About 12 children went to the school and it was a long walk as we had to cross the creek first. There was no bridge but my father helped me over the log on wet days when the creek was full. The bridge on the main track had big built up sides so we couldn’t fall in the deep water.
The school was also used for church services on Sundays once a month and the pews were stacked at the back on school days. Sometimes sitting in school we would see the bullock teams clearing the paddocks of timber and hauling it away. There were no timber mills in that area. There was a gravel reserve next door to our place but I don’t remember any gravel being taken from it.
We played in the Hurdy Gurdy Creek on our property and had a big mud slide to ride down the steep slopes. We swam in it in the summer and caught black fish in the deeper pools.
Sometimes we went to the beach at The Gurdies, down through Bonneys to a nice sandy beach.
The Bonney household was a quiet one, as it was said they had not spoken for many years. Mr. Bonney eventually built himself a hut down in the lower corner of the property near the beach. He purchased a cylindrical gramophone and whenever we passed his hut on the way to or from the beach we would call in and listen to his records. Mrs Bonney was the local midwife. Other times we had big picnics out at the Red Bluff when all our family and neighbours would go off for the day.
But the best day of all was the Grantville show. We looked forward to it for so long and as we came along the track either walking or in the sulky we could hear the music playing in the distance and our footsteps quickened as we heard the sounds of the show. There were foot races and horse races, side shows and lots of things to eat, apart from our own hamper. It cost two shillings to go from the Gurdies to Lang Lang in the mail coach so I didn’t go often.
I left the Gurdies when I was seventeen and lived with an aunt in Dandenong. I was apprenticed as a milliner at Love and Lewis in Prahran but left after a year. I was lonesome for the bush and it was too far to travel to Dandenong.
Other names I remember at the Gurdies were Bergmeier who changed their name during the war and Bonneys and Chambers. The property finally sold to people named Peacock after whom the road is named.
This essay was first published in The Waterline News.
The school was also used for church services on Sundays once a month and the pews were stacked at the back on school days. Sometimes sitting in school we would see the bullock teams clearing the paddocks of timber and hauling it away. There were no timber mills in that area. There was a gravel reserve next door to our place but I don’t remember any gravel being taken from it.
We played in the Hurdy Gurdy Creek on our property and had a big mud slide to ride down the steep slopes. We swam in it in the summer and caught black fish in the deeper pools.
Sometimes we went to the beach at The Gurdies, down through Bonneys to a nice sandy beach.
The Bonney household was a quiet one, as it was said they had not spoken for many years. Mr. Bonney eventually built himself a hut down in the lower corner of the property near the beach. He purchased a cylindrical gramophone and whenever we passed his hut on the way to or from the beach we would call in and listen to his records. Mrs Bonney was the local midwife. Other times we had big picnics out at the Red Bluff when all our family and neighbours would go off for the day.
But the best day of all was the Grantville show. We looked forward to it for so long and as we came along the track either walking or in the sulky we could hear the music playing in the distance and our footsteps quickened as we heard the sounds of the show. There were foot races and horse races, side shows and lots of things to eat, apart from our own hamper. It cost two shillings to go from the Gurdies to Lang Lang in the mail coach so I didn’t go often.
I left the Gurdies when I was seventeen and lived with an aunt in Dandenong. I was apprenticed as a milliner at Love and Lewis in Prahran but left after a year. I was lonesome for the bush and it was too far to travel to Dandenong.
Other names I remember at the Gurdies were Bergmeier who changed their name during the war and Bonneys and Chambers. The property finally sold to people named Peacock after whom the road is named.
This essay was first published in The Waterline News.