John and Rebecca Campbell, who settled near Kernot in 1891 By Merryn Chapman
MY grandfather Bruce Campbell feels that he has grown up in the luckiest family, in the luckiest district, in the luckiest country in the world. Here is some of his story.
Bruce’s grandparents John and Rebecca Campbell leased some land on the banks of the Bass River In 1891. They built a house and a 60-foot-long milking shed using tea tree from the land they cleared.
The house had a dirt floor. Rebecca had to carry water up from the river and cooked in an open fire in the kitchen. As their needs expanded, they just extended the house until it was quite a grand building with a verandah on both sides.
MY grandfather Bruce Campbell feels that he has grown up in the luckiest family, in the luckiest district, in the luckiest country in the world. Here is some of his story.
Bruce’s grandparents John and Rebecca Campbell leased some land on the banks of the Bass River In 1891. They built a house and a 60-foot-long milking shed using tea tree from the land they cleared.
The house had a dirt floor. Rebecca had to carry water up from the river and cooked in an open fire in the kitchen. As their needs expanded, they just extended the house until it was quite a grand building with a verandah on both sides.
After a couple of bushfires and floods the couple decided to move. The story goes that Rebecca stayed inside the house as it was loaded onto a bullock dray and carted upstream to the top of a small hill. This location is now the paddock beside my parents’ house. The only evidence left of the old homestead is a giant palm tree that Rebecca planted in her back yard some time in the early 1900s.
When they moved the house, they also cut the milking shed in half and carted it to the hill. That building still stands and is now used as a calf rearing shed.
At that time the Bass River flats below the dairy were swampy marsh covered in tea tree. John and a team of men set to work clearing the land using bullock-drawn ploughs. They also faced the enormous task of draining the swampy flats, using both bullocks and pick axes. In some places the drains needed to be eight feet deep.
In 1910 the railway and station opposite the store were built to transport stock and agricultural produce to Melbourne. It was later extended to transport coal from the Wonthaggi mine to Melbourne via Nyora.
At the time the area did not really have a name as such but was known to locals as Campbells’ Corner. The train line was run directly through the middle of the Campbells’ farm and the decision was made to build the station at the edge of their farm - opposite where the store is now. Campbells’ Corner then officially became Kernot.
When they moved the house, they also cut the milking shed in half and carted it to the hill. That building still stands and is now used as a calf rearing shed.
At that time the Bass River flats below the dairy were swampy marsh covered in tea tree. John and a team of men set to work clearing the land using bullock-drawn ploughs. They also faced the enormous task of draining the swampy flats, using both bullocks and pick axes. In some places the drains needed to be eight feet deep.
In 1910 the railway and station opposite the store were built to transport stock and agricultural produce to Melbourne. It was later extended to transport coal from the Wonthaggi mine to Melbourne via Nyora.
At the time the area did not really have a name as such but was known to locals as Campbells’ Corner. The train line was run directly through the middle of the Campbells’ farm and the decision was made to build the station at the edge of their farm - opposite where the store is now. Campbells’ Corner then officially became Kernot.
Over the years the Campbell family have been well represented in local council. Bruce’s grandfather was a councillor with the shire of Phillip Island and Woolamai between 1905 and 1911. His father was a member of the Woolamai and Bass Shire between 1925 and 1952. Bruce served as a councillor with the Shire of Bass between 1970 and 1988.
In the early 1900s, while John Campbell senior was a councillor, the meetings were only held on nights with a full moon that allowed enough light to get home. The story goes that John would have a few too many social tipples and was lucky enough to own a horse that knew its way home. Rebecca Campbell would have to wait up on those nights to turn the horse in on John’s arrival home.
Originally the farm was separated into two paddocks for the milker cows – one for the night time and one for the day time. To give some perspective, that same area of the farm is now divided into approximately 20 paddocks.
As the next generation of the family took over the farm they continued to hand milk about 100 cows in the walk-through dairy and also began breeding and selling pigs on the side. They used the milk to make butter and feed the whey to the pigs and built the piggery up to produce an equal income to the cows and butter. However, in the 1950s swine fever ripped through their mob, wiping out most of the pigs and forcing them to go back to whole milk production.
The cream was put into cans, picked up twice a week and taken to the factory in Archies Creek. Originally there were a number of butter factories scattered throughout the valley, Glen Forbes having one of them, predominately producing cheese.
The road between the Glen Forbes factory and the highway, where Van Steensels timber yard is now, was the first road in the area to be bitumened to allow for the transport of the milk to Bacchus Marsh to be made into condensed milk by Life Guard.
John and Rebecca’s son, John Junior, wasn’t happy that he had a train line cutting his farm in half. After repeated refusals of his requests for a crossing he often sabotaged trains by forcing his cattle to cross the line on its steepest gradient. The muck the cattle left behind caused trains to lose traction and roll backwards. Eventually the railways came to their senses and found some money in their budget to install a bridge crossing which remained until the railway was dismantled.
Born in 1930, Bruce remembers as a kid the double header trains travelling though at 2am shaking the house. That would always wake visitors but the family eventually got used to it.
Bruce was the youngest of five kids. His early school years were spent in the room at the back of the old hall. He rode a horse to school, as did most kids and he remembers it was the job of Maureen and Peggy Stewart to retrieve the horses from the pony paddock of an afternoon.
Bruce vividly remembers collecting an acorn from Woodleigh the day he sat his merit exam and planting the acorn at home. The oak tree that grew from it is still standing at the back of his house in Kernot.
He and his siblings would spend their days either showing the family’s Ayrshire cows or playing sports. Bruce and his brothers would walk the cows to Korumburra in one day, show the cows, then walk them home the next day. If they weren’t showing cows, then Bruce loved playing badminton and tennis. Badminton was played in the Kernot hall against other local towns including Woodleigh, Blackwood Forest, Nyora, Bena and Glen Forbes.
Back in those days loose hay was loaded by hand on to horse drawn wagons and stacked by hand into hay stacks. Later they started using stationary balers where the hay was picked up and carted to the baler before eventually moving to more modern baling techniques.
Though most farms employed some foreign labour, Bruce specifically remembers Macedonian men being employed by all the farms in the district. The Macedonians were persecuted in their country and looking for a better life due to the depression. They lived very simply. The hut that Bruce’s employee, Pando, lived in consisted of one room with a fire place. Although they lived pretty rough they would all dress in suits on a Sunday and meet up in the station yard to socialise. Most of their pay checks were sent home to their families in Macedonia.
During the Second World War, Bruce’s brother Bill was called up in 1943. Bruce was only 13 at the time and tells of Bill sending them a coded letter. By using the first letter of each paragraph, he let them know he had left the Canungra training base and was “at sea”.
Bill was a driver for the top brass in New Guinea but had to be moved to the field ambulance service as he didn’t see the need to open the car doors for the head honchos.
Bruce’s brother Bob had a short leg. As a child, he spent six months lying on his back in hospital having his leg stretched and was therefore unable to serve in the war. He remained on the farm and was utilised by the government as an air marshal warden, which he didn’t take too seriously. He was supposed to ride the area at night to make sure all the houses had properly blacked out their windows to prevent air raids but Bruce doesn’t remember him ever fulfilling his duties.
Bruce’s sister Margaret was trained in first aid as a member of the Voluntary Aid Detachment. During the war tea, sugar, clothes and petrol were rationed. Bruce remembers his two brothers concocting a mix using kerosene and diesel to get to the local dances as rationing did not allow for extra-curricular activities.
Bruce and Sheila Campbell were married in 1961. Their honeymoon was one of the few holidays Bruce can remember whilst he was still working for his dad. They went away to Port Stevens for three weeks before a phone call to say “You’ve been away long enough, son, time to come back to work”.
In the `60s Bruce and Sheila purchased a block of land opposite Suckling Road for £300 ($600) an acre. He recalls his father being mad at him for his silly purchase of useless land but he got one back when he cleared and sowed the land and grew a magnificent crop of red clover.
In the `70s he built an eight-a-side herringbone dairy with a feed loft on top. This building still stands relatively unchanged and the herd size over those years increased to around 240.
When my parents came back to work on the farm, the farm was again modernised, and a 44-unit rotary shed was built in 1994. This is the shed that I now milk in along with my parents and the cows now number 270. Bruce believes the area was a great choice for dairying and still is to this day.
The last passenger train ran in 1977 and the line closed in `78. In 1978 there were 31 kids going to school in Kernot. The local schools were amalgamated into Bass Valley School in 1978. Bruce says the closure of the local school meant there was no longer a reason for local families to meet regularly for drop offs, concerts, school picnics and sports days. The modernisation of communication and transport also meant less need for families and locals to gather, even more so in recent times with social media.
Bruce was awarded an Order of Australia Medal in 2012 for his community service over the years.
This is an edited version of Merryn Chapman’s talk at Kernot’s Australia Day breakfast.
In the early 1900s, while John Campbell senior was a councillor, the meetings were only held on nights with a full moon that allowed enough light to get home. The story goes that John would have a few too many social tipples and was lucky enough to own a horse that knew its way home. Rebecca Campbell would have to wait up on those nights to turn the horse in on John’s arrival home.
Originally the farm was separated into two paddocks for the milker cows – one for the night time and one for the day time. To give some perspective, that same area of the farm is now divided into approximately 20 paddocks.
As the next generation of the family took over the farm they continued to hand milk about 100 cows in the walk-through dairy and also began breeding and selling pigs on the side. They used the milk to make butter and feed the whey to the pigs and built the piggery up to produce an equal income to the cows and butter. However, in the 1950s swine fever ripped through their mob, wiping out most of the pigs and forcing them to go back to whole milk production.
The cream was put into cans, picked up twice a week and taken to the factory in Archies Creek. Originally there were a number of butter factories scattered throughout the valley, Glen Forbes having one of them, predominately producing cheese.
The road between the Glen Forbes factory and the highway, where Van Steensels timber yard is now, was the first road in the area to be bitumened to allow for the transport of the milk to Bacchus Marsh to be made into condensed milk by Life Guard.
John and Rebecca’s son, John Junior, wasn’t happy that he had a train line cutting his farm in half. After repeated refusals of his requests for a crossing he often sabotaged trains by forcing his cattle to cross the line on its steepest gradient. The muck the cattle left behind caused trains to lose traction and roll backwards. Eventually the railways came to their senses and found some money in their budget to install a bridge crossing which remained until the railway was dismantled.
Born in 1930, Bruce remembers as a kid the double header trains travelling though at 2am shaking the house. That would always wake visitors but the family eventually got used to it.
Bruce was the youngest of five kids. His early school years were spent in the room at the back of the old hall. He rode a horse to school, as did most kids and he remembers it was the job of Maureen and Peggy Stewart to retrieve the horses from the pony paddock of an afternoon.
Bruce vividly remembers collecting an acorn from Woodleigh the day he sat his merit exam and planting the acorn at home. The oak tree that grew from it is still standing at the back of his house in Kernot.
He and his siblings would spend their days either showing the family’s Ayrshire cows or playing sports. Bruce and his brothers would walk the cows to Korumburra in one day, show the cows, then walk them home the next day. If they weren’t showing cows, then Bruce loved playing badminton and tennis. Badminton was played in the Kernot hall against other local towns including Woodleigh, Blackwood Forest, Nyora, Bena and Glen Forbes.
Back in those days loose hay was loaded by hand on to horse drawn wagons and stacked by hand into hay stacks. Later they started using stationary balers where the hay was picked up and carted to the baler before eventually moving to more modern baling techniques.
Though most farms employed some foreign labour, Bruce specifically remembers Macedonian men being employed by all the farms in the district. The Macedonians were persecuted in their country and looking for a better life due to the depression. They lived very simply. The hut that Bruce’s employee, Pando, lived in consisted of one room with a fire place. Although they lived pretty rough they would all dress in suits on a Sunday and meet up in the station yard to socialise. Most of their pay checks were sent home to their families in Macedonia.
During the Second World War, Bruce’s brother Bill was called up in 1943. Bruce was only 13 at the time and tells of Bill sending them a coded letter. By using the first letter of each paragraph, he let them know he had left the Canungra training base and was “at sea”.
Bill was a driver for the top brass in New Guinea but had to be moved to the field ambulance service as he didn’t see the need to open the car doors for the head honchos.
Bruce’s brother Bob had a short leg. As a child, he spent six months lying on his back in hospital having his leg stretched and was therefore unable to serve in the war. He remained on the farm and was utilised by the government as an air marshal warden, which he didn’t take too seriously. He was supposed to ride the area at night to make sure all the houses had properly blacked out their windows to prevent air raids but Bruce doesn’t remember him ever fulfilling his duties.
Bruce’s sister Margaret was trained in first aid as a member of the Voluntary Aid Detachment. During the war tea, sugar, clothes and petrol were rationed. Bruce remembers his two brothers concocting a mix using kerosene and diesel to get to the local dances as rationing did not allow for extra-curricular activities.
Bruce and Sheila Campbell were married in 1961. Their honeymoon was one of the few holidays Bruce can remember whilst he was still working for his dad. They went away to Port Stevens for three weeks before a phone call to say “You’ve been away long enough, son, time to come back to work”.
In the `60s Bruce and Sheila purchased a block of land opposite Suckling Road for £300 ($600) an acre. He recalls his father being mad at him for his silly purchase of useless land but he got one back when he cleared and sowed the land and grew a magnificent crop of red clover.
In the `70s he built an eight-a-side herringbone dairy with a feed loft on top. This building still stands relatively unchanged and the herd size over those years increased to around 240.
When my parents came back to work on the farm, the farm was again modernised, and a 44-unit rotary shed was built in 1994. This is the shed that I now milk in along with my parents and the cows now number 270. Bruce believes the area was a great choice for dairying and still is to this day.
The last passenger train ran in 1977 and the line closed in `78. In 1978 there were 31 kids going to school in Kernot. The local schools were amalgamated into Bass Valley School in 1978. Bruce says the closure of the local school meant there was no longer a reason for local families to meet regularly for drop offs, concerts, school picnics and sports days. The modernisation of communication and transport also meant less need for families and locals to gather, even more so in recent times with social media.
Bruce was awarded an Order of Australia Medal in 2012 for his community service over the years.
This is an edited version of Merryn Chapman’s talk at Kernot’s Australia Day breakfast.
Sheila and Bruce Campbell, Kernot Church. Photo: Rob Parsons