Hope your weekend is going to be splendid. Mr M and I are off HOME to Gippsland. I haven't been home to Thorpdale in the longest time and am extremely homesick. Pity my Mum won't be there but she's off jetting about in Vietnam and visiting my sister in Cambodia where she now lives.
The above photo is the classic Thorpdale image, taken by me when I was at uni. I used to get terribly homesick living in Melbourne and would run away home to take images like this, they always seem to be better the more homesick I was. So, with this in mind I am going home armed with my camera, hopefully I will get some great shots of where I grew up - rolling hills, red volcanic soils of the potato paddocks and plentiful water sources. Aaaahh....can't wait to go home. As much as Ythanbrae has become mine and Mr M's home, Thorpdale will always will be home to me.
5 comments:
My Dad grew up in Mirboo North. He had lots of great stories about his childhood. He was born in 1937, and remembers the war years, when Italian POWs cleared the land of bracken in order to plant potatoes. Imagine how unpleasant that work would be! I think the sights and smells of childhood are indelibly imprinted in our souls as "home". Enjoy!
Really?! That's so amazing. My grandfather came to Thorpdale in 1947 and bought our 'home farm' Ballina Park, my grandmother came 18 months later, her Melbourne parents wouldn't let her live in the bush until she completed finishing school! So true about the sights and smells, the smell of dam water irrigating spuds and a 'spud dirt' smell is very evocative to me.
I've grown up on Thorpdale potatoes (Dad's insistence) - apparently they are the best in the world ;) When I was about 15 we went to Mirboo North for their Show - and Dad met and was recognised by folk he hadn't seen in 30 years or so (he moved to Melbourne in the 50s with his parents). I think the highlight of the show (aside from the wood-chop) was the 20kg bag of Thorpdale potatoes bought from the Scouts for $2! My grandfather was the Headmaster (as they called them then) and the family had always lived in houses provided by the Education Dept. When they moved to Melbourne they bought their first house, close to where my great-grandparents lived in West Brunswick. This is now our home - my children are the fourth generation to live in this house and I can't imagine being anywhere else. That sense of history and belonging is quite powerful - I can understand your pull to Ballina Park.
Oh wow - Thorpy always had the Potato Festival but of recent years it has not been run due to the ridiculously high cost of insurance for such events. It was the heart and soul of the town, we were even on the great outdoors a few times!! If ever we live in Thorpdale again I would very much like to be a part of the campaign to get it up and running again. I would also love to bring up our kids in the Ballina Park house where my Dad grew up (my generation grew up in a new house my parents built next door, on the second family farm Pine Ridge) My maternal grandfather though was a headmaster too and my mum spent her childhood moving around country Victoria in education dept houses as well!
This is a bit spooky Emma! I wonder if your grandfather and my grandfather knew each other??!!
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