Gwenda E Taws
The Yarra Valley has been part of my family history since 1879, when great-grandfather, George Christopher Brooke, took up a selection for himself and his four eldest sons in the district called "The Wanding" east of Coldstream towards Wandin.
They cleared the immense eucalyptus trees, split palings to build their homes, selling the remainder as posts and railings to wineries in the valley. They ploughed the rich red soils and planted raspberries and orchards. Two sons carted supplies by horse and wagon from Melbourne to the new Warburton diggings, often being bogged in the marshy ground around Brushy Creek. Bullocks soon replaced the horses to haul heavy logs down rough bush tracks to the mills, often in bitter winter rains and winds. Times were hard financially; the sons took on any available work.
George became good friends with a neighbour, Hubert de Castella, whose land bordered his. The latter wrote the story of the Brooke family's fortunes in his book "John Bull's Vineyard" published in 1886 ( chapters XXIV and XXV).
My grandfather, Albert, became involved in the construction of bridges and tramlines in the bush around Warburton and Gembrook and in the trestle bridges across the Yarra Flats near Yarra Glen.
My father , Albert Percy, carried on tradition as carpenter/joiner during his long life, never happier than working or walking in the bush he loved. The Yarra will always remind me of the hard lives and relentless toil of those pioneers of the Valley.
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