Some Layouts

I haven't shared any of my layouts for months. I did this one of Leah at the Florewen Scrapbook Retreat. Leah on Lorne beach when Dad was visiting last month.

I taught this layout at the retreat. Kady and Dylan at Bells Beach last October.

Another I finished at the retreat. Leah doing cartwheels down Lorne pier with my Dad encouraging her.

This would have to be my favourite childhood pic ever. My Dad kissing me. My Nan looking in from behind. My Uncle Mick scanned this photo and sent it too me after my Nan passed away earlier this year. It was out of one of her albums. The journaling is about my memory of Dad's psychedelic shirts when I was little. I used to get the hand me downs for art smocks at school lol. My Dad was a pretty trendy guy.

Kady and some friends. Leah took this photo of the three of them when they were visiting a friends and I was working. A scrappers daughter lol Lots of yummy Heidi Grace papers and Cloud 9 rubons.

A layout about all the clothing labels Kady loves at thirteen.

We visited this playground in January. I still have to journal. It was the BEST playground we have ever been too.

The following layouts are for my local history album. Not the best pics of the layouts. My camera was dying, so the colours are really off.

Journaling reads

The “half church” was dedicated in August 1877 in its present shape to allow for possible future expansion. The “half church” is an Anglican church.

A note in an early diary says, “went to church, preacher was Mr Scott”. Mr Scott was a lay reader with the Church of England at Bacchus Marsh but became more well known as “Captain Moonlite”, one of Victoria’s most notorious bushrangers.

He was active in the district in the 1870s and was finally arrested in New South Wales. La Cote Homestead, which was located in La Cote Road, was owned by Mr Shuter, a stipendiary magistrate, before whom Captain Moonlite appeared. Scott was eventually hanged in 1879.

As the goldfields lost their importance, residents abandoned the area and the Greendale Church, which was to have accommodated 200 worshippers, was never completed. Photo taken May 2007

Journaling reads

White settlers, as they moved into the Ballan area in 1838, encountered timbered country with little scrub. There was a great variety of native flora and fauna including large “boomer” kangaroos and kangaroo rats, which disappeared in the 1850s.

Bandicoots and two species of native cat were also plentiful up to the 1870s when they too vanished with the pressure of human habitation, disease and hunting. Dingoes were originally so common in the area that T. H. Pyke, an early Ballan settler who gave his name to Pykes Creek, hunted them far and wide with a pack of foxhounds he kept for that purpose. Birds such as the curlew, the wild pigeon and many parrot species have also gone.

An early pioneer described the country as “ … a very pretty part of Victoria”, with plentiful stands of wattle and wild cherry. “Wild flowers … were in great abundance and variety and they made the surface of the country resemble a gaudy carpet. They were of every imaginable variety of colour …”. This was in the time when stock was scarce and people scarcer still.

The first aboriginal tribes encountered by the Ballan settlers were the Kutung, the Wathourung, the Wurunjeri, the Jaara and the Ngurelban. These people were fairly numerous and there were inevitable clashes between them and the white arrivals. There were many eyewitness accounts of corroborees and tribal fights in the area during the early settlement. As more whites came to the district, stories of clashes between the two races became more commonplace.

The first white person to settle in Ballan, Robert von Steiglitz, typified the settler philosophy in his journal: “… it may be questioned by some feather-bed philanthropist whether we had the right to take the country from the blacks but I believe the general rule is that if people cultivate or graze the land they have a claim to it. These creatures did neither …”.

Many names in the area are derived from the Aboriginal place names: Bunjeeltap, Myrniong and Berembroke are examples. Cutumnimnip was the Aboriginal name for the creek which flowed through the centre of what was to become the property taken up in 1839 by Sir John Lewes Pedder, formerly the Chief Justice of Van Deimen’s Land. Pedder owned it until 1855 when it was sold to Mr Thomas Hamilton who named it “Glen Pedder”. The land on which Greendale now stands was originally part of this run.

Greendale’s early settlement history was closely bound up with that of Ballan and Blackwood. The area was considered a handy halfway place between the two townships and was surveyed by Nixon shortly after the discovery of gold at Blackwood in the 1850s. He named it Greendale as it was “ … a beautiful hollow bounded by green hills with Dales Creek in the centre”. Dales Creek had earlier been named after Mr H. F. Dale, a manager of Glen Pedder.

The first to settle in Greendale was John Drury, who built and ran a coffee shop at the foot of Long Gully. A government Gazette of 1859 announced the sale of land at Greendale with town lots at £8.0.0 per acre and suburban lots at £3.0.0 per acre. During the gold rush days the settlements of Greendale and Blackwood almost met. Greendale was proclaimed a township in 1861 and supported a post office and at least two hotels, one of which, the Medway, survives today as the Greendale Hotel. The Greendale School was opened in 1869, and in 1870 had 61 children enrolled, although the average attendance was only 22 pupils.

As the goldfields lost their importance, residents abandoned the area. . The 1888 Municipal Directory of Ballan Shire shows that Greendale consisted of 87 people, one hotel, one school and one place of worship. For most of the twentieth century Greendale was a quiet rural area, with farming as the mainstay of the local economy. The school was closed in 1954, after which it became a state school camp.

Since the early 1970s residential subdivisions have opened up at Wombat Forest, Dales Creek, Long Gully and Hastings Road. The population has grown and diversified as people once more build homes around the beautiful green hollow of the Dales Creek.

This photo was taken after some much needed rain. For a long time the hills surrounding Greendale where dry and brown. After the rain the lush green grass returned. Such a pretty sight. On the right of the picture there is a road in the shape of a love heart. Locals know it as Love heart Lane. Leah’s friend ###### lives at the house on the top of the hill. The hill in the background is Mt Blackwood. The houses in the back of the photo are part of the Hastings Road subdivision.

Information on the history of Greendale taken from the Greendale Community Website.Photo taken May 2007

Journaling reads

During the mid 1800’s the area surrounding and including the present township of Blackwood was then known as Mt Blackwood.

Mount Blackwood is a prominent mountain about 9 miles south south east of Blackwood and was the highest volcano in the area with a summit elevation of 736 metres. Mount Blackwood is a prominent scoria dome built on lava flows extending 8 km to the south. The flows are narrow and elongated and followed an upland valley thus covering stream gravels. Korkuperrimal Creek and Myrniong Creek have excavated lateral valleys leaving the lava flows as an elevated ridge.

John Batman, originally named Mount Blackwood, Mount Solomon in 1835, after a friend of his who shared in the partition of the land bought by him from the natives. By 1838 it was changed to Clark’s Big Hill, after Mr Kenneth Clark, who was the first settler in the Bacchus Marsh valley in 1836. It was later named Mount Blackwood, after a Captain Blackwood, Commander of the ‘Fly” from 1843 to 1845.

Today Mount Blackwood is privately owned bare grazing land, which has a communications tower on the summit. Photo taken May 2007

Dylans first bed. I used the Fiskars Bling Squeeze punch

Ok that's all for now. Good on you if you read this far.

Another few for the childhood album

Journaling reads

Playing in the cubby house-collecting milk from the cheese factory every morning-exploring the hill behind our house-playing along the railway line and sliding down the banks-trips to the tip with Dad on the weekends-going to church every second Sunday on my own and sometimes with Tony-sharing a birthday party with Tony even though our birthdays are six months apart-walking to school along the grass track-helping Dad during school holidays at work-green frogs in the toilet and on the back step-sharing bath water, cleanest first to dirtiest last-family games of monopoly on Saturday nights-jumping on the trampoline-chicks and ducklings, chooks, ducks, bantams and more-playing with Kay Bradfords button collection and hanging out at their house-weeding the vegetable garden-picking up rocks from the vegetable garden paddock-walking around the block with my dolls pram-watching Mrs. Lovell make sugar flowers for her cake decorating-visiting Bernoth’s farm and eating Sao’s with tomato and cheese for afternoon tea-playing at the Bretherton’s whilst Mum went to Bingo-the stamp and coin shop with Dad whilst Mum was at Bingo-rubiks cubes-thongs in summer-Donna being born-riding the Shetland ponies at the James-my first album, Grease-Sunday picnics-Honey our Labrador-softball and netball on the weekends-15 cents to spend on the school holidays each morning at Huggin’s shop, I always bought chicken Twisties and some lollies-Some Girls by Racey and Video Killed The Radio Star-never ending Broad Beans and sprouts from the vegetable garden-Sunday roasts-taking the lids of the trapdoor spider holes at school-watching Sha Na Na on TV during the holidays-sleepovers at Amanda Shepherds-helping Mum and Dad on the weekends around the garden-my purple painted bedroom-playing with Nathan, Shannan and Hayley-playing on the swings-listening to music coming from the hall over the back on a Saturday night-collecting the pin ups from TV Week-the smell of Mum baking on a Saturday morning-first school camp to Leslie Dam-my pen pal Anne in Norway-How Now Brown Cow-Dad’s old camera-reading-sharing a bedroom with Donna-outdoor laundry-Dad’s sheds-Krause family over the back-cattle trucks and semi’s-Some memories of living at Iona on the Gore Highway-Photo of Tony and I taken approx 1979/1980-journaling January 2007.

This is a layout about Tony's Christening.

Some Layouts To Share

My first Christmas. Not the best photo but the only one I have. No traditional Christmas colours on this one. We were living in Upper Lewis Road, Brighton. I can see Nanny's leg in the background, the fire place and the carpet. Surrounded by presents and wrapping paper.

A couple of layouts I did last month for Karen's Kupborad.

Layouts to Share

My little brother Tony in 1980. Lovely patterned papers from Tamar at Tarisota. Thanks.

Journaling reads

Looking at this photo of this cute kid (my brother Tony) you could be tricked into thinking he was so sweet. We had the normal brother/sister relationship as kids and most of the time we got on quite well. Let me tell you though, this boy could tease and taunt me no end. Tony had a knack of being able to find every known word that rhymed with my name and loved to call me by every one. I think his favourite was ‘Dawn the prawn who ate a cob of corn’. Harmless you might think and looking back it really was but it used to drive me nuts. Mum would tell me to ignore him. Easier said than done. Another favourite way of annoying me was to repeat every single thing I said for days on end. I would end up complaining to Mum and Mum would once again tell me to ignore him. Tony would then start repeating everything Mum would say. He was very annoying and frustrating.

All in all though we did have a good relationship and we would stand up for each other without hesitation. We shared many secrets (mmm does a clothing bin ring any bells) in our teen years and Tony was always by my side when I needed him (when I was being teased for being a Pom and punching Bradley Blinco or telling boys to leave me alone when we were older). We used to spend hours together as little kids swimming in the pool, playing in the cubby, going for bike rides and playing with his Lego (our favourite was to play, Enid Blytons, Galliano’s Circus and build caravans) and Tonka trucks or playing cars in the dirt under the house. I can recall one Easter when we were living in Toowoomba, Tony was nice enough to lend me once of his trucks for Easter Bunny to leave our eggs in. He used his big yellow Tonka and I had his green tractor with a trailer.

As we have grown older and now have children of our own we still have a good relationship even though we now live 2000kms away from each other. When we see each other we enjoy each other’s company and share a lot of common interests such as camping, country music and country living. Tony still has that special knack of teasing, bear hugging or picking me up off the ground, but these days I realize it’s because he loves his big sister. Although he is and always will be my little brother, I now look up to him, as he is much taller than me. I miss that we don’t live closer to each other, as I love spending time with him. Photo taken Lone Pine Koala Santuary approx 1980, Journaling December 2006.

A layout for the holiday album last year when we went to Dreamworld with all the English relo's.

Photos of the girls enjoying the new pool. Even though they froze.

Kady's graduation outfit.

Kady's graduation pages. I included a cd with the songs they played on a slideshow to remember the year. Behind the group photo is a black and white copy of the photo with a number on each child and a list of who's who underneath. I have also added a copy of her speed to the layout.

Water Baby

Journaling reads

Living in Kingsthorpe we were lucky enough to have an above ground pool in our back yard. On two sides of the pool there was a wooden fence. Climbers and a beautiful passionfruit vine grew over the fence. On the other side of the pool was a bbq area. The pool had a wooden diving board. Dad used to dive into the pool and grab our legs under water.

Tony and I would spend hours playing in the pool and sometimes Mum would put Donna in with us. Tony and I used to throw her to each other and teach her to swim under water. Mum used to freak out on the edge of the pool yelling at us to stop. Donna used to laugh and laugh and want more. Donna had no other choice other than to become a little water baby.

The Acre, Kingsthorpe, 1980.

Some Childhood Layouts

A quick few layouts today to add to my childhood album. This photos lists all the things I can see in this photo. Wouldn't mean much to most people but thought it would be fun to write down the journaling with a different approach.

Journaling reads:

-I see my two childhood friends, Madonna Blinco and Nikki Gessner. We spent hours swinging on the swing set, jumping on the trampoline and pushing our dolls in their prams around the neighbourhood.
-I see our old swing set in our garden
-I see a large silver shed in the background. This was the shed that Dad ran his own business (Southbrook Engineering) from for a few years. Tony and I helped Dad every holidays in the workshop and also went away to help him build safety cages and other items for Inghams Poultry and other places
-I see our neighbours, Lee and Tic James’ house where I spent many a happy time playing with their daughters, Shannan and Hayley and riding their Shetland ponies
-I see the red shed that housed the James’s ponies in at the back of their yard
-I see that I have had a bath and I am wearing my red baby doll pajamas. I wore these constantly as they were my favourites
-I see happy tanned smiling faces
-I see that is must have been another hot dry summer as the grass is all brown
-I see the large leafy tree that grew behind the old post office building and across the road from the shop run by the Huggins family

photo taken Iona, Southbrook, approx 1978


A layout about some of our neighbours when we lived in Kingsthorpe. FONT>

Journaling reads:

When we lived in Queens Street, Kingsthorpe we were lucky to have some wonderful neighbours. We were surrounded with lots of kids around our age group so there was always someone to play with. Behind our house lived the Chamberlins, to the left lived Feichtners, to the right (and over the road) lived Johnson’s and a few streets away lived the Drew’s, Shane Morris, the Smiths (who ran the local shop for a bit) and the Simon’s family who lived down the dirt road towards Gowrie Junction. Tony, Donna and I spent many sunny afternoons playing with Tanya, Nadine and Sharelle Chamberlin. We would spend hours in each others pool, feeding their lamb, feeding our chooks or patting my horse (Pee Wee) and Tony’s calf (Daisy) and digging holes in the back paddock to China. All the neighbourhood kids would spend the day riding our bikes toward Gowrie Junction and Oakey. We would take our lunch for a picnic on the way and always be home in time for tea (even though we didn’t have a watch). We would play in the deserted house on the hill (until we nearly burnt it down with candles), we formed clubs, we would walk down to the Gowrie creek, or go bush walking up the hill behind Leahy’s farm (and take care not to get zapped by their electric fence). We went for trips to the tip in the back of Dad’s Ute to see what treasures we could find, and spent wonderful afternoons using Cath’s circular driveway as a racing track for our bikes after school. Photos taken by Dawn approx 1983