Mirboo North Farm

Tony Hyde and I had agreed that we would run a little farm together and that Gippsland would be a nice area so I set out to find something.

An ad was found from the Age newspaper and having got directions off I went. It was the first Tuesday in November, the day of the Melbourne Cup. The day was quite mild though some rain was likely.

There were two lots each of 100 acres. One had some forest and access was down a pretty rough road. I looked around the place and thought that this would do. It was pretty run down with a lot of bracken and quite a few steers were roaming about. These belonged to the owner of the property, a Mr Moon.  A huge dam was in the middle of the property and the new 100 acre boundary was to run through the middle of it.

It started to rain so I got in the car and headed up the track (road). This was a dirt track. What I did not know was that when this kind of earth gets wet it is very slippery. I made many attempts to drive up the hill with no success at all. The Melbourne cup was run in torrential rain. The jockeys could not see the horse in front. I was listening to the cup on the radio as I made numerous attempts to get up the hill. But no good, I just skidded to the side of the road on every attempt. I had to give up.  Now what?

There was a house at the top of the track. I got out of the car and trudged up the hill collecting vast quantities of Gippsland soil on my shoes. And I got wet.

There was someone at home. What luck!  Would I like a cup of tea. You bet I would like a cup of tea. And a tractor please to pull me up the hill. The lady of the house has no tractor. A phone call to the local farm provided a tractor and an hour later I was pulled up the hill.

Tony and I bought the farm(let) and I bought a winch as I thought that I might need it to get out of the property. We bought a little Fergie tractor too, and that was much better option.

This tractor was originally "Fergie Grey" but I got at it with some red paint. Barry on the tractor and Tony making sure all is in order.

Here's the car that could not get up that track. The car is well on the property. The faithfull Soot keeping a good watch out

Lovely property.

Early Days