Historical Homes
- Annie
- Sep 13, 2018
- 3 min read
Our lives are somehow fashioned by the homes and places where we live and some instances a home, a place, a city or even a country can control your destiny. In Australia we are so fortunate that we live n a peaceful country. For my polish mother-in-law, her beloved country was invaded, her family destroyed and all that remained of her home in Panska Street, Warsaw in 1939 and when she returned many years after was the basement. Today, 107 Panska Street is still only a basement - the building was bombed and basically nothing remains. Her father from Panska Street and his two sisters with their families living in Plocka Street, Warsaw simply disappeared during the second week of the Warsaw Uprising. My mother-in-law still remembered visiting her grandmother in Gneizno, Poland for school holidays and the orchard in the backyard. We were able to visit both Warsaw and Gneizno to see the places that my mother-in-law had talked about so fondly her whole life. This also gave us wonderful links to her past and my husbands family history.
Childhood memories can be tethered tightly with the family home. I grew up in 204 Carthage Street, East Tamworth and remember the cream weatherboard with the red roof - I think it was the only house with a painted red roof and it's high gables could be distinctly seen from West Tamworth. The tree under the kitchen window was a pink geraldton wax and it bloomed forever. Dad eventually removed the big pine trees seen in the photos below and planted over 60 rose bushes which were always surrounded with pansies and violas and oftentimes stocks and primulas. I remember in later years the gardening competition and Dad with our two neighbours would win the best footpath gardens in the town. The home has completely changed with a wonderful contemporary feel through renovation and extension and the owners even saved some of Dad's old roses. Gone are the days when we had the toilet and the large chook pen up the back yard with fresh eggs every week, the old stone sinks, a copper to boil the washing and the preserved fruits and jams. All of the old fruit trees are gone and I suppose with them a faint yearning for a past filled with the smells of ripe strawberries, plums and apricots and even the sour nectarines which never seemed to ripen. The shop strawberries just don't taste the same.
I have wonderful memories of my Aunt and Uncles property in Boggabri, "Braemar" still controlled by the same family - new generations working and loving the heritage that they have been given. Sadly, "Bellvue" which had been in my Dad's family since the early 1900's was sold but I remember the many stories of how when the big floods came they would all have to sit on the roof. I have included pictures of "Velyama" , Boggabri - the home of Blagden Chambers and his wife Dolly where my Mum met my Dad. I have also included a picture of the Warner homestead at Biddaba, Warner's Bay - an image engraved in my memory from early childhood together with an image of my my mother taking out the "precious photos" from her bedroom dressing table drawer and talking to me about the lives of our many treasured family members.
My granpa Harold Joseph John Williams with his wife Annie Williams nee Goodall lived at 22 Hurlstone Ave, Hurlstone Park on the Cooks River and for many years this home formed the family hub for their children, grand children and extended relatives. I will never forget the smell of the wonderful frangipanni Tree, the cooing of the pigeons, the smell of the roast and the incredible Yorkshire pudding. The beautiful garden established and cared for by my Aunt Lillah was always a wonder,. The horror remains of my dad with one arm driving down the narrow steep driveway that terrified me as a child and even into teenage years.
Picture left to right: Carthage Street, "Braemar", "Velyama side and front, Blagen Chambers and his wife Dolly of "Velyama", Hurlstone Park, "Biddaba" - Warners Bay, and "Bellevue".
Our homes form an integral part of our family history.
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