BACK in mid 2015 a lot of readers of the column were intrigued at the origin of a World War One Digger's diary found in a barn on the Webber family farm in Devon, in rural Britain.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The notebook belonged to one Lieutenant Fred Brown and his trail eventually led back to links with Meadow Flat. But there the trail went cold.
Until, Phil Landon, way up on Magnetic Island, was browsing the web and the old Mercury article caught his attention.
Phil's great great grandfather Laurence Durack was a transported Irish convict who owned the Crown Inn, a Cobb and Co changing station at Meadow Flat, around the mid 1800s.
As Phil tells the story the inn later became 'The Poplars', home to the Brown family.
And now the link.
Lieutenant Brown's ancestor, Elizabeth Brown (Phil guesses his grandmother) was born at Exeter in Devon and the guessing game is that Fred Brown visited relatives in Devon at war's end , perhaps on the old family farm at the time, and left behind the notebook to be found years decades later by Graham and Glynis Webber who sent it on to the Lithgow Library, prompting the Mercury search.
Lieutenant Brown, the boy from Meadow Flat, was awarded the Military Cross for bravery in action with the 18th Infantry Battalion in the killing fields of the Somme and survived to tell the tale. So there you have it; history is everywhere if you go looking for it.
(Phil's more recent family links, by the way, were in the Oconnell area).
Out of the ashes
THE nation looked on in horror at the decimation of helpless native wildlife in the horrendous firestorm that made world headlines.
But there are people with their hearts in the right place and a team of volunteer veterinarians and their helpers have been operating a mobile vet clinic at the State Mine Museum over the past week, bringing injured animals for free treatment in an operation coordinated by wildlife rescue organisation WIRES.
The museum people made spacious indoor facilities available for the project in heritage buildings usually seconded for social and community events.
Nice work by all concerned.
Military action
IT was a nice touch when a group of young soldiers from whatever the Marrangaroo Army Base is designated these days turned up unannounced to take part in the Australia Day Games at Rydal.
They secured bragging rights winning two of the three tug of war contests against a team of local likely lads but they wisely did not contest the billycart races.
Love local news?
Why not subscribe!
