Bob Wyatt

L for Lottah

Miss W. Somers, Wyatt , , , ,

Lottah is a town in north east Tasmania. Nowadays it is virtually just a couple of houses at a cross roads. In the 2016 census, the population was 13.

 

Lottah in 1981

Originally it was known as Blue Tier Junction in the late 1870’s. The town was developed around a tin mine which was discovered in 1875. At the peak of the Anchor tin mine operation, there were several hundred people living around Lottah. The town included a school, two hotels, two churches, a bakery and a football club. Many residents were part of a Chinese community. The Anchor Mine closed in 1950.

The ABC put together a fantastic report about the town including lots of images.

How does Lottah relate to my family?

My great grandmother Nellie Somers/Summers/Clark(e) was born at Georges Bay in 1889 – now called St Helens. Her father, Thomas Somers, was supposedly a miner in the Gould Country area which includes Lottah.

But as well as the ancestral link, my father often went to St Helens on holidays as a child. He then took my brother and I there as well. We would often go bush bashing through the scrub looking for stampers of mines and water races. This was usually up in the Gould Country/Blue Tier area.

Closer view of stampers
How the stamp battery works

 

J for Judbury

Miss W. General info , , , , ,

IMG_1981.JPG

Judbury is a rural area in the Huon Valley which is south west of Hobart in Tasmania. It was originally called Judds Creek in 1855 named after the earliest settler there John Cane Judd.

If visiting Hobart on the second Sunday of the month, then a great drive down to Judbury for their market is well worth the time. Great food over the lunch time as well as local products. It is held at Calvert Park which is the Judbury Recreation Ground.

My parents enjoyed bike riding and one of their favourite places to go with the Hobart Walking Club bike riders was down around the Huon Valley area especially Ranelagh to Judbury. In the photo above, mum wasn’t well enough to cycle so I drove her in the car while dad joined their friends. We met them at Judbury for lunch.

Diaries and letters

Miss W. #52ancestors, Davey, Smith, Wyatt , , , , , , ,
OpenClipart-Vectors / Pixabay

In my family, my mother’s side were the letter writers, while dad must have got his love of diaries from his birth mother.

The earliest letter I’ve found is a postcard with a photo of my maternal grandmother on the front and on the back she sent a short message to her future husband. This would have been in the early 1920’s as they married in 1922.

My mother and her sister always kept in touch with their cousins via letters. They lived in Hobart in southern Tasmania, but many of the relatives lived around Evandale and Longford in northern Tasmania.

Dad’s birth mother, Irene, wrote a diary about her trip on horseback along the track to Adamsfield to visit Ernie Bond in his home in the Rasselas Valley. It was while working at Heathorns Hotel that Irene met Ernie. Dad kept the diary and it is now in my possession.

Whenever mum and dad went off on a holiday together they would keep a diary. Then when they got home, dad would put together a folder of their holiday for them to remember what they did and where.

In 1965, our family and my mum’s sister’s family (8 of us) went on holiday together around Australia for three months. Dad kept a diary of this trip and whenever I have visited places mentioned in the diary, he would send me a photo of that page so I could compare what we saw 60 years ago on that long trip.

When mum passed away in September 2021, dad used his diary to write about what happened each day. There were always special mentions on mum’s birthday but also on their wedding anniversary date of 8 September.

On 8 September 2024, dad wrote the following:

Phyl and Bob’s Wedding 70

Today will be a day of wonderful memories

of our life time together.  A perfect marriage and

two children, two grandchildren and one great grandchild.

Hymn: O Perfect Love

On 9 September, dad mentioned he was having trouble breathing, worse than normal, but decided he would go to bed early rather than get some medical help. He was 91 years old. The next day I found dad had passed away after he didn’t reply to any of my messages that morning.

Today we scattered mum and dad’s ashes down in the Hartz Mountains area as per their wishes in their wills, their final letter to us.

Readers: Who were the letter or diary writers in your family?