ANZAC March

The township of Whittlesea is quite unique when it comes to remembering our fallen military service men and women. It seems that just about the whole town is present on ANZAC Day in the afternoon to support the RSL Sub-branch march through the town. These pictures can't really do the size and scale justice. Peter marched with his school. There were many other schools represented, plus cadet groups, scouts, the CFA, an army band and a large group of ex-service men and women. The interest has grown over these recent years to what it is today.

Whittlesea Paddle Boats

Peter prepared 20 paddleboat kits for this week's Woodcraft Club at Whittlesea. There were not too many pieces so they were easily made. The tricky part was threading the rubber band through the holes both sides for the paddle assembly. Peter had to do a fair bit of helping with that. The paddles can be would back at least thirty times and then let go in the bath tub for a paddleboat 'launch'.

Funky Sunday

It was super to get to Gembrook again to spend time with this precious family. Barb brought along a paints and mini-canvasses. Most of us had a go at making a picture or two. We later played back yard volleyball (no pictures of that), and did some trampoline-ing. Some of us went on a 4 Km walk to a swimming hole and back. A few of us swung out over the water on the rope swing. Peter realised later on that had he slipped off or the rope broke, that would have been the end of his phone. Our day was nicely concluded with a very large red sun seting behind the hills. We had to stop the car to catch what was left of it.

Whittlesea Towers

Some times just a whole load of blocks is enough to inspire kids at Woodcraft Club at Whittlesea. At least 400 were docked for the event to be assembled on a sheet of card like Lego blocks only with glue to keep them together. There were lots of other sizes and shapes available so there was plenty of variety.

Sandy Point and Wakerville

We had an overnight stay with our friends at Sandy Point again, just one night. Time was too tight for more though it would have been nice. We experienced the tail end of our summer with both days unusually warm so it was a perfect visit. From the wide flat (vehicle hard) beach at Sandy Point, we could see Wilson's Promentory on the distant horizon (centre of the above picture). Looking in the other direction, we could see the rocky outcrop of Wakerville where the early settlers used to produce lime for shipment from the jetty that used to be there. We went there also and even visited the cave again. The tide was too high to go right through it and out the other side but it was fun to go as far as practicable.

Family Names

It is worth stating that our children have the DNA of a host of ancient families and we only have a short list gathered out of the 19th and 20th centuries. Imagine the variety if we were able to venture further back. This is as far back as we have got and probably that’s good enough for our purposes. The family names we have recorded are: Ackland, Cook, Maunder, Learmouth, McClure, Warne, Evens, Godfrey, Vance, Baldwin, Johnson, Carpenter, Thomson, Kendal, McLean, Baker, Henn, Woodford, Timms, Holdman, Turner, Francis, Gordon, Webster, Gullett, Keats, Beard, Mallows, Thomas, Bird, Taylor, Rossiter, Stein, Schefe, Hobson and Fuery.