Tales of courageous settlers carving their homes out of scrub, murders in a mysterious enclosed valley, and ship-wrecks on the high seas, make this collection of stories about Old Gippsland absorbing reading. Existing in wretched living conditions, the settlers built homes for their families. Many are remembered for their determination, such as one man who had to remove seventy two large trees just to make a clearing for his house, and Martha Jane King who turned 6000 hectares of virgin bush into the magnificent Bunguyan Station. It is said that when she arrived in Australia she sat on a log and cried. She was in a new country, a desolate and primitive land, with young children and no husband, for he had died on the journey. But her determination proved for her family in the rough ready days of the 1840s. Other pioneers are remembered for their bravery and initiative, like the Reverend F. A. Hagenauer who set up the Ramahyuck Mission for Aborigines on Lake Wellington.Working under harsh conditions, this humane and benevolent man won the confidence of the Aborigines and eventually the mission boasted a bakery, a butcher's shop, a small hospital, a school, a library, a church, eleven houses for Aborigines, and a large storehouse.
John Wells has lived in Gippsland all his life and has grown to love the beautiful country. In this book he has brought alive the colorful characters and historic towns and has captured the mood of the rugged country. JOHN CARLYLE WELLS was born at The Gurdies near Grantville in South Gippsland, Victoria, in 1945 and educated at Drouin High School. He later studied at the Frankston and Melbourne State Colleges, and gained his B.A. and B.Ed. at the Gippsland Institute of Advanced Education, Churchill.
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