FROM WOLLERT TO CALLIGNEE SOUTH - DECEMBER 1931  (Ruth Pump)

A crafty Land Agent with one eye on the blue stone, told them of the farm which was for sale in the Strzelecki Ranges, where it was always green and which was going cheap, at £3 per acre, interest free for 3 years.   So desperate was Otto that he responded - packed his goods and chattels on to a lorry, spring cart and jinker. and, with his 3 horses and 11 year old son, Len, set out for those "Golden Hills" and a dream.

The route they took was by way of High Street (known then as Epping Road) to Bell Street, and then along to their first overnight stop at the orchard on Deep Creek Road (now George St) Doncaster, belonging to Mr. Pump's brother, Henry.  Henry Pump was older and somewhat wiser than Otto and perceived that the load was far too heavy for the journey on which they were embarking.  He took them on to the orchard of their sister, Christina (Pump) and Paul Aumann, at Heathmont, where the motor drag saw, mullboard plough, Fuller and Johnson petrol/kerosene engine, and some bags of sugar and flour were despatched from the Mitcham railway station for the Traralgon railway station.

After that delay they moved on along Springvale Road to Frank Pump's orchard, on Pumps Road, off Burwood Road (now Highway) Wantirna.  From there they followed the Police Paddock bush track to High Street Road, Wantirna, to Stud Road, where the hill was so steep that the little pony was unable to hold the load, and was pushed back down Police Hill, on her haunches, coming to rest when a wheel caught in a barbed wire fence thereby damaging Bonny's leg.  Otto dressed the wound and continued on with a lighter load for Bonny.

The travellers reached the Princes Highway, at Powers Road, Dandenong.  So that they would miss the steep hill at Berwick, they took the South Gippsland Road towards Cranbourne, then along Ballarto Road passing through Clyde, Cardinia, Bayles, and Catani rejoining the Princes Highway at Drouin.

The next problem cropped up after leaving Drouin, where the horses were unable to manipulate the load out of the Gum Scrub Gully.  All 3 horses were hitched to the lorry to haul the load to the top, then returned for the spring cart and jinker.   The same routine was used to overcome the Darnum Hills into Yarragon, the Haunted Hills east of Moe, and the Callignee Hills.

One of the highlights of the journey that remains very vividly in Len's memory, is that while they were stuck in the gully, Len suggested to his father that they could ask the baker, who was passing at the time, whether he could lend them a hand.   His frustrated father, quite irate at the very idea of asking anyone for help, replied, "What do you think he could do ?".

Camping arrangements and equipment were somewhat primitive.   The tarpaulin, made from jute bags sewn together, secured the load by day, then let down at night to form a tent under the lorry where, by the light of a hurricane lamp, Otto would write to his wife, Alice, of the events of the day.  What a pity those letters have been destroyed - they would have told us so much history today!  An old mattress was used for a bed.

Len reflects that it must have been Market Day when they passed through Warragul because and elderly farmer said to him, "Oooh, it must be cold up there." Although it was December, it was shockingly cold at Warragul and he only had on short pants.

In the Warragul-Trafalgar area different workmen along the way would ask them where they were going and hearing of their destination their comment would be, "Well, you have a long way to go."  To this, Otto would reply, "But not as far as we have come."

Very little traffic was about at that time, horse drawn vehicles being the chief mode of transport.  As the days passed, the railway engine crews came to know the travellers, and blew the whistle for them and threw out a paper as they passed.  They made camp at the Moe River where a farmer was hand milking.  Otto called in to see whether he could buy a cup of milk for their breakfast, and was charged 6d. (when milk was selling for 10½d. in the shops).

Acting on information in correspondence sent home to Wollert, Herbert Pump had ridden his motor cycle to Traralgon to arrange for fresh horses for the haul up the Callignee hills.   This rendezvous took place at the junction of Sunday and Balook roads where Herbert had arranged for a Callignee resident, Peter Von Darren, to have fresh horses for the haul up the continual steep grade to Callignee South.   Peter allowed them to rest a while at his home, fed them with fresh food and vegetables and arranged for them to leave the spring cart and jinker there to be collected at a later date.

By this time, the lorry wheels were showing the effects of fatigue and on one of the wheels, the fettle (sic.) was moving away from the steel tyre.  Peter's step-son, Din. Heany, told Len to walk beside the lorry and whack the fettle with the back of the axe each time it came around.  That final long hard haul up the hill was to be impregnated with the constant whacking into place of the fettle, together with Len's fear of the whole lorry tipping over the edge of the road into "Hell's Hole", because the road was so narrow, to where the Balook road met the way into "Old Pumps Hill" as it is known today.  The property is marked on the Traralgon may as "J.T. Collins" and adjoins John Draffin's selection on which the T.V. towers stand today.

Here they finally arrived after a journey of 14 days.  What they found on arrival would fill another episode, in fact, a book.  In January they returned to Wollert in the spring cart and jinker, taking 4 days on that journey.   The lorry was left on the farm for use there, and Len still has some pieces of it.   Then they had a trip of 24 days, walking the cows to their new home.  Mrs. Pump arrived in a motorize furniture van, on of the first type.  Its hire for the journey from Wollert to Callignee South cost £3.

The house was a 3 roomed paling splitter's hut with a thatched paling roof through which you could see the stars by night, and the snow and rain came through in the winter.  There was a lean-to for the bath, but no water supply - there was a spring across the road.  They had no "toilet".  The three dimensional painting by Red. MacCubbin, "The Trilogy", describes Mrs. Pump's attitude when she saw what they had been sold.