In
1916 Mrs Pearce, the richest lady in Lindisfarne, bought the first
motor-car in the village and added driving to the duties of her
long-suffering lady companion. It was obviously a far more convenient
mode of transport than saddling up Ranger or Gunner, or taking
Mother's pony and trap, and there might have been a touch of rivalry
involved, too. At any rate, the Lane family began to consider buying
a brand new Ford Tourer. Costing more than £200.00, a motor-car was
an expensive investment so it had to be a family decision. They sat
on the verandah talking it over, and finally settled the matter in
their own inimitable manner - “If someone walks along the track in
the next ten minutes, we'll buy one.” Somebody did. A car would be
bought.
The
family consisted of Mr Benjamin Lane, his wife Marion, generally
known as Fanny, and their twelve children, but they were not all
there at The
Turning
in 1919 when
this conversation was taking place. Six* of the boys had gone off to the Great War; Fred and Bern would not
come home. Their father, formerly a process photographer and designer
at The Mercury,
was retired and amused himself inventing various contraptions, looking after his chooks and pottering about doing odd jobs. Bess,
the oldest, and now a senior school-teacher in her mid-forties, was the main money-earner in the family. Doll earned a little
pocket-money selling stories and poems to The
Bulletin, Lone Hand and other publications and kept the house spotlessly clean. Ada had
done all the cooking for the family since she was twelve years old,
and Ruth, who had not long left school, had a small income as a music
teacher. Hal and young John, in his mid-teens, cared for the
livestock, cut wood, and generally did the “men's work” around
the property.
Bert
came home from the Great War in 1918, just in time for Christmas. The
family decorated the dining room specially, and Father was so
impressed he took photographs.
Bert
had been severely wounded on the Somme and now walked with
difficulty. This had been the most important factor in the family's
decision to buy a car.
Once
the decision was made, another problem presented itself. “The
track” visible from the verandah was an old wood-carters' track
from the end of Karoola Crescent over the hill to Flagstaff Gully. It
was fairly rough, but good enough for the pedestrians and horses that
used it. There was another track through the middle of The
Turning
paddocks, past several old sandstone and gravel quarries, that came
out onto Bellerive Rd (now Gordons Hill Rd) where it takes a sharp
right-hand bend at the top of the hill. Both these routes included a
steep uphill climb. The one the family used most led down to the
railway siding at the end of Flagstaff Gully where Bess caught the train to Bellerive every morning. There was a stretch of
deep sand where the trap sometimes bogged, requiring Dawn to be taken
out of the shafts and a deal of digging and heaving and shoving to
get free, but it had a much gentler slope. They decided to make this
their main driveway.
There
was a minor obstacle – the Humpy, built as temporary accommodation
while The
Turning was
under construction and now used as a workshop, was in the way.
Nothing daunted, the boys attached ropes and
pulleys to convenient trees, lifted the little building up
and replaced it on a makeshift, loose dry-stone foundation out of the path
of progress. They probably intended to get some better foundations
under it eventually, but they added a fireplace and chimney using
bricks and stone so that it was at least usable. About forty years
later that chimney, now crumbling and fallen, was removed and the
opening closed by a new door. The Humpy is still standing on its
temporary foundations.
Bert
hired three men from South Arm to help break rocks, and between them
they built a good, solid cobbled roadway. By November
1919 it was complete, with a neat green gate at the bottom and a
brand new garage at the top.
Denis,
who had married in England, arrived back in Lindisfarne with his new
wife and their infant son just before the road was finished.
Sadly, we don't know exactly when the car was purchased, but it's nice to think that when Norm, who “caught the first troopship out and the last one home” managed to get back in time to celebrate Christmas 1919 he was driven home from the Bellerive ferry in style up the New
Motor Road.
Denis
and Eva bought a house in Malunna Road.
In
1922 Norm married Mrs Pearce's widowed daughter and went to live in
Lowelly Road.
Bert
resumed his public service job in the Audit Department in 1920, and
became engaged to Grace Denholm. He built a house for them further
along the hill towards the quarry, and they married in 1922, a month
or so after Norm and Linda. He built a new driveway to connect with
the Motor Road, but it was not nearly as elaborate, being little more
than a cleared track. They called their new house The
Ridge
John
married Lorraine Gorringe and went to work in country branches of the
Commonwealth Bank.
Although
Doll learned to drive in the Top Paddock, Hal and his sisters
generally continued to walk everywhere, with Bert driving them occasionally if required.
o0o
In
1930 Fred Murfett bought Mr Rossington's little orchard next door to The Turning.
He got on well with the Lane family, and they gave him permission to use the Motor Road, as had Mr Rossington. However, Fred was a hard-working, business-like man who enlarged his planting and was soon harvesting substantial crops of pears. The days of horse-drawn vehicles were coming to an end, and suddenly there were heavily-laden motor lorries rumbling past The Turning, damaging the road and disrupting the peace. Father explained to Fred that this would have to stop. Fred approached the Clarence Council, and was provided with three road-workers. They cleared and built up the old wood-carters track to Flagstaff Gully down the boundary between his orchard and The Turning, and Fred built a packing shed half way down the hill. Much to their chagrin, the Council has found itself having to maintain Fred's driveway ever since.
After the Second World War, with a new bridge across the Derwent River, it became inconvenient having the main entrance onto Flagstaff Gully. Modern motor vehicles had no problems with steep hills. Bert's son Geoff built a new road down to Bellerive Road, which became the common entrance for both The Turning and The Ridge. The Old Motor Road remained in use until the 1950s, when Bert and Denis subdivided the land along Flagstaff Gully Road as building blocks. Somebody put a house where the Green Gate formerly stood.
About 1930 Bert bought a second-hand Chevrolet tourer. The garage was removed from The Turning to The Ridge,
and later extended to make a workshop. It was demolished in the early 21st
century to make way for a tennis court. The old Ford was left rusting away in the paddock below The Ridge where its remains were still to be seen in the 1950's.
Bert and the Motor Road 1919 |
* Those
of you who are paying attention will notice I have accounted for
only five boys. Alf, the oldest son, returned to his wife's family
in Melbourne, then went to Hong Kong as one of the partners in a
civil engineering company. He never came back to Tasmania.