Growing up on Mt Hobson – 11 Mt Hobson Lane

My Mother rented it from the council at the time after leaving an unfortunate situation. She was so thrilled to be offered a home for her children beside nature, for us to enjoy – having been a farm girl. She worked for local catholic priests, at home she baked, developed the most amazing gardens and offered our extra produce to passing neighbours, she loved to chat to passing walkers going up the mountain and lit the fire in the home daily. My childhood was spent picking the wild mushrooms, playing with the cattle, having adventures in the labyrinth of underground tunnels (before they were locked) and making huts in the trees etc. She is now 99yrs old!

We certainly had many adventures.  The cattle grazing on Mt Hobson often became our ‘pets’, one, ‘Custard’ due to her colour, would follow me over the mountain as I cut through that way to school and was often waiting for me on my return (probably due to the apples I fed her). I begged Mum to buy her for me and was so silently heartbroken when I got a bike for my birthday instead. I knew how mum had scrimped and saved to buy me this special gift, so I was confused. Years later when we talked about it, she told me she had tried so hard to buy Custard but the farmer leasing them said the older cattle were prohibited to stay on the mountain – due to causing erosion? We were allowed to stay up at night and help the farmer when sometimes the cows were birthing their calves. I also had bantam chickens and refused to eat the eggs, unless they were in baking so that I didn’t recognise them.  We would shell peas, pick silverbeet and peel potatoes from the garden to prepare for dinner and had rhubarb and apple crumble often also from the garden. Good days! We used the mountain as our playground, sliding down on cardboard into puddles after the rain, climbing trees and loving the daffodils that appeared on the other side every spring!