Wednesday, June 11th ....

Tasmanians are very proud of Joseph Lyons who was Premier of Tasmania in the 1920s and went on to become Prime Minister of Australia. His wife, who became Dame Enid was the first woman in Federal Parliament and the first female Minister. They lived in their early years in Devonport at a house called Home Hill, which is now part of the National Trust. It seems there is also a connection with Deloraine. 

Recently, a woman in Grigg Street was pulling out her mantelpiece to have a new heater installed, and found a letter which had clearly fallen down the back. It turned out to be a love letter from Joseph, so the local historians scurried around to fill in the background. 

In Joseph's early days in state politics, when Parliament was sitting, he would walk from his house in Devonport to catch the 8.30am train to Hobart. The journey took about 8 hours so someone suggested he move to Deloraine which was still in his electorate but would cut 2 hours from the long trip. They set up house in Grigg Street.

One of our Rotary members brought along a copy of Enid Lyons's memoirs to the meeting last night and shared a couple of stories. Grand-dad lived with them and spent his time in his vegetable garden. One year, he planted 60 cabbages all of which came to maturity at the same time. Manfully, the family got through ten cabbages and gave away ten more but still had forty in the garden. Perhaps it was a good thing that they contracted cabbage blight and were inedible but, unfortunately, cabbage blight causes a terrible smell so the reek of forty smelly cabbages permeated the town.

They had to be got rid of. They wouldn't burn, so poor grand-dad had to dig a hole in the rocky Deloraine soil to bury the monsters. 

The other story is more poignant. One day an old fellow knocked on the door to ask for Joe's help. He had been refused the old-age pension as he couldn't prove he was over 70. The only clue he had to the date of his birth was a story his mother had told him. His mother and father were both convicts at Port Arthur. He was born in the prison there and, on the day he was born, his father had received a number of lashes with the cat o' nine tails. Could Joe look up the punishment records to see when it was?

This visit from the old man would have occurred in the 1920s and his birth would have been in the 1850s. Not that long ago.