This sort of an eulogy.. And I am sitting here lost as to what to say and keep it from boring everyone.
I was born and bred in Batlow. My grandfather was one of the pioneers of the fruit growing industry in Batlow. I still have his hand written diarys from when he arrived in the country, (Sydney) and how he traveled to Batlow and purchased land. He documented how he and many others cleared the bush, prepared the land and how he traveled to Melbourne to purchase the first apple trees. I am also very lucky to inherit faded photos of all this time. I had a relatively great upbringing living on the farm where all the family members lived and worked. (there were three daughters and their husbands (including my mother) living in their separate homes on the property). So I grew up during the time when Batlow apples were the be all and end all to the point where they were exported to all parts of the world.
Batlow was in it's hay day, the Forestry had it's regional head office in town along with a massive workshop. The SMA had it's northern office in town. My Grand father and some of the original growers started the Batlow Packing House which expanded into the Batlow cannery (Mountain Maid).. The railway had a line up the Gilmore Valley to ship the fruit and cannery produce direct to the Sydney markets. Things were good..No,,,, better then good. The cannery not only processed local fruit, but Peas, beans, and asparagus all trucked up from around Gundagai.. The cannery developed snap freezing, (Birds Eye) which changed the whole concept of fresh vegetables. Edgels, which I think owned the asparagus, and corn farms around Gundagai eventually bought Birds Eye and developed it to what it is today.
My mind is inundated with memories. I remember my grandfather installed the first flushing toilet septic system and I remember people from town visiting just to check it out. I remember buyers from the Sydney markets arriving and taking high tea on the verandah to discuss prices for fruit. I remember that we had our own apple grader and packing shed and made our own bushell boxes and loaded them straight on the train. We had 40 acres of cherries, supposedly the largest in the southern hemisphere.. (not real sure about that one though).
I remember that every second Saturday night, everyone that was anyone traveled into town to the movies complete with blankets cause it was friggin cold, and the town electricity was supplied by a local generator operated by a man Jackie Brown. It wasn't uncommon for the power to fail so everyone switched on their torches until Jackie got the power going again..
During the war years, before my time, my grandfather was the head of the Womens Land Army, and he built a large hostel on the property to house his workers. Later as I grew up, we still had Italians who remained from being internees and POW's living in the hostel.
But, now I'm starting to ramble, so I will get to the point... The decline of Batlow.
From before I can remember, the mountain ranges around Batlow were pine plantations. First, the forestry closed it's workshop. There was no more milling.. Big enterprise built mills down at Tumut. The local timber carters were over looked in favour of big time contractors. So Batlows only part of the forestry was a road through town, down the range to Tumut. Then the cannery did some sort of amalgamation with Leetona canned goods. Leetona went belly up and so did the local cannery. Then some time later the cannery burnt down. Then the Batlow Packing House (co-op) burnt down.. The railway stopped running trains, and in fact they pulled up the tracks. But the local growers built a new Cold store/packing house and things struggled on against a growing need for cheap imported fruit.
But time also was running out for the original pioneers who were ageing and like my Grandfather who developed cancer like so many others. Probably cause in those days, the orchids were sprayed with substances like Arsenet of Lead and other niceties like DDT.
Then the big game changer.. The fruit trees had come to the end of their fruit bearing life and needed to be grubbed out and replaced. For many, the costs were not viable against the market prices of imports. So the number of orchids decreased dramatically.. The younger generation left town to find employment.. A lot of properties were sold, but some bit the bullet and replanted. Which leads me to my point.
I have been following the NSW fire map(s).. (Go to their site and click on 'fires near you'. If the maps are correct, (and I think they are a little understated, but more about that shortly).
The map shows that the biggest farms have had the fire storm through them. Being the fire around the north of the town covering Mayday, Haroldene, and the Herrings property as well as any small ones in between. The fire that came in from the south shows that it didn't quite engulf Keenans road but that is the other area of orchids. However, I read a report that a service station with gas bottles caught fire (and blew up).. There is only 3 service stations in town, 2 are very close to the center where the pub is but the other, which I think was the local gas supply site is just at the south end of Pioneer street. If that is the case, and I hope to hell that I am wrong, then the fire has got to the south side of town called Sunnyside.
Either way, the only existence for Batlow to recover is the fruit growing industry. There are some orchids like Moats which has seemed to escape. But how many???
A couple of last things. It looks like the switching yard for T2 power satation at Cabramurra has taken a hit, and the switching yard at T3 at Talbingo would have defiantly suffered. Not too sure about the transmission lines along the Snubba Range but the tower are fairly high. Also, that video of all the dead sheep along the road is near Wondalga before your climb up the range.. Know the paddock, just up from the Wondalga bridge, not at Batlow..
I think that what has rocked me the most is that I have 3 generations buried in a historical family plot, ( there is a last plot for me, maybe soon),. It was a nice plot in a circle under a big fir tree and fir trees around the plot.
Used to travel down every so often to check things and spend some time.. Funny really, at 72 year old never been known by my name in town, always been refereed to as Charlie Buchele's grandson.
When the fire ripped through Mayday orchid, it took out the cemetery next.. All gone...
Don't know what is going to happen to my home town...... If you got this far, thanks for reading.... I'm done.
