Lola Miller - Averys Road
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Living the dream
Lola Miller and her husband Bill moved to Averys Road in 1957. They bought a 30-acre paddock - “the hill” Lola calls it, at auction, paying 640 pounds for the first 22 acres. “Someone said haven’t you got anything better to do with your money.
“It’s a street of two parts; the old and the new. We’re in the original section.
“Bill was a visionary and thought there’s so much land in Australia why do we have to be cooped up on a quarter acre. And away we went.
“It’s hard to make people understand what it was like when we first moved here. There was no power, no water and the road ended at Howard Street. The changes have been incredible.”
“We had to build the house facing Jobs Gully Road as that was the only recognised road,” Lola says. “And that was just a gravel track. The post office said we needed a box as they didn’t do bush deliveries.
“One lady said why do you want to move there, it’s nothing but snakes and scrub. People thought it was a barren landscape.
“We had our own poles bringing power to our place but when Powercor came they marked all the trees that had to be removed. There were ironbarks in the corner and lemon-scented gums in the garden area.
“It was a beautiful lifestyle for the five children. We had calves, chooks, a dog. They played golf across the road, and footy, and went rabbiting. Various friends kept their horses here. People would go yabbying in our dams. We used to get really big ones in the dam at the end of the golf course.
“The children went to Eaglehawk Primary School. The high school wasn’t built when we first came here. It opened in 1965 and my eldest son was in the first intake. The schools were right on our doorstep.
Bill and Lola subdivided the property in the mid-70s.
“We knew everybody that bought the land. Cec and Susan and Bob… retired farmers.
“Now Averys Road is a major thoroughfare. The rushes start early. You have to sit at the gate and wait to get on the road.”