WHEN the Bennett family sold their Chocolyn farm late last year, it brought to an end a tangible link with soldiers from the World War I era.
The Bennetts were the last family in the Chocolyn area, located just north of Camperdown, to have links with the original soldier settlement.
Considering that four of the soldiers who settled at Chocolyn served at Gallipoli, it conjures up a pioneering spirit in the district that will never be seen again.
Now, some 90 years on, an effort is being made to commemorate the work of those formative years.
The Chocolyn Rural Fire Brigade intends to build a monument as a memorial for those early settlers and local historian Alan Fleming is fully immersed in researching the lives of the settlers.
The Chocolyn Estate was originally subdivided and offered at public auction in December 1909.
Many of the blocks remained vacant until 1920 when the Closer Settlement Board purchased the land. It was then subdivided into 26 blocks and offered to ex-servicemen.
There were 76 applications from across Victoria and as ex-servicemen began to settle in the area, the community of Chocolyn grew.
In 1928 the school was enlarged and in 1931 a community church hall was built.
Sports teams, dances, scouts, guides, church activities and school functions were the foundation of a strong community.
But establishing a life on the land was no easy task for the returned soldiers, as Mr Fleming has discovered.
“The biggest problem was there was no house on the blocks for up to 12 months, no fences or sheds and men with not a lot of experience (of working the land),” Mr Fleming said.
“It started with 26 (settlers), then 31 then 35 ... but the first 26 went on (the land) together and most of them would have been single.
“They had come out of the most horrific war and were now without a house and back in a tent.’’
Mr Fleming said settlers travelled from across Victoria to settle at Chocolyn, including places such as Melbourne, Romsey, Kooweerup and Benalla.
“Given the state of transport in 1920, they were well away from the rest of their families.
“You just wonder how they survived without anyone around them.”
Many abandoned their blocks and the land was divided between neighbouring settlers. By 1931 only 20 remained.
In its attempts to permanently memorialise these deeds, the Chocolyn Fire Brigade has already contacted sons and daughters of 18 of the original settlers as well as relatives of a further nine settlers.
The brigade is still looking for relatives of eight soldiers to complete its research.
One of those eight is Thomas James McCarthy, who was born in Warrnambool.
According to his service records, Mr McCarthy enlisted at Brunswick on February 3, 1916 aged 21.
He served in the 58th battalion but ran foul of the authorities overseas, mainly for being absent without leave.
On his passage home to Australia in August 1919, Private McCarthy disembarked in Durban in South Africa and was granted leave without pay for the “purpose of getting married”.
A few days days later he embarked on the H.M.A.T. Indarra for the continuation of his voyage back to Australia with his wife.
The couple worked on a dairy farm at Cobden from February to November 1920.
His address when applying for a block at Chocolyn was listed as Kerr Street, Warrnambool where his mother Susan lived.
Mr Fleming has made efforts to find a relative of Mr McCarthy, with a series of phone calls leading him to try his luck with the McCarthys on the Gold Coast.
The brigade has applied for federal funding through the Department of Veterans Affairs under the Saluting their Service grants program to construct the memorial and any decision has to go to the minister for final approval.
“We’ve had a good response,” Mr Fleming said of the memorial project at Chocolyn.
“Families (of the settlers) are very interested. There are some people in their late 70s and early 90s keen to see this go ahead.
“It’s really important we do this.
“The school’s gone, the hall’s gone. Farms are being sold off and getting bigger.
“Soon there will be nothing there to mark what happened then.”
Other settlers of Chocolyn whose descendants the brigade is trying to contact are Thomas Humphries from Romsey, James Keen of Kooweerup, Harry Trotman (Leongatha), Archie Henderson (Camperdown), Arthur Foster (Bostock’s Creek), Donald McLeod (Yarraville) and John Brewis (Malvern).
Information: 5593 1371 or alanfleming1@bigpond.com
dchapm an@standard.fairfax.com.au
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