In 1998, my sister Wendy and I visited Beaufort, Victoria, to locate the blocks of land (and house?) where our great grandfather William Green lived.
A mile from one of the blocks the Greens owned, we discovered Gladys Leister (nee Packham). She was born in 1907. Her parents married in Beaufort in 1885 and established a farm between Beaufort and Trawalla (to the east of Beaufort) on the Ballarat highway, in 1886. This is where she lives today.
Several years later, between 1894 and 1897, William Green, my great grandfather, a railway line repairman, purchased several blocks of land next to the Packhams. He died in 1905, and in 1909, William junior, his first son, died at the age of 41, from a kidney disease.

In 1905, when Gladys was three years old, William's wife Bridget, aged 71, (Bridget Duggan, born in County Clare in 1839) and her daughter Annie, aged 45, lived next door. Gladys recalls visits to the Green's house (a comfortable home, with hessian and paper walls), with Bridget (described by Gladys as a 'fat little woman') doing the Irish jig to one or two records played on the gramaphone - dancing with Gladys's brother, who observed that she danced more with her hands than her feet. Once, when throwing logs of wood on the fire, Bridget mistakenly picked up the cat, and threw it on the fire.
Bridget would visit the Packhams house, and after dark, Gladys and her brother would escort her back to her house, to ensure she didn't wander into the dam. Bridget would always keep a biscuit in the pocket of her apron to give to the children for their assistance.
Annie Green, William and Bridget's first child, had fine dark hair worn in a bun, wore glasses, and had a twitch in her neck. If anything surprised her, she would say 'Oh my patience!'. They made their own bread, and Annie would make butter, and go into Beaufort each week to sell it. Annie looked after a ward of the state, called Henry (or Harry) Wyatt, who acted as a 'hand' around the farm. He went to the Trawalla primary school, and went to the first world war, and afterwards, worked on a large farm in Horsham. He continued to visit the Packhams, and 'married a Melbourne girl', and had two boys. Gladys calls Henry a 'smart alec' and a 'ratbag'.

Michael, my grandfather, was then 35. He had his hand cut off in an accident as a worker on the railways - Gladys recalls that when Michael visited the farm, the children were told not to look at his hand. Michael had got a job as a clerical worker for the railways, and, around this time, met Isabella Cahir, his future wife. Mr. Green, says Gladys, was quiet and reserved, and Miss Cahir was 'pretty'. Michael came to visit: in 1912 with his bride Isabella, in 1914 with their first child Lena, and in 1915 with their second child, Bill (my father).
Like most farms at that time, the Greens had two horses (Topsy and Bessie) a jig, a cow, a calf, two or three pigs, some chooks, sheep, a vegetable garden, and an orchard in the front - apple, pear and quince. All watering had to be done by carrying buckets from the dam.

Bridget, as she aged, suffered epileptic fits, and in 1918, at the age of 79, when bushfires came close to the house, she broke her arm in a fall. Annie had moved to Beaufort, and Bridget was cared for by Annie till Bridget died that same year. The broken arm, according to the local paper,"hastened her end". She died of senile decay and heart failure: an "old and highly respected resident of the district".
Annie's Bessie was left with the Packham children, who kept it on their farm. Michael and Annie would have organised the tombstone in the Beaufort cemetery for their mother, replacing it with a single celtic cross in marble for Bridget, William Senior and William Junior. The house and land was sold to the Pringles. A few years later, the house was moved into Beaufort, where it is today, uninhabited, and due for demolition. Annie lived there for many years afterwards. Gladys remembered a 'keeper' ring worn by Annie, in memory of a local man she loved. They didn't marry because he was Protestant.
In 1919 Michael, my grandfather, with his wife Isabella and children, moved to Geelong. He purchased four 20 acre blocks of land in Beaufort beside Packhams Lane (named after Gladys's family), next to the land the Greens held. In 1921 he sold all the land held by the Greens, possibly to enable him to buy the house in Aberdeen street, Geelong, in which he and Isabella raised their children Lena and Bill (my father).
In 1928 most of the land previously owned by the Greens was purchased by the Packhams. A lane between two of the properties is called 'Packhams lane'.