Building Burragunyah

Lex was a Melbourne boy, born and bred. He lived in North Caulfield with his parents and two older sisters. He attended Caulfield Grammar School.
He was an apprentice at Kelly and Lewis Engineering in Springvale - a protected industry during WWII.
He broke his apprenticeship towards the end of the war and enlisted in the army. Ultimately, he ended up in New Guinea.
Years later, it was discovered he had contracted Cerebral Malaria while there.
We speculate that, after the war, he wanted to live off the land in a rural location. In 1947, with the assistance of Janette's father, Tony, he landed a job on a farm in Molyullah owned by the O'Deas. He later worked for the Hill family.
He bought the block (570 acres) he called Tiger Hill Park in 1952, continuing to work for the Hills and working on his block in his free time.
He started off dairying and, typical of dairy farms, kept a few pigs. The milk, in milk churns, was collected daily. In the 1960s the collection was changed to collection by tanker every two days. This would have needed electricity to facilitate the storage of the milk. There was no electricity so he switched to beef production with Poll Herefords.
He never married. It was very obvious to everyone who met him that his cattle were his family.
His brother-in-law, Bill (sister Joyce's husband), one annual leave, came down from Sydney and built the cottage with Lex. It was built using timber milled locally from trees off Tiger Hill Park.
He bought the block, 627 acres, across the road in 1966 from Bill Foch. He was concerned about who might buy it. He would say later, “If I bought it, I would know who my neighbour was”.Read more