USC295_0013

THE PETRIES AT CENTRAL FOREST STATION
Recollections of Rollo Petrie from 1917

Note: MOONBI 41 gave a background of the Petrie's 137 year association with
Fraser Island and the life style of the aborigines still on FraserIsland in 1913.
In MOONBI 42 Rollo remembered his bush camp at Bogimbah in 1913 - 1915.
MOONBI 43 recalled the Petries at Orange Tree Camp in 1916-17 at the Mouth of
Woongoolbver Creek.
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In 1918 I went away to school in Petrie. I was 7 or 8. In 1918 we shifted
up to Scrub Camp, Central Station as it is known now.
We were living in a drying shed Dad had erected of a number of different
kinds of timber while the house was being pulled down, transported up Woongoolbver
Creek by bullock wagon and re-erected, where there is now a Bar-Be-Que at Central
Station.

By this time, several families with school-age kids, and Dad got a school
and we turned up on opening day - nine strong - later it grew to 15. The school
house was on top of a hill south od Scrub Camp. Now, this area was called
Central Forest Station. (Editors Note - The site of theoriginal Central
Station School was on the hill in the Spotted Gum patch South West of the present
settlement of Central Station. Later a second school was moved in from McKenzies
and was situated where the amenities block is now. It had a peak enrolment of 40
but closed during th war. It was used later as an office and was demolished in
1978)

The Fraser School had a boost when the Weir family from South Africa
(cousins of Ron Weir, Maryborough) arrived with a large family who were ever-
lasting running out of supplies. The Weirs arrived with some new talent, some
girls about our age. The Kauri patch in front of house at Scrub Camp was about
5 - 6 ft. high, just right for running round in.

A "BLUE MOON" - White or Black Legend?
The Blue Moon seen once in a 100 years we observed from there. I cannot recollect
just what it looked like but I can remember the time we observed both the
scheduled "end of world", and the "Blue Moon" on the Island, among other things.
I think children in those days, in that environment, grew up much earlier or
./2.