October 2023
The Dryandra Village is a special place for Keith who lived here in 76 and 77 for around 18 months as the first “Caretaker” or known then as the “Lion in Residence”.
Having joined Lions International in 1975 I became interested in the village as my Club (Armadale-Kelmscott) was the sponsor of one of the cottages in those early years. These images taken from the information boards explain the early history of this special place.
The very existence of Dryandra as a State Forest and now, since 2022, a National Park was threatened by the mighty mining movements of the 1960s and a conservationist called Vincent Serventy was solely responsible for saving it; the full story is here and the critical quote:
Keith lived in this small 2 room cottage which is now rebirthed as the Mallee Fowl Cottage seen then and now:
Similarly the village view is much the same from this end:
The village was a working Forestry village for around 3 decades and from then on, until 2022, retained only a single forestry employee as a Fire Marshall more than anything; until more recent year manning the now demolished fire tower in the Summer season. The Hall was an integral part of the village, as was the tennis court and, in the open paddock, a cricket pitch. The hall was renamed in honour of my old employers Gordon and Yvonne McDougall from nearby Cuballing whose Ute we are currently borrowing.
A stroll around the village as it is today with increased water catchment, power – and air conditioning! In 76 we had a 7kva hand crank generator then upgraded to a 12kva auto-start version which was a donation from a Lions member whose farm had been connected to the grid.
