Cynthia Powell, Neil Heneker (middle) me, Vicki Heneker at Kersbrook Pine Forest
Just for a change I decided to use a more recent photograph….o.k. not THAT recent!!! I wish.
The picture is of myself (on the right) with the dress on, my little brother Neil and my cousin Cynthia Powell (who we called Tinny) not sure why? The setting is the Kersbrook pine forest. Her dad, my uncle, was the caretaker of the forest. In the summer it was the most wonderful place, cool, packed tightly with pine trees (I think this photo was taken at the edge of the forest and near the house). Tinny and I would spend hours in the forest, finding little creeks still with water in them, even in the middle of the hottest summer. The smell of the pines was just gorgeous, and that smell always takes me back to those days. Their old house had a wood stove, and I always remember my first sense was the smell of the wood burning in the stove and my aunties home made goodies she seemed to continually bake.
" I remember one late afternoon, Tinny and I decided to walk through the forest
to another relatives house on the other side of the forest. It was a dirt fire
track and our parents and brothers had gone there by car. Anyway, it started to
get dark very quickly, especially being in the forest, the sun was blocked out.
We kept walking, there was absolutely no light, even from the moon or stars,
we couldn't see them because of the canopy of trees. There had been a big "old
red kangaroo" terrorising anyone silly enough to walk through the forest at
sunset (we had been told by my uncle). We started to get a bit scared I think,
and then we saw lights coming towards us. This scared us even more!!! Thank
goodness it turned out to be my dad and the family in the car. They were on their
way back to my auntie's house, thinking we girls were safe and sound there.
I think we got a bit of a yelling at, for being out in the dark and with the old
red hanging about. Back then of course, we were pretty safe, no one around,
especially in that area, which was not easy to get to, and not as many young
hoons screaming about in cars were on the roads. Still it was an adventure and
one I have never forgotten."
Pine Forest at Mt Crawford near Kersbrook
Photograph from http://www.jmclum.com on Flickr.com
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Working now as a nurse, I previously worked as a Library Technician at the State Library of South Australia and then Noarlunga Library Services. I was lucky enough to work at the State Library in the Archives department, which is now a separate entity and housed at a suburban site. then Noarlunga Library Services. I always loved English and Australian history, and began my Heneker family history in about 1980, well before the advent of the internet, and now of course with so many digitised records online there is a treasure chest of information out there, and it just keeps growing. One of the most wonderful treasures we have here in Australia is the Trove website, the free digitised newspapers of nearly every place in Australia, provided for free by the National Library of Australia. This has opened up so much day to day information for people searching for further information about their ancestors. I chose to write a blog as a way for me to put down a lot of information I had that wasn't necessarily easy to slot into a "family tree" as such. And I wanted to record some of the stories of the Heneker clan, and especially James Heneker (1826-1917) who arrived in South Australia as a 12 year old boy with his family. Like most of us in the genealogy community I have become obsessed, and of course, this is really a never ending story. The community of bloggers, and also Facebook specialist pages has allowed me and many of us to learn from each other, and to use some of the many amazing tools that are out there now for us to use and enhance our research. I just want to stay awake at night reading or researching or just browsing online for more and more information and I am sure I am not alone. My one wish?? Dad Neville Laurence Heneker 1929 - 1987, this is for you, for all the things you told me, and the stories you related, often when we were up north in the Flinders Ranges, at Beltana, Hawker, Blinman and many other amazing places. I wish you were here, so I could share all this new information that has come to light. And of course for you Pa (Laurence Douglas Heneker), your stories were incredible and watching you sleep out under the stars at Arkaroola with a rock for your pillow is an image I will never forget. Oh if only we had digital cameras back then...I think of you both every time I write my words and read my books. I love you both.
