GROWING up and living in the South East for the majority of her life, Noela Hellyer has watched the South East landscape change over time.
Born on Christmas day almost 95 years ago, Ms Hellyer said her mum always told her she could remember hearing the church bells ring on her birthday.
“We had a different life to what the kids have now,” she said.
“We were always outside and were never inside.
“I just used to love running, playing and jumping, skipping and hopping.”
Ms Hellyer said herself, her two older sisters and her younger brother followed their father’s footsteps while he lived as a shearer through the years of the Great Depresssion.
“He was a great shearer and was quite often the ringer of the shed,” she said.
“We were all very close and I am the last one left in the family.
“We shifted quite a lot when we were young because times were tough and we followed dad around wherever he sheared.”
Ms Hellyer attended nine different schools and only ever completed Year 7.
“It meant I was not a very good scholar,” she said.
Ms Hellyer attended school at Port MacDonnell to be closer to the beach to help with her brother’s illness.
“My brother was born with polio and had one leg shorter than the other.
“He was always a very sick boy.
“Mum was advised to take him to the beach to wash him in seawater.”
Ms Hellyer was only married for eight days before her husband went to war.
“My son Max was around three and a half when he came home, but I would send photographs to him to make sure he knew what he looked like,” Ms Hellyer said.
“Max had photographs of him too. It was tough times.”
After the war, Ms Hellyer lived with her husband’s family on a farm at Compton as houses were hard to come by.
“When we did get a house, we had the first housing trust home which was built in Mount Gambier but we were not the first tenants,” she said.
“We moved around to various houses in Mount Gambier including Lindsay Street and Commercial Street as well as where Carlin and Gazzard now have their used car yard.
“I remember when I lived on James Street at four years old, I saw the first ever aeroplane which came to Mount Gambier.”
Ms Hellyer said her eyes were opened when she went on a recent bus trip along the coastline.
“When I lived at Mount Burr at around 12 years old, my dad told me we could go on a camping trip for the whole six weeks of the school holidays.
“A week before all our household items piled onto a truck lined with potato bags, along with our cat and our old cow called Grace.
“Off we went to Blackfellows Cave and there was not a thing there.”
Ms Hellyer remembers the beautiful pristine land and nothing else.
“When I went on a road trip recently, I just thought the land was spoiled and it was not like it was.
“It is not the same with all the names carved into the rocks.”
With Mount Gambier evolving, Ms Hellyer said she could remember when Reidy Park Primary School was just a large paddock.
“I can remember all the old shops along the main street,” she said.
“There was also a violet farm in the heart of town.”
With many stories to tell, Ms Hellyer said she was proud to be able to share her tales.
