Sheep grazing was the mainstay of Athllon but it also kept beef and dairy cattle, pigs and grew wheat, oats and lucern. The only water supply was a nearby creek. There is an excellent interview with Harry Oldfield about life at Athllon by Margaret Park here (pdf)
Nothing but a few old fences and mature trees in a square around the old house site remains. The site has signage next to the Hall. It is located at the rear of the Gowrie Scout Hall...
The block with mature trees..
Old fence post...
MAP
View Larger Map
An email from Louise Lyon.
ReplyDeleteHi Dave,
In 1995 I collected the oral stories of some of the first residents in Ainslie (most of whom have since passed away) then edited their recollections and printed them in a book titled 'Voices of Old Ainslie.'
I thought you'd be interested in something one of the contributors to my book told me about naming Athllon Homestead as you have an article about the homestead in your history section. I tried to add the paragraph below in the comments section under the article but it didn't seem to allow me. I must have done something wrong. Anyway here it is below should you wish to add it yourself.
Cheers,
Louise Lyon
Athllon Homestead
As a point of interest I interviewed a neighbour, Mavis O'Reilly in 1995 for my oral history book titled 'Voices of Old Ainslie.' Mavis worked for the Oldfield family from the age of 13 and she was there when they worked out what to name the house. She said "they made the word out of the initials of all the children in the family as well as their surname. The names used were Alf, Ted, Harry, Les, Lyle, Oldfield and Nancy."