Kevin Noble fondly recalls childhood days spent at his grandparents' Mount Pleasant dairy farm – exploring the paddocks, picking fruit from the orchard and hearing stories about the old dairy.
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Kevin’s mother Lily and her siblings Stan and Nora grew up on the Brokers Road dairy, and Kevin spent school holidays reliving the carefree farm life of the previous generation who lived on the property which is now on the market.
Born in England, young Lily and her siblings moved to Mt Pleasant with their parents James and Lily Douglas in 1928, when she was seven. Her parents bought the property from the Green family, who bought it from the Mildurn family.
Mr Noble said his grandfather worked at nearby Mount Keira mine and the family farm and dairy helped feed the family, and also proved to be a source of income during the depression.
He said from a young age his mother Lily helped care for the cows, milked them and delivered milk to neighbouring customers.
“Mum used to carry two half gallon milk cans around to the neighbours,” Mr Noble said. “She would get threepence for a quart of milk.”
At the age of 21, Lily married William Noble, moving to Corrimal. Her parents continued living at the Mt Pleasant farm, her father eventually selling off a large part of the property in 1959.
Lily’s older sister Nora, later moved in to the house after their parents died, and continued living there until recently. Nora passed away earlier this year aged 96.
With Lily now aged 94, Mr Noble said the time had come to sell the property, which is being auctioned as two separate blocks. The original farmhouse is included in a 1233 square metre block. The second block is 613 square metres of land.
The property is just minutes to Balgownie Village and local schools.
Viv Knight from Bevans Wollongong said the circa mid 1880’s original two-bedroom farmhouse features high ceilings, intricate cornices, solid timber floorboards and two verandahs.
A fireplace with a cedar mantelpiece remains in the large lounge/dining room and a hand carved piece of sandstone that was dragged by horse and dray from a paddock by Mr Noble’s grandfather, sits above the old fuel stove.
Located on a corner block fronting Brokers Road and wrapping around to Dobinson Street, the property has views of the escarpment and to the ocean, and boasts mature gardens.
“Aunty Nora spent a lot of time planting flowers and working on the garden,” Mr Noble said.
The property at 206 Brokers Road is open for inspection on October 24 from 12noon to 12.30pm. The auction is on November 14.
