The inaugural run and ride after the official opening of the Lake Dunstan Trail saw jubilation, laughter and amazement at the trail; for one family the ride was personal.

Amongst the fanfare, laughter and amazement with the opening of the Lake Dunstan Trail, one family shed a few tears.

Brother and sister Peter and Helen Rutherford completed Saturday’s inaugural trail ride with nephew Robbie Flett, supported by Peter and Helen’s brother Ian.

“The trail is magic,” Peter says.

“The scenery, the trail, the whole thing, it was just great.”

Helen agrees: “The scenery, riding along the lake, the sun on the water, riding on the boards out over the water, the (Hugo) bridge, I loved it all.”

Robbie says they had stopped after a series of particularly tight turns on a faster section, and enjoyed the sound of a stream in the pervading quiet.

“We stopped at all the information boards,” Peter says. “They were all so interesting, but my favourite was Mollie’s.”

Joe and Mollie’s story is on a board above Halfway Hut.

The Rutherford family has a special connection to the Cromwell Gorge, and to the Halfway Hut along the trail.

Their grandparents Mollie and Joe Pilkington, lived through the Great Depression in the Cromwell Gorge, with two young children, most of the time in the Halfway Hut.

“To see our family history there on the trail, I felt proud to see the story of my Gran and Grandad’s struggles through the depression in that hut,” Helen says.

Ian had stopped on his drive back to Cromwell, and from the other side of the lake could see his brother and sister reading the board. He also felt the emotion of the moment.

“I never had a chance to say goodbye to my Gran”, Peter says.

“When we came across the board, it was just so emotional, it brought tears.

“Grandad said it was the hardest of times, but the best of times in many ways.

“The people they met were just down to earth and in those hard times, people helped each other.”

Joe and Mollie Pilkington, two year old Josie and baby Jean came to the Cromwell Gorge with the promise of full dole payments and the chance to find gold. 

Mollie had described to her grandchildren the struggle to survive in the city on $3.29 per week for three weeks, with no dole paid every fourth week. 

She recalled how difficult it was to watch her husband slowly but surely stripped of his dignity and self-esteem as he had no way to feed the family.

The government announced an incentive dole scheme of $2.95 every week for married men, one pick, one shovel, one gold pan, and a train ticket to Clyde. They took it. 

Mollie was one of the few women who followed their husbands to the goldfields. 

Joe and Mollie in 1934, with 3-year old Josie and Mollie holding Jean.

In 1933, Joe and his brother created a home for Mollie and the children from the stone ruins of a miner’s hut. He later moved the family to Halfway Hut, halfway down the gorge.

Helen says she remembers her Gran telling her about cutting onions for dinner in the winter time, and the onions on the board were frozen. 

“The oven was just basically a hole in the wall with a grate, and Grandad had to dig it out to make it bigger for Gran.” 

“I always loved the story of the clay floor, and putting embers from the fire under the table to keep their feet warm,” Ian says. 

Although a balanced diet for the children was difficult, Peter recalled stories of plentiful meat - rabbit, rabbit and more rabbit. His grandmother became very skilled at cooking rabbit in her camp oven. 

The only way back across the river was by swing chair - something Mollie had said really frightened her. 

“Gran told us about taking the kids across on the swing chair - she became quite a spectacle,” says Ian. 

“She said the bus driver would stop the bus and everyone would watch as she pulled herself across.” 

Children sitting outside their home - a canvas-covered old miner’s hut (Jean and Josie in front).

Peter says he gets a lot of strength from the way his grandparents survived through immense hardships and kept the family together.

“We’re a very close family, and I think that comes from Gran.

“Hardship didn’t make her hard, she had so much love for her family.

“I can take my kids back there, show them, and tell them things really aren’t that bad - Joe and Mollie made it through, you can make it through anything too.”

Helen says, as she rode the trail, she wondered what her Gran, Grandad, and her mother, would think.

Pete says after their hard times through the depression years, his Grandad became a union activist, wanting to effect improvements for working families. 

“He believed in everyone having access to what they needed to live; he always said there should be nobody too rich and nobody too poor in this country.”

“It’s pretty special to have stories of the real people that lived along the trail. The history of the gorge is more than a textbook, it’s living, it’s real,” Helen says.

“We found it very emotional coming across the board telling Mollie’s story, we’re just thrilled that it’s there.”

Original images by permission of the Rutherford family. 

Joe and Mollie’s story can be found on the board located above Halfway Hut on the Lake Dunstan Trail.