Harry's Life

The Depression made Harry security conscious. He had to have cash and when he died he had $38,000.00 hidden in the house. This money became Lynette's but Faye searched the house for it and did not find it as it had been hidden very well.

Harry & Lynette Croll worked together as a team.

When they were married WWII had just finished and Harry and Lynette settled on a Soldier Settlement block of land at Fish Creek in Victoria where Trevor was born at the Foster Hospital. Harry being a fit young man used to bring home a shirt full of rabbits, He would run them down hill and scoop them up as he passed by them. Rabbits can run up hill very fast and have a problem running down hill. Trevor remembers playing with lots of young rabbits and some were very pretty with orange and white fur patches. Dinner would then be rabbit stew.

Harry worked as a truck driver moving materials around when the Yallourn Power House was being built. He found himself being paid extra money over and above normal for unusual jobs. As time went on he became suspicious that something untoward was happening. A few months before the scandal broke Harry had quit his job and put a deposit on a 45 acre block of land at Vervale near Garfield. Here he milked dairy cows for 15 years till be purchased a bigger block (108 acres) at Iona, the other side of the Main Drain about 400m away.

The Main Drain was first dug as a drainage trench 2m wide and 1.2m deep in 1880. As each section was drained the land was given to those who helped drain it. This Main Drain which continues the Bunyip River all the way to Western Port Bay is now 40meters wide and 10 meters deep, scoured out by years of fast running water. The soil was a deep peat and highly fertile. The farm ran almost one milking cow to the acre and Harry made a good living from milking cows. Harry sold out of dairy farming before taking on the pub. 

In about 1974 Harry and Lynette purchased the Nar Nar Goon Hotel shown below. Harry worked with builders on renovating this Hotel for several months and ordered a heating system from the Gas and Fuel Corporation who installed gas central heating. The gas pipes leaked and when the resident barman turned the cellar light off, having been looking for the source of the gas smell, the Hotel blew up and the bit in this photo totally disappeared with bits breaking windows over 300 meters away.

Harry & Lynette were told that if they could not serve up beer they would lose their liquor licence. Out the back was a small shearing shed left over from earlier times. This shed was renovated and became the new Nar Nar Goon Pub. Songs were written about this pub and people came from all over to drink at the beer with no pub hotel. Grahame Kennedy and other celebrities would make a special trip to visit the pub and stand around outside with other patrons drinking beer.

Harry set about building a new Pub, but the Cardinia Council kept knocking back his applications. Eventually Harry negotiated to be able to build a new two story hotel in the back corner of the block of land where it was difficult to see what it was from the road. Harry took the Gas and Fuel Corporation to court and won and they paid him the total cost of replacing the pub that blew up. Because the of the Council's restrictions lower cost options of renovating what was left of the old pub or rebuilding it were out of the question so the Gas and Fuel had to pay for the complete new one.

Harry and Lynette ran this hotel for seven years and on Saturday night had functions that people from hundreds of miles away would come to. They made themselves a fortune then leased the pub to others. It was never the same after woods.

After the Hotel Harry and Lynette built themselves a fancy house on an acre of land in Bunyip and looked after their Longwarry farm and their many rental properties they had purchased.

After harry died Lynette wanted to live on the Longwarry farm. This is the land that was leveled for a house block to be built.

Harry's Longwarry Farm looking from the house and sheds up the laneway towards the dam.

The Iona State School Mother's P&C Mother's club, about 1959. Lynette is front row third from the left.

Iona State School Father's club, About 1958. Harry is front row on the right.

Faye Croll, now Faye Johnson infront of the House at Vervale that Harry built about 1958.

Lynette Croll at Vervale 1958.

Tarzan Harry as he appeared in the end of year school play. 1958.

Iona State School photo 1959, Trevor is back row second from right, Faye is third row second from left and Cheryl is second row second from right.

A picnic 1956 with Harry and Lynette and Trevor and Grand pah.

Harry carrying a post on the farm at Vervale 1956

Iona State School with Mr Liddy about 1959.