Lindon Hubbard lived at Teepookana with his mother, father and two older sisters in the 1930s. He has generously allowed us to share his memories of life along the line. More of Lindon’s stories are told onboard.
“We were always known as the train kids. On school days we would get up early for breakfast and wait for the train from the mine. We would climb onto the guard’s van and meet up with the other train kids from further up the line. The train only went to Regatta Point, so from there we had to walk to the Strahan School.
Going home from school was always back around the bay and there were a couple of bullies from up the line, even back in those days. On cold, wet winter days, Mrs Boyd, who had the tea room at Regatta Point Station, would give us a hot drink while we waited for the train. Some days it would be just on dark when we got home.
We were pretty much self sufficient and had a large garden where we grew all our vegetables when weather allowed. Our cow, Cherry, gave us a good supply of milk and we owned a separator, which gave Mum the cream to make our butter. When Mum could get flour, she would make bread and scones in an old wood fired oven. We also had beehives up on the hill and we always had a good supply of leatherwood honey. What we did not need, Dad would sell.”
Lindon returned to ride the train in 2015. He is pictured above beside a photograph of himself as a child, taken at Teepookana more than 80 years earlier.
