Vale Pam Lawson - Hurstbridge Historian
Hurstbridge lost a local legend on the 25th of July, 2024, during the 100th year of Hurstbridge officially being a township. Pam Lawson died peacefully in her sleep in her semi-bushland home after more than 50 years of massive contributions to our community.
It’s intriguing how Hurstbridge attracts its residents, beyond the obvious greenery. Maybe because our common character trait is living real and being pretentious free for most of our tiny population. While the green is beautiful, the freedom to simply be is astonishing. B.S. free. That trait certainly applies to the life story of Pam Lawson, born in 1947, who grew up in Kew, mostly outdoors. Her love of horses was lifelong, an artistic soul, with a ready laugh, infamous for not suffering fools, a stalwart of the Hurstbridge region, including the Pony Club, a collector and protector of our history and greenery, a pants wearer, and most importantly a wife to Jack and mother to Albe and Carolyn.
She is gone but never to be forgotten thanks to her work creating and curating a treasure trove and lasting legacy of our social history culminating in the superb book “Kooka on the Wattle: A History of Hurstbridge” with the Hurstbridge Local History Group.
The Wattle Festival, number 20, wasn’t quite the same this year without Pam. She was missing from Allwood House, inside and out. She used to open up the History room to share the stories of what made Hurstbridge unique, as well as serving on the committee, working events, and operations of the house, and running art classes there – she sometimes was in the room but mostly wasn't!
Pam had a turn of treading the boards in amateur theatre to raise money for Hurstbridge Primary School but her greatest role was arguably the one she invented for herself, Earth Mother – Pam style. That’s an observation, but as well as being a fierce supporter of our bushland, including keeping it weed-free, an avid gardener, a strong interest and input in council elections, she raised a couple of wonderful humans with her husband Jack and looked after her beloved horses. She wasn't a tea party and Barbie doll Mum.
Pam was a wild child but attended church and often spent her collection plate money on potato cakes. Canterbury Girls High followed Kew Primary School but she wasn’t very interested, skipping PE classes to ride her horse instead. Later Pam shared an office with a man, named Jack, at the Board of Works in Melbourne. They both had horses! In a blue ribbon electorate in true Pam spirit, she was a member of Kew Young Labor and volunteered to hand out how-to-vote cards. Assigned to the Midhurst polling place, a shed on someone’s land, she and Jack asked for directions from H & J White’s General store. They decided that Hurstbridge could be the place to live and eventually found their home in 1971.
Carolyn, a wonderful local-loving woman in her own right, paid a superb tribute to her mum conveying the essence of her character and humour, mixed in with some of Pam’s history and achievements perfectly and highlights are shared here. (Below we’re sharing the beautiful tribute in full - and on the www.allwoodhouse.org.au website.) Amongst Albe’s stories of his Mum were going to school on hot days and then she'd say, ‘Stuff it!’ and they'd be off in the river all day! Jack shared that he was dreading Pam’s life celebration but found great comfort and support from the many in attendance at Allwood House.
In closing, Carolyn shared that Pam was asked about the meaning behind her series of paintings featuring a white dog appearing in so many different places. Pam said, “It’s just a white dog.” 🥰 So Pam.
This was first published in the Roundabout Newspaper. It’s important to acknowledge that Pam was a founder of the special little Hurstbridge newspaper, wanting to create a community focus and social history record, ‘unlike the Leader Newspaper’. It’s no small task to write Pam’s obituary here – but it is a privilege. 💚
By Suzy Jaeger, a Hurstbridge resident and writer, an ardent lover of the Hurstbridge region who had the pleasure of knowing Pam and spending time with her on the Allwood Neighbourhood House committee. Hurstbridge Trader’s Association is a client of Jaeger Communications.
Carolyn Lawson’s full eulogy for her Mum.
Carolyn Lawson, daughter of Pam, wrote and read a beautiful eulogy at Allwood Neighbourhood House.
Pam left school in year 10 and worked for the PMG for a while before taking a job at the Melbourne Metropolitan Board of Works (now known as Melbourne Water). Her job was to trace plans, not the most creative outlet for her but she did happen to share an office with a man named Jack. They got talking and realised they both had horses and the rest is history.
Pam and Jack began their search for a house in the Yarra Valley but couldn't find anything both affordable and worth living in. At the time, pam was a member of Kew Young Labour (probably the only member of Kew young labour to be fair) and volunteered to hand out how to vote cards. She was assigned the Midhurst polling place, which was a shed on someone's land rather than a school or hall. Not being able to find it, she and Jack went in to ask at H and J White's General store. With directions in hand, they stepped out on to the veranda, looked up and down the main road and decided that Hurstbridge could be the place to live.
They eventually found four rooms on a hill in Flat Rock Road and went so far as to add both a toilet and a bathroom, moving in properly in 1971. Pam continued to commute into the city for work until she resigned shortly before the birth of her first child, Albe, in 1973.
Her involvement in the community began almost as soon as she arrived with an interest in council elections becoming full campaign involvement, roping in both her children to letterbox pamphlets and attend campaign events which sometimes meant late nights and no school the next day.
She had her second child, Carolyn, in 1978. She often remembered that as the year Flood, one of the ponies, was born. The paddock always had a few horses in it and she was involved heavily in the pony club when it was run out of the old dairy - now the Art and Craft space - coming home on Wintery Saturdays to defrost and dry out by the fire.
The early 80s saw her tread the boards in the Melodrama, an overwritten and overacted play to raise funds for the primary school. She was also busy not just with the horses, but with environmental causes such as an attempt to rid Hurstbridge of noxious weeds.
In the mid 80s she enrolled in a Tertiary Orientation Programme, the T. O. P, to study art as a mature aged student at Diamo Tech. The idea was a one year course designed to lead to higher education, but she enjoyed the course so much she just did it again. Here she was able to experiment with painting, drawing and even ceramics and sculpture but she also found her first love, print making. If, for whatever reason, I wasn't at school on T O P days, she would take me with her to sit in the foyer of the classroom while she worked inside. I would draw and read and hang out with the other students. She set up a home studio and produced prints from still life to wildlife to whimsy and began her White Dog series for which she is probably best known, although her wildlife prints were also very popular as was the Backyard Madonna.
She went on to teach an art class at Panton Hill Living and Learning for many years, running it more as a workshop than a class, and also ran an art class at Allwood for a while where she sometimes was in the room but mostly wasn't.
Her involvement at Allwood Neighbourhood House began almost as soon as the house opened, serving on the committee and assisting at events and in the general day to day operations of the house. Here she was also able to satisfy her interest in local history, and when the previous historian moved away she stepped in to curate and care for the History room. On event days such as the Platypus festival or Wattle Festival she would open the history room and invite people to come and see the collection. Although she appreciated the important dates such as building openings, train arrivals and electricity connection, her real interest was the people who lived and worked here, an interest that created "Kooka On the Wattle", which is almost entirely about the people that made Hurstbridge.
She also was one of the people behind the creation of Roundabout community newsletter. She wanted to create a newspaper that was more community focussed than the Leader, another example of her interest in social history - she considered Roundabout a record of history as it happened.
I always remember her as busy - there was always something she was planning, doing or creating.
Mum never really worried about my academic record, which was good because my academic record wasn't brilliant. She fully and loudly encouraged any creative pursuits though, allowing me to use her expensive art supplies to try my own hand at printmaking, or painting. She taught me how to sew on her 1968 Elna sewing machine - a 21st birthday gift that is still running. She attempted to teach me how to knit, but that didn't stick. She even allowed me a small patch of her precious garden to grow gourds in, patiently teaching me how to turn the soil and keep the bed watered and weeded. We attended art exhibitions, taking notes and inspiration from every one we saw, from grand masters to local galleries.
She wasn't a tea parties and barbie dolls Mum. She was a "throw the kids on a horse" mum, a "take the kids to the river on a school day" mum. She encouraged a love of nature, we explored rock pools at Skenes Creek, feeding anemones with tiny snails and trying to find the little crabs that hid out under rocks. In Oodnadatta we stayed up late and stared at the milky way. We clambered up and down temple ridge, pulling weeds and looking for fungus.
In the spirit of being outdoors and exploring, she would often pile us into the car along with any cousins who happened to be staying, and we'd drive off at random with the kids calling directions at each intersection. We'd head out onto the backroads in the Peugeot 504, trundling up dirt tracks and once a dry creek bed that, in our defence, DID look like a road at first. Don't tell dad.
Mum loved a laugh, and we often chatted nonsense as we became more and more weak with laughter. The most helpless with laughter I ever saw her was when I got stuck in knee deep mud at port albert. Mum's laugh was contagious, and it took a lot longer to get out of the mud as I joined her in laughter. She did have the prescence of mind to take a few photos though, which made her laugh all over again when they were printed. That is how I will remember her best, laughing that huge, all encompassing laugh.
Before I finish here, I'd like to share with you all the secret of the White Dog, the dog that appeared in so many prints Pam did although those prints never looked the same as the last one because she could never remember which colours she'd used.
There was an art exhibition at Allwood, and Pam had a couple of white dogs up for sale. A woman approached and said "I've just bought one of your white dogs, I've been collecting them"
Pam thanked her and said that was very kind.
"I'm wondering though," the woman went on, "what does it mean?"
"What does what mean?" pam asked.
"The white dog. It's in so many different places, all over the area, miles apart. What does it MEAN?"
Pam looked at her for a second and said: "It's just a white dog".
Pam Lawson and one of her white dog paintings.