Often in the early hours of the morning, a knock would come on their bedroom window with a request that they come to some home to help a sick or dying person and, nothing daunted, they would get dressed, often in the cold midwinter. Most calls came during the cold, wet months. Off they would go, through paddocks of wet grass and scrub and muddy lanes to the home of the sick person, oftimes a distance of some six miles. These calls over the years numbered hundreds. The old folks were great homeopathists. Mum had a large homeopathic medicine and ailment book and a small box which held 24 bottles of homeopathic medicines. This book and medicine chest were always carried on the errands of mercy and succour. Many people living in the district at that time owed their continued life and return to health to prompt action by Mum, and a bottle of homeopathic medicine. If anyone died, Dad and Mum were always called on to carry out the last obsequies for the subsequent burial. It was far easier to call on Mr. and Mrs. Potts. in the middle of the night, than try and raise the undertaker in Healesville from his slumbers. Not only were Mum and Dad in demand to help the sick and suffering, but they always seemed to have the house full of needy friends and visitors.

In 1863 an aboriginal reserve was set up under the care of John Green. Green named the settlement Coranderrk, the aboriginal name for the Christmas Bush which grew there in great profusion. The settlement extended from the Yarra River to Don Road on both sides of Badger Creek and covered an area of 4000 acres. In 1894 a government program of village settlement for the unemployed saw farmers introduced to the area and 2000 acres of Coranderrk were reserved. The children of the settlement originally went to school at the Coranderrk reserve. As numbers increased a school was opened at Badger Creek in January 1899. State School No. 3309 began with about 20 children, under Head teacher Adrienne Black. The Coranderrk School was closed and the children from the reserve joined the settlers’ children at the new school. The building, moved from Gruyere North, was erected on a half hectare site which was purchased for ten pounds. Further land was acquired in 1955 and again in 1979, increasing the school to its present area of 3.5 hectares.

Extracts of the book "History and Genealogy of the Potts-Carr family" compiled and written by J.J. Potts. M.B.E., J.P. Kaniva - 1967. Glen Violet The survey of the land being completed, Oliver Henry Potts was successful amongst eight applicants, in being granted by the Lands Board, Block 10B, Parish of Gracedale, Shire of Healesville, Victoria. The official lease was issued on 1st August, 1900, six years after a licence to occupy was granted. The area of land surveyed was an original portion of the Coranderrk Aborigine Reserve. The area of the block was 17 acres by survey, but 20 acres land surface. It was centred on a hill which dipped down to creeks at either end. Someone was foolish enough to say that there was gold on Block 10B. If this was so, it was never discovered. The block faced the Don Road, had a southern frontage to Badger Creek. Madam's Lane (now Chalet Road) was at the northern boundary and on the west was the property selected by Mr. Newnham. He built a house at a later period and lived on the block with his wife and three daughters. The Pickaninny Creek flowed diagonally through the northern end of the block. The Badger (Coranderrk) Creek, was a beautifully clear, pure, fast-flowing stream. It had Its source In the mountains behind Mount Juliet, and flowed between Mt. Riddell and Mt. Toolebewong down through the gorges, eventually meandering through the Yarra flats to spill Into the Yarra River. It was not made use of by the settlers, whose properties adjoined its banks. It was handy for stock and for those who lived close enough to cart water from It for domestic use. Irrigation was not an essential in the heavy rainfall area, and so the Badger flowed on uninterrupted by humans. While Joseph Shaw was Superintendent of the Coranderrk Aboriginal Station, he supervised a water supply system, for the station. The aboriginals under his direction, dug a channel some two miles in length, taking the water from the creek, 'at the crossing near where the Sanctuary now stands. He siphoned the water under the Dairy Road, and at the station it flowed Into a small brick reservoir. The reservoir was kept continually full, the overflowing water running back into the Badger. Pipes from the reservoir were put In strategic points, close to the houses. This gave the settlement of some 100 souls a pure, fresh reticulated water supply. That was the only use to which the waters of Badger Creek were put. The channel was known to the aboriginals as the "purp". We lived close to the creek, and carted our water in the early days in a barrel on a sledge (usually a forked tree trunk). In later years, we cut a channel from the creek for about five chains to a point where it had a fall of 20 feet to the creek below. A pipe connected the water to a "ram" pump, which, worked by the water automatically, pumped it to the top of the hill, where the house was built. Thus we had the water "laid on," and the barrel and the sledge were done away with. There was a never-ending supply of pure, fresh water for the home and garden. When the district was reticulated from a weir in Blue Jacket Creek, a tributary to the Badger, from Mt Riddle, the pump was dispensed with. The Badger Creek area was included In the Maroondah catchment when the Government transferred the whole area to the Metropolitan Board of Works, at the time of its inauguration in 1891. A weir was constructed in the upper reaches of the Badger Creek by the Board, and the official opening took place on January 15, 1909. A pipe line of 15 inch diameter pipes conveyed the water to the Graceburn aqueduct - a distance of 31 miles. This work was completed in December, 1908. In 1928, construction commenced for the construction of a new weir further upstream of the original one, to enable water to be diverted at a higher elevation. This aqueduct, which was being constructed at the same time as the weir, diverted the water to the O'Shannassy aqueduct. The new diversion and aqueduct were completed in 1929, when the water went direct to the Olinda reservoir. The Silvan reservoir received both Coranderrk (Badger) and O'Shannassy after It was completed in 1931. Since the construction of these weirs the Badger Creek flow was greatly diminished, especially in the summer months. RASPBERRY PATCH WASHED AWAY Heavy rains in the mountains often made the Badger a roaring torrent. It often overflowed its banks and flooded adjoining properties. I can well remember going in a wagon, drawn by two horses, with Dad to Hatchwell's, who had a raspberry farm In the Don River valley. We loaded on 1000 young raspberry plants. These were carefully planted on the flat alongside the creek. Before they had time to take root, along came a flood and the 1000 plants were washed away. That was the end of the raspberry venture at home. We went back to potatoes and pasture. SETTLING IN ON THE NEW BLOCK Now for the new block of land. It was untouched by the hand of man, and thickly covered with a lovely stand of timber and scrub. It was given the name of "Glenviolet," and was thereafter known by that name. NEW VENTURE IN LIFE With the six children-Violet, Olly, John, James, William and Jabez -together with the adopted ones - Bert and Pearl Thomas - Oliver and Elizabeth set out on a new venture In life. Oliver was 32 years of age and Elizabeth 36 years. TREES CUT DOWN FOR WAGON TO ENTER So thick was the forest of trees and scrub that a path had to be cut to get the wagon and buggy on to the property. A further area was cleared and tents erected. This was a real pioneering experience. Cooking was done over an open fire, with a camp oven, plus cast iron saucepans and kettles. MOVE FOR A HOUSE Having settled temporarily in the tents, the next move was to build a house. There was an abundance of material on the property in the tall, straight timber, but no method or machinery to saw them into weatherboards or even rough planks. So, with the American background of his father, Oliver Potts decided to build a log cabin. Messrs. Ruddle (carpenter) and Donnelly (shipwright) were engaged to build the home. The tallest and straightest of the trees were cut down, and had the bark stripped from them in six feet lengths. This bark was smoke dried by leaning the sheets, sap inwards, against a tree and lighting a fire under them. The building was 33 feet long and 18 feet wide. It was not necessary to join any of the logs as each one used was 33 feet in length. Such was the beautiful stand of timber on the block. The logs were adzed into shape, and placed one on top of the other to a height of 10 feet, with interstices cut at the end to give them stability. Wooden pegs were used for further security. Large log beams were placed across from wall to wall. Doors and windows were cut out of the solid walls. The house faced the east, and a large log fire place was built at the southern end. It had two large hobs and a log chimney about 20 feet high. Cooking was done over the open fire and bread baked In a camp oven, held over the fire by wire hooks suspended from chains fastened to an iron bar, as were other cooking utensils. Huge fires were built up in the winter nights and these kept the room warm. It was not possible to sit closer than four feet from these fires! The cabin was divided into two rooms, logs being used for the division wall kept in place by stout uprights. The gable roof was built with sapling rafters, over which were placed the flattened smoke-cured bark. This bark was held in position with wire tied to large heavy logs. The roof never leaked, nor was the bark displaced by strong wind storms, even at gale force. The joins between the log walls were filled with clay daub. which was smoothed off with a trowel. Thus by ingenuity and hard work, was a comfortable house built for the family to move into. That log cabin was the only one of its kind In that part of the State, and became of great historic interest. In later years a one-fire stove was Installed to replace the openfire cooking. PAYMENT BY BARTER Money was almost an unknown commodity In those old days. They were years of depression in which the banks had closed and disrupted the financial economy of the State of Victoria. Thus Dad made payment to Mr. Ruddle for his work on the house by dragging logs and carting wood on his block, which was where the Military School of Health is situated in what was known as Ruddle's Lane. To pay Mr. Donnelly, Dad did some ploughing for him. He had a single furrow plough drawn by two horses, and ploughed many hundreds of acres for various settlers, in an endeavour to raise some money to feed and clothe the large family.