C’mon, we need to go! Now!

Why was there a mass exodus from Adelaide in December 1948 and the early part of 1949?
Or could it have happened again around 1966?

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In the picture of Robin and Kate (top) the remnants of the reservoir workers’ camp and huts are clearly still visible. This is at Rocklands Reservoir in North Central Victoria and the workers were tidying up after building and raising dam walls and infrastructure to support the significant enlargement of an irrigation scheme for the area north.

There was a proposal to include a hydro-electric generator in the construction, but at the last moment this was discarded, as the flow was thought too seasonal.

The pictures (above) are of a 1920 Dodge Brothers touring car. That is the kind of vehicle the SA registration lists would describe as a “23.8 Dodge Brothers” car.

The “23.8” in those lists is the car’s horsepower rating, not a model name. The state registration lists give entries like “22.5 Ford” and “10.5 Clement Bayard”.
A Dodge Brothers’ four-cylinder touring car was a very common model in South Australia in the late 1910s and early 1920s, and its rating fits that 23.8 figure.

The number plate S.A. 13-675 shown on the Jaguar (below) was first issued to a 23.8 Dodge Brothers (Dodge) in 1922 to Gertrude Mary Schmidt from Farnham Road in Keswick.

But what’s the relevance of this issue?

Jessica Ellen (Jo) Thomson passed away at Hamilton on the 13th of May 2007.
Could Jo have relocated with Prosper and family to Hamilton, or Glen Isla, or was Jo just visiting friends in the area?
What address did the ambulance get called to?

Or,

Were the Osmans the friends Jo was visiting?

Had Jo nursed a member of the FAMILY in her earlier days and kept the connection going?

^{To contact the author, email onsomertonbeach@onsomertonbeach.com}

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