RUTH LAVERICK 1886
RUTH LAVERICK
With heavy rainfall in the early days of settlement we can only imagine what it must have been like in 1886 when the first Europeans Robert Laverick and his wife, Ruth and their children James and Lilly took over a selection in Maleny’s Baroon Pocket. Ruth, from Central London was to spend two years before she saw another white woman, and told of how the Aborigines were frequent visitors to her bush home. Her husband, Robert, was a butcher in Cobb’s Camp (Wombye) and only walked home once a week over the Blackall Range from Wombye via the Hunchy Razorback and down, what was later to become Mill Hill Road, Montville. He would stay the night and walk back to Cobb’s Camp the next day
Possibly, Ruth encountered one of her greatest hardships when in the torrential rains of February 1893 while her husband was away working at Wombye she was trapped with her young children in their little home. All the food was gone and the vegetables were washed away. They faced starvation. Their faithful dog came to the rescue. He seemed to sense the need for food for Ruth and her children (and for himself). He left the house and not long after Ruth heard a lot of noise at the door. When she opened the door the dog chased a wallaby into the kitchen. Ruth killed the wallaby with a poker. She cooked the good eating part and the remainder she gave to the hungry dog. This food kept them going until the rain stopped.