‘Time out’ along Mr Mac’s road

By Shannon Twomey
A SMALL shovel and a mattock pick were the only tools Howard McDonald needed when he first embarked on his mission at Yarra Junction.
In 1951 when he moved into Benwerren Lane, the driveway was simply grassy paddock.
However, this would not be the case for long.
Mr McDonald dug up the grassy paddock and soon put a dirt road in place.
“A bit of hard work never hurt anyone,” said Mr McDonald.
“I was continually rebuilding the road in the first few years. When it rained, the gutters would need a great deal of cleaning.”
Every two months Mr McDonald cleaned the road, placed gravel on it, raked the leaves off the gravel and out of the gutter.
When the road was first made, Mr McDonald put pipes in place for drainage.
“In the beginning I had to dig around tree stumps and cut them up with an axe,” Mr McDonald said.
“I carted a lot of rocks from the quarry too.”
Mr McDonald is now 91 years old and only stopped looking after the maintenance and care of Benwerren Lane two years ago. The Shire of Yarra Ranges is now responsible.
During this year Benwerren Lane has been sealed.
Mr McDonald laughed when he remembered how some visitors got bogged in the road during its initial years of being built.
“It had been raining throughout the night when their car got bogged. When they tried to drive anywhere the car would spin all over the road. Eventually the car had to be pushed all the way up to Settlement Road,” said Mr McDonald.
“We all had mud up to our knees and it took a good two weeks to clean up the gutters after that.”
Mr McDonald and his wife bought the property on Benwerren Lane in 1951.
“We had cows and chooks on our property in the later years,” said Mr McDonald.
“By this time the road had settled down.”
Aside from taking on the responsibility of Benwerren Lane, Mr McDonald worked at the Lands Department for 22 years, as a counsellor in high schools for 10 years and as a probation officer.
To top it off, Mr McDonald has also been heavily involved in the opening and running of Benwerren, of which his daughter, Dawn Develyn is the president and secretary.
“Benwerren is a non profit organisation dedicated to supporting families by providing ‘time out’ for women and children,” said Ms Develyn. “Everyone who spent time at the organisation loved hearing Dad’s stories about the making of the road.”
Mr McDonald was commonly known as “Mr Mac” to many people who stayed at Benwerren.
The “Benwerren” sign has been missing for two months and both Mr McDonald and Ms Develyn would much appreciate its return.
It had taken years of hard work to build and maintain Benwerren Lane but Mr McDonald was very modest about his success and contribution.
“Bread and butter was all I needed to get me by,” said Mr McDonald. “That road will last longer than me.”