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My family came from a small farming town called Merbein in Victoria, Australia. My great-grandfather was a farmer (as were most of the family) who mostly grew grapes and citrus but diversified when needed and tried his hand at anything in order to make a profit or improve growing conditions. This is a hot, dry part of the state, known as the Mallee. When it became populated by farmers, there were large Malle trees which were cut down and then the huge root systems had to be removed. These photos are ones taken by my family from around the 1920s onwards.