Knowing each other since they were only a few years old, the friendship of Gembrook’s Norm Smith and Harold Ramage is a time capsule of the town’s history that dates back to when Puffing Billy carried not just tourists but timber, spuds and even the dead. Speaking with Gazette journalist Corey Everitt, Norm and Harold talk about their almost 90 years as friends.
At the age of 91 and 92 respectively, Norm and Harold have done just about everything together.
They both went to Gembrook Primary where they first met as children in 1938.
They went to Upwey High School and then did their national service together.
They both got married in Gembrook and raised their children there.
Today, you can stand along Main Street and point in any direction and they could both tell you a story about whatever your finger landed on.
How J.A.C Russell Park used to be the old timber yard, how the policeman used to come up from Emerald on a white horse or when residents gathered at the old hall to hear the announcement of King George VI’s death.
Harold’s grandfather was the President of the Berwick Shire over a century ago. His father would work on the roads for the shire where he would help carve out the network used widely today.
His uncle too would work for the old shire.
He would become a builder. He points across the street from Puffing Billy Station when asked about his work.
“That was the butcher shop that was built after it was all burnt down,” Harold said.
“I was about 17 years old and I was put with the carpenter and then I got into building after that.”
A period of that work was with the council where he would help fix up the old office building in Pakenham.
Every time it rained he would get called down the next day to fix the inevitable leaks.
His son would work for the council and now he has a grandson currently working for the council.
Harold sits right in the middle of five generations that have served the council in its many forms over the last 100 years.
He was first raised in Pakenham Upper where his family would move to Gembrook when he was three years old.
“So to me, he’s not a local,” Norm jokes.
“88 years we started, we never had a fight because he couldn’t run fast enough to catch me.”
Harold’s longtime friend beats him in this regard as Norm has been hear all his life.
He was in his mother’s arms at only a few days old when he was brought home to Gembrook onboard Puffing Billy.
Back then, the iconic train was far from the tourist attraction many know today but was the artery that connected the small town to the beating heart of the city.
Gembrook is known for potato farming during the mid to late 20th century but Harold and Norm are older enough to remember when it was a timber town before then. Without it, there would not have been the clearing to cultivate spuds in the dense forest of the Dandenong Ranges.
They both remember the men that would venture into the bush to fell the mighty gum trees of the mountain. They would drag it to the mill for the timber to be loaded by hand onto Puffing Billy where it would be unloaded and loaded once again at Ferntree Gully to enter the metro network.
The main industry would shift to potatoes. Harold helped on farms when he left school, back then each spud was picked out of the ground with a fork.
Puffing Billy was one of the main transports across town. When they were kids they used to give the guard the slip for a free ride.
Heading to Emerald to catch a picture, the move would be to sneak on at Gembrook and then jump off as Puffing Billy crossed Beaconsfield-Emerald Road so the guard couldn’t catch them as they got off at the station.
The security of the old train is much tighter today but it’s one of many aspects of the old train that are still remembered by Norm and Harold.
The iconic image of the Puffing Billy is one of young children hanging their feet out the windows, but if old Billy could talk he might tell you how he used to carry the dearly departed in the guard’s trolley.
Norm and Harold are also life-long members of the Gembrook RSL, a small sub-branch they helped keep alive for many years.
They both did their national service together. They stayed in the same hut and trained loading 100-pound shells together at Puckapunyal.
Norm’s father was member of the RSL, he died in the Second World War as a POW.
With returned soldiers taking him under his wing after the war, he would dedicate himself to the sub-branch for over 50 years.
In 1954, Norm and Harold were a part of the Guard of Honour for Queen Elizabeth’s visit to Warragul.
They were born in the midst of the Great Depression and it was the reason why Harold would grow up in Gembrook.
Before “cenno” there was the “susso”, short for the era’s welfare program called sustenance. Harold family worked for the program in Gembrook.
“They had to work pretty hard, they had to work for their money,” Harold said.
He remembered how he first drove a truck as just a boy when he would follow along his father as he filled holes in the road.
Driving would be Norm’s life as he would work as a local bus driver for over 42 years.
There may be no other person who knows the roads of the Dandenong Ranges like Norm does.
He would serve many committee roles for the Gembrook RSL, until recently he was President for six years.
In 2023, he was the oldest RSL president in the State at 90 years old and was recognised for half a century of service to the sub-branch.
Since then, Norm and Harold have both been relieved from some of the work as a new influx of members has taken the reigns of the committee.
However, they still gather on Friday evenings at the RSL for a couple of drinks and reminiscing.
