The story of the bell

Today we visited the family house and farm that our original ancestor lived in when he first arrived in Australia. He came with nothing but after about two years he achieved a small cottage at this location in Verdun, in the Adelaide Hills.
A few years later as children started to arrive, lots of them - the present house was built in the 1850s. My cousins who are the current owners are the 6th generation to live here and farm the land. Cousin Tony actually grew up here as a boy.

Their the giant old oak tree had a catastrophic incident a couple of weeks ago. Due mostly to age, water stress caused by our hot dry climate, and due in part to this old ship's bell imbedded into the tree, it cracked in half.

The broken part of the tree containing the historic bell has been propped up against the remaining part of the tree. We are not sure how old the tree is, probably planted around 1870, and we are not sure of the origin of the old brass bell. This history was not written down at the time and is near impossible to find out now.

The bell known as the House Bell had been mounted onto the tree in approx 1928, and as the tree grew bigger, the bell gradually grew into the tree. This caused a slight weakness and a small crack line that was exposed when the tree split in two. 

This part of the trunk that has been trimmed to a piece weighing about 1 tonne will be preserved and kept with the remainder of the tree. In the extra photo you can see the owners of the house on the left with their dog Harley.