OUR
HISTORY
TIMBER, TRAGEDY & TOIL
THE LEESON NAME HAS A HISTORY IN THE LOGGING AND HAULAGE INDUSTRY, DATING BACK TO THE 1940’S
In 1947, Ian Leeson (1924–1956) had left the family farm in Caldermeade, married Jessie Ellen Nicholson, and moved to Hopetoun Street in Drouin. Ian was a truckie, hauling logs in the West Gippsland area. A few years later in 1952, Jack Cuthbertson and Ray Richards opened a new sawmill at Bullumwaal, 30km north of Bairnsdale. This prompted Ian and Jessie to make the move to Bullumwaal, where the Leeson's established themselves, with Ian working closely with Bill McDonald, a dozer driver who loaded the logs on Ian's truck.
In 1955, the Leeson's moved to Bairnsdale, where Ian would continue carting logs for the Bullumwaal sawmill, until his tragic death while unloading logs. This prompted Jessie to move far north, to Burleigh Heads, in Queensland. A chance meeting with Lindsay Crawford, would see them marry in 1961, before returning to Bairnsdale, and the logging and haulage industry later that year.
