Having lived in diaspora away from South Purrumbete for most of my life, I have regularly had to explain where it is, that it’s not the Burrumbeet near Ballarat and why there is no North, East or West Purrumbete.

Well, here it is in all its glory centred on the volcanic lake from which it takes its name.

Some of the photos were taken from Mt Porndon looking west across Lake Purrumbete (thanks to Sue Seabright for allowing us the privilege to climb her mountain) or on the shore of the lake as the day ended. The silhouetted figure is my brother John. The others were taken in the early morning from Mt Leura in Camperdown looking east across the lake to Mt Porndon.

Though not strictly Purrumbete, also included are a profile of the Benedictine Abbey of St Mark near Camperdown (the landscape calls for hymns of praise) and, a short distance away, my late grandfather Albert Agustus Forster’s derelict milking shed. A former Station Master, Grandpa Forster had a quaint sense of humour and used to tell us kids his full name was Albert Agustus Loftus Smartsteel John Bull Doctor Leeda de Forster. It stuck. My sister and brother can reel it off like parrots at family gatherings.