Monday, 5th June …..

I’ve always known that our involvement with Kangaroo Valley and the people there had an enormous influence on our family and on the way we have lived our lives. I first met Jim in 1966, the year we were married. He visited Coogee Prep. to tell us about the programs being offered at Chakola. He remembers that I was refereeing a rugby match and I was wearing a blue blazer and silver-grey trousers when he arrived and the Head, Nick Brown, told him to explain it all to me when I was finished. It’s funny how some situations stick in your mind when most things are totally forgotten.

Nick had no background in outdoor activities but I had been a boy scout and was interested in doing more in the outdoors. Outdoor Education was a very new concept and Warwick Deacock was one of the first people to promote it as an important part of a child’s development. To cut a long story short, Nick and I visited Chakola to get a feel for the place and took a group of children there later in the year. It was a revelation to us just how different our students were in that out-of-school environment. The natural leaders came to the fore, the shy ones gained in confidence and the brash ones learned to calm down.

I was delighted when I was asked to work in their holiday programs which were of 7-days duration. In the summer, one group would be heading out the gate and another group would be coming in an hour later. It was frantic but fantastic. Marilyn soon became a part of the staff as well, helping in the kitchen and so on, and when Jamie came along, Chakola became part of his life too.

Marilyn and I had both been brought up in safe, suburban Australia and now, all of a sudden, we were mixing with people who were a bit alternative and had travelled and were interested in music, politics, world affairs, literature, and so on. None of them would claim any expertise in any of those subjects but the important thing is that they were questioning and open to new ideas. What a revelation for us and what an opportunity to broaden our own horizons.

With Jim and, later, Derek, we began to walk around the valley and further afield: the Shoalhaven River and Kosciuszko National Park. My strongest memory of those times is that we laughed a lot. We shared a love of the absurd, and quotes from the Goon Show became a familiar part of our vocabulary. We actively sought out humorous things to share – silly poems were particularly enjoyed. On the walk I’ve already mentioned up the Yarrunga Creek, I, apparently, took along a list of Nearly Naughty Words (like fuchsia). I don’t remember this at all, but Jim assures me it is so.

So, in memory of those wonderful days, here are a few items from a list of titles which might help encourage bird-watchers to read, given to me by Jim and Di this weekend:
A Tern Like Alice
Partridge to India
The Concise Oxford Ducktionary (particulary useful for NZ readers)
Lord of the Wings
The Holy Boobook
The Hen Commandments