Before telling why we left the Valley, a few words on how and why we came to the Valley might be useful. In 2001 I had retired and Hope was doing some part-time work, and we decided the time had come to retire completely. My son Dougal told me ‘Wannamurra’ – a property my great grandfather built in Jerilderie in the mid 1800s – was for sale. It was not the Jerilderie property for sale, but part of the property which had been moved to Kangaroo Valley. Hope and I attended the auction but were beaten by buyers with deeper pockets than ours – Nick and Caroline Minogue. What a bonus for the Valley!
Although disappointed with missing part of the old family property, we still wanted to buy into the valley, and found what we called ‘Nundora’ in Jacks Corner Road: a great old timber house built by Martin Herda, a German who had a sawmill on the property, so the house was all timber, including lots of cedar and other local timbers, and to us ‘full of character’.
We soon joined the tennis club and the Show Society, which enabled us to get to know many Valley residents. Hope volunteered at the museum and at the school canteen, both of which widened our circle of friends.
In about 2017 Hope very wisely said it was time for us to leave ‘Nundora’, as there was too much for us to look after. I was not so keen, but recognised the wisdom of Hope’s view, so we prepared to leave, even though it meant leaving a lot of friends and memories.
The question was where to go? We decided we liked the look of the Highlands, and we would still be near Kangaroo Valley. My son and daughter-in-law had acquired ‘Nundora’, and we retained an interest by way of lease so there was no hurry to move. We started looking around, decided a retirement village was probably the best option for us, and liked the look of Kenilworth Gardens in Bowral, where eventually we were able to buy a unit that suited us. As we did not have to vacate ‘Nundora’ at any particular time, because of the lease, we decided to move on 11 July 2018 – exactly 17 years after we moved into it.
We thoroughly enjoyed our time in KV, where we made many friends and like to see them still. However the old house was destroyed in the bushfire on 4 January 2020 and a new house has now been built. As everyone knows it is not so easy to visit the Valley from the Highlands because of the flood-damaged Moss Vale Road.
Hope and Angus Kennedy