We are reluctantly leaving Kangaroo Valley after 47 happy years.
In 1974 there was a recession, and my engineering husband found that his many clients no longer needed his services.
I was not teaching as we had adopted two children.
Our Sydney home was dangerous for active toddlers. We had built on a cliff overlooking Georges River railway bridge at Oyster Bay. There was an unfenced swimming pool next door. Bush reserves surrounded us and we had had three robberies.
We searched state-wide for a place away from the problems we envisaged could happen in the city.
We discovered a property for sale in Priddles Lane, Wattamolla, with 25 acres. There were mountain views, three quarters of a kilometre of creek frontage with rapids and two deep water holes. We were both excited as Rob saw exciting rocks and sand for building a stone house and I saw fertile basalt soil and irrigation possible for my subsistence living. We are dreamers. We moved into a caravan.
It rained and rained. Mud was everywhere. The children complained “We want to go home, Mummy.” My reply was ”Darlings, this is home”!
The Sydney house was sold. Rob built the stone house and I went back to work. I obtained a job with the Department of Youth and Community Services as an Early Childhood Advisor, assisting and inspecting preschools and long day care centres from Stanwell Park to Ulladulla and Goulburn.
We ploughed and irrigated and grew vegetables to eat and for the Sydney markets and the local shop. Our beans got the ‘odd special highest price’. It was not enough to keep us and we were exhausted. We blew our money buying Chinese meals in Nowra.
I milked the cow and the children complained that it tasted of cow.
I made butter and bread.
One of our cows showed initiative, jumped the fence and came home when satisfied. The neighbour rang and complained that our cow was in their farm. My reply was that I could see her in our yard. Nine months later we had a calf!
We learnt that Kangaroo Valley was very community minded. Over the years we have been on the executive and members of the P & C, the Lions Club, Scouts, Osborne Park Committee, A & H Society, Pioneer Museum Trust, ADFAS and Joan Bray’s Book Club.
There was an active playgroup one day a week at Kangaroo Valley Public School in the original classroom. Some parents told me that they would like a preschool and I saw the need as the activities were limited. With the generous support of the Principal, Mr Dunn, we established a preschool. The Council gave us money and I ordered suitable toys and equipment. A committee was formed and staff was chosen. The preschool was opened with about 12 children for a few days a week.
DOYCS was slow in allocating money. The fees charged were insufficient to pay staff and the Principal left. I was elected as the Principal for the rest of the year. I donated the first month of my pay whist we waited for our finances to grow.
I started an Early Childhood Part-time Course with TAFE. Bomaderry Preschool allowed us to use a class room. My students were untrained staff who were working at Nowra, Kiama and Bowral schools
The next year I was employed full-time with TAFE and later retired at Shellharbour TAFE as Head Teacher of General Studies.
Rob became heavily involved with Lions and volunteered his engineering skills and labour to the buildings connected with the Ambulance Station.
When our children attended the Primary School we joined the executive of the P & C.
On our farm we bred sheep, goats, cows, horses, chooks and ducks with not much profit, and we both had full time jobs.
We enjoyed help and cultural exchange when we had about 75 Willing Workers on Organic Farms, ‘WOOFERS’, from all over the world staying with us. We learnt much from them and some still contact us and had return visits. Any notions we had of racial stereotypes were so wrong. Some of the best we thought would have been bad, and some of the worst (including Australians), who stole from us and would not assist, we thought would be good.
When Rob returned to work, when the economy improved, he had to travel from Brisbane to Eden.
Rob’s widowed father had moved in and assisted with the care of the children. My mother also moved in until she was 90.
Our son, Norman, trained as landscape gardener at the Kangaroo Valley golf course and then worked as a gardener at Shellharbour TAFE. Our daughter, Caroline, studied as an environmental scientist and an engineer (she topped the state) and now works at a development consulting company in Nowra, Allen Price and Scarratt.
We are both well into our eighties and our health and energy are deteriorating. We cannot maintain the property. Friends, neighbours and my cousins are helping us prepare the property for sale. Another family can enjoy our parties, cricket matches, land care, swims, walks and the special environment.
There are the native plants such as cedars, river oaks with orchids growing on them, palms, bottle brush, tree ferns, wattle, gums and many we planted. There are waratah trees over 12 feet high full of flowers and their seedlings coming up. There are fruiting trees such as citrus, stone fruit, nuts, as well as camellia trees.
Some years ago we had a visit from a ‘location scout’ for the film Babe. They subsequently settled on a property in Robertson.
The not totally finished house has five bedrooms and a spa and needs further love. People enjoy visiting and exploring.
The native life is amazing with possums, echidnas, native cats, lizards, glow worms, fireflies, butterflies and snakes. Last night we saw four baby wombats; one we followed down our driveway. If you are very quiet you could see a family of platypuses in the creek.
A few years ago the platypus experts visited our creek and then chose Walker’s bridge to watch all night and trap a young female who became Taronga Zoo’s first breeder.
Even the former Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, thinks this area is spectacular and recently spent time with his family on the other side of the creek, probably without realising that he might have to use a helicopter to fly out if the river floods. This happened to a neighbour and they crashed when caught on an electric line on take-off.
Recently, we bought a house in Bomaderry with a small garden. We will be closer to family, doctors, hospitals, public transport and shopping. Our Kelpie will have to get used to a smaller area but she loves watching people and dogs walk past and she especially loves the doggy door.
It is hard to leave, however, and we will maintain friendships when we move to Bomaderry.
Margaret and Rob Griffiths
