Around Australia with the Ralphs 1990 - Queensland - Sydney 1st - 20th June

Past interminable cane fields we, the clouds building up and threatening, but never delivering any rain; the road was wet in places. Next stop was Mount Elliott National Park, just south of Townsville, where we shared our lunch with about 30 Australian brush turkeys. The birds had a red head and neck with a yellow collar and were fearless of people, although they chased each other whenever they felt like it or one had food (provided by the kids). Also present were several kookaburras which tried to steal the bone from the leg of lamb which we have placed in the fork of a tree. The bone being weighty made them fly like a brick!

Next stop Ayr, for a visit to the supermarket and bank before the last leg of our trip to Airlie Beach. The roads became progressively worse; the section from Highway 1 to Airlie Beach being some of the worst we have seen. I feel like sending a bill for the bottle of sugar which was broken during this part of the trip, to the main roads Department.

Airlie Beach is a tourist resort, its main street was still bustling after dark at around 6:30 PM when we arrived. Setting up the van caused some difficulty as the ground was soft and getting and keeping the van on the level was not easy.

Airlie beach Caravan Park. Note the chinese laundry under the annexe. Washing and getting the kids' clothes dry was an
almost full time occupation. Jacqui did most of this work throughout the trip.

Saturday, 2nd June 1990.

Having ummed and ahhed for a while we finally decided to spend $165 and take a trip on a high-speed catamaran out to an outer reef called Hardy - about 45 nautical miles north-east of Airlie Beach. As we made the decision relatively late, around 8 AM, and the boat called Capricorn left at 9 AM from Shute Harbour, we rushed breakfast, packed bags with swimming gear, dragged the kids away from the TV (at the office), and drove at breakneck speed to arrive at the wharf with five minutes to spare.

The 38m long cat was huge, quiet and comfortable and almost empty when we left at the stroke of 9 AM. First stop was South Molle resort and then on to Hayman island to pick up passengers from the resorts there. The weather was overcast, with low cloud shrouding most mountaintops, even those of the islands.

The Whitsunday group of islands includes large and small islands in a compact group with myriad harbours and selected bays - an ideal place for a holiday on a boat.

As soon as we left the lee of Hook Island, after picking up the Hayman passengers, we are exposed to the full force of a 20 knot south-easterly breeze that was whipping up 1 to 2 m high seas. As we were behind the reef, there was no swell, so under the circumstances the second half of our trip to the reef was relatively smooth, some on board, though, (not Jacqui) were in need of the foil lined sick bags handed out freely.

Our first view of the reef came as a surprise to me, in fact I didn’t see Bait Reef as it passed a few kilometres to port, but I did see a few yachts and motor cruisers moored in its lee. This made me realise how easy it must be to strike a reef: saw them at low tide, when they were exposed, and still they were all but invisible.

At Hardy Reef we pulled alongside the pontoon at around 11 AM and were shuffled onto the coral sub. An inaccurately named vessel, which was merely a boat with a glass hull that looked in section like this:

Visibility in the water was poor and the wind and current made it difficult to approach the coral reef too closely. We did see two turtles, the highlight of this part of the trip. Strangely the captain didn’t get a laugh when he said that he was next going to take the submarine out to the centre of the channel, submerge it to 300 feet, but only for 10 minutes as the air compressors weren’t working properly.

Back on board, Jacqui organised the kids some lunch from the smorgasbord while I suited up in a wet suit, mask, snorkel and fins for a 45 minute group dive with Tony, the resident marine biologist and comic. Tony had given us a talk to accompany a videoed slideshow on what coral reefs are etc. on the way out to the reef. During the snorkelling we saw a huge groper which is reported to be about 6 foot long with a mouth large enough to swallow Rohan easily. There were numerous other species of fish present, mainly large, and attracted by the bread thrown periodically into the water. As I was the only experienced diver, I was given the task of collecting specimens for examination as Tony claimed to have sinus problems. The reef dropped off quickly to 250 feet and was alive with fish and coral of all types. The water was cool and after a while I was glad of the wetsuit I had hired.

Returning to the boat, I looked after the kids while Jacqui took to the water. The kids could swim on the boat’s swim platform (Lachlan managed to get a mask which fitted him) which is used to enter or leave the water and was about 30cm below the water’s surface. They soon became cold and were soon back on deck wrapped in towels.

Jacqui was attacked by a trevally when she held out a piece of bread for them to eat, and she has the "scar" to prove it:

The trip back was, if anything, rougher than the trip to the reef. Alfred and his wife were professional video producers who had been making a video of the trip and to drum up sales they showed what they had taken for about three quarters of an hour on the way back in. The video was excellent but Jacqui thinks he made no sales, not surprising when a large proportion of the tourists seem to have their own video cameras.

For some however, the video was not a sufficient distraction and the sick bags were put to use. The kids responded in various ways; Rohan clung to Jacqui like a limpet, while Anja and Lachlan made a game of walking around and falling over. For some time I was in the bridge and marvelled at the sophisticated colour radar, colour depth sounder, digital RPM readout, autopilot and short lever control for steering.

Once back in the lee of the islands the sea settled down but the clouds thickened as we deposited the guests from Hayman and South Molle islands back to their accommodation.

Other charter vessels, seen as we reached Shute Harbour, included two famous yachts: Apollo and Gretel. They would have had a fantastic time sailing in the windy but calm waters near Shute Harbour.

I forgot to mention that a bloke is stationed permanently on the pontoon on Hardy Reef to keep the birds off and ensure it is clean for the groups when they arrive. What a lonely life. You’d have to like fishing!

Watch Lachlan sound out the name of his can of Fanta at 4mins 22s

Sunday, 3rd June 1990

A cool to cold, overcast and windy day. The kids found some friends and spent at least half of the day playing with them, while Jacqui did the inevitable washing. She hung it out a few minutes before heavy rain. I made a tape [2021 note: these tapes have been lost], wrote up this diary and wrote a letter.

The afternoon was even more lazy. Most of it was spent in the van sheltering from the poor weather. Later in the afternoon we ventured out to buy Rohan a birthday cake, as we decided to celebrate his birthday today, rather than tomorrow as we will be on the road.

Monday, 4th June 1990 Rohan's Birthday

Cool and windy, a good day for travelling except that the usual south-easterly trade wind was a headwind for us as we travelled south Rockhampton.

Basically, this was a long day in the car and overall the kids were very good. We stopped only once at Mackay where an excellent park full of young kids on an excursion and some superb playground equipment, kept the kids occupied. For petrol we stopped at Carmila where we bought fuel at $0.59.9 per litre. The first time we have seen fuel at less than $0.60 for a long time.

Arriving at Rockhampton on dusk we eventually found a new caravan park, not rated [2021 note: the rating would have been in the NRMA caravan and camping guide that we used throughout the trip to find caravan parks] but cheap with new facilities.

Tuesday, 5th June 1990

Waking early, I could hear the whine of the Queensland cement works over the road. I went out and sat in the car listening to the radio. Interestingly I found 2 ABC radio stations that were the same on different frequencies. The difference in the distance between the two transmitters meant that there was a fraction of a second delay when switching from one to the other making an echo when turning quickly from one station to the other. The things you do!

After breakfast we drove into the city mall [in Rockhampton] where a number of members of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra brass section, plus 1 of the percussionists, gave an interesting 20 minute concert. The percussionist had an African talking drum, which was constructed as shown below:

An African talking drum of the type played by the percussionist from the Queensland Symphony Orchestra during a recital in the Rockhampton shopping Mall

When the strings were compressed, either between the knees or under the arm, it has the effect of changing the tension in the skin, and thus the pitch of the note when the drum is hit. Also present was the principal violinist, who gave an interesting demonstration of didgeridoo playing with a vacuum cleaner pipe. [2021 note: hardly a culturally sensitive thing to be doing, but those were different days.]

From the mall it was off to Mount Hay, 40 km west of Rockhampton, to hunt for thundereggs. On the way we saw a long train carrying coal from the coal fields to the powerstation. Each train was pulled and pushed along by four electric locomotives-the line was electrified. There was a central unit towed behind the two locos in the middle of the train. [2020 note: In 1982 Ian worked as an engineering geologist for a company called Coffey and Partners. In early 1982 Ian spent a lot of time working on the geological structures of the rocks overlaying the coal measures of the Bowen Basin coal measures that, at that time, were in the early stage of setting up mines]

At Mount Hay we were given picks, shovels and a bucket for $12 and shown where to dig in the highly foliated rhyolite. We all attacked the task with gusto and it took around two hours to get a bucket full of thundereggs. There were about 3 other groups at the diggings, the biggest thunderegg to be found was about 5 to 6 cm in diameter.

Scanned sectioned thundereggs. The one on the right is probably from our fossicking in June 1990. The larger one on the left is a much bigger specimen whose origin is unknown

Taking our bucket up to the shop, the proprietors cut 4 in half for us, most of which had interesting and indeed beautiful centres. We packed the rest into a plastic bag with the intention of cutting them at school when I returned.(Barrenjoey High School, where Ian worked at that time, had a lapidary "shed" that had been setup for an after-school course by another teacher. Part of the equipment was a water-cooled diamond tipped saw that can be used to cut rocks)

Preparing for lunch, on the table provided, I had everything spread out when it became apparent I had forgotten the bread. So we packed up again and returned to camp, purchasing bread and pies on the way.

After lunch it began to rain, so it was up with the sides to the annex.

At around 4 PM we went into town the groceries and Rohan's birthday presents were purchased.

Wednesday, 6th June

The heavy rain decided for us that we were not to move. So after a suitable time (i.e. until the kids were driving us mad), we went into the local shopping centre where we purchased a few things including lunch. Lunch was bread rolls which we filled as we wished [2021 note: sounds like we went to a precursor of Subway], needless to say the kids didn't touch theirs and placed them back into the polystyrene containers for later.

Later was in the car as we drove in a 99Km scenic loop from Rockhampton to Yeppoon and back. The view at the coast was one of dull brown chop crashing on wet sand through heavy rain.

During the afternoon Jacqui washed, feeding the drier with lots of money, of course.

To end this day, Ian wrote the following letter to our then next door neighbours, Gillian Workman and Alberto Blanco and their 2 children, Carmen and Marco and Gillian's mother Hilda workman. Gillian found them in a cleanup in May 2022 and posted them to Ian.

This is a letter sent to our then next door neighbours, Gillian Workman and Alberto Blanco and their 2 children, Carmen and Marco and Gillian's mother Hilda workman. Gillian found them in a cleanup in May 2022 and posted them to Ian.

Thursday 7th June 1990

We packed in overcast windy conditions but, fortunately, there was no rain for our short trip to Gladstone.

After 1½ hrs we arrived at this industrial harbour town and began our search for Leon [2021 note: Leon Miller used to live next door to Ian at 24 Woorarra Ave Elanora Heights between 1970 and 1976. Ian and Leon went to Narrabeen Boys High together from 1969-1970. Having to physically search for Leon, reminds me of the fact that there were no mobile phones then and clearly he didn't have a phone number since he and Catie were living on a yacht].

First stop was the modern marina where an enquiry from the yacht broker sent us immediately to the Gladstone Dry Boat storage yard. The big red-headed and heavily bearded welder in turn directed me to the Yacht Club. Unfortunately the car wouldn't start - the starter motor refusing to budge, even after using jumper leads from a friendly local. We called the RACQ, but before they arrived I had rectified the problem which was simply a poor connection at the battery posts.

At the Yacht club a bramaid told me that Leon and a blond (Catie) had just left by the back door. Back out to the yacht club we drove but they hadn't returned - we subsequently found out that they had a lot to do before commencing a 2 week holiday at Alice Springs the next day.

By this time it was 2pm, the kids and indeed Jacqui and I, were hungry, so we ate pies (cold in the middle) in the mall at the centre of Gladstone. I had left a message [at the dry boat storage area] for Leon saying I would call back, but he still wasn't in. Luckily we decided to stop in at the boat yard once more on our way to finding a camping area. Sure enough, Leon and Catie were there. Leon's mouth dropped open on the sight of us; it turned out that he had sent a letter to Cairns telling me that they were going on holidays and they hoped to meet us in Cairns or perhaps see us after they had returned.

Over the inevitable beers we talked of the boat, their plans for a cruise and what had been happening during the past 5 years since we had last met. Marissa, his boat, is a 26' long, beautifully painted with superb woodwork, the start of Leon's career as a shipwright.

While Leon and Catie packed we set up the van in the boat storage yard - convenient to Leon and free as well.

For dinner we went to a local char-grill restaurant where we waited 2 hours for a very average meal. My steak was tough, the avocados were rock hard and the bernaise sauce was curdled, added to which the Queen Adelaide riesling was $11.80 per bottle. At least the kids had a bit of freedom in the not too posh restaurant - Jacqui maintains that the restaurant's owners were pleased to see us leave.

The kids and jacqui went to bed while Leon and I sat up and drank a bottle of Oberge. At 1.30am I was very intoxicated. About an hour later I was up using the toilet, but not for its normal function.

Friday, 8th June 1990

Waking with a headache I took Leon and Catie to the airport at 8am where we sat and talked in the almost empty departure lounge. Their flight to Cairns left Gladstone and wouldn't arrive until 1pm in Cairns, a 3 3/4hr flight for a short distance; Catie complained that the flight from Cairns to Alice Springs only takes 1½hrs; the benefits of non-stop flights.

As Leon left we were unhappy to have had only a day together and I hope not to have to wait 5 years to see them again.

There was action aplenty back at the marina; ocean racing power boats, huge phallic objects with garish colours and opulent interiors that were obviously incredibly expensive to own and run, were entering the water for the start of a race to Mooloolaba. Interestingly, the driver and his offsiders stand and are held in by foam supports which wrap around their waists. Adding to the excitement was a helicopter which landed nearby to collect a TV cameraman to, I presume, video the race start. We all watched both the boats and helicopter until they left. We returned to the van to eat a late breakfast and pack up.

As the Gladstone show was on, and the kids knew it was on, we had to go! While they enjoyed parts of it, I was disappointed that few trade displays were to be seen and the show was predominantly a huge sideshow alley.

Our usual practice of giving each child $5 was used again and caused no end of trouble. Lachlan used all his money early and once we asked them to share tears and squabbles broke out [2021 note: asking Rohan and Anja to share their unspent money was, in retrospect, unfair].

Under these circumstances the show was no longer fun, so we left. After lunch, in a nearby Lions Club park ( Lachlan wanted to know where the lions were) Anja and Lachlan crashed heads, splitting Anja's bottom lip. We fled Gladstone heading for Bundaberg in fine, cool but windy conditions.

About ½ way there we struck rain, but this soon abated to occasional showers.

As were were entering Bundaberg (in somewhat of a hurry to make the post office before it closed) we witnessed a most amazing event. The car in front of us was towing an aluminium dinghy on an old trailer. Jacqui commented on how shakey the mudguards appeared. A few minutes later, as we drove along a 2-lane road with wide grass verges, that was curving gradually to the right, it appeared that the boat, and I assumed the car, were going to undertake a slower car by driving on the grass verge. What was really happening was that the boat and trailer had come unhitched from the towing car and were obeying Newton's 1st law by continuing with constant velocity (in a straight line). As soon as the towing hitch of the trailer hit the grass, the trailer stopped and the boat broke free from the trailer and continued for about 20m on the wet grass, narrowly missing a No Standing sign.

We made the PO, collected mail and soon found Jo and Jim (Jacqui's mum and her partner) on a convenient mooring on the Burnett River close to town. Over and excellent baked dinner we caught up on news - it was good to see them again

Saturday, 9th June 1990

Jacqui took the kids and, after picking up Jo, went shopping. After returning with the groceries, we all went to the local library before lunch.

During the afternoon, while Jacqui washed clothes (yes again!), the kids started to dig in the grass. I move them on, but they simply started to dig in the grass so Jacqui moved them on again. The next thing we knew, Lachlan was at the door with sticky, greasy mud from the mangroves up to his knees. Before I could wash him down he had to go back to the river side to retrieve his shoes which had been sucked off and were about 20 cm down in the mud.

Having hosed him down with cold water, I didn't think he would get muddy again. How wrong could I be! Jacqui and Rohan walked back to the boat with Jo and as I began preparing dinner. BOTH Anja and Lachlan turned up muddy!

Jo and Jim joined us for lasagne and Rohan took a shining for Jim, spending most of the night trying to sit on his lap. The more Jim pushed him off the greater was Rohan's effort to get back on.

Sunday, 10th June 1990

A spot of fishing sounded like a good idea, so with Jo on board we drove through the sugar cane farms to Burnett heads where the Burnett river meets the sea.

For several hours we fished from a rocky breakwall - sheltering from a cool SW wind in the lee of the breakwall. When the sun came from behind the scattered clouds it was even warm; this didn't help our fishing, though, as we caught 3 too-small whiting which were thrown back. We also lost 5 sets of gear to snags.

From there it was a short trip to Bargara for lunch in a park by the "beach". The kids enjoyed playing in the sand having races and building channels to divert the groundwater which was seeping to the surface.

We returned Jo to their yacht - the Morfarch (Welsh for sea horse) - where she prepared a chicken casserole to be consumed at the van. I picked her and the casserol up at 6pm

Monday, 11th June 1990

Although I had felt slightly coldy in the night before, this morning I was simply destroyed by a bad cold.

Consequently the rest of my day was spend in bed, mostly asleep.

Jacqui soldiered on with the kids, keeping then away and the van was quiet as a result. She's a real brick!

Tuesday, 12th June 1990

Still under the weather, but back in the land of the living, I managed to join in with the activities on this day.

First thing was a visit to the Post Office where we used a fancy card phone to phone Mum, Dad, Karen, Vince and Damien in the USA. It was good to talk to them again and we organised to pick them up from the airport on 29th June. [2021 note: I did pick them up but had not set their alarm clock correctly making me very late!]

From there we picked up Jo, organised some clothes and food for the kids and took another sugar cane-lined road to Elliot Heads - just south of Bargara, Here Jo had offered to mind the monsters until 4pm while Jacqui and I did as we pleased.

This turned out to be eating 1Kg of banana prawns with bread in the sunshine (what a pity my cold had removed my sense of taste as Jacqui reported that the prawns were excellent). Next we rushed to the Bundaberg Rum distillery where we joined a tour. A bus-load of "blokes" from Biloela arrived to swell the number on the tour just as it was departing. All were dressed in their Sunday best which meant jeans, RM Williams laughing sided boots, belt with large buckle, checked shirt and Akubra hat on top of a lean sun-tanned face adorned with a well trimmed mo. I gather they were on their way to see a state of origin football match (ugh!).

The tour took about 1hr and started at the molasses building where 9,000,000L of molasses is stored in a huge pool. The molasses is piped across the road from a sugar mill about 100m away.

From the storage the molasses is cleaned and then placed in the fermentation vats where it sits for 24hrs after being inoculated. These are open to the air and produce a pungent aroma.

When the alcohol content reaches 8% the mix is distilled to bring the alcohol content up to 78% before being stored in oak barrels, each of which holds 60,000L, for 2 years. Finally the colour is added along with demineralised water before bottling. A new machine does 44,000 bottles, 5 days a week, 52 weeks per year.

Then we picked up Jo and the kids from Elliot heads to return to Bundaberg for a fitting of shoes for Rohan and Lachlan

Wednesday 13th June 1990

At Jo and Jim's boat the first job we decided to do was to remove some of the fuel in the tank, which is useless now that Jo and Jim are replacing their aging 6 cylinder Holden petrol motor with a diesel. To make the job easier I bought a cheap syphon which didn't work even after sealing all the leaks. We returned it for a refund and purchased 3m of plastic tube to try sucking and syphoning. It transpired that the level of the fuel in the tank was so low that syphoning was not possible. Finally we decided that a decent electric pump was needed. Jim and I sat in the boat talking about engines, cruising and things boaty until Jo and Anja, Rohan and Lachlan returned from a shopping expedition.

I dropped them off back at the van and, with Lachlan and Jim, went to another store where pumps and watering systems were sold. Jim hought a large pump. We marvelled at the $22,000 sprinkler system for sugar cane farms. [2021 note: When staying with Jo and Jim in Gin Gin Selwyn, their cane growing neighbour, spent close to $500,000 on a centre pivot sprinkler system for his cane farm.]

With the correct equipment we soon had 40L in 2 containers which were thereafter deposited in our car. Over a suppa Jim and I talked for awhile about his experiences in WWII in North Africa, Italy and India.

Jo and Jim came to dinner, we had pork chops, brussel sprouts, baked potatoes and sweet potato with fresh pineapple for dessert. As I went to the toilets to fetch hot water for washing, our children were paid a compliment by our neighbour who said that not only were they good looking, but well behaved too!

I forget to mention a conversation I had with a bloke in the shed of the slipway next to he van park, during the early morning. He had a large wooden trawler on the slips and was obviously in the process of renovating it. It had cost $70,000, of which $50,000 was accounted for by the fishing or prawning licence. So far he had spent $30,000 on replanking, $18,000 on a new engine, $9,000 on a prop and and shaft and was still spending big. He said he could afford this because the other trawler was working all the time with a crew of 3. Before purchasing this boat for himself, he had travelled around Australia on the proceeds of his other boat. Fishing was a lucrative and better paid than teaching, he said.

Thursday, 14th June 1990

After taking Jo to the hospital to see a sick friend, we dropped Jacqui off to have her hair cut at around midday. With the kids and Jo, I returned to the van for lunch.

A simple meal of toasted bread rolls was had before we went for a walk along the river, under both the road and rail bridges, stopping for quite a while in the playground. A blue cattle dog (heinz variety) accompanied us and was in the habit of carrying more than one stick at a time in its mouth. We all enjoyed playing with it even after it revealed its true cattle dog ancestry and nipped Anja on the bum as she was swinging (she laughed so much she wet her pants!) and it was not sent packing. I didn't learn very quickly because as I was having a swing it bit me and ripped a new T-shirt given to me by Mum and Dad.

Back at the van we waited on the "porch" in warm sunshine for Jacqui to return, which she did at 3pm.

By this time she was very hungry so after some sustenance, it was back to the boat. From here Jacqui, Anja, Rohan and Jo wandered off into town to buy a gift for Michelle Walla's (nee Ralph) forthcoming child. Lachlan and I remained to milk fuel from Jim's boat. In the end the car scored a full tank , plus 20L, for no charge - thanks Jim!

Since today was our last day with Jo and Jim we went out for dinner to the Pizza Hut where $41 fed 7 people.

The night is clear and cool after a torrential downpour while Jacqui, Jo and the kids were shopping. I wonder how we'll fare when it really starts to get cold at Lell's and even in Sydney?

Friday 15th Hune 1990

Packing took longer than normal this morning due to the way in which the kids had emptied out ALL of their toys out of their storage areas; of course they needed to be repacked before the van could be put down.

Consequently it was 10.50AM before we arrived at the mid-town marina to say farewell to Jo and Jim and nearly 11AM when we hit the road.

I regret not having consulted the map before departure as it cost us an extra 50Km of travelling:

As we travelled south, traffic was heavy, especially the closer we got to Brisbane. Much of the traffic was travelling North as today is the last day of term II in Qld. As we travelled we had some large companions - 3 armoured personnel carriers on the back of trucks.

Arriving at my cousin Michelle's house the kids soon settled down with some cake in front of the TV with Michelle's daughters Nicole and Amy. Michelle was 9 months pregnant and even that day, weeks before the child was due, she would have been kept in hospital had she gone there, because today may be the day.

We spoke of our family for a few hours and how Michelle and Glenn had moved to Burpengary; the time they had had since arriving here, trying to get work and how they survived with no income for a while.

Glenn returned from his video rental store managers job around 6pm and it was around 7pm when we left to find a camping site.

This proved more difficult than it sounds. The freebie turned out to be in the middle of town, the next charged $24 and didn't take bankcard. We got money in Cabouture, where we found that the Credit Union had in some way stuffed up our home repayments sending our advantage saver account $600 overdrawn. We ended up paying $10 at the local park to stay the night. As I write we are 20m from the dual road which is the Bruce Highway and by the sound of things we are in for a noisy night!

Saturday 16th June 1990

We made an early start after a very noisy night as predicted. What looked like a straight through route on the arterial road south to Nerang, was in fact a patchwork of disjointed sections of half-completed freeways skirting to the east of Brisbane.

As we passed the looping rollercoaster of DreamWorld, Lachlan said: "What's that". Dreamworld was all I said...

At 11:30AM we pulled into a park in Nerang next to a shallow river (I know it was shallow, as I saw an expensive boat grind its propellor on rocks). At 12:30PM we completed our journey to Lyn Harrington's new home in a new suburb called Nerang. Nerang was so new that it was not listed in the UBD street directory that Jim had given us. We arrived as Lyn was unpacking the groceries and spent the rest of the evening drinking tea and talking and walking in the area. [2021 note: Ian and Lyn Harrington taught together at Cromer High School while Ian was there between 1976 and 1980. Lyn taught Chemistry]

Lyn Harrington photo

Lyn Harrington photo. Lyn and Rohan

Lyn's Mum had made an excellent meal of eggplant, lamb, cauliflower and rice in typical authentic Indian fashion. It was YUM!. The news about Lyn's Dad Percy wasn't so good.

After the kids were in bed we met Lyn's Mum (whose name, I am sorry to say, I do not recall) and talked until late.

Sunday 17th June 1990

The day dawned bright and sunny, and, as we didn't need to leave until 2PM we spent it doing little. Before lunch I spied a new fold up clothges line and, as Lyn had all the necessary pieces of equipment, I offered to put it up for her. This took a few hours but was worth the effort as she had looked after us and she had been without a clothes line since November 1989.

Things didn't go as planned and it was nearer 3PM when we left heading south with a rainy front looming, black off to the south west. By the time we had crossed the border into NSW, we had seen enough of the high-ride development on the Gold Coast. and the rain had started in earnest.

Sugar cane farms bordered the road as it wound along the valley of the Richmond River. Not that we could see much through the heavy rain. Before long the road had started to rise and we entered the area around the spectacular Mt Warning. This is how I remember it:

On the way to Alstonville, where we were going to stay with Sue and Steve Phillips (Sue and Jacqui went to school together), we detoured to Byron Bay where Jacqui oohed and aahed at the development which had gone on there since her last visit in t 1976. We didn't see Paul Hogan or "Hoges", house [2021 note: paul Hogan was a relatively famous and rich TV and movie personality. Like many similarly wealthy individuals he has setup home in Byron Bay. Nothing has changed].

It was just on dusk when we pulled into Ballina for fuel and wine. From there it was only a 13Km trip up a winding section of the Bruxner Highway to Alstonville.

We found Sue and Steve's house without difficulty, but no one was home. Fortunately Sue and Steve has left a key with a neighbour who let us in. Almost and hour later they arrived and we tucked into a few bottles of French red (made in France by Australian wine makers and bottled in Australia) with an excellent quiche made by Sue.

Sue and Steve's children Ben and Che were great with the kids. Che amused Rohan and Anja and Ben read Roald Dahl's book, Witches, to Lachlan ad nauseum.

During the night, at about 2am, I was in a deep sleep on a mattress placed in the lounge room, when Anja started screaming for Mummy. Jacqui nudged me awake and asked me to turn on the light. As I was in the middle of a deep sleep, the location of the light, indeed the location of myself, was momentarily beyond me so I asked "where am I?"

Monday 18th June 1990

Sue Steve and the kids were off to school and work. Sue and Steve both work for NSW's National Parks and Wildlife Service (Steve was 2nd in charge of the area and Sue was an office assistant). We stayed until about 11am waiting for Westpac Narrabeen to call about a stuff-up they had made with our home loan repayments. It's fortunate that we called back as the manager hadn't done anything about it and we had waited 1hr for him to call back.

So on the road again, we stopped at Grafton for lunch at about 12:30PM and bought a leg of lamb and pumpkin etc for dinner.

We saw our first bad accident just before Grafton: a truck was upside down in a ditch, the accident occurring when one truck had overtaken another that was turning right into a service station. The radio reporter stated the driver had escaped with a broken leg.

As we entered Coffs Harbour we were horrified to see lots of resort style developments springing up along the coast. All the north coast seems to be one huge holliday resort.

At Coffs Harbour we looked up John and Thecla Nairne's phone number only to find, when I called it, that they were in Europe visiting Rodney, Jane and Eleanor. Dulce Green was looking after their holiday units.

Michelle wasn't home when we arrived at the Taylors Arm property at around 4:30PM as she had to attend a staff meeting. Fortunately we were able to put our van up in the new shed Don had built - level ground, cover and power all in one place.

Don and Michelle Ottoway's new shed at the Bowraville property was the perfect place to setup the van - it was level, had shelter and power, and I didn't have to unhitch the van from the car.

Don and Michelle have done a lot of work since I was here last, just before Rohan was born in 1987 on a motorcycle ride with Alberto Blanco. They now have a big house with wide verandahs on 2 sides.

Tuesday 19th June 1990

Michelle had gone to work and Alice had been dropped off for the school bus before we emerged this morning. After breakfasting with Don and Evan, Jacqui cut everyone's hair except Don and her own.

The recent heavy rains had washed away part of the a fence which crosses the creek. With Rohan and Anja, Don and I went down and I watched while he fixed up the demolished section. This required Don to wade through thigh-deep cold water.

After lunch Don went off to have his ute checked for registration while I took the kids down to the creek. Jacqui snuggled up in front of the fire with her book. At the creek the kids had a great time skimming stones and generally doing their best to dam the creek. This activity lasted until, inevitably, Rohan fell in and he needed dry clothes.

The rest of the afternoon wasn't filled with much until about 4PM when I started making pizza bases for dinner. Cooking pizza in a fuel stove wasn't a great success as the heat was highest at the top and emanated from the side of the oven. Consequently one of the pizzas was burnt on the top and uncooked underneath. Overall the cooking time was longer. I'd need to experiment before getting pizzas right in a fuel stove.

After a good deal of fiddling I managed to transfer to a VHS tape the videos I had taken since being here.

Wednesday 20th June 1990

In a way today could be considered the last day of our trips since today we arrive back in Sydney, thus completing our circumnavigation of Australia, however for practical purposes I will consider the day we move back into 154 as the end.

Michelle and Don went off at around 7:45AM, Don dropping Michelle off at the house of her school deputy principal so that Don could pick her up during the day in the car. In the meantime the kids were fed and packing commenced.

Both jacqui and I feel the same after coming to Michelle and Don's.....a strong desire to buy some land for ourselves engendered by the superb view of a tranquil valley, a brown road disappearing lazily over the hills and cattle grazing contentedly in the lush pasture of the river flats and cleared ridges. Don protests that it's not all roses but never mentions the remotest possibility of returning to Sydney. The worst he can come up with is the problems associated with crossing the creek when it is in flood.

The view from Don and Michelle Ottoway's home on South Arm Road, near Bowraville

Watch Lachlan sound tie his shoelaces for the first time at around 2mins 6s

The highway south has been well travelled and the beautiful tall timbers, lush pasture and numerous river crossings brought back fond memories. For lunch we stopped at Taree and filled with fuel at Kew for the final leg into Sydney.

We weren't prepared for the atrocious road conditions about to confronted us due, no doubt, to heavy rains and heavy trucks. From Kew to Karuah the cars in front of us would unexpectedly swerve and dodge to avoid huge potholes, which of course were much more difficult to miss with the van in tow. Many a time we crashed noisily into a gaping hole or swerved to miss one with the car only to feel a thump as the van fell into the chasm. Any moment I expected to feel the van pulling and to hear the whine indicating a flat tyre, but it never came.

After Karuah, the road was less chopped about (i.e. normally bad!) and we stopped for an ice cream at Raymond Terrace. Three mickey mouse ice creams a heart and a golden gaytime were purchased. Rohan decided he didn't want this mickey mouse ice cream so I gave him Jacqui's heart, while lachlan took the gaytime. Before Rohan had finished the heart and after Jacqui had finished the mickey mouse, he had changed his mind. Oh well. After finishing the icecream pass the parcel we headed through Kurri Kurri and on to the expressway.

Around Ourimbah we listened to a conversation between 2 Tip Top bread delivery semi-trailers drivers on the CB Radio. The conversation eventually turned to rifles and kangaroo shooting. Jacqui couldn't help herself and thoroughly enjoyed jousting with the yobbos over the pros and cons of kangaroo shooting. There was plenty to occury us for about ½ hr - the best comment made by one of the truckies, from my point of view, was that she (Jacqui) needed a good bang!

It was 6:25PM when we drew up next to the kerb in front of 2/4 Queens Pde West Newport. We soon had access to Mum and Dad's unit and the kids had settled in to the usual routine of making a much noise as possible.

Walking to the bottle shop of the Newport Arms Hotel I ran in to a colleague from Barrenjoey High School - Victoria George and her partner James.

We celebrated our return with a bottle of Seaview Champagne and baked beans on toast.

It was hard not to get the feeling that we were expected to stay here....notes about running the unit had been left out before Mum and Dad went to visit karen in the USA.

Eplilogue

That's the end of the diaries - there were 3 in all. Even though I said I would continue entries from the time we arrived back into Sydney to the time we moved back into our home at 154 Woorarra Ave Elanora Heights - I wrote no more. We did go for trip to Queanbeyan in the few days before school returned. The following photos are from that excursion. I recall driving the relatively short 4 hour drive to Queanbeyan and realising that I had done enough driving for a the time being and that long distance truck driver would never be a career for me. Having said that Anja, Dallas and Arliah are planning a similar trip in the second half of 2021. I envy them!

Stacey and Anja watching TV at Lell's house June 1990

Anja an Roger on Stacey's horse Cobber - Stacey is behind - I'm not sure who the other young boy is. Carwoola June 1990

Roger, Anja and LAchlan with Cobber. Carwoola June 1990

Anja Commonwealth Park, Canberra, June 1990

Lachlan Commonwealth Park Canberra, June 1990

Anja and Rohan on Elaine and george's verandah in Newport where we setup camp after returning to Sydney. June 1990

George on the Verandah of his and Elaine's Newport unti. June 1990

A note on Lachlan's distance education during the trip

Lachlan, being the only one of our 3 children old enough to attend school, was enrolled in the NSW Department of Education's distance education school. This meant that each week there were packages of lessons and educational materials that were posted to us with an expectation that they be completed and returned by the due date. The 2 problems with this were firstly that we were never sure of exactly where we would be on a particular date meaning that the materials were rarely in our hands in a timely manner. Secondly that we were having such a great time that sitting down with Lachlan to complete those lessons proved difficult - Lachlan could see other fun things to do and we could too! Consequently we did not complete the requisite proportion of lessons to be deemed to be attending school during the time we were travelling. We receivec a letter from the distance education section of the Department of Education effectively asking for a note explaining why we had been away from distance education while being away...eif you get what I mean. Here is a rough draft of the letter I subequently wrote and sent. We didn't hear back from them - I'm not sure what they could have done anyway. lachlan returned to Elanora Heights Primary School at the beginning of term 3 1990. I eblieve that he did well at school and was not unduly impacted by his "unexplained" absebnce. If you know Lachlan I guess you can judge for yourself. [Ian 30th March 2021]