And you had your children there?
Yes, we had two of the children there. When we left, the eldest one was four and the younger one was 18 months old.
I remember talking to the boys last night and they don't remember much.
No.
You didn't have to worry about schooling them while you were here?
No.
Was the road tarred all the way in? It was all fairly civilised?
Yes, it was. It is all like it is today.
What did your wife do? Did she stay home? She didn't work while you were here?
Well, I could get myself in a lot of trouble here. There were some home duties, but she also took on some other little jobs around the place and did fruit packing occasionally.
What about working in the park?
No, she didn't do too much in the park. She started doing Grace Cosmetics and that was a big thing. She spent a lot of time doing that.
Did you ever have orphaned animals to rear?
We had practice on those before we had kids.
I hope you didn't do what I did and kill them all? (laughing).
Well, we had a Brush Tail Possum that we brought down from the Bunya's, because it was cooked at the Bunya's. It was an orphan and it was sitting on Sharon's shoulder one night when she was doing the washing up. We had a wood stove and the water was very, very hot, nearly boiling, when it came out of the tap. The possum got too inquisitive and it dived into the washing up water and lost its claws and the tops of its ears. We were keeping it in a cage just outside the dining room, under the eaves of the house. We had it there for quite awhile and then the bottom of the cage must have been cut with a mower and it got out one night and we never, ever saw it after that. It got rehabilitated and took off. We also had wallabies to rear – smelly things.
What do you think was your best achievement while you were here? What was the thing you were happiest to achieve while at Girraween?
Best achievement? That's a hard question. I think probably interacting with the people who were here in terms of interpretation.
You're referring to staff now?
Staff, myself. Being able to do things like guided walks, slide shows, other presentations and that sort of stuff. I think doing those sorts of things creates good public interest in the area.
So you really enjoyed the interaction with people?
Yes, I think that was probably some of the better parts. I think over a period of time, we were able to improve some of the equipment that was here, while I was here. We managed to get a fax, the first fax. We got UHF and VHF radios while I was here. So, there was a whole range of things like that, I suppose technology was marching on - and even a computer.
I was going to say, was there a computer here when you came?
We had an old 286 clunker.
Is that the one that is still around here somewhere?
No. I think it's gone. It was an Osborne computer that one. It's long gone. So, we had a computer, dot matrix printers and things like that. We were moving into technology. I also think we formalised the fire breaks around the park more.
Did you have any major fires while you were here, or any major incidents?
Yes, we had a few fires. We had a big one in 1997/1998 on the northern side of the park and that was fairly intense in parts. I have also been involved in a few in Toowoomba.
Have you had lost walkers, or did you have any of those search and rescue type incidents that you had to put a lot of effort into?
No, nothing major. We were lucky. We had the odd incident where someone hadn't returned and we went looking for them and half an hour later they turned up. There was nothing dramatic in that realm.
What's the silliest, craziest anecdote that occurs to you, in your estimation?
I suppose, one I remember was outside the front of Gunn's Cottage, here, and Hock, who was a real gentleman around women, can be a bit of a boy around boys. It was knock-off time and he was getting into his car which was a Volkswagen that had been done up with flares and all sorts of things and he was standing there with his back towards the office and he wanted to have a great big fart. So when he did that, he really just leaned on the door and the roof of the Volkswagen and stuck his bum back right out, but right at that moment he hadn't realised that Colleen, who was the interpretative ranger here at the time, was only about 6ft behind him. So he let rip with this almighty fart right in front of Colleen and he went the brightest red, all very apologetic and all Colleen could say was “Bit windy today, Hock?” So that was fine, we had a really good laugh about that. So about a week later, we were parked outside the office and he did exactly the same thing. But this time, there was no Colleen, but I tell you what, we told him that Colleen was right behind him. He jumped and turned around – so it was a bit of a laugh.
I remember another time, we were painting and Peter came up to give us a hand. There was a lot of banter going on during the day and we found a baby kitten rabbit so we thought we had better look after it. So we went and put in down in Hock's car. In those days, the staff used to park their cars across the road. We were all standing there and we could hear this loud mumbling carrying on and doors slamming open and shutting while he was trying to get this rabbit out of the car. I'm not going to say who actually put the rabbit in the car.
It sounds like, as a crew, that you got along well together?
Yes, generally speaking. They were really good workers, Hock and Bill and Ian and Stubbie. Stubbie was Ian's brother, Glen Elms – they were chalk and cheese, just like Hock and Bill are different. I remember one day we were doing some burning over at Sundown and there was an old cast iron bath tub that we found in a gully. So we took photos of Stubbie sitting in this bath tub in amongst all the flames and smoke, pretending to have a bath. Always a little bit of fun going on, always a bit of banter. Good fun.
Do you regret leaving?
I suppose you can always regret leaving, but there are always good memories of the place. Yes, there are days when I feel like Girraween would be a far better place to be, but life goes on, circumstances change and you get on with life. You miss the good parts but you certainly don't miss some of the crappy parts. I get to come back for work, so it's not like I've left the place completely. So, in that sense, it's a bit unusual because people don't get that opportunity when they leave. They usually leave and go on to something totally different. However, being the Senior Ranger, you come back and you're down here four or five times a year or whatever and you're involved in what's happening. You always get part of the picture, you get what people think you need to know. It's a lovely spot and, even when we have had some big wild fires, I think that really galvanised the staff more than anything and you certainly can rely on all the staff to get the job done.
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