Interviewer: Vanessa Ryan

So Lawrie, what was your position here, at Girraween?

I was a Ranger, Division 3, in Girraween. So I was mainly helping Bill Goebel and Hock Goebel with the day to day maintenance of the park.

I've heard a couple of Rangers mention levels... For your position, does it tell you what sort of duties you do or is it a pay scale thing?

It's a bit of a pay scale, but it's basically the bottom rung of the Ranger group. As it goes up... 3,2,1... and then you go to go to a Senior Ranger. That's how it was, yeah.

Right, ok. Thank you for explaining that.

Yeah.

When did you work in Girraween?

I got transferred in 1980. I was transferred from Main Range National Park up to Girraween, here, to help out with the maintenance on the park.

Right. So how long did you work here for?

I worked about eight and a half years, so I did. I got transferred back to Main Range towards the end of 1989.

Had you ever been to Girraween before you worked [here]?

Well, I had been here just on a couple of day trips before I got transferred. Used to come up here, have a barbecue and a walk around the area. So I'd heard a lot about it. I had.

Was this in your adult life, or when you were a child, or..?

No, in my adult life, so it was, yeah.

How did you come about working in Girraween?

My District Ranger... or Senior Ranger... advised me by telephone that I was to be transferred from Main Range to Girraween. I'd basically done two years at Main Range as a Ranger up there, looking after the area and then they transferred me from there to here.

So it's not so much a big distance, but it's certainly a big change in environment. Main Range has a lot of rainforest in that area...

Yes, it is.

And then you come here and it's more open, dry bush.

Yeah. Well, when I came up on the Monday morning and I was driving in the road here and I was sort of looking at this white stuff that's on the side of the road called ice... [Laughs.] It was minus 6 degrees.

Oh... That would have been a shock!

Yes. It was a bit of a difference coming from that and when you come up the drive and see the granite rocks and that. I thought, Oh! This is going to be interesting! [Laughs.]

And it was?

Yes, it was. I was sort of quite...a bit sad when I did get transferred out of Girraween back to Main Range. But that comes with the job. So it does, yeah.

Yeah, I get that feeling you guys get transferred around a lot. But it would be good doing that, because you'd get to see a lot of Queensland?

Yeah. That's right.

Who were the staff working here with you at the time?

Paul Grimshaw was the Ranger in Charge and Bill Goebel and Hock Goebel were the rangers doing the maintenance.

So there was just the four of you?

Yeah, there was just the four of us, so there was.

And you managed to cope ok?

Yes.

Except for that... I heard that there was a rather busy long Easter weekend?

Oh...yes. Yeah, it was sort of a real big eye opener for me because my weekend at Main Range would just take in a small camping area, whereas Girraween had the two camping areas with lots of people. As Paul said to me, he said: "Oh well, this is gonna be interesting for you." [Laughs.] And it certainly was!

Yeah, I bet. So, what sort of duties did you do while you were here?

I was sort of doing the camping ground maintenance - like cleaning toilets, emptying rubbish, mowing the camp ground, talking to the visitors and explaining the park - where the various walks were and that sort of thing. The same with the day-use area, doing the toilets, cleaning the rubbish out. I did quite a bit of track work with Bill. He taught me a lot about how to build tracks and that sort of thing.

So, you are one of the gentlemen who walked out there with a hoe on your back, out into the bush, and made a track through...

Oh yes.

I was talking with a Scout Ranger before...with the Scout groups this morning...and we were talking about how the tracks were made. They have great admiration because they were looking at the rocks and the steps and how all that had to be built by hand... You know?

Yeah. Rake, pick and shovel. That's how it was.

Carried in and carried out again.

Yeah.

So what would you think is your biggest achievement while you were here? What's the thing you are most proud of?

Probably with it being a granite area, some of the areas we stone pitched. We did stone pitching around the Information Centre here because a lot of people were coming in and we were getting a lot of the stone grit into the wooden floor of the Information Centre. So that was one of the sort-of big things that we did. We had some money to build that type of infrastructure. Plus we did the camping ground, what do they call them, the tent sites. We refurbished the tent sites, so that was sort of a fairly big achievement for me, so it was.

How does it feel when you see people using it?

Oh, yes. It feels good.

[Proudly.] I did that...

[Both laugh.]

Yes...

I was talking about the unsung heroes, sort of thing... [You're ] one of them.

Well, one of the other things... When I came in here, too, the National Parks had purchased a lot of area out to the east of this area here and we had to remove the fencing. So that was quite a fairly big task, picking that up, rolling that up and putting it in a pit.

Oh, all that barbed wire!

Yes. So it was.

Did you get any injuries?

Oh yes, I had a few of the injuries. I got tangled up in wire pretty well. [Laughs.]

I bet!

[Both laugh.]

While you were here, did you experience any major fires or floods or other natural disasters?

Well, I was here a fortnight after I got transferred when Paul, the Ranger in Charge, went on holidays. Hock came to work one morning and Bill said: "Oh, I think we've got a fire." And all the northern section of the national park was burning.

Was that 1980?

It would have been, ah, towards the mid of 1980. So it was. I was sort of very thankful for Hock and Bill's experience and knowledge of the neighbours on that northern side. We spent quite a few hours back burning. One of the other persons who used to work for National Parks was Gordon Stone. He was Interp. Officer and he came out and helped us. We back burned off the Pyramids, all the way down the Bald Rock Creek track to the neighbour's property. And then we sort of worked in with the neighbours after that, so that was one of the major experiences of a natural disaster. So it was, yeah.

I was wondering, when they talk about the bushfires, what do you do when there is a bushfire? You just said you start back burning..?

Yeah. You sort of do an assessment on where you can safely back burn and where you can put in a break with a tractor or a little backblade or something like that. So you do.

So it's about controlling where it can go?

Yeah.

You can't really put the fire out..?

No. You've just sort of got to back burn. Let the back burn burn into it and that way it puts it out. So it does.

Oh, here we go. This is Jo's favourite question. Did it ever snow while you were in Girraween?

It did, actually. Um...

Was it 1984 that they had that big fall?

I think it was 1984, so it was, yes. It was quite interesting. I was Ranger in Charge at that time. I was on what they call a Border Liaison Fire Committee and we went down to Tenterfield and we had the meeting down there with New South Wales National Parks. And the next day, I'd sort of arranged to do an inspection along the border... And anyway, we woke up the next morning and one of the rangers from Main Range had stayed with me. He was in this house, here. [Gunn's Cottage] He went to walk out the back just to see what the sun was like coming up and as he hit the back stoop here, he slipped over the side.

Oh!

There was about two inches of snow sitting there. [Laughs]

That was a bit of a wake up call!

It was, yes...

A face plant in the snow!

[Both laugh.]

So that was quite exciting, sort of seeing that. And then Bill and I, me not having experience in snow, we decided to go out to what we call Underground Creek to try to get some photographs out there. We were there for about three quarters of an hour and we came back and we're both sort of pretty tired, because the snow was pretty deep out there.

[Both laugh.]

But, sort of in hindsight, it would have been lovely to have a camera because we went up to the camping ground and there was a family... This father and two of his young sons... We ended up talking about the snow and that [with the sons] and the father said: "Oh, stop talking. I'm trying to have a sleep in here." And they got quite excited and said: "Come outside Dad. Dad, quick, come outside! We've got to show you something!" As he came out, he put his hands in the snow and he said: "You'll pay for this!"

But it was quite good. The snow stayed here all day on that particular day.

I've seen some photos of it. It looks like it was quite deep.

Yes, it was beautiful. I'd never come across snow before and it was quite exciting, so it was.

Where did you live while you were working here?

When I came here, they had established the Barracks in what they call Thomas's house, which is down the road here about a kilometre. I stayed there for a little while and then when I was Ranger in Charge, I came up here and stayed in the [Gunn] house for about, oh, three or four months. But then we were looking for a place to put extra equipment, storage, and that sort of thing where we couldn't fit it in the Information Centre. So I moved down into what we called Hock Goebel's place, which used to be there. I stayed there for the rest of my time at Girraween, so I did.

Did you have family with you?

No. I'm not married.

So what would be your fondest memory of being here, working here?

I think just the really highlight of it was just being at Girraween. I've thought about it over the years, when I was back at Main Range, and it was just so unique of a place. I really sort of enjoyed it. I'd say, just being transferred to here and seeing the place...

The whole experience?

Yeah, the whole experience was just wonderful.

So what was your reason for leaving Girraween? I think you touched on that before?

Yeah, the Ranger in Charge at Main Range got transferred to another park and they wanted somebody there with experience, so they transferred me from here to Main Range.

I suppose that makes sense.

Yeah. So it was.

Did you come back, you know, for visits?

Oh yes. I visited quite a few times. So I did, yeah.

You couldn't quite get it out [of your system]... You can get the Ranger out of Girraween, but you can't get Girraween out of the Ranger...

No, that's right...

[Both laugh.]

Yeah, well even coming back today and just wandering around here. Just absolutely wonderful.

Has much changed since you were here?

Yes it has. It's developed and a lot of stuff's changed. The vegetation has grown up to the height it is today. Looking from the window of this house here, you could look straight out on the Pyramids in the morning.

It's just a credit to the Rangers before me who did all the planting and design and all that sort of the thing for the camping and picnic grounds. So yeah.

Well, thank you very much...