When I pondered September’s topic, 'Bucket List', I learned all sorts of things about myself. And the first was, basically, I’ve never had a bucket list.

The nearest thing to such a concept was one Sunday afternoon when Don and I sat out on a sunny verandah and decided we’d like to go to Northern Queensland, Central Australia and Western Australia sometime. In the following three years we accomplished all three and thoroughly enjoyed each one.

Other than that, I can only think that, for me, I lived the life that came along. Sometimes opportunities landed in your lap, other times you saw the need for something to be done. Certainly we  travelled abroad three or four times and this entailed planning ahead but I couldn’t say we had thought about it for years and eventually made it happen.

I was very deliberate in the selection of my first paid work but after a very happy and productive four years there, life took me to other amazingly satisfying places. I never again worked a 9 – 5 job.

Two years in Indonesia and found some teaching work. After that, I moved every few years with a school teacher husband, I lived in whatever house was available and I met the locals.

In Merbein, I learned how to be a mother. The Brownie pack in Cobram had a waiting list of three years and our daughter was already eight, so I became a Brownie leader.

Tallangatta – a children’s music group and Hello group for Thursday coffee. Then a Youth Worker position was advertised. With absolutely no qualifications I went for the job and scored an interview. On reflection, I decided I wasn’t the right candidate but they offered me the job and asked me to do three months trial.  I stayed six years.

Looking to put the fence at the top of the cliff rather than the ambulance at the bottom, I did a Tafe parenting course and spent many happy times travelling around leading parenting groups.

In the meantime, we went for family holidays mostly taking the cheapest option of a beach holiday and taking a tent over the mountains to Pambula.

Language teaching came into primary schools and here was another gift opportunity. Again, no teaching qualifications but allowed to teach as long as the classroom teacher was present – suited me fine. Twenty five years over eight or nine schools for six-week courses or weekly lessons through the year.

And  now, here is Benalla with new opportunities on the doorstep.

Have I decided what I want to do while I am still able? Of course not! I’ll do what I have always done and wait to see what comes along. I don’t seem to have needed a bucket list.
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A favourite quote from George Bernard Shaw;

‘Life is no brief candle to me. It’s a sort of splendid torch which I’ve got hold of for the moment and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.’


Carmyl Winkler

I guess it all started with nursery rhymes followed closely by Methodist hymns.
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In Grade 5, Mrs. W. H. Keith Young (did she have another name?) came to Pleasant Street State School to train a group to compete in the South Street competitions. Each member sang a line or two and if you could keep in tune, you were an alto! I’ve been an alto ever since!

Ballarat High music teacher, Miss Landt, gave us great songs to sing, our house choir won and I sang in a quartet at Speech Night. I was hooked.

Over the next years, moving around as a student, I always found somewhere to sing.

Married and moving to Maryborough, I joined CWA just so I could sing in their choir. Uniform – a black dress with a pink artificial flower pinned on the shoulder. I didn’t wear black but if to sing demanded it, so it would be.

Moving to Merbein, with toddlers in the house, it was back to the nursery rhymes but, nearing Christmas, a group joined with Mildura singers to learn and perform Handel’s ‘Messiah’ – a brand new experience.

By the time we moved to Tallangatta the children were all at school – but there was no music there. A friend and I, with four children each, started an after-school Music group, singing and playing the recorder. For fourteen years we sang – anything from the latest musical to Paddy McGinty’s Goat. We had a waiting list to get in. We had concerts and parents applauded. We made a booklet of songs and sang in the car.

A carload of us joined a singing group at Wodonga and after this finished, we decided to establish our own singing group in Tallangatta. The numbers varied from 5 to 25 but we sang, however many turned up. Our repertoire ranged from folk songs, aboriginal songs, religious songs, protest songs, to rounds. It was all unaccompanied and all for our own enjoyment. Sometimes we had a Sunday afternoon concert. At Christmas we sang at the town Carol night, occasionally at Anzac day services, but basically we just sang.

I started teaching Indonesian. The best way to teach children a language is to teach them a song but where to find the songs? We made a tape – singers from  Tallangatta Primary grades 1, 2 and 3 with son Stephen, guest accompanist. We sold hundreds. We changed the tape into a CD and sold hundreds more.

​Then I came to Benalla and found the wonderful U3A program. I haven’t missed a Thursday singing group since I joined.

Some members of that group and others from the Uniting Church made a CD of songs called ‘Peace Be With You’ for palliative care patients or people feeling lonely or depressed. We gave them away. I was part of that project and so glad to be so.

Singing for me is not an accomplishment but a joy. I didn’t realise how important it has been to me until I wrote this down.


Carmyl Winkler
August 2022