Whilst growing up we belong to many communities – communities at school, the various job communities during our working life and social communities such as scouts/girl guides and sporting clubs, to name a few.    These communities have a lasting impression on our lives.     Even our families are a small community where the values and expected standards of life are expressed and examples set for us by our parents and peers.
 
I too have experienced the benefits and downfalls of living in a community during my lifetime, but have at last settled in a community of senior homeowners at the Haven Leisure Village where I now reside.   I visited the property, liked what I saw and bought my forever home.
 
When I first settled into the Village I must admit it was a complete change to the way I had been living previously.    I had been working seven days a week in a position that consisted of early starts and late nights and was very busy then moving into a home where I was now retired, could sleep in if I wanted to, read a book or garden during the day or just sit and watch TV.  The days were long and I was very lonely.    Then the community at the Village gradually changed my outlook and I started to ‘smell the roses’ and enjoy my contact with my fellow homeowners.
 
After a couple of months’ it became apparent that the homeowners were being ignored by the operators of the facility and were just accepting this as a part of their living in the Village.   It was creating ‘groups’ in the Village which was not healthy for any of us.   We did not know who owned the village, only contact was with the Managers.
 
Following some investigation, a meeting of Homeowners was called and I tabled information about the setting up a of Homeowner’s Committee which two members would liaise with Management and Homeowners for improvements, with the view of bringing everybody together and being involved in our future at the Village.   We also asked to be known as Homeowners and not residents.
 
There have been a number of changes in the ownership of the Village, but we are now owned by a Sydney company, with the two Directors making time to visit the village during the year, making contact with homeowners and the Homeowners Committee, giving us information about the future expansion of the Village as well as asking for our input regarding ideas the homeowners have for the betterment of the village.    This has made such a difference to the attitude of the homeowners who now been made to feel part of the village’s future.
 
A Community garden was established with brought like-minded gardeners together, growing vegetables for themselves and distributing the excess to the homeowners;     Happy hour was another initiative which gave the homeowners an opportunity to get to know each other.    There are so many talented people living in our Village.   Little things like moving the mailboxes to a safer place, creating more ‘green areas’ in the Village, fencing off the Caravan Park from the Village, erecting more signage have all been taken on board by the Directors and are now in place in the village.     A small craft group is in the Village;    a ‘games’ afternoon is held each week.   Homeowners now take an interest in their future at the village.
 
Having Owners who have made themselves available via Email or personal contact, who know us by name and take an interest in our pets and what we do has made such a difference to our community, and we all appreciate what a wonderful Village we live in.
 

Heather Wallace
July 2022
​

"COMMUNITY"    One meaning of the word is “groups of people having common interests”   For example Garden Clubs.

When we semi-retired around 2000, we got involved with several garden clubs. We had bought a house with a large yard with an out-of-control garden, which we cleared and were keen to replant. Perhaps garden clubs would be a good starting point.

Firstly, we joined a Camellia club which covered NE Victoria and southern NSW.  Through it we met many new people while learning how to grow camellias. We travelled to other people’s gardens for monthly meetings, seeing new country and different growing conditions. We excitedly bought camellias and planted them.  We learned how to graft. We went to shows, as onlookers not exhibitors, helping with the setting up and cleaning up.

Sadly, our garden was too hot and lacking shade and shelter, so we lost quite a few plants. We found the reds were tougher than the delicate pinks and whites, and the sasanqua were easier to grow than japonicas!

In April 2002 we went to the Bendigo Chrysanthemum Show. We had always liked Chrysanthemums, but the show was a real eye opener! We were amazed by the various types, colors, and tremendous size of the show type chrysies. Our curiosity was aroused - we wanted to know how to propagate and eventually show. We turned up at the next club meeting, ready to learn.  They were friendly people and we met someone very willing to help us.  

Growing cuttings wasn’t very easy for a start, but Ray soon got the hang of it--the special soil mix, right amount of water, the PH, and later, the chemicals to promote growth.  We entered into this with great gusto!  Ray bought a huge shade house to house all the large pots and made wire trellis to hold up the tall plants. I worked in the outside garden – two very different activities. The show types were carefully pruned to give 2-3 large flowers, but the garden ones were cut back to half in November, then the top ¼  cut off in January to produce compact bushy plants with large clusters of flowers in late April and May.

Both lots of plants did well- so well that Ray won several prizes in the next Bendigo Chrysanthemum show.  However, there was a lot to learn about presentation at shows. The club members were very kind and helpful and we made many friends. We ventured further afield to shows at Albury and Melbourne, getting to know a lot of growers there. We even had joint meetings at home, our garden being centrally located. We included other shows in our holidays and visited Hobart, Perth and Adelaide.

The next year we had a shed full of large flowers and large outside garden.  Someone said flowers like that deserve an audience to appreciate them.  The idea of an open garden weekend was born, with Benalla Hospital Auxillary the recipient. We potted our surplus cuttings and sold bunches of flowers at the open day and up the street prior to Mother’s Day.

The Open Garden weekend was a roaring success, with the small entry fee, morning and afternoon teas, bunches of flowers and pots of chrysies for sale, around $10,000 was made that first weekend!  I didn’t do the garden alone now, club members helped tie up plants and with the cutting down. What woman doesn’t enjoy working with flowers! 

​For three years we opened our garden.  We were not interested in competitive showing, just the sheer beauty of the blooms, and having people enjoy them. I loved picking and bunching flowers and the companionship. Sadly, by the fourth year Ray was unwell and I developed back problems, so it was over! However, we were pleased to be instrumental in raising money for the hospital and giving so many people pleasure.

A high point of the exercise was having a chrysanthemum named after me.  It had been sent over from a western Australian grower, who wanted to see it grown to its full potential in our climate. It flourished here, a beautiful pale pink reflex which now wins prizes in sections of the show. Perhaps Margaret Nelson will be around for a while!

Margaret Nelson
​May 2022

My sense of community started at a very early age. When I was only 8 years of age my parents moved to Wollert, which was then a small mainly dairy farming area, 28 km. north of Melbourne.

Being a very small community, everybody knew everybody, and it was very much a community with everybody involved in community activities.

From about the time children could hold a tennis racket, there were tennis lessons for the youngsters to provide the future senior players for the tennis club.

The Primary School had a good number of students, with many using different ways of getting to school. In my case, it was a relatively short walk for myself and my brother, but others used bikes, and in one case four members of the one family would ride one horse to school. Many others rode their ponies. There was a paddock at the rear of the school building for the horses and ponies to graze during the day.

From the age of 14 you were eligible to join the Wollert and District Youth Club. I was involved with the club for a number of years in official positions including President and Treasurer. This club promoted interaction between the younger members of the community and involved indoor sports such as volleyball, badminton, and at times ‘mini Olympics’.  The club also organised outings, and I can remember going to Kooyong to see the tennis, and when they were in Melbourne, the Harlem Globetrotters. We also visited operational factories in the evenings, such as Tarax, Carlton United Breweries, and the Herald Sun. On the evening excursions we would stop at a café in Northcote and get hamburgers etc. on the way home. The club had two rules. Rule 1. We do not discriminate against anybody based on race, colour or creed. Rule 2. There are no more rules. At the age of 18, I was awarded the ‘Keystone’ award from the Victorian Association of Youth Clubs for my work with youth in the community.

At the age of 16 you are eligible to join the local fire brigade. My memories of those days, was that there was usually a fire somewhere after the school bus had dropped off the children, who smoked and then started a fire, or in the summer months, steam trains were often the culprit. The replacement crew situation at Wollert was simple, but effective. The first crew would go out as soon as the fire was detected usually around mid-afternoon. Those working out of the district would return home around 5.30 or 6 pm, and the five or six replacement crew would then take a car to the fire, so that the early crew could go home to milk the cows.

I have been fortunate for around fifty years of my life thus far, to have grown up and lived in small rural communities. At different times during my rural life I have been privileged to have been involved with some extraordinary people who have combined their talents and enthusiasm to achieve some extraordinary results for the benefit of the broader community.

One thing that I have benefited from by living in small rural communities, is the fact that they keep you ‘grounded’, and focused on what is important, not only to yourself, but also the broader community.


Barry O’Connor
May 2022.

I have been in a number of places where I have developed a real sense of community, but none affected me more than my years of service with the RAAF. Up to that point I had always lived near home and worked at standard type jobs.  After my big adventure, a three-year working holiday overseas which included a visit to my country of birth, Wales, or as they say Cymru, I developed a taste for travel and adventure, so of course I could not resume my usual type of work.

I applied for Army Navy and Air Force - my logic was, apply for all three and one is bound to come up. All offered a different lifestyle and work plus travel.  Each application resulted in a compulsory medical examination, ironically with the same medical facility. Well, it backfired, as I was accepted for all three!!!!  A decision had to be made and, after days of deliberation, I chose the RAAF.
 
After my application was processed, I was flown from my home in Western Australia to Melbourne. Billeted in Tottenham, I was put through three months of vigorous training. Lots of marching, physical fitness training and lectures but, above all, learning to respond to commands instantly and correctly, which is essential in conflicts or emergency situations. We learnt to iron our clothes correctly, polish our shoes to a mirror shine you could see your face in and to survive the weekly room inspections, known laughingly as ‘panic night’. We helped each other, covered for each other, and became a real community.

The marching was hilarious!  Thirty awkward, uncoordinated young women trying to look professional, some who couldn’t tell their left foot from their right. We had a female drill sergeant with the loudest voice in history who bellowed, yelled and pointed out the error of our ways. Of course, we had the obligatory ‘talk’ on the dangers of fraternization. We had a curfew and had to be in our beds in the barracks by 10pm or we were in trouble. We joked about what happened after 10pm that wouldn’t happen before. We all had chores and one of the dreaded ones on the roster was cleaning the bathrooms. We hated loo cleaning duty.  Friendships were formed, we learnt how to be a team and help each other. We learnt self-discipline and to depend on each other. Some of us gave up and returned home, but the rest of us forged on and were rewarded with a celebration dinner and official passing out parade. The aforesaid drill sergeant suddenly became human, congratulating us on our efforts and wishing us well in our future careers.

My first unit was here in Melbourne, I was billeted in Mont Albert at the RAAF unit known as Frognall, awful name, posh suburb. I also worked between Vic Barracks, Grattan Street and Bourke Street Security units, then bases in Queensland, South Australia, and Western Australia.  I absolutely loved the life. I made so many friends, I learnt to rely on myself, my instincts and my training, taking those life lessons through to my civilian career after leaving the RAAF.  I had lots of experiences such as VIP escort, guarding an aircraft, and got way too close in Russell Street when the bomb went off. Lots of fun times too, good friends and even found a husband, quite by accident, but that’s another story.  

​
Heather Hartland
May 2022

A community that has been part of my life is the Tennis Playing one.  I initially joined this as a ten year old in Ireland. The family lived near the village en tout cas(in all conditions) tennis courts and my brothers and I started playing there, often accompanied by the Murphy girls who were co-tenants of Bansha Castle. On our return to Australia I played occasionally, but when the family moved to Camberwell I joined the local tennis club.  There I played both competitive and social tennis. It was where I met my husband.  We remained active members there until 1971 when we travelled to Ireland, remaining there for eighteen months. On our return to Australia, we played the occasional game but a growing family and work commitments put tennis on the backburner.
 
On our move to Benalla in 1978 I tried again to fit social tennis into my life, but with school runs, working with the animals we had and a part-time job time just seemed to fly.  So, once again, tennis was put aside. After our move to Broadford in late 1983 I tried again to fit tennis into my life, but apart from filling in occasionally with a ladies midweek team and playing socially with my children, I seemed to be fighting a losing battle.  Eventually I retired .
 
However, when we moved to the Bellarine Peninsula in 2012, I rediscovered my love of the game when I joined The Veterans at Point Lonsdale . There I played twice a week. On our return to Benalla I started playing in the Saturday afternoon competition with The Gardens Club. This came to a screaming  halt (literally) when I tore my calf muscle whilst playing at Swanpool. The rehabilitation involved physiotherapy and exercise over a period of two months. I realised I had lost confidence in my ability to play competition and was about to give up the game completely, when I heard of the Wednesday Morning Ladies. Intrigued I went along.  Six years later, I am an entrenched member

We are usually described as the Hit and Giggle lot by outsiders, as there is generally lots of laughter and we do NOT play for sheep stations. Overall, it is a social get together where we play several games, drink tea and catch up on the news, both local and worldwide. We play all year round and if the weather is wet we'll have a cup of tea, solve the world's problems and return to our homes. Winter does not hinder us and although we start and finish early in the summer, the game goes on. Birthdays are celebrated with cake and a cuppa. New grandchildren are proudly announced and their progress through life followed via photos and videos. Of course there are the sad times when a death or illness affects any member of the group, but support is on hand. There is a total lack of “Bitchiness”, which is very refreshing in a group of women, and the group always welcome new members. I joined this community when I returned to Benalla in an attempt to meet people and I have found more than I expected. Even when I grow too feeble to wield a tennis racquet, I know that I'll be welcome to join them when they have their cuppa, never mind the Christmas lunch.​

Thus from the en tout cas courts in a village in Co.Tipperary to the rural town of Benalla the tennis community has been a delightful part of my life


Marg McCrohan
May 2022

In March 1979 a meeting was called in Tallangatta with the aim of establishing a cottage industry centre. Unbelievably, less than two weeks later was the grand opening!

Pat Greig had been appointed Community Education Officer, closely associated with the local high school. She was full of enthusiasm as well as expertise and was the wonderful backbone of the project.

I was there at the first meeting and eagerly paid my $10 to join. My membership number was CW12. Over forty years later new members are still joining with their numbers being well over 600.

NW3 was Noreen Wood who was a scout leader and made leather belts. DF4 was retired Dulcie Franks who knitted extraordinary jumpers with self-designed patterns. We knew they wouldn’t sell. Then we had some visitors from Melbourne. They snapped them up!

Pat contacted some of her artistic friends from nearby towns and they happily joined and put their more professional goods up for sale. But while they certainly attracted customers, the members I remember were locals who had been knitting or sewing for years. They tentatively put a baby jacket in the shop and, when it sold, were so surprised and delighted that someone would want their homemade article that they rushed home and got out the needles to begin the next treasure.

The Winkler family saw a way of supplementing Dad’s pay packet. What could we contribute? Jam was a good start and we decided to specialise in marmalade. We began with Sweet Orange and Four Fruits but then launched out with Carrot and Lemon, Apple and Lime, Cumquat, Chunky Lemon and Pineapple. Don made some little racks, Michael did some marmalade research and wrote a leaflet (did you know the word comes from the Portuguese ‘marmelo’ which is a quince conserve?) and we put the racks, leaflets and an assortment of marmalades together. They sold well.

That was the beginning. We found a woollen mill in Castlemaine that sold material at a reasonable price and added cushions and kettle holders to our wares.

But one of the most loved projects was making hand-made paper.  We saved boxes of old paper, pulped it, pressed it and packed it. As we became more experienced we imprinted leaves on the corner of the paper.

If you spent a day a month looking after the shop, The Hub took 10% commission. If not, it was 25%. So, of course, one day a month was a pleasant change from the housework. Later with other commitments, I continued to contribute to The Hub with photo cards.

We never made a lot of money but 43 years later, we have made a lot of friends, sold over 1,000 jars of jam and 2,000 cards and had wonderful family fun together.

I’m going to sadly end my membership in June now that I live in Benalla. ‘The Hub’ has been one of the special things in my life. I’m not particularly creative but it’s amazing what you can do when you try.
​

Carmyl Winkler

 I had been pondering about 'community' or 'communities' in which I've been a 'good fit', when suddenly ... a light bulb moment! ...  'school communities'!  The bottom line is, I've always loved going to school!   Perhaps, loving reading and having an inquiring mind, I was a 'good fit' - it must have been so hard for children and young people with learning difficulties and parents who did not really support their education.  

From the red brick pioneering years Clayton North Primary School, to the 'baby boomer' needed grey cement blocked 'Brown's Road' Clayton Primary School in Grade 3, a transition had to be made, thankfully to the warm welcome and happy classroom of Mrs Farr.  At the end of Grade 6, another transition to Malvern Girls Secondary School. 

​The class sizes during my childhood were enormous, often up to 50 children, however somehow I remember the schools as happy communities, remember my parents attending 'parent teacher nights' and taking a great interest in my education. 
​ 
A final year at Oakleigh High School preceded four years at Monash University, my Economics/Politics degree and Diploma of Education all geared towards becoming a high school teacher, with the 'teaching studentship' funding my studies requiring a three year commitment to the state's high school system.   

The year at Oakleigh High linked me back to students I'd been at Clayton North with so many years before.  I fitted quite comfortably into the 'Year 12 Community', which included Pauline Bailey, our German for Beginners convenor, and Ivan Durrant, the artist who formerly farmed, lived and brought up his family in the Benalla areay'.  It was wonderful to connect up with them again when I arrived in Benalla.

University is usually an example of a 'community or communities of interest', but for me it was also within my geographic community.  My sister was a secretary there, I could walk to lectures, my babysitting jobs were often for University lecturers living in the area.  The University 'pub', the Nott (Nottinghill Pub), was our local pub.  My initial communities of interest were the other students in my lectures and tutorials, which again included Ivan Durrant  from Oakleigh High, and other students, often from rural communities, on teaching studentships.   

Monash was a very active political community while I was there, with activists such as Albert Langer and the student newspaper, Lot's Wife, featuring Michael Leunig and other creative radicals, challenging our ideas.  Maharishi Yogi, who influenced the Beatles, visited our campus at the time.  Participation in an overnight 'sit in' at the university library to protest against funding cuts to the library, was the first of many examples in my life of involvement with communities of interest concerned about education.  Two other 'communities of interest' at University were 'Modern Dance' and 'Social Involvement', reflecting many years studying ballet and my long term concern about social justice.

Then came twenty years or so of teaching in the state school system.  I became immersed in school communities in a number of city and country schools.  Two  school communities which made a particular effort to help new teachers make a transition to their communities were Heywood, where we were taken on an excursion which included a visit to a sheep station, complete with peacock roaming homestead garden, during shearing; and Flemington, where we were taken to a flat in one of the top floors of a public housing high rise estate.  

After a decade's break to study and work as a social worker, I returned to teaching at GOTAFE and again became  immersed in an educational community.  Concerned about teaching conditions, which to me represent increased learning conditions for students, I again became an active union member - another 'community of interest'.  I have always been interested in curriculum development, attracted to communities of likeminded people who enjoy sharing ideas about education, preparing newsletters, setting up workshops and conference sessions and more.  

It seems as if there's a lot to write about!  This story is getting far too long, and I still haven't spoken about the 'expat' educational communities of Madrid in Spain and Kamloops in British Columbia; my years at GOTAFE, or the educational community of U3A Benalla which continues to immerse me.  Perhaps another time!


Bev Lee
May 2022

Recently, our neighbours, Robert and Irene, ‘misplaced’ a steer. After a few phone calls, everyone knew to be on the lookout for a Hereford steer.

He eventually ‘surfaced’ at Darren and Catherine’s farm, Mirima. It seems he’d been for a stroll through the bush, but, cattle being social animals, he sought company.

Darren and Catherine were due to muster their cattle for preg testing. Robert, Janette and I popped up to help. After preg testing, the herd, along with the wayward steer, were left in the paddock next to the road in the knowledge they would eventually make their way up to the loading yards.

There was some discussion about the best way to get him home once in those yards. We considered bringing his mates down the road, letting him out with them and then taking them all home. This method seemed fraught with risks, not the least of which was more of them going bush.

I remembered that neighbours, Kevin and Sharryn, have a cattle trailer. I suggested I would ask to borrow it. I phoned Kevin and his answer was simply, “it’s in the shed, just come and get it when you need it”. We now just had to wait.

Two or three days later, the call came that he was in the yards, ready and waiting. Robert picked me up and we collected the trailer. Up to the yards and we loaded the steer. As we approached the paddock he saw his mates and started calling out to them. I swear he was saying, “G’day lads, guess where I’ve been”.

He stepped out of the trailer into the paddock and swaggered up to his mates to tell of his adventures. A real community effort all round.

While in the paddock, I noticed the nearby power pole. This line was installed originally to take power down to Janette’s uncle, Lex Devitt. Lex bought his block, Tiger Hill Park, in about 1952. It was when Janette and I decided to move to Molyullah, he set about getting the power on. That was the late 1980s.

Lex asked Robert and Irene if he could ‘hook onto’ their line. They had no problem with that. It needed eight poles, two of them on Robert and Irene’s farm, to get the power to Lex’s cottage. This meant we only needed one pole to get power across to our house site.

The two poles on Robert and Irene’s meant that Brian and Leanne could each power up their houses now. But wait, there’s more. Fred and Rene at the piggery in Watchbox asked if they could ‘hook onto’ our line. Of course they could! So the line goes from O’Dea Rd, across Mirima, across Schultz Rd and down into Watchbox. Others over there have also ‘hooked on’.

​There would be at least six houses have power from that original line. I mentioned to Robert that we are still grateful for the line going through.

His reply? “We are grateful to Wayne and Carol for the power coming to us”.

That’s community!

John Knapper.

This story, which originally appeared in The Tatong Tattler (December 2021, p 9), inspired this month's topic 'Community'.