The Snowy Mountains

After we spent some more time in the Blue Mountains, Dad's work took us into the Snowy Mountains, where we lived in one of the Thiess Brothers' temporary villages built for their workers.  The Snowy River Scheme was the largest engineering project ever conducted in Australia and brought workers from all parts of the world. There was a large general store run by Mr and Mrs Poon and a huge open-air movie theatre where we also had our Xmas party.  My gift was a small, metal stove/oven with miniature pots and pans (indoctrination started early for girls ☺).  All the houses were small and slightly elevated, with just enough room for small children to scramble underneath and play in the dirt.

Perched on top of a hill, we had a one-room school that catered to all children from years 1 to 8.  I remember being embarrassed by the teacher who held up my book to show the class and criticised me loudly for not colouring inside the lines!  Our sporting houses were named after the mountains in the area and we found a wombat that had burrowed his home into the school's grounds.  This was the first time I saw someone have an epileptic seizure.  To a 6 year old, he looked almost as big as the teacher and we were very frightened, but the teacher calmly picked him up and carried him back into his office to care for him.

We were invited to a friend's house for a champagne breakfast and on the way home I told Dad that I didn't feel well ... I was so dizzy that I had to lean against the side of the house for a few minutes.  Dad thought it was very funny that I was drunk.  My sister and I also had our first experience with cigarettes, sneaking down under the house and lighting up.  But the clouds of smoke coming out from under the building attracted the attention of a neighbour and we were busted.

Winter was magical!  The blackest clouds I'd ever seen rolled in and started delivering their snow.  Trees sparkled with icicles, which we broke off and sucked as we walked to school in our little, bright yellow galoshes.  To help us get up the hill to school, the men had driven huge metal spikes into the middle of the path and strung up a heavy chain between the spikes.  We hauled ourselves up the hill, hand over hand.  We thought it was great fun, especially when we kids got together on a large sheet of roofing iron and slid down a smaller hill.  Of course we dreamt of having a real toboggan!

We loved winter but Mum loathed it, mainly because my sister and I were hit with repeated doses of pneumonia.  Our medicine was in the form of capsules and my sister had no problem taking her dose, but I could not swallow those rotten things.  Mum gave up trying and cracked the capsules into strawberry jam for me to take, but I can still remember the foul taste of that powder.  I had always hated the taste of eggs and Mum fretted that my health would suffer if I didn't eat them so she tried to disguise the taste using curry powder ... as if egg can ever taste like anything else?  I will never forget her final attempt, when she handed me a cold glass of frothy orange juice ... did she honestly believe that I wouldn't taste the eggs she had whipped into that drink?  As long as I live I will never, ever forget that flavour!  I wasn't allergic and I loved her cakes and pancakes, which she always made with either cocoa or orange peel, yum!

Dad had his own problems with the heating unit.  I remember it looked like a pot bellied stove with a large pipe going up into the ceiling.  I don't know what Dad did wrong, but we woke up to the smell of smoke with a scorched ceiling following the winding pattern of the pipe.  We climbed into bed with Mum while Dad and a friend crawled around in the ceiling checking for fire.

At Xmas, one of Dad's friends arrived at our door with a large Hessian bag that was in motion.  He'd brought us a turkey, but it was still alive!  He and Dad went outside and chopped its head off and my sister had a great time chasing after the other kids with the head sitting on a piece of cardboard.  Mum had the unenviable job of plucking and cleaning the bird ... the smell was so bad that I couldn't even think of eating my turkey lunch.  The only upside to this event was when Mum presented us with two magnificent Native American headdresses she had made from the turkey's feathers.  The other kids were so jealous as we made a tepee with sheets hanging over the clothes line.  The Xmas/New Year break saw some heavy drinking among the adults, with the inevitable consequences.  One of Dad's mates burst in one day looking for a hangover cure.  He grabbed a glass off the counter and half filled it with Scotch, before downing it in one gulp.  He wouldn't believe me when I, crying like I'd just lost my best friend, told him that he had just swallowed my pet lizard (Lenny) that I kept in that glass.  Dad assured me that Lenny wouldn't have felt a thing!

The Snowy Mountains is where I experienced my first earthquake.  I was inside the house when the shaking started and it was so strong it knocked me off my feet.  After I picked myself up and ran outside, I could see all the cracks in the ground. We worried about the tunnel collapsing, until Dad came home to reassure us.

Not long after our seventh birthday, we were told we were moving to Brisbane.  All our friends got together for a farewell party and presented us with our very own toboggan!  We were ecstatic until Dad gave us the bad news that it never snowed in that area of the country.  I can only imagine the looks on our faces as Dad took our gift and handed it back.

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