billrider2013

I have decided to ride back to Sydney.  This will enable me to sort some stuff following the property settlement and plan my next moves.

As I left my host’s place in South Canberra, he and his wife were so pleased they took a number of photographs of me heading down their drive way.

My route north took me around Lake Burley Griffin.  I came across a large number school age kids on the path.  I asked one group if there was some sort of event.  They told me that it was the Canberra High ‘Walk at Thong’.  Canberra High is my old secondary school.  I thought if the students are all out walking, this is may be an opportunity to check the old place out.

The  route to the school took me past a townhouse I owned in from 1980 until I left Canberra to move to Sydney.  It was interesting to see the place again after all those years.  I have good memories of being in that house.

The old school is a short distance from my old house.  I started at Canberra High when it was located in Acton.  Acton is next to the city centre known as Civic.  The school was founded in 1938 and serviced the inner city suburbs.  A decision was made that Canberra High would be relocated from the city to the newly developing suburbs in Belconnen.  My form was the last to start at the old school.  The move was made in 1969.  The old school buildings are now the School of Art.  The Conservatorium of Music, which is now part of the Australian National University, was built on our old school oval.

Given that we lived in the inner part of the city we had to be bussed to the’ far flung’ suburb of Macquarie.  I am sure that for most of us this was a unique experience, given that for all of our lives we had walked, or ridden bikes, to school.

Probably one of the biggest changes was being exposed children from big cities. The old Turner/O’Connor gang had been brought up in the Inner North of Canberra.  It was essentially a small town.  Most of the residents of Belconnen were imports from Melbourne.  These were street wise kids from the ‘big smoke’.  It took a number of years before the gang  from the ‘old Canberra High’ and the ‘rest ‘really merged.  This merger really started in forms 5 and 6 when we all started going to parties.  I got to know a great looking girl from Box Hill in Melbourne.  She is giving me advice on what may become my new career.

I can still recall the day that one of my mates was casting his eye over the new arrived student in 4th Form.  He had learned that one very attractive girl was called Beth.  He announced to the group around him that he “was going to marry that Beth Chick”.  He did and they are still married.

As I walked around the school I came across the bloke who looked after the maintenance of the building.  He asked what I was doing there and we had a bit of a chat.  I told him that as well as being a former student, my other connection to the  place was that my father’s company had installed the heating in the buildings.  The bloke told me that heating was not a problem for him.  However, he did say that the roof was a nightmare. It is in desperate  need of replacement, but the government will only do repairs.

My route out of Canberra took me through the suburb of Kaleen.  This suburb was developed in the late 1970’s.  A number of my friends married shortly after leaving school and bought houses in Kaleen and nearby suburbs.  Today it is difficult to imagine 21 to 23 year old couples, on single incomes and with the children, buying houses.

One disappointing aspect of Kaleen and other suburbs in Canberra today, is the state of the houses and gardens.  It would appear that there are fewer people that have the time or the inclination to look after their 3 to 4 bedroom houses on large blocks of land.  Many would obviously prefer to live in higher density housing with less maintenance.  The gardens in many of the houses in all Canberra suburbs have been left to rack and ruin.