I consider myself to be a very lucky person, growing up in a loving family in a beautiful home and never going without everything I needed, and many things I wanted. With Dad being a geologist, we got to do a lot of travelling around for the first 7 or so years of my life. We would spend the winter months up in Dimbulah (I can’t believe it has it’s own Wiki page! Woo hoo!) just outside of the township, where my bro and I would go to kindergarten, pre-school or school. We lived at a Queensland Government base camp, where up to 30 male geologists and maybe 1 or 2 female geologists or field hands were based for 6 months at a time. There were a number of tents set up as accommodation, and some outhouses and outdoor showers to share.

We were lucky though. We had “the shed”. As a kid, it was like living in a big adventure land. Our “back yard” was a mountain of boulders that we would climb up and explore; “The Shed” seemed perfectly adequate and large to a 4 or 5 or 6-year-old; and because we were usually the only kids on site, we were given a lot of treats, usually in the form of soft drinks or cardboard-on-a-rope rides, or piggy-back rides. Mum was the camp cook, often cooking for the whole camp of 30 men, with my brother and I, and our dog Cuddles, running around under her feet.

I re-visited our old home when I was 22 and boy that shed was small. Mum, how did you do it?? Living there with Dad and us 2 ratbags, I have nothing but admiration for you!

Even writing this now, at the age of 20…something… I have a smile on my face. Those times up there for our family are some of the happiest memories of my childhood, and certainly at my youngest, some of the only memories I have. Yes, my life is awesome.